BACKGROUND Dengue is amongst the most serious mosquito-borne infectious disease with hot spots in tropical and subtropical parts of the world. Unfortunately, no licensed vaccine for the disease is currently available in medicine markets. The only option available is the management of dengue vector mosquito, Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae). METHOD Predatory potential of five odonate nymphs ...

Anax junius is a large dragonfly that regulates thoracic temperature (Tth) during flight. This species, like several other intermittently endothermic insects, achieves control of Tth at least in part by increasing circulation of hemolymph to the abdomen at high air temperature (Ta), thus facilitating heat loss from the thorax. In this paper, I demonstrate that heat transfer to the head is also ...

Polarization sensitivity (PS) is a common feature of invertebrate visual systems. In insects, PS is well known for its use in several different visually guided behaviours, particularly navigation and habitat search. Adult dragonflies use the polarization of light to find water but a role for PS in aquatic dragonfly larvae, a stage that inhabits a very different photic environment to the adults,...

The intracellular response of the ocellar nerve dendrite, the second order neuron in the retina of the dragonfly ocellus, has been modified by application of various drugs and a model developed to explain certain features of that response. Curare blocked the response completely. Both picrotoxin and bicuculline eliminated the "off" overshoot. Bicuculline also decreased the size of response and t...

All natural flyers equip flexible wings. It’s widely thought that the wing flexibility can play important roles in flight aerodynamics. In the current work, a combined experimental and computational method is developed to study the role of morphing wing in hovering dragonfly aerodynamic performance. We start with taking high-speed images of a freely flying dragonfly. Next, a surface reconstruct...