Keit said:
Very interesting! Well, if it is anything as starling murmurations, than
this is what I found
Very interesting indeed! Especially, that there were so many of these tornado shaped swarms in one place.
This is what I found:
[quote author=http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(14)00835-5]
Although stationary, midges and mosquitoes shouldn’t be underestimated. In March 2014, photographer Filipa Scarpa captured a mosquito tornado on camera (Figure 1). Such a column-like shape is rare, but it isn’t unusual for non-biting midges, such as lake flies, to form vast swarms.
[/quote]
[quote author=http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/479367/Terrifying-pictures-of-1-000ft-tornado-made-of-mosquitos]
A 1,000ft tornado made up entirely of MOSQUITOS was pictured hurtling towards a herd of horses.
Photographer Ana Filipa Scarpa, 54, captured the scary sight at the Vila Franca de Xira in Portugal.
She said: "It was moving from left to right and at first it seemed like a phenomenon of the wind.
However, it didn't move, so I got into my car and started driving towards it.
As I got closer I realised it was not the wind - but mosquitoes swirling around, in the shape of a whirlwind."
The mosquitos were not trapped in a tornado but were apparently flying a massive conical formation under their own power.
The behaviour is rare but has been observed by nature watchers in the past.
[/quote]
[quote author=http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(14)00835-5]
During the last year, several different research groups have independently tackled the problem of quantifying the structure of midge and mosquito swarms. Techniques, first developed by physicists to study starling flocks, have been used to reconstruct the three-dimensional trajectories of individuals. Analysis of these data has revealed patterns in the flight paths of individuals. For example, male midges show ballistic motion, flying straight through the swarm, but turning abruptly when they reach its outer edge. Similar analysis has revealed patterns of interactions between individuals. Male mosquitos fly through the swarm in parallel pairs. Midges also cluster together within the swarm, with small distances between nearest neighbours.
It may seem strange that physicists and engineers have invested so much time tracking and measuring correlations in midge swarms. Their interest in midges can be best understood if we think of insects as particles. This analogy leads to the intriguing possibility that insect swarms can undergo phase transitions, from a disordered gas-like state to an ordered liquid-like migration. As in physical systems, these transitions occur suddenly as swarm density passes a critical point.
In their recent study, Attanasi et al. [2014] found that midge swarms are just below the critical point of phase transition. Although the swarm does not move collectively, as it would if it were above the transition point, it exhibits medium-scale correlations within the group. These correlations are caused by waves of motion, where parts of the swarm move together for short periods of time. It isn’t clear why the correlations have evolved. One possibility is that they are related to competition for females. A male can use the movement of others to detect whether a female is passing through another part of the swarm. When no females are present, the males chase each other around, unable to separate signal from noise.
Studies at the individual level have revealed a rich diversity of audio, visual and chemical cues and signals. Mosquitoes can hear and respond to each other’s flight tones. In the southern house mosquito, male–female coupling occurs with wing-beat frequencies converging on the nearest shared harmonic. In insects with developed vision there is continuous optical feedback whilst flying.[/quote]
And another video of the phenomenon in Russia:
https://youtu.be/rlikz0Y-dt0
