Colorful Moths and Beetles Taking Flight in Slow Motion

Adrian Smith of Ant Lab captured 6K fps slow motion footage of colorful moths and beetles taking flight from a standing position.

12 species of moths & beetles filmed in-flight at 6,000 frames per second! Playback rate on these sequences is varied throughout the video.

The moths include a virgin tiger moth, Clymene moth, banded tussock moth, Luna moth, waved sphinx moth, and the small-eyed sphinx moth. The beetles include a glowworm beetle, giant diving beetle, longhorn alder borer beetle, flower longhorn beetle, and a longneck ground beetle.

As in previous videos, each insect perched on a flat surface and took off, uniquely extending wings before lifting a little body into the air.

Tiger Moth Taking Off
Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.