Estimating the age of Calliphora vicina eggs (Diptera: Calliphoridae): determination of embryonic morphological landmarks and preservation of egg samples

ORCID No. 0000-0002-8917-9646© The Author(s) 2016. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The attached file is the published version of the article

The Morphology of the Phallosome and Accessory-Gland Material Transfer During Copulation in the Blowfly, Lucilia-Cuprina (insecta, Diptera)

The mechanism of insemination in Lucilia cuprina is described. There are four duct openings on the phallosome. The terminal pore is continuous with the internal reproductive organs. The sub-terminal pore and paired, lateral pores are the openings of ducts formed by cuticular invaginations. The male accessory gland material appears to be re-routed from the terminal pore into the ducts of the lateral barbs once sperm transfer is complete. A novel means of deposition of the male accessory material is described, in which paired barbs on the phallosome tear the cuticle of thick-walled pads in the bursa copulatrix. After mating, accessory material is found within intra-cuticular spaces in the bursa copulatrix, which appear to become sealed at the points of penetration by plugs or scars

Deformable wing kinematics in free-flying hoverflies

Here, we present a detailed analysis of the deforming wing kinematics of free-flying hoverflies (Eristalis tenax, Linnaeus) during hovering flight. We used four high-speed digital video cameras to reconstruct the motion of approximately 22 points on each wing using photogrammetric techniques. While the root-flapping motion of the wing is similar in both the downstroke and upstroke, and is well modelled as a simple harmonic motion, other wing kinematic parameters show substantial variation between the downstroke and upstroke. Whereas the magnitude of the angle of incidence varies considerably within and between different hoverflies, the twist distribution along the wing is highly stereotyped. The angle of incidence and camber both show a recoil effect as they change abruptly at stroke reversal. Pronation occurs consistently after stroke reversal, which is perhaps surprising, because this has been found to reduce lift production in modelling studies. We find that the alula, a hinged flap near the base of the wing, operates in two discrete states: either in plane with the wing, or flipped approximately normal to it. We hypothesize that the alula may be acting as a flow-control device