io9.com — These stunning snapshots are from a series by Japanese photographer Tsuneaki Hiramatsu, who employed a variety of time-lapse techniques to capture the awe-inspiring beauty of fireflies in flight. The results aren't just beautiful - they offer us a whole new way of understanding these brilliant...
Feb 3, 2012 View in Crawl 4
catjugglerFeb 4, 2012
The technical term is long exposure not time-lapse. These are made from a single exposure for a long period. Time-lapse is many images taken over a long period.
ereneeFeb 4, 2012
sadly, Monsanto may have done its share in firefly demise.
meccaydnaFeb 4, 2012
the debate -
1. fire flies;
2. lightning bugs.
anglosaxongalFeb 4, 2012
Very interesting. But kinda scary. It depends....will it be for all Americans as pertains to equality or will only the rich have these toys?
hopefuldavFeb 5, 2012
These are just cool. Just.
MarkMelocheFeb 5, 2012
Stunning in its depth.
vitriolandangstFeb 4, 2012
I think what I'm seeing in this "extended shutter photo" is that there is very little overlap in the locations the Fire Flies are lighting up. Either the focal length is a bit compressed -- it doesn't look like there are any double-spots, places where the same firefly or another one, glowed in nearly the same location.
It would make sense if the fire fly were on a search pattern -- but how would another fly passing the same area know if a certain area were covered by a previous bug?
If I were a scientist studying these insects, I'd first want to figure the statistical likelihood of hitting the same spot twice with X bugs over Y time. Then find out to what degree the firefly diverged from this.
The next test would be to "blindfold" the bugs and see if they were still avoiding the same paths by somehow mapping out the light of other bugs. The other "more likely" theory I'd then test is if there weren't some chemical or pheromone signature left. Fireflies only seem to come out on days when it isn't windy. And I'd as well as testing for "smell impaired" paths of fireflies, I'd want to see how it changes with a 0 to 10 mph wind.
>> OK, I can't help it, I've always been a mad scientist at heart.
hopefuldavFeb 5, 2012
What you meant to say is; "cool pics"...but yeah, I hear ya. I get a bit mad as well.