Animals that fall upside down typically engage in an aerial righting response so as to reorient dorsoventrally. This behavior can be preparatory to gliding or other controlled aerial behaviors and is ultimately necessary ...

Summary 1. Aerodynamic theory predicts that migrant fliers should reduce their speed of flight as endogenous energy reserves are gradually consumed. This prediction was tested for butterfly species (Pieridae and Nymphalidae) ...

Diverse taxa of animals exhibit remarkable aerial capacities, including jumping, mid-air righting, parachuting, gliding, landing, controlled maneuvers, and flapping flight. The origin of flapping wings in hexapods and in ...

The behaviour of directed aerial descent has been described for numerous taxa of wingless hexapods as they fall from the tropical rainforest canopy, but is not known in other terrestrial arthropods. Here, we describe similar ...

Gliding ants avoid predatory attacks and potentially mortal consequences of dislodgement from rainforest canopy substrates by directing their aerial descent towards nearby tree trunks. The ecologically relevant measure of ...