Weird Lights Captured

This is an insect flying very quickly through the field of view. The frame rate of the camera is 10 fps in night mode. This motion only lasted one frame, so in 1/10th second, the insect passed in front of the sensor while the shutter was open. Insects are highly reflective of IR light, thus you get the very bright streak.

The four shadowy pairs of protrusions from the sides of the main streak are the wing beats. So we can conclude that this particular insect was beating his wings at something greater than 40 times per second. (We don’t know how long the shutter is open during that 1/10th second, so all we know is the lower limit.)

Forty beats per second is on the low end of insect wing beat speeds. Some insects’ wings beat at greater than 1,000 times per second:

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Insect flight - Wikipedia

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