reply to post by stonebutterfly
Discovery:
I was out walking in my neighborhood today and in the park, near the reservoir, there were several of these gnat swarms. Much smaller than the ones in
the video, but same basic idea.
I wondered if they would respond to a human presence in any way, so I raised my hand towards them. They backed off a little, then came back in quite
close. When I put my hand up so my palm was facing out, they would get more compact in front of my palm. And when I moved my hand down so the back of
my hand was facing out, they would separate into two groups, one on either side of where my arm was pointing. I tried this on two other swarms I found
and they all responded about the same way. These gnats are
very small - smaller than mosquitoes - and are not blood suckers. So there was no
particular problem with putting my hand into them. But I thought it was very interesting how they responded.
The bug scientists say that these are swarms of male gnats around a single female trying to get her attention. That may be. But whatever else they
were doing, they were also capable of responding to a human in their environment.