Light Entrapment

One of the most commonly observed entomological phenomena is light entrapment. Bright lights seem to draw insects out of the night and hold them in unusual looping flight patterns, often resulting in a crash. Humans have noticed this behaviour for millennia, but until now we had theories only. Through 3D flight tracking, we were able to demonstrate that bright lights confuse insects as to which way is up. Read our paper here.

Aerial Battleground

This flurry of red is a composite shot of about 15 dragonflies from 4 different species in Taiwan. A single small pond plays host to numerous aerial encounters as these males battle for dominance. Each is looking to carve out a patch of real-estate that will attract egg-laying females. Should a female arrive, he will be in prime position to intercept and pass on his genes to the next generation.

Crowded Air

Even a small region of airspace can be home to many dozens of insects navigating, competing, or patrolling. Here you can see the overlaid trajectories of small Fanniid flies criss-crossing the sky. This is just 8 seconds of real-time trajectories, demonstrating how crowded the air can get.

Bobbing Mayflies

Mayflies have extremely characteristic flightpaths. No other insect flies like they do. Walk through a meadow in summer and you’ll see clusters of mayflies travelling near vertically. Look closely at the descents, and you’ll see the mayflies aren’t flapping. Instead they’re parachuting, wings outstretched. We don’t know for sure why they do this, but preliminary data suggests this vertical motion helps stop males from intercepting eachother, in their constant search for a female.