Jumping towards a target is more complicated than it looks. To reach a target, the praying mantis must decide how fast to jump and at what angle. My PhD research explored how mantises make these decisions.

Using high-speed cameras, I filmed mantises jumping towards targets at different distances and heights. I found that they change their jumping speed depending on how far away the target is, and adjust their launch angle depending on how high it is.

Interestingly, there are several combinations of speed and angle that could help a mantis reach the same target. Yet, mantises seem to use two simple rules: jump faster to reach targets that are farther away, and change the launch angle to reach targets at different heights.

But how do mantises judge distance? They perform a behaviour called peering, moving their heads from side to side. This helps them estimate how far away objects are by observing how they appear to move against the background. These visual cues may help mantises decide how to jump.

Together, these findings show how mantises use simple rules and visual information to make accurate, goal-directed jumps.

For more details, check the paper.

Imagine trying to jump across a gap without being able to see clearly. For nocturnal insects like katydids, this is part of everyday life.

Unlike praying mantises, which are active during the day, katydids are mostly active at night. Yet, they too make targeted jumps to navigate their surroundings and move between locations in their arboreal habitats. How do they judge distances and land accurately when light is scarce?

To investigate this, I filmed katydids jumping towards targets placed at different distances and heights, using high-speed cameras under low-light conditions.

I found that katydids also use peering to estimate distances.  Even under low-light conditions, katydids appear to make use of these visual cues to guide their jumps. Their ability to land accurately on targets suggests that vision remains important for navigating their surroundings, even in the dark.

These findings offer a glimpse into how nocturnal insects gather and use visual information to move through complex environments when visibility is limited.

The paper will be out soon.

Insects such as houseflies flap their wings ~250 times per second. The left and right wings maintain coordination (phase) through mechanical coupling. In addition, houseflies possess a gear-like structure (colored yellow in the image above) at the base of their wings, which has been proposed to help control how widely their wings move (wing beat amplitude) during flight.

In this project, led by Dr. Abin Ghosh in Dr. Sanjay Sane’s lab at NCBS, India, we tested the role of this gear-like structure by removing the structure. We found that flies could still adjust how widely they moved their wings, even without this structure. This suggests that the flight muscles may play an important role in controlling wingbeat amplitude.

These findings challenge the proposed role of the gear-like structure in the Dipteran flight system and point towards the flight muscles in fine-tuning wing movements.

For more details, check out the commentary and the paper.

For my master's project, I investigated the neuroanatomy of brain regions associated with visual processing in birds. I quantified the volumes of different visual processing regions in zebra finches, buntings, and chickens to examine interspecific variation in brain organisation. I aimed to explore whether differences in the relative sizes of these regions might be associated with species-specific ecological factors, particularly dietary preferences, while accounting for the potential influence of phylogenetic constraints.

During my undergraduate studies, I monitored butterfly populations on the NCBS campus as part of a weekly survey. I systematically documented the butterfly species observed and recorded the number of individuals, generating data that was used to understand seasonal variations in butterfly diversity and abundance.

Coming soon!

Coming soon!