Page 37 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

For a long time, scien-
tists sought an answer to the most
fundamental question of how flies direct their flight. No one
had established a direct connection between flies’ visual system and the
muscles controlling their wings. Using high-speed video cameras, Dickinson
managed to capture fly movements and investigate the factors affecting their
maneuverability. As a result of his research, he obtained evidence of how
their visual system controls flies’ movements and establishes timing in
manoeuvrability. 4
Michael Dickinson and his colleagues at Berkeley used a virtual reality
chamber to discover how flies react to changing visual images. With images
quivering at between 3000 and 4000 times a second, Dickinson discovered
that flies transmit the information from their eyes to an
organ known as the halter, which acts as the insect's
gyroscope and sends impulses that alter the wings'
muscles, movements and angles of approach. This