I have been working with Richard to fine tune processes related to a tethered flight arena in the lab. This arena will be utilized for flight experiments with Hoverflies. Thus far, much of this work has consisted of refining tethering practices aimed at optimising flight duration in the arena. I have been creating a manual detailing the necessary steps involved which has made this process much more systematic. The manual ensures that valuable information does not reside within one person’s mind and anyone with some practice will be able to carry out the protocol appropriately. Our fine-tuning processes have been progressing well so far and will enable a wider range of experiments to be conducted across time.
By Luke
I have been working with Richard to fine tune processes related to a tethered flight arena in the lab. This arena will be utilized for flight experiments with Hoverflies. Thus far, much of this work has consisted of refining tethering practices aimed at optimising flight duration in the arena. I have been creating a manual detailing the necessary steps involved which has made this process much more systematic. The manual ensures that valuable information does not reside within one person’s mind and anyone with some practice will be able to carry out the protocol appropriately. Our fine-tuning processes have been progressing well so far and will enable a wider range of experiments to be conducted across time.
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Prior to working on insect vision, I spend many years studying the neural pathways underlying motility in the gastrointestinal (GI) system of small laboratory animals and humans. When I changed laboratories in 2017 to begin working with Karin’s team, I thought my days of studying the gut were done. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and discussions of a proposed future project needing some pilot data from the hoverfly gut had me curious, what does the insect GI system actually look like? Up until this point, any dissections I performed for electrophysiology recordings required only the thorax of the hoverfly to be exposed with the abdomen remaining intact. This has meant, that while the esophagus is a familiar sight sitting directly below the ventral nerve cord, I had no idea what the majority of the GI tract looked like in the hoverfly. I was somewhat surprised to find structures reminiscent of what is seen in vertebrates, particularly the structure of the mid and hindgut. Below are some of the pictures taken from this dissection. |
Hoverfly Vision
The hoverfly vision group can be found at 2 locations: At Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, and at Uppsala University in Sweden. Archives
January 2022
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