NONLINEAR PHENOMENA IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS
An Interdisciplinary Journal

2010, Vol.13, No.3, pp.277-285


Phase Coherence Analysis of Insect Flight.
E. Y. Shchekinova

The numerical analysis of kinematic data of Drosophila melanogaster tethered flight is presented. For a reliable detection of regimes of wing vibration a two-step numerical procedure is proposed. The notion of a cumulative phase drift is used to identify different scales of wings phase modulation. By means of wavelets the time-frequency domain of wing oscillations is studied. The wingbeat undergoes an intermittent oscillations of irregular character during unstimulated flight (no mechanical or visual stimulation is used). It is shown that the wing phase grows non-monotonically with short-time intervals of alternating variations in phase. The frequency plots of long-time ( 20 s) continuous data recordings reveal rapid switches between different frequency regimes.
Key words: biomechanics, neuro-motor activity, wavelet analysis

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