The shockingly bright yellows and oranges of this virgin tiger moth
are there to serve as a warning sign to predators who are thinking about eating it. But for me,
they're a reminder of how awesome it is to see insects in flight, up-close and in slow-motion.
I mean the thing that really gets me about this and all the rest of the bugs you'll
see in this video are all the details there are to notice. Like for this one, how the
wings flex during each beat, the long tufts of hair-like scales where the wings meet the body,
or even how the hind wings are delicately fringed in a slightly different lighter shade of orange.
Making these flight videos gives me an opportunity to learn about different
insects beyond the ones that we study in this lab.
So, this video is the most interesting moths and beetles i've come across in the last three months.
This is another type of tiger moth the Clymene moth.
If you saw this one at rest it'd only be showing you the upper side of its forewing
and it'd look like this moth was just black and white. But when it bursts into the air,
it turns orange, revealing the striking coloration of the hind and underwings as well as its body.
Here's a third tiger moth species, a banded tussock moth. The adult is pretty understated
in appearance, but the caterpillar takes a different approach: being covered in spiky
tufts of predator-deterring hairs. When this one lifts off you can see the subtle coloration
pattern distinguishing this species: a turquoise stripe running down its back between its wings.
A lot of insects I film don't cooperate and won't fly in front of the camera.
This Luna moth was one of them. Luna moths were on my bucket list of things I wanted to film flying,
but all I could get were a few half-hearted wing flaps and then nothing.
But a giant silkworm moth that I seem to have great luck with
is this a Polyphemus moth. The last moth flight video I made had one of these in it,
but this one is a male. You can tell because of how big the antennae are.
This is my favorite shot, the wings will come down through the frame
and reveal the eye spots and the decorated top sides of the wings. This one was probably
pretty old male since a lot of the scales on the top of the forewing have been worn off.
Lifting off from my finger this is a waved sphinx moth.
To identify it, the field guides will tell you to study the patterns and lines on its forewings.
And after staring at it for a while you kind of get lost in all the detail. At rest against the
bark of a tree these patterns would make the outline of the moth nearly invisible.
Finally, this is a small-eyed sphinx moth. In real life the
darker parts of this moth appear almost purple.
I'm always surprised by how heavy sphinx moths appear in comparison to the size of the wings.
But, despite how it might look, they have no problem getting into the air.
Now it's time for some beetles. These sequences come with some surprises,
some species that I never thought i'd find or be able to film in flight.
For instance, this is a head and antenna of the first thing i'll show you: a male glowworm beetle.
Males like these are easily distinguished from females because females look something like this.
As adults, they retain a larval body form. They also produce a bioluminescent light
and hunt millipedes, they're pretty amazing.
The males take flight with their giant antennae trying to locate and sense the
long range pheromones females use to attract them. Besides their giant antennae, the males
are pretty unique with their shortened elytra or hardened four wings, their elongated body,
and their bulging eyes they use to sense bioluminescent signals of glowing females.
Now this, a predacious diving beetle, was something I thought for sure wouldn't fly on
camera. I mean its preferred mode of getting around is swimming. But then it did this,
popped open its elytra, awkwardly found its footing and dove headfirst into a flight.
A diving beetle's legs, and whole body really, are adapted for swimming.
In these sequences you can see how their paddle-like hind legs get no
traction when they try to push off and leap into a flight.
On the right notice a droplet of water that came
off the beetle for a sense of just how slow motion these sequences are.
Cerambycids or longhorn beetles like this one, an alder borer,
are one of my favorite groups of beetles. They're known for their typically long
antennae and their larval habits of feeding on and in woody plant material.
I like how in these sequences you can see how the space between the middle and hind
legs accommodates for the downbeat of the hind wings. They seem just a perfectly fit in that gap.
This is also a longhorn beetle,
but one that's typically found as an adult hanging out in flowers.
Just like the last one, in the air, it spreads all its legs out as wide as they'll go. It seems
like it's trying really hard not to miss grabbing onto a landing spot if it happens to fly into one.
Finally, at just about six millimeters in body length,
the smallest insect in this video is this long-necked ground beetle.
A thing to notice here is how the wings are nearly folded in half at the start and only
unfold once the beetle starts flapping. It's like this little beetle has to shake them open.
If you like this video there are a bunch more like
it on this channel. And there are still lots of things on my list left to film,
so there'll be more. But thanks for being here and watching this one!