Here are some gorgeous videos of flying insects from Ant Lab. The YouTube notes are below:
Takeoff and flight sequences of insects spanning 8 different taxonomic orders captured at 3,200 fps!
00:00 – intro
01:17 – plume moth
01:20 – firefly
02:32 – painted lichen moth
03:14 – leafroller moth
03:31 – rosy maple moth
04:00 – stonefly (see comment for correct ID)
05:14 – mayflies
06:07 – fishfly
07:00 – aphid
07:42 – scorpionfly
08:10 – lacewing
There’s lots of interesting information here, like that the elytra (wing covers) of beetles also flap when they fly. I like the stonefly and fishfly videos best, as there are four wings in action. But the aphids are really cool, too.
9 Comments
An awesome video. I can see how the scorpion fly got its name!
Cool stuff! And yes the rosy maple moth is the best moth.
Sub
Unbelievable!
Just great. it’s interesting how non aerodynamic and non-streamlined insects are for flying through air compared with animals that fly through water
My cat is a huge fan of the flying insect videos. I like the fanboat method of locomotion by the stonefly, too.
The Wright brothers could have used this info.
I hate that my mind has become so conspiratorial but it’s entirely possible that Trump is feigning illness as an excuse to bail out of debates and/or to push his bogus cures (“I took hydroxychloroquine and fully recovered!” we might hear in a couple weeks).
But I hope he really does have it. It’s the least he deserves.
Crap. This was supposed to go in the replies for Friday Dialogue. I have honestly no idea how it ended up here.