Flashes in street seen by colony? (8)
I believe the answer is:
instants
'flashes' is the definition.
('instant' can be a synonym of 'flash')
'in street seen by colony?' is the wordplay.
'street' becomes 'st' (abbreviation).
'seen by colony?' becomes 'ants' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in'+'st'+'ants'='INSTANTS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for instants that I've seen before include "Flashes" , "Very brief periods of time" , "Fleeting moments of time" .)