Static Sense of Calliphora and the Physical Stabilizing Effect of the Halteres

Abstract

I MUST apologize to Dr. Günter Sehneider if I have inadvertently mis-interpreted some of his experiments in my book. I have the greatest respect for his skill as an experimenter, and have acknowledged that his 1953 paper widens considerably our knowledge of the functions of the halteres of Diptera. In his communication Dr. Schneider objects to three passages in my book. The second of these I admit is in error; he does not claim that the halteres mediate static reflexes. I was misled by the summary at the end of his paper in which, having stated that static sense organs are present and that compensatory wing movements occur to rotations about the vertical axis, he continues “These reactions are mediated by the compound eyes, halteres and antennæ (and perhaps by other sense organs responding to the airflow)”.