Weis-Fogh (1973) analysed the ‘Clap and Fling’ mode of hovering flight in the small chalcid wasp Encarsia formosa. He argued that the difficulty of generating wing lift sufficient to support the insect’s weight at the very low Reynolds numbers involved (about Re = 20) is overcome by a substantial enhancement of lift associated with this special mode of flight. Recently, the ‘Clap and Fling’ mechanism has been studied in model experiments by Bennett (1977) at Re = 83000.

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