#flying creatures

[skycowboys]

It's that time of year again :) Going with a more relaxed prompt list for 2026. Feels more doable than having to hit a drawing every day. Even with the comic in my lap, I hope to do some of these.

~ Larn

--

Discord | Artbook | Web Comic | Patreon

[70sscifiart]

Ken Kelly

[thebafool]

Birds

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

I got curious about something literally about wings and figured I’d ask you about it since I could, alongside figuring your answer might help someone anyways since it’s about wing types.

More specifically, insectoid wings. Would they be viable on a more human analogous scale? Beyond that, would non-insect invertebrates with exoskeletons have any shot of evolving such wings or would they have a different kind of wing?

Writing that also led to another question: Would a creature without any skeleton, endo or exo, be able to fly with wings of some sort, or would the rigidity of bones be needed as part of such a task?

I do have an older post going over the basic functionality of insectoid wings on a humanoid body.

Insectoid Wings

Well firstly here is a website that explains how insect wings work. To sum it up, there are two different forms of flight in insects. Drago

One important detail to consider is always weight. It's not enough to just put wings on a person, you also have to adjust the body to lighten the load. Smaller frame, air pockets in the bones and stuff like that. As long as you tie that in with the wing size and strength, it should be fine.

I think other invertebrates with an exoskeleton could have wings. I mean, insects are a pretty large group of mostly unrelated creatures, and they've evolved wings in a lot of different ways. so if, say, you wanted a flying spider, I don't see why that couldn't be a thing that exists.

But hmmmm a non-skeletal creature with wings. no bone, no cartilage, no chitin. all soft bodied.

off the top of my head, I want to say probably not. not in the way you see wings on insects and vertebrates. I think it could be possible for a soft bodied creature to develop something like a gliding membrane! but for powered flight with wings, I'm pretty sure they'd need some stiffer parts like a skeletal system to create the stronger aerodynamic shapes and actually be able to move their wings in a way that creates lift and allows them to steer.

but if you look at some marine worms and slugs, things like flatworms especially, they have this marvelous rippling motion going on that allows them to move through the water, and I do think you could do that with a soft bodied creature in the air. especially if magic is involved lol.

(video description: short clip of a red and black marine flatworm swimming. its body is shaped like a ruffled ribbon, and when it swims it can expand the sides of its body to ripple from front to back in order to move through the water. end description.)

like this could be a really fun way to make flying carpets into an organic creature, you know? I love flatworms.

[atelier-xm]

Wow, pretty

[solumsoulsnapshots]

Up close and personal

[skyrren]

Only after landing on the new planet will all the people born on the station see the sky with their own eyes for the first time

And here is the first fact about this planet: due to the peculiarities of the atmosphere, its sky is not blue, but lilac

[bird-chronicles]