View example sentences, synonyms and word forms for Haltere.
Haltere meaning
A small knobbed structure in some two-winged insects, one of a pair that are flapped rapidly and function as accelerometers to maintain stability in flight.
Example sentences (20)
Because the haltere muscles are tiny in comparison to the flight muscles, flight muscle activity completely overshadows that of the haltere muscles during flight.
There are far fewer chordotonal organs at the base of the haltere than campaniform sensilla (on the order of hundreds), so it is assumed that they are far less important for detecting and transmitting rotational information from haltere movements.
These ridges connect the right wing to the right haltere and the left wing to the left haltere.
When this occurs, tiny bell-shaped structures at the base of the haltere experience strain as the haltere stalk bends in their direction.
An extreme example of this trait is in the family Syrphidae (hoverflies), where the bulb of the haltere is positioned nearly perpendicular to the stalk. citation Flies typically hold their halteres at a 90 degree offset.
Campaniform sensilla The way in which rotation sensation is accomplished is that there are five distinct sensory fields located at the base of the haltere.
Haltere afferent activity responding to rotations and wing steering behavior converge in this processing region.
He discovered that flies were unable to remain airborne when their halteres were surgically removed, but otherwise behaved normally. citation This result was initially attributed to the haltere's ability to sense and maintain equilibrium.
In 1998, Chan and Dickinson proposed that the planned haltere movements (without external forces acting on them) were what initiated planned turns.
It is unknown how haltere muscle activity during flight differs from walking.
More ancient suborders such as the Nematecerans (long-antennaed flies), which for example include crane flies and mosquitoes, exhibit a variety of wing-haltere phasing.
More derived families, such as Calliphoridae (blow flies), have developed specialized structures called "calyptrae" or "squama", which are tiny flaps of wing, that cover the haltere.
Non-flying haltere activity The necessity of halteres in flight has been well documented, yet little is known about their use in other behaviors such as walking.
Pringle (1948) hypothesized that they prevented wind turbulence from affecting haltere movements, allowing more precise detection of body position, but this was never tested.
The larger the perturbation they experience, the farther the halteres move from their original linear path. citation During these periods, the haltere is no longer moving in only two directions (up and down), but four (up, down, left, and right).
The left and right halteres show much more variable phase relationships while walking compared with flying, which may indicate decoupling of the left and right haltere muscles.
These observed differences in wing-haltere coordination suggest that differences in sensory neuron output also exist between species.
This indicates that haltere inputs are behaviorally relevant to those species which oscillate them while walking and that they aid those individuals in walking behavior. citation References Further reading Publications * Yarger, A. M., and J. L. Fox.
This would allow the haltere-initiated reflex to occur, correcting the imagined perturbation.
When haltere bulbs are removed from tethered flying flies, they are still able to track moving figures, but they struggle to stabilize moving backgrounds.