Any Regrets?
- Debbie Browning
- Jan 23
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 5
Here we consider any potential negative aspects that have derived from the development of halteres.
Loss of extra wing-pair – The replacement of hindwings to halteres meant the loss of wing power and a reliance on just one pair of wings for lift and power. This makes them more vulnerable to wing damage where a 4-winged insect like a dragon-fly may be able to compensate for minor damage (British dragonfly Society n.d.).
Energy cost – The single pair of wings must beat rapidly and continuously to create lift having reduced the second pair to halteres (that don’t contribute to lift). Considering this, it is not possible for Diptera to glide as dragonflies intermittently do (Wakeling and Ellington, 2007), reducing the ability for flight style and efficiency. The halteres also vibrate during walking. No explanation for this phenomenon was understood (Gottfried, 2009) though recent studies indicate it may be to facilitate a faster fast take-off (Yarger et al., 2021). This also may have an energy cost in contrast to insects that sit and walk with resting flight muscles.
Size and weight. No information on the possible trade-off in carrying the mass of haltere weight versus wing-pair could be found, though Diptera will not fly without halteres (Diora, 2021). They are clearly indispensable to flight as opposed to a hinderance. Simmonds (2024) examines the size of halteres and describes how the four ‘clades’ of diptera* had halteres that were scaled to the power of 0.23 with their body mass. They found that larger flies have longer halteres but fewer proportional sensory cells (Campaniform sensilla) that may indicate some kind of evolutionary constraint for larger insects. It is true that the larger crane flies or 'daddy long-legs' appear to fly in a quite a haphazard fashion!
(*clades : tipulids (craneflies); tabanids (horseflies); syrphids (hoverflies) and calyptrates (e.g. houseflies, blowflies).
