Give a detailed description of the mechanism of flight in insects

Locomotion in insects

• Insects thorax contain two sets of antagonistic flight muscle;
• a pair of dorso-ventral muscle (indirect muscle- not attached to the wing) run from the roof to the floor of the thorax; and a pair of longitudinal muscles run from the anterior surface of the dome- like roof to the posterior surface.
• When the dorso-ventral muscle contract the roof attachment of the wing is pulled downwards to the wall attachment with a result that the wing goes up.
• When the longitudinal muscles contract the top of the dome – like roof rises slightly and the roof attachment is pulled upwards relative to the wall attachment with the result that the wing goes down.