By combining videos of free-flying honeybees with information from robotic models, researchers have come up with a sweet solution to explain the aerodynamics of bee flight.
Most flying insects beat their wings in large strokes to help them fly. But certain types of bee have to be different.
Michael Dickinson and colleagues demonstrated that honeybees fly using much shorter strokes (approximately degrees) and beat them faster than is to be expected based on the size of the bee. Aside from exploiting the effects of the wings rapidly changing at the start of each stroke, it also means that the bees’ buzz is of a much higher frequency than it should be.
By using a high-frequency, low-amplitude stroke, honeybees can gain a much wider range of aerodynamic power than other insects, which comes in handy when they’re loaded up with pollen.
Not exactly a story for the onset of winter here, but it got me buzzing (Hah!)