Insects with two pairs of wings face the problem of coordinating their fore- and hindwings in flight. Different groups of insects have solved this challenge in different ways- beetles have abandoned using their hardened forewings for power generation, for example- and wasps have a series of hooks called hamuli along the leading edge of the hindwing that hook into a bar at the trailing edge of the forewing.
For a feast of hamuli images, check out Morphbank.
The function of yesterday’s mystery structure was correctly guessed- and this is a first- over on facebook by Juraj “Jurko” Czech. So. 5 points to Jurko. Shortly thereafter Chris Grinter identified the hooks as hamuli, for the remaining 5 points.
Time to tally all the points for August. First place? JasonC, with 12 points. Congrats, Jason, contact me for your loot!
How very cool!