PMC

Long flight times monitored for 15 min are shown for the indicated genotypes.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07046.032

Differential expression of core genes with an identified role in flight physiology. Heat map of absolute expression measured as normalized FPKM values. Values are given for all genes with differential expression between the flight phenotype comparisons (FDR < 0.1) represented by *. The two flight phenotypes from Greece are marked as ‘Greece long’ and ‘Greece short’.

Flight trajectories of male flies, as seen from below, and time-dependent yaw velocities of (A) a cruising flight, (B) a chasing flight and (C) an optomotor flight. (Ai) Flight trajectory of a male fly cruising in the arena that is surrounded by a stationary background (vertical grating). Numbers denote time (in ms) with respect to the beginning of the trajectory. (Aii) The yaw velocity profile of the fly reflects the saccadic flight style characteristic of cruising flights. Between the turns exceeding 2500°/s are time intervals with little or no rotation. (Bi) Flight trajectory of a fly (black) chasing the target (green) which moved on a circular track. The position (centroid) of the fly is depicted by a dot, the orientation of its body long axis by the line. The flight arena is surrounded by a stationary background. Same plotting conventions as in Ai. (Bii) The yaw velocity of the fly changes continuously and relatively slowly while pursuing the target which moves on a circular path at 700°/s (green line). The mean yaw velocity of the fly is near 1000°/s (gray line). The initial and the final turn (shaded regions) were excluded from the quantitative analysis of flight parameters (see ). (Ci) Flight trajectory of a fly during optomotor following of a vertical grating moving clockwise (red arrow) at 365°/s. Same plotting conventions as in Ai. (Cii) The yaw velocity of the fly fluctuates around its mean of 528°/s (gray line) which is somewhat larger than the velocity of the background (365°/s; red line). Scale bars: 100 mm. Note the different time axis scaling in (Aii,Cii).

(a) Flight frequency and total flight time in relation to flight duration (FD). Most flights performed during moult migration were of short duration but those contributing the most to migration effort were long flights. (b) Mean body temperature (T_b) at the beginning (T_bStart) and at the end (T_bEnd) of a flight together with (T_bMax) while aloft in relation to FD. Errors bars depict 95% confidence intervals. Critical T_b was assessed as the overall maximal T_b among all flights performed by one individual and averaged over all the 19 females (42.6 ± (s.d.) 0.1°C).