Check it out -- a Berkeley/UF researcher poking around the Amazon jungle found the world's first gliding insects -- 25 species of ants in five different genera.
Before this, the most "primitive" organism known for wingless flight was a snake.
"Steve's first observation may be leading to a whole Pandora's Box of gliding arthropods," added Kaspari. "Steve, Robert and I right now are exploring how pervasive such directed descent might be — we are, in fact, finding it in a variety of wingless arthropods that glide in using a variety of techniques. Plummeting to the earth may be the exception, not the rule."
The biomechanics are pretty cool -- the little suckers can do 180-degree turns as they're falling. They've got video of it at the link.
And this *may* help explain how flight evolved in the first place. |
