Any bug photos during July 2015

To follow on from the rather splendid beetle and top flight photos, Nice shots David, one from yesterday - the git flew in dropped onto a dead flower, shrugged and flew off over the hedge, that was it! One shot and not a good one but hey - its a longhorn beetle - Strangalia maculata, not seen it before so happy to have any shot at the moment

http://i59.tinypic.com/5phisp.jpg

You are out of date, Mark. They were renamed Rutpela maculata a couple of years ago. :D

Fairly common particularly on bramble flowers but usually keep moving around so it can be tricky to get a good camera angle.

Found a few of them today and during a plant survey one landed on the rear end of a lady working beside me. I eventually managed to drag it off but it was really hanging on; then I opened out my hand and it flew away. She seemed quite impressed by the beetle - never mind my bravery in tackling the beast! ;)

ps And some good beetle photos from David.

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Originally Posted by JBW

nice enough to force me to look up the lens you are using. Thankfully it is not for my Sony or I would be tempted. Aside from your superb well honed skills you have nice equipment.

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You are too kind!

I would definitely recommend the Tokina 90mm f2.5 AT-X for anyone doing any macro work - assuming you can find one at a reasonable price (some older and more popular manual focus lenses have become kind of stupidly priced - the whole point of using them was that they were nearly or as good as modern lenses for a lot less money) - there are versions of it for a whole bunch of mounts and there are few cameras you can't find at least "a" version for. The lack of autofocus is not a huge issue for macro work and if you're on a mirrorless camera / using an EVF you can get away without aperture control from the camera pretty easily while using it stopped down. It also takes well to being teleconverted or using an achromatic diopter with it if you can't find a version with the 1:1 matched adapter.

This tokina and the Vivitar 135mm 2.8 Close Focusing are my two favorite lenses by far.

There's a big writeup on it over here -

http://makingnottaking.blogspot.com....ro-bokina.html

and on other assorted links on the same blog.

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

Found a few of them today and during a plant survey one landed on the rear end of a lady working beside me. I eventually managed to drag it off but it was really hanging on; then I opened out my hand and it flew away. She seemed quite impressed by the beetle - never mind my bravery in tackling the beast! ;)

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are you sure it was the beetle she was impressed by - dont move while i 'remove this beetle' nudge nudge wink wink :D

Cheers Mark and Geoff, I was lucky with mine Mark, they were happy feeding and did not fly away!:cool:

Some more horseflies. Starting with one of those dreaded Clegs; one of the species which deliberately seeks out human blood!

http://i61.tinypic.com/1p7xxx.jpg

And another Deer Fly, which is a different species from the one which I previously uploaded.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2entfuf.jpg

This is Chrysops viduatus and has a small square spot on the abdomen where the other one had an inverted V shape.

Tried for a better angle on those eyes but it wouldn't pose any longer. :(

Lovely captures Geoff, I hate Clegs, horrible blood suckers :eek::D

Great photo's Geoff, are horse flies like what we call here March flies?
They bite but are slow to get away, usually too slow ;)

Nice captures David, Mark and Geoff.

Probably similar species, Greg. Tabanidae family.

These were taken on a recording visit to a local nature reserve (Great Nash's Meadows, part of the Valerie Wells Reserve).

#1 is a female Ruddy Darter Sympetrum sanguineum. I had originally assumed that it was the more common Common Darter until I looked closely and checked in the ID guide.
http://www.actinia.me.uk/Blog/Fauna/...Female1200.jpg

#2 is a Small Skipper. This is very hard to distinguish from the Essex Skipper. Since we were in Essex, before photographing it, I had a good look and I could see that the underside of the antennae were orange-brown rather than the black of the Essex Skipper. Unfortunately this did not show in the photos I took.
http://www.actinia.me.uk/Blog/Fauna/...kipper1000.jpg

John

I have been seeing quite a lot of Large Skippers this year, John, and last weekend I found my first Small Skipper. Just managed an angle where enough of the underside was visible to confirm the identification.

How about some moths? Here are a few which pretend to be sticks or leaves.

Buff Tip

http://i62.tinypic.com/53jknr.jpg

The Flame

http://i58.tinypic.com/161hvtk.jpg

I think this is a Common Rustic Moth

http://i61.tinypic.com/aazqc5.jpg

Geoff, the Buff Tip fooled me until I had a second look!

And weighing in at 30 mm it is a stunning beast! ;)

Not exactly rare but this is the first one I have seen.

Finally I had the opportunity to find some bugs so I will be sharing. I am clueless as far as ID so I hope someone can help me out with that. All these were taken while on vacation. I forgot my micro lens so all were shot with 100-400mm II canon lens. CC always welcomed and appreciated.


Caught these 2 in action :eek: wish the they had picked a better background but so be it, who am I to mess with nature.

http://i60.tinypic.com/9ad1sy.jpg

This guy was holding on for dear life as the wind blew the daisy about.

http://i60.tinypic.com/fms1lz.jpg

This guy was all too happy to have his picture taken.

http://i61.tinypic.com/2ufrb43.jpg

Barbara, this is an impressive collection of photos. If you hadn't said you were not using a macro lens, I'd never have guessed. I have the Mark I version of the Canon 100 – 400 lens – I'll have to give it a go for macro use.

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Originally Posted by Cantab

Barbara, this is an impressive collection of photos. If you hadn't said you were not using a macro lens, I'd never have guessed. I have the Mark I version of the Canon 100 – 400 lens – I'll have to give it a go for macro use.

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Thank you Bruce I have been really happy with this lens, I have several others but usually just carry this one and a 1.4 teleconverter to get a longer distance for my bird shots

Coming in for a landing Bumble Bee on Texas sage!

http://i58.tinypic.com/jgl7vs.jpg

Great captures John and Geoff!

Very nice Barbara, well done you!