one of the best channels out there. Just relaxed, interesting and unique footage. No unnecessary hype, no daily uploads or falling into the trap of becoming an insect-news channel. Just beautiful and interesting footage of insects every now and then. Keep it up
To say your videos make me happy is a massive understatement. I'm finishing my masters in nature conservation and sometimes I get a bit distracted with the city to stop by and look at all these tiny creatures in front of us. So thank you for bringing them in the best light possible and making me fall in love with our diversity all over again!
@@cloudwyrms9752while there are ones that don't eat anything, plenty of craneflies do eat as adults (almost all of the small ones), only on nectar and honeydew though. Most small nectar eaters also have a weird habit of violently vibrating after landing on a flower, like they're tiny bodies can't handle the sugar rush.
@@cloudwyrms9752some people even call them daddy long legs, personally I call them crane flies, and when I was younger I called cellar spiders daddy long legs
I really appreciate your work. These are highly entertaining, and until you mentioned it, I never thought about how difficult it must be to set the flies into certain places before having them fly off
Flies are hard, but slow motion cameras with a post-trigger make it easier. Also, all of the scenes where more than 1 insect is in-frame are stitched together from multiple sequences.
I've found some really interesting insects lately now that it's gotten warmer. I don't know what half of them are, but it turns out the thing I've been seeing most are blowflies. Thanks for showing me the green guys in this video!
Seeing this upload made me so happy seeing as flies are some of my favorite animals, especially robber flies! Such under-appreciated creatures, keep up the excellent work! 💖
The newer iphones' macro feature has allowed me to start taking pictures and video of these small ones and then watching on a large screen afterwards is so interesting
Bugs are so cute and sooo intricately made when you look at them on their scale. Makes me think twice now before getting out the ol fly swatter out and squishing em against a wall 😢
Ok but I never realized how weirdly pretty blowflies are??? That iridescent green is my EXACT favorite color/shade of green. If I die they can have my corpse lol
Robber flies tend to be unmistakable, at least the large ones. They are huge, with gangly spiked legs, and covered in hairs. Craneflies are also unmistakable, and they fly in no hurry whatsoever. It's not hard to catch one out of the air
I remember being (bored and) fascinated by flies that would engage in sort of WWI flying ace combat under the light. Maybe a dozen flies would congregate there and whenever they got "too close" each other, they would spiral down out of view, like they would get totally locked on chasing each other, their turns would get so tight they'd lose altitude. All this happened in less than a second, so it would be perfect for slo mo photography (though likely a pain keeping stuff in focus.). FWIW it was behavior seen in England, I'm sure American flies would do similar stuff too, but these particular flies were a little bit smaller than the "houseflies" I'm accustomed to here in US. Like if you were looking for more challenge than you already put yourself to :) Great channel, stunning videos, thanks!
If you keep you hand open and all of your fingers separated starting about a foot above the fly, you can ever so slowly lower you hand and slowly bring your index and thumb together as you lower to the point where you are about a half an inch above the fly then quickly yet gently grab the fly between your index finger and thumb you can catch them alive. The fly just stays still. Not quite sure why they stay still the whole time but I've been doing it for years. Works (almost) everytime. Great party trick.
Great video as always! This channel is one of a kind and the editing is precise and satisfying! The footage is clear and high quality. It opened my eyes to an entire word I never knew existed! Keep up the great work!!
This might be the first footage of a live cheese fly on this website, which would also make it the first footage of any member of its elusive family (awl flies) here. I don't know how an insect that big is so hard to find.
A retired entomologist I knew (passed away) told me a theory of the evolution of insect wings. The theory is the fore and hind wings were originally trachea for breathing and everted outside thorax to become the veins of wings. Dosnt take much imagination to see the analogous between internal trachea and external wing veins. The anatomical location of the base of the wings fits the location of two spiracles on each side of thorax. Insects breathe from their abdominal segments two spiracles per segment.
Amazing video! I'm now a fan of the stinkfly Coenomyia ferruginea, it looks really cool and I loved watching the other flies too. I like how the wings and halteres flap in the opposite directions when they take off. Also, I hope you make a video of a bee fly (Bombyliidae) flying, these are my favorite ones and I think they would look interesting in slow motion. One day I hope I will be able to shoot macro photos and videos like you!
There's footage of a tiger bee fly in one of the older insect flight videos: "Praying Mantis & More! 15 Insects Flying in Slow Motion". I hope to find more of bee flies to film too!
For some reason, studying insects and arthropods alike gives me a feeling that no other group of animals gives me. I also wanted to ask, what are the pros and cons of halteres vs. more conventional insect wings besides giving Dipterans(True Flies) better flight stability.
flies are so neat! I had a huge tiger bee fly land near my porch light earlier this year and it was fascinating! And I raised some black soldier flies as well (though that was more an accident from my pet gecko not eating all the larvae lol). I've definitely formed quite the appreciation for the lil guys and your video solidifies that appreciation even more
Just found your channel this is pretty amazing even if you don’t get fascinated by or necessarily like bugs or insects the things you show in these videos and the way you present them can have anyone wanting to learn about them I hope your career is very successful I love hearing about this new information
I've only seen your videos on wasps and flies to this point, but I am absolutely loving your channel so far. Thank you for offering such wonderful samplings of the world's insect diversity, and for presenting these creatures as the fascinating evolutionary marvels that they are. Do you have any similar videos on orthopterans? I would love to see some katydids or crickets stridulating in slow motion and macro-level detail. :)
Hmm Crane flys we always called mosquito eaters growing up. Just because exactly that, they were pretty docile and ate various and many pest insects like mosquitos.
I FUCKING LOVE YOUR CONTENT. Since I was a little child I was afraid of the giant mosquito, only to find out now that it was the crane fly. lol This blew my mind so hard, I had to wake up my wife (which I had no idea she was sleeping) to tell her. She was not happy about it :))
Thank you for creating these wonderful videos, you singlehandedly cured my fear of moths and I'm glad you're expanding into covering more creatures that clearly deserve to live!
Those little club-shaped appendages swinging up and down before flight are called "Halteres". They are the vestigial remains of the rear wings. They function like a gyroscope in aircraft to keep them balanced in flight. Speaking of flies there is an old parlor trick of "killing" a fly and then magically bringing the fly back to life. Catch a housefly ( the hard part) and put it into an empty clear pill bottle. Fill vial with water until fly stops moving. Take lifeless fly and place on a cocktail napkin then sprinkle "magic pixie dust " to cover the fly and wait. The fly magically comes back to life! Well... not exactly, insects breathe by difussion through spiracles. The fly dosnt drown it goes into suspended animation. The Sodium chloride aka table salt pulls the water out of the trachea tubes and fly is revived. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't tested it myself. Let the fly fly.
Flies upset me in a way that no insect can- even ants (which I'm very afraid of) and wasps can't. My aversion to flies is almost uncontrollable. Thank you for helping me see the beauty in them, even if I can't control my horror when they're out of slow motion
I never noticed that species other than crane flies had halteres, and never knew what they were called! Always wondered what those little club thingies were for. So neat to see them in action.
2:24 A moment of silence for the billions of craneflies that die to us, our cats, dogs... pretty much everything kills these poor guys. Predator saturation is a rough strategy.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
one of the best channels out there. Just relaxed, interesting and unique footage. No unnecessary hype, no daily uploads or falling into the trap of becoming an insect-news channel. Just beautiful and interesting footage of insects every now and then. Keep it up
+
Absolutely thirded! Never change, AntLab!
Fax
Now I got curious to know what is an "insect-news" channel?
To say your videos make me happy is a massive understatement. I'm finishing my masters in nature conservation and sometimes I get a bit distracted with the city to stop by and look at all these tiny creatures in front of us. So thank you for bringing them in the best light possible and making me fall in love with our diversity all over again!
Thanks, that's really nice to hear!
I love how effortless flying is for flies. They could never have gotten a better name
"These lil guys sure do fly a lot"
It's interesting and even cute seeing insects fumble around in slow motion rather than zoom everywhere as they usually do, great footage!
I agree!
Are you sometimes surprised how beautiful some insects can be? I'm frequently amazed at how they are so different and beautiful to be bugs!
Yes, all the time
You've made me realize all the long leg bugs I see aren't just mosquitos
Where I live they’re called mosquito eaters, even though they don’t eat mosquitoes (and don’t eat at all as adults)
@@cloudwyrms9752while there are ones that don't eat anything, plenty of craneflies do eat as adults (almost all of the small ones), only on nectar and honeydew though. Most small nectar eaters also have a weird habit of violently vibrating after landing on a flower, like they're tiny bodies can't handle the sugar rush.
@@cloudwyrms9752some people even call them daddy long legs, personally I call them crane flies, and when I was younger I called cellar spiders daddy long legs
@@Velociiraptori think calling them daddy long legs and calling daddy long legs “cellar spiders” are both british things
@@chitinskin9860I wonder if it helps release pollen?
The slow-mo really shows off the little jump that flies have to do to start their little wings up!
I really appreciate your work. These are highly entertaining, and until you mentioned it, I never thought about how difficult it must be to set the flies into certain places before having them fly off
Flies are hard, but slow motion cameras with a post-trigger make it easier. Also, all of the scenes where more than 1 insect is in-frame are stitched together from multiple sequences.
@@AntLaboh I didn't realise that but I guess that is doable since you have a stationary camera and a plain background right?
I watch these several times. There's so much to see.
there are no other videos on youtube that i love this much
This is beautifully shot footage. And interesting to see something so small closer up.
I've found some really interesting insects lately now that it's gotten warmer. I don't know what half of them are, but it turns out the thing I've been seeing most are blowflies. Thanks for showing me the green guys in this video!
I love crane flies. Thank you for filming them, I've caught them with my hands when they get into the house, but I've never seen them that close up.
When a human finds a unique passion, it is beautiful. Thank you for sharing yours with us.
Seeing this upload made me so happy seeing as flies are some of my favorite animals, especially robber flies! Such under-appreciated creatures, keep up the excellent work! 💖
I always get so excited for a new video. Thanks so much
Insects are nuts, so much variation, so much diversity....
After you mentioned it all I could focus on in every clip was the rear gyroscope wings
The newer iphones' macro feature has allowed me to start taking pictures and video of these small ones and then watching on a large screen afterwards is so interesting
Dazzling, as always. Thank you for sharing your research in such an accessible way.
Flies are one of those animals I hate and loath entirely, but respect beyond words. Fascinating creatures. Honestly incredible.
Spectacular per usual!
An absolutely incredible video Dr. Smith!
Bugs are so cute and sooo intricately made when you look at them on their scale. Makes me think twice now before getting out the ol fly swatter out and squishing em against a wall 😢
Ok but I never realized how weirdly pretty blowflies are??? That iridescent green is my EXACT favorite color/shade of green. If I die they can have my corpse lol
They don't always settle for dead flesh (depending on species) 😢
I know if I try to get a closer look it's going to fly right into my eyeball
Great video and amazing shots!
Dude, I wanted to see these footage in higher definition for a while now. You just gave me a huge gift.
Robber flies tend to be unmistakable, at least the large ones.
They are huge, with gangly spiked legs, and covered in hairs.
Craneflies are also unmistakable, and they fly in no hurry whatsoever. It's not hard to catch one out of the air
0:29 I admit the cheese flies look kinda cute to me
I've noticed those little knobbly appendages on resting craneflies before, now I know what they are, cheers!
This is beautiful footage
Incredible video and knowledge and narration😮
I remember being (bored and) fascinated by flies that would engage in sort of WWI flying ace combat under the light. Maybe a dozen flies would congregate there and whenever they got "too close" each other, they would spiral down out of view, like they would get totally locked on chasing each other, their turns would get so tight they'd lose altitude. All this happened in less than a second, so it would be perfect for slo mo photography (though likely a pain keeping stuff in focus.). FWIW it was behavior seen in England, I'm sure American flies would do similar stuff too, but these particular flies were a little bit smaller than the "houseflies" I'm accustomed to here in US.
Like if you were looking for more challenge than you already put yourself to :) Great channel, stunning videos, thanks!
Brilliant footage. Well done.
Greetings from Denmark.
If you keep you hand open and all of your fingers separated starting about a foot above the fly, you can ever so slowly lower you hand and slowly bring your index and thumb together as you lower to the point where you are about a half an inch above the fly then quickly yet gently grab the fly between your index finger and thumb you can catch them alive. The fly just stays still. Not quite sure why they stay still the whole time but I've been doing it for years. Works (almost) everytime. Great party trick.
flies: one million species
humans: one species
that’s what i call science ❤
What an amazing video, that was so enjoyable to watch. I loved the picture-winged and black onion flys, amazing 😊
Excellent Photography! Thank you. Your videos are always so good.
It's starting to become summer, time for annoying flies to start infiltrating my home again.... oh hey a new Ant Lab video! I love flies!
Lol
THIS EXACTLY
this is one of my favorite channels please never stop your work
Splendid!
I always look forward to your videos.
I love this channel so much! I love life on Earth so much too!
I work with vinegar flies, it's so beautiful to see all the diversity with their distant cousins, great video thanks so much !!
I've never thought I could say this but flies are kind of cute
Awesome~👍
Thank you for sharing this video~🤗
These videos are fascinating. Thank you for taking the time to make them and sharing!
+
I recently found your channel and I love it. I'm even warming up to flies!
love your videos... THANKS!
the lovely beasts take off
some of these are extremely cute
i live in latin america, in my city there are so many different species, i practically see a "new" one every year
That was great. Thanks. 😁
Great video as always! This channel is one of a kind and the editing is precise and satisfying! The footage is clear and high quality. It opened my eyes to an entire word I never knew existed! Keep up the great work!!
Such creative diversity!
Your channel is always super interesting and informative. Thank you for making such great content!
This channel is among the best on RUclips. Great work my friend, please keep it up!!
This might be the first footage of a live cheese fly on this website, which would also make it the first footage of any member of its elusive family (awl flies) here. I don't know how an insect that big is so hard to find.
Your vids are amazing! Thanks! Dave J
A retired entomologist I knew (passed away) told me a theory of the evolution of insect wings. The theory is the fore and hind wings were originally trachea for breathing and everted outside thorax to become the veins of wings. Dosnt take much imagination to see the analogous between internal trachea and external wing veins. The anatomical location of the base of the wings fits the location of two spiracles on each side of thorax. Insects breathe from their abdominal segments two spiracles per segment.
I love this video! My favourite is the hover fly, I always wanted to see on of them flying in slow-mo!
Amazing video! I'm now a fan of the stinkfly Coenomyia ferruginea, it looks really cool and I loved watching the other flies too. I like how the wings and halteres flap in the opposite directions when they take off. Also, I hope you make a video of a bee fly (Bombyliidae) flying, these are my favorite ones and I think they would look interesting in slow motion. One day I hope I will be able to shoot macro photos and videos like you!
There's footage of a tiger bee fly in one of the older insect flight videos: "Praying Mantis & More! 15 Insects Flying in Slow Motion". I hope to find more of bee flies to film too!
You inspired me to film flying insects in slomo on my phone, it's actually not bad! Try it peoples
Awesome!
I have a rotary house phone so idk. Ill give it a whiz
4:40 It's like a little fly Superman!
Wow, great macro! They sure do look irredescent in the right light ☀️
Black onion flies look fucking badass dude
For some reason, studying insects and arthropods alike gives me a feeling that no other group of animals gives me. I also wanted to ask, what are the pros and cons of halteres vs. more conventional insect wings besides giving Dipterans(True Flies) better flight stability.
The stink fly is adorable :3
flies are so neat! I had a huge tiger bee fly land near my porch light earlier this year and it was fascinating! And I raised some black soldier flies as well (though that was more an accident from my pet gecko not eating all the larvae lol). I've definitely formed quite the appreciation for the lil guys and your video solidifies that appreciation even more
Wonderfully educational!🎉
Why’s the hover fly so cute
I love hover flies, they are the best 😊
Hover flies are my favourite flies too
I absolutely love all your videos! Thank you for sharing them with us!
Just found your channel this is pretty amazing even if you don’t get fascinated by or necessarily like bugs or insects the things you show in these videos and the way you present them can have anyone wanting to learn about them I hope your career is very successful I love hearing about this new information
Impressionante!
Wonderful video as usual thanks. It would be really great to film a bee fly (Bombylidae) in slow motion 😮
This would be really cool with a little higher resolution and zoomed in on the insects.
These are beautiful animals when seen up close in your videos, and a valuable part of the ecology. Thank you.
I wonder if these flies are so clean because they groom themselves, or because they are newly hatched in lab?
I've only seen your videos on wasps and flies to this point, but I am absolutely loving your channel so far. Thank you for offering such wonderful samplings of the world's insect diversity, and for presenting these creatures as the fascinating evolutionary marvels that they are.
Do you have any similar videos on orthopterans? I would love to see some katydids or crickets stridulating in slow motion and macro-level detail. :)
i love your videos! LOVE!
Very nice! Ormia is hard for photograph outside! LOL
Hmm Crane flys we always called mosquito eaters growing up. Just because exactly that, they were pretty docile and ate various and many pest insects like mosquitos.
Kudos on getting the crane fly in camera shot, and keeping all it's legs intact.
I FUCKING LOVE YOUR CONTENT. Since I was a little child I was afraid of the giant mosquito, only to find out now that it was the crane fly. lol This blew my mind so hard, I had to wake up my wife (which I had no idea she was sleeping) to tell her. She was not happy about it :))
The "picture wing fly" i always refered to as a peacock fly. I was waiting for horse flies or hanging thiefs!
Love this channel, so interesting and amazing footage.
Thank you for creating these wonderful videos, you singlehandedly cured my fear of moths and I'm glad you're expanding into covering more creatures that clearly deserve to live!
With how impredictable flies can be, I hand you all my respect for being pacient enough to get this awe inducing footage.
They are beautiful, brilliant footage thank you .
Fantastic . Are the halteres & neural pathways well understood ?
Beautiful❤
Those little club-shaped appendages swinging up and down before flight are called "Halteres". They are the vestigial remains of the rear wings. They function like a gyroscope in aircraft to keep them balanced in flight. Speaking of flies there is an old parlor trick of "killing" a fly and then magically bringing the fly back to life. Catch a housefly ( the hard part) and put it into an empty clear pill bottle. Fill vial with water until fly stops moving. Take lifeless fly and place on a cocktail napkin then sprinkle "magic pixie dust " to cover the fly and wait. The fly magically comes back to life! Well... not exactly, insects breathe by difussion through spiracles. The fly dosnt drown it goes into suspended animation. The Sodium chloride aka table salt pulls the water out of the trachea tubes and fly is revived. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't tested it myself. Let the fly fly.
great footage! i wonder how flies land on a ceiling? do they barrel roll to the side before landing or do they back flip?
yeah, a video that is a compilation of insect landings has been on my to-do list for a while! I just have to figure out how to do it.
@@AntLab no doubt a tricky undertaking!!
Спасибо! Очень красиво и интересно!)
Flies upset me in a way that no insect can- even ants (which I'm very afraid of) and wasps can't. My aversion to flies is almost uncontrollable. Thank you for helping me see the beauty in them, even if I can't control my horror when they're out of slow motion
Bug bug!!! bug in slow mow!!! Happy yippee bug look at them go!! Brrrrrr silly goofy buggy yippeee!!
This man is the best with a very unique niche!
Marvelous
I never noticed that species other than crane flies had halteres, and never knew what they were called! Always wondered what those little club thingies were for. So neat to see them in action.
Give me some more of those aphid predators!
Thanks for the content!
2:24 A moment of silence for the billions of craneflies that die to us, our cats, dogs... pretty much everything kills these poor guys.
Predator saturation is a rough strategy.
🪰 Always amazing videos! 😎✌️