Insect photos.

[Kai]

And other random arthropods I decide to photograph.

First one, Monomorium minimum:

[Kai]

Note: the area of that photo is less than a square centimeter.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

What are they eating?
Did you give them a nice drop of sugar syrup?

(btw- that's a nice shot, i like the colors)

[Kai]

Yeah, its syrup. I didn't give them anything; the roommate leaves his pancake mess on the counter all too often. They smell and come in the window sill. I found them sipping on the counter and exploited it.

[Cramulus]

cool photo!

[P3nT4gR4m]

You using some kind of specialist macro-camera Kai or is that just done on an ordinary one?

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

I love it.

Please to graph more photos?

[Kai]

You using some kind of specialist macro-camera Kai or is that just done on an ordinary one?

Its a Cannon PowerShot S5 IS, and completely as it was originally purchased. One of the many options is the supermacro zoom, which allows you to take photographs very very close up.

I saw these ants in my apartment kitchen gathered around this drop of syrup, and I decided to spend 30 minutes trying to make a shot. So, I put it on super macro, turned the fstop as low as possible, upped the shutter speed as high as I could go with the light involved, and rested the lens on the countertop. The lens was maybe only 1-2 cm from the actual subjects. Then I backlit with a flashlight just resting on the counter. On the computer, I upped the brightness, contrast and saturation a bit, and cropped it down till I had a photo of a minute scene, the one you see above.

When I went to purchase a camera, I wanted one that could do good macro with very little adjustment, and this one worked out great.



Hexagenia (Ephemeroptera: Ephemeridae) from June of last year. Edit: Just realized this is a subimago, the sub-adult winged stage of mayflies. You can tell because the wings are waxy and opaque and not hyaline.

[Honey]

These are strangely beautiful!  So intricate & perfect looking. 

[Pariah]

These are awesome! Makes me want to be be a entomologist

[Kai]

Mate guarding in long horned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae):



Long horned beetle stuck halfway in a failed emergence from a tree stump:



And a Fowler's Toad in the dark (not an insect, but still cool):

[Idem]

[Nast]

Seconded!

And that beetle stuck in the tree trunk is tragic. 

[Kai]

BTW, the fowler's toads sound like babies screaming. Imagine a baby's scream during that photo and you get the full effect.

Edit: Cf. http://puca.home.mindspring.com/mp3s/Fowler%27s.Toad.mp3

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I enjoyed that. My children did too.