By Elizabeth PennisiSome mosquitoes are night owls of the insect world, able to avoid running into walls, even in complete darkness.
Now, researchers have figured out how these pesky insects do this, and they’ve used that information to build a sensor that may one day help keep helicopters safe.The team homed in on an organ only some insects possess: an array of about 12,000 cells arranged in a circle around the base of each antenna—like an upside-down umbrella—that detects how the antenna wobbles.
The researchers filmed Culex quinquefasciatus, a mosquito that transmits Zika and West Nile viruses, flying at different distances from the ground or a wall.