Friends of Project.HOPE, in this opportunity I will share with you a manuscript of biomechanical character, related to the interesting method to evade death that butterflies have, before advancing, it is imperative to highlight that butterflies have been catalogued as flying insects, in spite of the large and inefficient structures they have to execute their flight skills.

Traveling through the air is a pleasurable activity, but at the same time enigmatic, and although the human being as a superior species has managed to master the basic principles of flight, creating mechanisms and sophisticated devices or aircraft, it is also true that we still need to decipher in its full dimension all the biological elements involved in the nature of flight.

In this order of ideas, it is affirmed that natural selection has already made many of the calculations to solve problems in an evolutionary way, a foundation that science has used to reason that the enormous wings of butterflies are inefficient structures to perform flight practices optimally, however, historically deterministic conceptions have argued that small changes can lead to totally divergent consequences, therefore, if we apply this principle it is intuitive that the enormous wings of butterflies have a life purpose.

The necessary requirements for the flight of butterflies, is a subject under constant investigation, in this regard it was recently demonstrated that butterflies throughout their evolutionary process, developed an effective way of cupping and clapping their wings to generate thrust and thus avoid dangerous predators, in other words, the huge wings that butterflies show, are nothing more than the result of an ingenious structural design, which gives them the ability to get to safety, since the larger the wings, the faster the takeoff speed.

Now, and to close this manuscript, it is necessary to point out that even though, to date, it has not been demonstrated how this butterfly strategy works in natural flight conditions, the only thing that is very clear is that human beings over time tend to make mistakes constantly, in this sense, it is expected that this ability of butterflies to maneuver at takeoff and subsequent flight practice, will be a source of inspiration for the aerospace industry in the design of new aircraft with greater maneuverability in emergency situations.

[1] Johansson L., and Henningsson P. Butterflies fly using efficient propulsive clap mechanism owing to flexible wings. 2021. Article: Online access

[2] Roy C., Debat V, and Llaurens V. Adaptive evolution of butterfly wing shape: from morphology to behaviour. Biological Reviews. 2019; 94: 4. Article: Online access

[3] Betts C., and Wootton R. Wing shape and flight behaviour in butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea): A preliminary analysis. Journal of Experimental Biology. 1988; 138. Article: Online access