Wonderfully Detailed Portraits of Insects Taking Flight

Adrian Smith of Ant Lab, who is a scientist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, captured wonderfully ethereal portraits of various mantises, moths, hoppers, flies, and other insects taking flight at 6,000 FPS. Smith also provided detailed narration describing what each insect is, how they grow, and how they set themselves alight. Smith stated that was inspired to do this by a book sent to him by a viewer.

A viewer sent me a copy of “Borne on the wind: The extraordinary world of insects in flight” which, in 1975, published photos of insects in mid-air flight. So, I filmed a bunch of insect flight sequences in a style inspired by the insect portraits in that book!