There is a recent article in the New Scientist magazine called:
"On a Wing and a Vortex".
 
 Here is the magazine's precis of the article:
"According to the laws of aerodynamics insects shouldn't be able to fly.
Now the mystery may be solved".
 
That is a bit of an overstatement, however the article is extremely
pertinent to the present bee-l thread, and it has some interesting ideas.
It also describes the development and testing of mechanical flying insects.
 
The complete article is available on the web.  (Not every article IS, but
they usually put one or two from every issue in.
Go to :       http://www.newscientist.com  and choose the October 11 issue
from the archives.
 
Perhaps the full address for the article will work (I find they don't
always).  It is  http://www.newscientist.com/ns/971011/contents.html
 
I find this magazine has some pretty interesting articles.
 
Regards, Stan in PEI recovering from our second snowstorm