ACTIVATION PHASE ENSURES KINEMATIC EFFICACY IN FLIGHT-STEERING MUSCLES OF DROSOPHILA-MELANOGASTER

During tethered flight in Drosophila melanogaster, spike activity of t he second basalar flight-control muscle (M.b2) is correlated with an i ncrease in both the ipsilateral wing beat amplitude and the ipsilatera l flight force. The frequency of muscle spikes within a burst is about 100 Hz, or 1 spike for every two wing beat cycles. When M.b2 is activ e, its spikes tend to occur within a comparatively narrow phase band o f the wing beat cycle. To understand the functional role of this phase -lock of firing in the control of flight forces, we stimulated M.b2 in selected phases of the wing beat cycle and recorded the effect on the ipsilateral wing beat amplitude. Varying the phase timing of the stim ulus had a significant effect on the wing beat amplitude. A maximum in crease of wing beat amplitude was obtained by stimulating M.b2 at the beginning of the upstroke or about 1 ms prior to the narrow phase band in which the muscle spikes typically occur during flight. Assuming a delay of 1 ms between the stimulation of the motor nerve and muscle ac tivation, these results indicate that M.b2 is activated at an instant of the stroke cycle that produces the greatest effect on wing beat amp litude.