#antlab

[birdsbugsandbones]

Insect flight in glorious slow motion!

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s ANT Lab, as part of the Evolutionay Biology & Behaviour Research Lab, has made a spectacular video about insect flight. It’s filmed in juicy slow motion and features orthopteran, coleopterans, dipterans, a hemipteran, and even some psocoptera which are little proto-hemipteran like critters.

The full species, in order of appearance:

nut/acorn weevil (Curculio sp.)

broad-nosed weevil (Asiatic oak weevil Cyrtepistomus castaneus)

Hook-faced Conehead katydid (Pyrgocorypha uncinata)

bush katydid (Scuddderia sp.)

Lesser Angle-wing (Microcentrum retinerve)

Mouse-like Barklouse (Lichenomima sp.)

common barklouse 1 (subfamily: Psocinae)

common barklouse 2 (subfamily: Psocinae)

common barklouse (Cerastipsocus venosus)

March fly (Penthetria heteropteran)

Spined Assassin Bug (Sinea sp.)

[usgsbiml]

We (the Bee Lab) have done a pretty good job at ignoring ants.  This, despite being collocated with Bees in the order Hymenoptera.  Pretty closish too.  Also interesting is how very spectacular ants are to photo graph see photos on AntWeb or Alex Wild's phototasctic work.   Will have to rectify that by actually looking for them.  (Special offer: Anyone who wants to come to the lab and take ant pictures with our set up would be welcomed).  So, with those caveats here is an ant from fossil butte, Wyoming.   Cool because it is an ant and all in focus, but relatively pathetic in that I have no idea what species and if you look you can see a couple of snapped off legs.  Ok, basically it was big and there was the passing thought of taking an ant picture.  We resolve to do better.  Photo by Sierra Williams. 

[heracliteanfire]

(via Nature's Most Complex Wings in Action! - YouTube)