Wing coupling

Oiketicus spp. (family Psychidae). The frenulum can be seen at the top of the rear wing, which hooks onto the retinaculum, seen here as a small brush on the front wing, so that the wings travel together during flight. Magnification: 10x

Some four-winged insect orders, such as the Lepidoptera, have developed a wide variety of morphological wing coupling mechanisms in the imago which render these taxa as "functionally dipterous" (effectively two-winged) for efficient insect flight.[1] All but the most basal forms exhibit this wing coupling.[2]: 4266 

The mechanisms are of three different types - jugal, frenulo-retinacular and amplexiform.[3]

  1. ^ Dudley, Robert (2002). The biomechanics of insect flight: form, function, evolution (Reprint, illustrated ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 476. ISBN 978-0-691-09491-5.
  2. ^ Stocks, Ian (2008). "Wing coupling". In Capinera, John L. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Entomology. Gale virtual reference library. Vol. 4 (2 ed.). Springer Reference. p. 4345. ISBN 978-1-4020-6242-1. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
  3. ^ Scoble, M.J. (1995). The Lepidoptera: form, function and diversity (Reprint (illustrated) ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 416. ISBN 978-0-19-854952-9. Retrieved 14 November 2010. Subsec. "Wing coupling". Pp 56-60.