For decades, scientists unfairly maligned the humble butterfly as an inefficient creature. Now, with the help of a wind tunnel, scientists in Sweden are proving the opposite is true.<\/p>\n
In the early 1970s scientists first noticed the insect claps its wings during flight. At first, the discovery seemed to help cement the creature\u2019s reputation as a clumsy flier. But Swedish scientists on Jan. 20 published a paper<\/a> in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface<\/em> showing slapping its wings<\/a> at the top of the upstroke helps the butterfly produce forward thrust by capturing a pocket of air and jetting it backwards. The discovery demonstrates that, far from being inefficient flyers, butterflies are fearfully and wonderfully made.<\/p>\n Biologists Christoffer Johansson and Per Henningsson of Sweden\u2019s Lund University began by catching six silver-washed fritillary butterflies in a meadow near their Stensoffa, Sweden, field station. The pair of scientists hoped to use a wind tunnel to monitor how the butterflies use their flexible wings to create thrust and lift. But in order to study butterfly aerodynamics, the team needed to see the air interacting with the insects\u2019 wings. By releasing visible gas called a tracer into the wind tunnel, the team could observe the butterflies creating vortices or even capturing pockets of air with their wing flaps. \u201cWhen the wings clap together at the end of upstroke the air between the wings is pressed out, creating a jet, pushing the animal in the opposite direction,\u201d the scientists wrote in their report.<\/p>\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n A fluttery flying technique https:\/\/t.co\/vZ2SsYprEv<\/a><\/p>\n — Arugula Santiago (@ArugulaSantiago) February 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n