Insect Flight: Early Fossil Record & Physiology

The insect wing is not just a membrane that juts of the insect’s body. It’s a complex of membranes, veins, folds and flexures – looking at it laterally, it is in no way a simple two-dimensional structure. Even more mind-boggling is the wing base, with all sorts of sclerites as muscle attachment sites, plates, vein sources and the notal margin. It is to the wing base that all the power generated by the thoracic muscles goes, so it is also imperative to the way an insect flies.