Posted in illinois, Nature, tagged bugs, Insects, Photography, reduviidae on January 14, 2010| 13 Comments »
Arilus cristatus, the wheel bug
Photo details: (top, middle) Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D.
ISO 100, f/13, 1/160 sec, diffused twin flash
(bottom) Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D.
ISO 200, f/11, 1/160 sec, diffuse overhead flash
Posted in Current Events, illinois, Science, tagged bugs, champaign-urbana, entomology, gnats, Insects, soybean aphids on September 21, 2009| 26 Comments »
A student at the University of Illinois navigates an aphid swarm between classes.
We’ve had plenty of traffic here at the Myrmecos Blog as bewildered midwesterners look for answers about the swarm of tiny insects that has descended on our cities this week. As best as we can tell, here’s the scoop.
Q: What are the annoying little bugs that are swarming Central Illinois this week?
Posted in beetles, tagged bugs, carabidae, Insects, Photography on February 13, 2009| 3 Comments »
Colliuris pensylvanica, long-necked ground beetle. Arizona.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/13, flash diffused through tracing paper
Posted in beetles, Insect Links, Photography Links, Science, tagged bugs, Coccinellidae, coleoptera, entomology, Flight, Flying, Nature on October 5, 2008| 7 Comments »
Coccinella septempunctata
This weekend’s project: to shoot a beetle in flight. I chose ladybirds not because they are pretty, but because they are the slowiest, clumsiest beetles I could find in any number. An easy target.
I had a cast of several beetles from two species, the seven-spotted ladybird Coccinella septempunctata and the multi-colored ladybird Harmonia axyridis. I placed the beetles inside a whitebox with a backdrop of leaves, along with my Canon 550 speedlite flash, and tried to capture the beetles as they launched themselves into the air. The timing was tricky, as it only takes a beetle a fraction of a second to deploy its wings and push off, but with a little practice I learned to anticipate the unfurling of the wings. Most shots missed, of course, but here are some of the successes.
Posted in Insect Links, Photography Links, tagged aphids, birth, bugs, entomology, Nature, pests, rose on May 3, 2008| 3 Comments »
Posted in Insect Links, tagged bugs, entomology, Nature, states on February 7, 2008| 1 Comment »
Andy Deans over at the NCSU insect blog surveys the madness of state insects.
Arizona is thankfully immune to the bizarre tendency of states to pick imported species, as if the tens of thousands of naturally-occurring species weren’t quite good enough. Ours is the two-tailed swallowtail (photo by Jeffrey Glassberg):
Myrmecos Blog 