Figure: Frequency of different flight parameters in flies just post eclosion (day 1), and those closer to their prime flying period (day 4). Angular speeds remain almost precisely the same through the fourth day, but the frequency of saccades in a flight, and the distance between saccades both increase.
We have monitored several cohorts of newly eclosed flies (emergence from a pupa, the beginning of flight in many insects), then recorded all of their flights through 10 days, generating a great deal of data. Vahid’s group has been analyzing it with the aim of understanding the differences, determining if they are able to identify the age of a fly from its flight pattern, and examining fine structural details. Early results have found differences is flight speed, and saccade frequency (the abrupt turns that change flight trajectory in small insects). Flights are rarer on the first day, and the flights that occur therefore have discernible trajectories from flights on the fourth day. Although saccades have identical speeds, they become more frequent and with faster, longer bouts between.
