What are the secrets of insect flight?

Q1: What was the first animal to conquer the blue sky?

A: Insects are the first animals to acquire the ability to fly, and they are also the only invertebrates with the ability to fly.

Q2: In which era did the world's oldest insects live?

A: About 400 million years ago, when the first terrestrial ecosystem on Earth was formed, Rhyniognatha hirsti appeared on Earth as the oldest insect. The fossil was discovered in 1919 and classified as an insect in 1928, but it was not until 2004 that it was scientifically identified as the world's oldest flying insect.

Supplementary exhibition boards: the origin and evolution of insects, the origin of insect wings, and the origin of insect flight.

Q3: What are the unique characteristics of flying insects that distinguish them from flying vertebrates?

A: Insects have six legs and unique ways of movement, such as zigzag movement trajectories, super jumping ability, and quick stops and turns during high-speed movement; compound eyes that can accurately locate their own position and flight speed during fast flight; two pairs of wings, and the wings are not evolved from the forelimbs of their ancestors.

Q4: What are the materials of insect wings? What are their main functions?

A: Most of the wings of insects are made of a very thin and elastic "membrane" composed of epidermal cells, and are supported by blood vessels that are generally arranged longitudinally. In addition to flying, insect wings have many other functions, such as attracting mates, making sounds, scaring predators, and muffler functions.

Q5: Why do insects grow wings?

A: Unlike bats, birds, and pterosaurs, insect wings did not evolve from existing forelimbs. It has been nearly two centuries since the first study on the origin of insect wings was proposed in 1811. A large number of hypotheses have been proposed, but there is still no conclusion. Among them, the most widely circulated hypotheses about the origin of insect wings mainly include the following three: the origin of tracheal gill wings, the origin of lateral plate wings, and the origin of lateral dorsal lobe wings. In fact, along with different views on the origin of insect wings, there are also the origin of insects and the origin of insect flight. There are two opposing views on this issue. One view holds that the ancestors of insects were aquatic, and the other view holds that the primitive insects were terrestrial.

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