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Moths in slow motion [video]

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Re: Moths in slow motion [video]

#51

Post by blitzar »

SiVal wrote: post #38
gamerDude wrote: post #17

This made me feel so much better about moths. With the video so close up they looked super cute and snuggly. Something I have never associated with a moth before. Secondly, I found it pretty cool to see how their flight wasn't as controlled as I had thought of. It looked like a bit of a mess on take off. Again, just disarmed me from the moths I've grown to despise flying around the house. Very cool to see them from a…

Fine cashmere? Too ordinary. Mink? Maybe, for the merely rich. When I make my first billion, I'll have a scarf made of snow-white moth fur.

Given what moths have done to every piece of cashmere I own it would be a fitting revenge.

Re: Moths in slow motion [video]

#53

Post by fhe »

gamerDude wrote: post #17

This made me feel so much better about moths. With the video so close up they looked super cute and snuggly. Something I have never associated with a moth before. Secondly, I found it pretty cool to see how their flight wasn't as controlled as I had thought of. It looked like a bit of a mess on take off. Again, just disarmed me from the moths I've grown to despise flying around the house. Very cool to see them from a…

> "their flight wasn't as controlled as I had thought of"

I had the same reaction, and it reminded me of other slo-mo videos of insects crawling -- it looked like they are falling all over themselves, with none of the gracefulness that I see in mammals (cheetah running, for example). I wonder if it has to do with insects having much smaller mass, hence they are more easily jerked around by things like airflow.

Re: Moths in slow motion [video]

#54

Post by Aissen »

skipnup wrote: post #50
Aissen wrote: post #44

This is incredibly nice, but I kept wondering how it looked like in real time. 6000 fps is a lot , so how much is it slowed down ? 100x ? (6000 -> 60 fps?)

Standard videos on YouTube are 30fps, so it should be 200× slower.

Yeah, that's precisely this type of guessing I wanted to avoid :-). YouTube supports 60fps uploads, although this one does not seem available in a 60fps format. And of course there's the possibility of pre-processing :-)

Re: Moths in slow motion [video]

#56

Post by berkes »

j7ake wrote: post #36
3grdlurker wrote: post #26

The video left me with a feeling of reverent astonishment about how beautiful our planet really is. Such a shame that we’re destroying it.

I doubt moths will be gone after we’ve “destroyed” the planet. They survived before us and will survive after us. We are destroying the habitat for many large animals though.

We are destroying the habitat of a lot of moths too, though. Edit: but, indeed, quite probably not of the entire group.

Many are specialists. In fact, moths are just butterflies, and what we call butterflies are specialists in being able to navigate by daylight.

Some moths need very special plants for their time as catterpillar, others need very special flowers to drink from. Again others need a goldilock humidity or temperature or both.

I'm just an amateur though. But as beekeeper, I do have a lot of interest for other pollinating and nectar eating insects.

Re: Moths in slow motion [video]

#57

Post by berkes »

formerly_proven wrote: post #55
wombatmobile wrote: post #30

It looks like a lot of effort for not very much aerodynamic return. How far do these moths fly? How often, and what for?

IIRC most moths can't even eat, so their only purpose in that stage of life is to mate and lay eggs.

~some. not "most", IIRC.

Many butterflies (moths are butterflies) are pollinators and eat nectar (and pollen).

Re: Moths in slow motion [video]

#58

Post by berkes »

Fascinating to see some of the moths having ripped and scratched wings. And despite that, still flying just fine.

If a human-made aircraft had a tear in a wing like that, it would probably just crash, let alone be properly navigable.

Re: Moths in slow motion [video]

#59

Post by lou1306 »

ajuc wrote: post #45
gamerDude wrote: post #17

This made me feel so much better about moths. With the video so close up they looked super cute and snuggly. Something I have never associated with a moth before. Secondly, I found it pretty cool to see how their flight wasn't as controlled as I had thought of. It looked like a bit of a mess on take off. Again, just disarmed me from the moths I've grown to despise flying around the house. Very cool to see them from a…

> I found it pretty cool to see how their flight wasn't as controlled as I had thought of. In Polish the word for butterfly is "motyl" which comes from "motać" = to move around randomly, to struggle or to move in circles :) BTW I always found it suspicious that "moth" is so similar to "motyl" yet it's apparently unrelated.

How funny, in Italian we kind of have the reverse! We say "andare a zonzo" which mean "wandering without a clear direction", and "zonzo" is onomatopoeia for the sound of a flying insect.

> BTW I always found it suspicious that "moth" is so similar to "motyl" yet it's apparently unrelated.

By the way, the phenomenon is called "false cognates": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_cognate

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