Data from: Kinematic diversity suggests expanded roles for fly halteres

The halteres of flies are mechanosensory organs that provide information about body rotations during flight. We measured haltere movements in a range of fly taxa during free walking and tethered flight. We find a diversity of wing-haltere phase relationships in flight, with higher variability in more ancient families and less in more derived families. Diverse haltere movements were observed during free walking, and were correlated with phylogeny. We predicted that haltere removal might decrease behavioral performance in those flies that move them during walking, and provide evidence that this is the case. Our comparative approach reveals previously unknown diversity in haltere movements, and opens the possibility of multiple functional roles for halteres in different fly behaviors.

蝇类的平衡棒(halteres)是一类机械感受器官，可在飞行过程中传递身体旋转的相关感知信息。本研究针对多个蝇类分类群，分别在自由行走与束缚式飞行状态下测量了其平衡棒的运动情况。研究发现，飞行状态下翅与平衡棒间存在多样的相位关联，且古老蝇类科群的相位关联变异度更高，衍生类群则相对更低。本研究在自由行走状态下同样观测到多样的平衡棒运动模式，且该运动模式与蝇类的系统发育关系存在相关性。我们曾提出假设：在行走过程中存在平衡棒运动的蝇类，移除平衡棒可能会降低其行为表现，并通过实验证实了这一推测。本研究采用比较分析方法，揭示了此前未被发现的平衡棒运动多样性，同时为探索平衡棒在不同蝇类行为中发挥多种功能角色提供了可能性。