A Three-Compartment Model Describing Temperature Changes in Tethered Flying Blowflies

A three-compartment model is presented that describes temperature measurements of tethered flying blowflies, obtained by thermal imaging. During rest, the body temperature is approximately equal to the ambient temperature. At the start of flight, the thorax temperature increases exponentially with a time constant of 30 s; in steady flight, a temperature of approximately 30-degrees-C is reached (ambient temperature approximately 25-degrees-C). After flight, the temperature of the thorax decreases exponentially with a time constant of 50 s. Fitting the time courses of the three body compartments, i.e. head, thorax and abdomen, with the model allows the thermal parameters to be calculated. The metabolic heat produced by a blowfly during tethered flight is estimated to be approximately 23 mW.</p