Some portraits
A while back I spent some time photographing a series of images that reflected the creatures in my garden. Entitled “Garden Portraits” here are three of my favourites.
The first is a female rain spider on her egg sack. A very caring mum looking after her babies. Canon MPE65 and MT24EX flash system
The next is a Lynx spider, the first spider that I found in my garden. Similar gear was used to the above.
The last one is a little Salticid spider, again the gear used was similar to the above.
Some interesting images!!
This last weekend has been wet and I have needed to get some work done on my butterfly talk. It is scheduled for next Saturday and I wanted to get some wing scale shots to include in the talk. I shot Junonia oryhthia madagascariensis, the Eyed Pansy, Junonia oenone oenone, the Blue Pansy and the Ioulaus sidas, the Saphire. The images were hard to get with the lighting being very tricky but I shot these few photos at between 3 and 5 x with the MPE 65.
The first photograph is of the wing of the Blue Pansy, J oenone oenone. Part of the blue flash is visible.
This next one is a wing eye spot of the Eyed Pansy, J orythia madagascariensis. Again the scales are fascinating.
Thid is the anal fold on the hind wing of Iolaus sidas, not the long hairlike scales near the fold.
And to add a something a little different, a Salticid
And a first instar (a few hours old) larva of Dannaus chryssippus, the Monarch. Notice the lumps on the first and fourth segments that will eventually become very elongated.
An egg, some interesting portraits and a beautiful butterfly
I have, for a while now, been photographing butterfly eggs with my MPE 65. The most recent egg that I have done is that of the Banana nightfighter, Moltena fiara. This egg was found on the leaf of the host plant, Striletzia nicholai, here in my Wembley garden. It never ceases to amaze me how beautifully structural these eggs are with the ribbing to add support and allow a thinner wall.
These next two portraits of a fly and an antlion were great fund to do, just battled with the DOF.
Finally, a while back I noticed this mint Colotes annae annae (Scarlet Tip) male in the garden. I never thought that I would see one here as this is a bushveld bug but here it is feeding on my Pentis!
Another meeting with the eight legged creatures that I share my home and garden with!!
After a very wet Spring, the wettest that I can remember, it has not dried up so I am unable to post any recent butterfly (in field photographs). So, tonight I shall post a few more Salticid spiders, the first two are awating confirmation of a provisional ID of Veisella durbani, male (thanks to Galina Azarkina again!!). The others await ID and I have thrown in another weevil that I would love my South African ento’s to ID for me (v common here in Maritzburg).
Anyway, the photographs are all taken with the trusty Canon rig of MPE 65 and MT24EX twin flash.
The first two are of a very frisky Veisella durbani…
And here is a Salticid that requires ID
And a final weevil that also requires ID…
Birthday parties and spiders
This weekend we celebrated my middle daughter, Stella’s, birthday. She invited a number of her friends over for a swimming/sleep-over party. I made breakfast for the eight girls in the morning and one pointed out a little Salticid spider on the table. I picked it up and put it on my arm so that I could photograph it later. This caused a number of eleven year olds a lot of stress but after it climbed up my arm, over my shirt and onto my chin I took it off for a few photos and they relaxed. Anyway, here they are, all taken with the usual rig of MPE65 and twin flash unit. Shot inside on a piece of white board. Special thanks to Galina Azarkina for the ID (Thyenula species)
Many thanks for the visit folks….more to come!
