Insect Wings: Amaze-wing Insect Adaptations You Should Know!

Most adult insect wings are paired with complex multifunctional structures or outgrowths of the exoskeleton, and they urge in the air with the help of these.

Insects have three major body parts: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen, with bilateral symmetry. They either have one pair of wings or two pairs of wings.

The origin of insect wings is still a controversial mystery, despite the evolutionary innovation and its importance. It has diversified to fill many niches. These withstand not only aerodynamic forces but also can resist excessive stress caused by accidental collisions. Apart from these, the insect wings also help in signaling, sexual selection, mimicry, camouflage, warning coloration, to mention some.

If entomology interests you and you want to explore more, check out our other articles on how many legs do insects have and what do insects eat?

Function Of An Insect Wing

Insects are present everywhere in the world; the only reason behind this is that insects are masters of adaptations, be it related to the leg, wings, habitats, etc., they always develop different features which help them survive. Many entomophile enjoy insect wing evolution or adaptation.

For example, a butterfly's wings are adapted in such a way that allows it to fly thousands of miles to avoid extreme temperatures. At the same time, the honeybee's wings allow it to fly and gather nectar from flowers.

Now the question arises about the function of the wings of an insect. Folded epidermis or skin develops into wings.

The living adult winged insect generally does get a lot of benefits apart from fly or propel. They serve several functions like active flying, gliding, parachuting, altitude stability while jumping, thermoregulation, sound production with wing beat to avoid predators, and finding food.

What are insect wings made of?

Some have their flight muscles directly attached to the wing base, and therefore slight downward movement lift itself upward. For others, it is indirectly attached to deform the thorax.

The question arises, what are insect wings made of? They are outgrowths of their exoskeleton, diverse scales, the nanostructured and non-uniform thickness of cuticle.

They are found in the adults in second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), generally, in pairs referred to as forewings (front wing) and hind wings (back wing), and strengthened by several longitudinal veins, e.g., dragonflies and lacewings, form closed cells like cross-connections or cross veins.

These wing cross-connections or cross veins pattern helps in evolutionary lineages and identification of the family and genus levels. For example, butterfly and moth wings are composed of two chitinous membranes, with thousands of colorful scales and hairs covering each wing.

How the insect got its wings?

Most insects have two pairs of wings, whereas flies use only their first pair of wings, and beetles use only their second pair of wings; the two wings are generally moved together in beetles, whereas the dragonfly moves independently.

Different hypotheses are there to support the evolution of winged insects as there is no proper fossil evidence. One hypothesis says that sideways from the thorax wings arose as fixed planes, especially in large leaping insects for gliding; afterward, muscles developed initially to control inclination and later to flap and fly.

Another hypothesis says that wings originated from large thoracic tracheal gills of some mayfly larvae.

Different Types Of Wings An Insect Can Have

Metamorphosis is a process of evolution from larvae to adults; here, the characters of both larvae and adults become genetically independent as per natural selection, an intermediate pupal stage is there to bridge the gap between larva and adult.

Many variations of wings are evolved in insects; these are mainly used for taxonomic nomenclature, especially at the family, genus, and species levels.

The first type of wings we discuss here are membranous wings that are thin and close to being transparent. Halters are those wings that underwent extreme modification by reducing the hind wing to mere nubs that are used for balancing and direction to flap and fly.

Elytra (singular - elytron) are hardened, and front wings are heavily sclerotized further modified to protect the hind wings during resting time. Hemelytra is a variation of elytra, where the forewings are hardened throughout to approximately two-thirds, and the distal portion is membranous.

It functions primarily as flight wings. Butterflies and moths have wings covered with scales, whereas mosquitoes' wings have veins apart from scales.

Membranous no coverings - these wings at the inner side are uniformly soft, flexible, and thin, primarily translucent or transparent, without any covering, e.g., grasshoppers. With coverings includes the moth.

Tegmina wings are found in leaf insects as their wings are slightly hard and leathery. Fringed wings as found in thrips, with delicate margined feathery structured wings.

Different Species Of Flying Insects

Generally, the wings are present in males more often, as observed in Velvet ants and Strepsiptera. Wings are selectively lost in the worker categories of insects like ants and termites. In fig wasps, it is observed that the female is winged and not the male.

As in aphids, wings are produced only in the dispersal phase. Migratory phases of locusts vary in their wing structure and coloration. The forewings are folded in Vespid wasps.

There are different types of flying insects in the world as they possess maximum diversity. The different Orders of the flying insects include Odonata - dragonfly, damselflies, their wings cannot be folded, hence called primitive winged insects.

Plecoptera - various types of stoneflies, wings have complex venation patterns with membranes. Orthoptera - locusts, crickets - undergo complete metamorphosis.

Dictyoptera - cockroach and praying mantis, having characteristic veins present in their network wings. Phasmida - stick insects, undergo complete metamorphosis with the ability to camouflage.

Hemiptera - water bugs, aphids, hoppers, they have piercing and sucking mouthparts with half membranous forewings/ front wings, i.e., thick at the base and membranous at the tip. Lepidoptera - butterfly, vibrantly colored wings, scales in the wings overlap with each other.

Coleoptera - beetles, glowworms, and fireflies have hard and thick front wings that cover the delicate hind wings and entire body. Diptera - flies or true flies, mosquitoes, two pairs of wings present, front wings are functional whereas the hindwings are replaced as modified wings called halteres.

Hymenoptera - ants, horntail, bees, and wasps all have two pairs of wings joined via hamuli and coordinate functions. Order Isoptera - termites with membranous wings.

Trichoptera - caddisflies or sedges, silky hair in wings. Ephemeroptera - Mayflies with triangular-shaped membranous wings.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for insect wings, then why not take a look at is a caterpillar an insect or dragonfly facts?