Butterflies flap their wings in space for the first time

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Dmitrii Musolin, 09.12.2009 1:10

On board the International Space Station, recently appeared caterpillars of burdock butterflies (Vanessa cardui). Now, an international team of scientists reports that the first adults have safely emerged from the cocoons.

04.12.2009

The insects went into space on November 16 aboard the space shuttle Atlantis. And now at least four representatives of the "flying flowers"live in microgravity. All of them began their journey to low-Earth orbit in the caterpillar stage, after which they wove cocoons and safely emerged from them (even if the pupae were floating in the air).

However, about how butterflies fly (and whether they fly at all), not a word is said yet. It is quite possible that, as in previous experiments, the animals will need several days to navigate in unusual conditions (the butterflies "hatched" only on November 30).

The study was organized by BioServe Space Technologies, a company that seeks not only to obtain new data, but also to involve students and schoolchildren left on Earth in the process.

Anyone could compare how insects evolved on Earth and in space. In the future, it is planned to conduct more thorough research and find out what are the differences in the growth and behavior of terrestrial and space Vanessa cardui.

Source: MEMBRANA.RU
http://www.rsci.ru/smi/?id=23678

Comments

Likes: 1

09.12.2009 10:08, amara

I guess they didn't grow any wings, and they didn't have anything to wave with

This also flashed through my mind (I thought that dragonflies need their wings to hang down (gravity) to form them) but here are photos from the event site that are updated every day (from the insectarium in space):

http://monarchwatch.smugmug.com/Monarchs-i...735343086_WAPzr

and even videos

http://monarchwatch.smugmug.com/Monarchs-i...733154609_6ToBg

you can view it (it doesn't work on my Mac for some reason).

But here and I have a video that works, you can see how the caterpillars were fed, their development, pupation, the butterfly's exit and its attempts to fly:

http://bioedonline.org/space/STS_Mission_129.cfm

This post was edited by amara - 09.12.2009 10: 20

Likes: 3