These insects fly with their legs. Physics explains how

These insects fly with their legs. Physics explains how Skip to content Subscribe today Every print subscription comes with full digital access Subscribe Now Menu All Topics Health Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology View All Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes View All Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment View All Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics View All Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology View All Magazine Menu All Stories Multimedia Reviews Puzzles Collections Educator Portal Century of Science Unsung characters Coronavirus Outbreak Newsletters Investors Lab About SN Explores Our Store SIGN IN Donate Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 SIGN IN Search Open search Close search Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 All Topics Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Tech Computing Artificial Intelligence Chemistry Math Science & Society All Topics Health Humans Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Recent posts in Humans Archaeology Neandertals made antibacterial ointment, but may not have known it By Martin J. Kernan9 hours ago Health & Medicine Amid vaccine policy whiplash, here’s how a pediatrician talks to families By Aimee CunninghamMarch 20, 2026 Health & Medicine GLP-1 microdosers are chasing longevity By Jamie DucharmeMarch 20, 2026 Life Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Recent posts in Life Physics These insects fly with their legs. Physics explains how By Emily Conover7 hours ago Animals Female giant rainforest mantises grow up to strike harder than males By Susan MiliusMarch 23, 2026 Space How realistic is Project Hail Mary? By Tina Hesman Saey and Carolyn GramlingMarch 20, 2026 Earth Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Recent posts in Earth Space How realistic is Project Hail Mary? By Tina Hesman Saey and Carolyn GramlingMarch 20, 2026 Earth Earth’s continental plates were moving 3.48 billion years ago By Douglas FoxMarch 19, 2026 Microbes How warming is shifting microbial worlds By Erin Garcia de JesúsMarch 19, 2026 Physics Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Recent posts in Physics Particle Physics Antimatter traveled by truck for the first time By Emily Conover1 hour ago Physics These insects fly with their legs. Physics explains how By Emily Conover7 hours ago Animals Female giant rainforest mantises grow up to strike harder than males By Susan MiliusMarch 23, 2026 Space Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Recent posts in Space Space In a rare event, the moon got a massive new crater By Lisa GrossmanMarch 23, 2026 Space How realistic is Project Hail Mary? By Tina Hesman Saey and Carolyn GramlingMarch 20, 2026 Space One possible recipe for life on Titan is a bust By Tina Hesman SaeyMarch 11, 2026 News Physics These insects fly with their legs. Physics explains how Like dandelion fluff, the insects’ legs can take advantage of updrafts to fly high Phantom crane flies use their long legs to fly, holding their wings still as they float on updrafts. Víctor Ortega Jiménez By Emily Conover 7 hours ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print DENVER — For these insects, flight is all in the legs. Phantom crane flies float lazily on breezes, their six long legs splayed and wings held utterly still. Wind tunnel experiments are beginning to reveal how they stay aloft. The insights are helping researchers build miniature flying machines that mimic the crane flies’ easygoing flight strategy, physicist Sarahi Arriaga-Ramirez reported March 17 at the American Physical Society’s Global Physics Summit. The Eastern phantom crane fly (Bittacomorpha clavipes) lives in the eastern United States. The flies live only about a week at full maturity, during which the insects mate, but don’t eat. “They have very limited energy, and they have to save it,” says Arriaga-Ramirez, of the University of California, Berkeley. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. When viewed with high-speed cameras in still air in a laboratory, phantom crane flies flapped their wings to ascend, holding their legs vertically, presumably to reduce drag so that they can fly more easily. But that changed in a wind tunnel’s updraft: The insects held their wings still and splayed their legs out and up into an inverted cone shape, reminiscent of an inside-out umbrella or a fluffy dandelion seed — both of which are adept at catching the wind. The flies floated on the breeze due to the drag caused by their legs. A phantom crane fly holds its legs in a “dandelion” posture in a wind tunnel. Air is flowing upward in this video. The insect’s wings (center) are still.Víctor Ortega Jiménez As conditions changed, the shape of the cone adjusted. In a more forceful updraft, the arrangement of the flies’ legs became narrower. To understand the impact of the changing cone shape, the researchers made larger-than-life, 3-D printed models of a phantom crane fly and dragged them through a tank of mineral oil. Swapping air for oil simulated the conditions a real, smaller fly would experience, because on small scales, air acts as if it’s more viscous. The results revealed that a narrow cone produced less drag than a flatter one, by about 20 percent. That suggests that the crane flies’ legs adjust to provide a gentler lift. The insect’s quirky mode of transport inspired the researchers to tinker with various designs for small, energy-efficient aerial vehicles. One option used a material called a shape memory alloy to allow the crane fly bot’s legs to bend on command. Such materials return to a previous shape when an electric current is passed through them. Coils made of these shape memory alloys moved the legs from straight to bent, and back again. It’s unclear how much phantom crane flies control their legs, and how much they are just blowing in the wind. So the team also tried legs with flexible joints that allowed passive movement. As the wind speed increased, the legs automatically bent, giving the vehicle a narrower shape. That results in very stable flight, Arriaga-Ramirez said. Even if the air flow around the aerial vehicle is disturbed, the vehicle, like the phantom crane flies, is unperturbed. Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org | Reprints FAQ Citations S. Arriaga-Ramirez. No wings required: Leg-assisted flight control