Collaborative Research: How to Fall From Trees: Biomechanics and Ecology of Gliding Flight in Arthropods

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Many tree-dwelling animals use aerial gliding to escape predators or to locate resources. Wingless arthropods fall from trees with high frequency as "arthropod rain", often landing in the unfamiliar and hostile understory. This work combines phylogenetic, ecological, behavioral and aerodynamic approaches to assess the overall biological significance of wingless flight. Morphological and behavioral characteristics relevant to gliding will be measured for a large number of arthropods, and will be mapped onto evolutionary trees to identify correlates of this behavior. Species composition of ants falling from the tree canopy will be compared with those that fail to glide to trees, and instead land in the understory. The research will be conducted at rainforest sites having high arthropod diversity in Peru and Panama. Finally, experiments focusing on one common species of gliding ant will examine mechanisms of aerodynamic control. This is the first study to associate gliding behavior in arthropods with specific selection pressures, and the first to quantify the larger ecological phenomenon of arthropod fallout in rainforests. It will more generally evaluate the biological relevance of gliding behavior for the earth's most diverse lineage, the insects.In a broader context, information gathered in this study will be relevant to the emerging technology of self-righting and maneuverable microair vehicles. The research will include the training of a graduate student at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock (UALR) and field assistants at study sites in Peru and Panama. We will additionally work with historically under-represented undergraduates at UALR (an EPSCOR institution). We will also conduct an outreach component in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences to present our findings to teacher workshops. Our original gliding ant discoveries attracted considerable attention from the popular media and the public at large, and we expect comparable interest in results with other insect gliders.