: What we know about insect arodynamics is still a bit sketchy.
: I remember hearing/reading that according to our theories about arodynamics
: bees shouldn't even be capable of flying. I'm sure that's been revised by
: now, as we've actually been studying bees and other insects as well as
: making constant improvements to our theories of arodynamics, but it is
: interesting. (I remember one experiment in particular where they painted a
: very thin film onto bees wings, let them beat the wings while held in
: place, then removed them and studied them under a microscope. The film was
: a sort of pressure sensative paint, and the resulting pattern told a lot
: about how the wings achieve lift.)
they also don't need to be THAT aerodynamic as they don't fly at high speeds (more than 30 meters per second), whereas birds do have aerodynamic design (less power usage that way).
insects also don't fly long trajectories (mostly), thus they can afford to optimize on other things (hovering, jump-start, maneuverability etc)
