A sluggish slug that isn't even a slug...

When I go out looking for extreme macro photo opportunities, I tend to take the whole shooting match in terms of kit. I'll usually have the DSLR with hand-grip and off camera flash unit, with a fairly large home-made diffuser attached. I'll probably have my second camera in the bag as well with a separate macro lens for slightly larger subjects.

All this can deliver great quality images but is cumbersome and can also be restricting in some ways too. That's why I recently decided to ditch it all and take just one camera and lens for the day. The 100mm macro can be challenging to use with just natural light at 1:1 mag as there is not much light working that close and of course depth of field is limited too, there's no IS on my old version of this lens and so I need to keep the speed up at 100+ to be sure of sharp(ish) images.

Anyhow, excuses over...time to share some results of my day....

These carabid beetles were the first thing I encountered and as they seemed....distracted, I was able to spend a little time photographing them. I am not sure of species here but it was unusual for me to see them up on the seed head like this, they were quite large too.


Next up was this female Common Snout-Hoverfly, or 'Heineken' fly as I have heard it called.  

Rhingia rostrata

Rhingia rostrata

These are quite easily recognised amongst the hoverflies by the orange abdomen and long snout. As I can't see any back margin to the abdomen on this one, I think it is the less common Rhingia rostrata. R.campestris being the other possibility. The plant it's feeding on is scabious.

A Speckled Bush Cricket

This bush cricket seemed to have a deformed back leg. I have seen many crickets and grasshoppers with injuries to their legs and even missing limbs. They seem to survive okay, although it will slow them down of course and that can mean less food.

A Meadow Grasshopper

The grasshopper pictured above was sitting right on the edge of a spider's web. As you can see we had a shower of rain around the time of this photo. I think the ID is right with that broad brown stripe but I am always willing to be corrected.
It does serve as a good example of the differences between crickets and grasshoppers though, with the much shorter antennae on the grasshopper.

It also links in nicely with this next image...

Another meadow grasshopper but this time, I got a bit adventurous and so this is comprised of 17 separate images stacked together. The idea being to give more detail and have a better depth of field. 

Here's a crop from the same image...

I was quite pleased with how the stacking software dealt with these images as they were not at all well aligned being hand-held. Here's a little sequence showing the movement between shots...

You might also have noticed that this individual actually does have a missing limb. Well, if you're going to be stupid enough to attempt these stacked images, at least choose a subject that is less lightly to hop off immediately.

I'll tempt you with this next photo of a pretty bug before I introduce 'the slug' then?

Corizus hyoscyami

Corizus hyoscyami is a rhopalid bug that I usually find in the garden each year, although this one was in local woodland. About 9mm in length.

              Are you ready for the slug then? If it helps any, it isn't a real slug...

A Pear Slug Sawfly larva (Caliroa cerasi)

This is actually the larva of a sawfly and they cover themselves in this dark green slime to become unpalatable to predators. When the larva are fully grown, they drop off the plant they have been feeding on and pupate in the soil.

Elasmostethus interstinctus

This little birch shieldbug instar dropped onto my hand when I was turning over birch leaves to see what I could find. There's another shieldbug nymph in this next photo if you look hard enough...

 Close-by I came across this dock bug that had freshly moulted and was still very red looking...

Coreus marginatus nymph

Coreus marginatus nymph

The final challenge I set myself on this particular day was to try and photograph some brimstone butterflies in flight. I failed miserably with the macro lens but enjoyed trying. I think next time I'll try again with a different lens, maybe a longer one to give me a better chance of keeping the butterfly in frame long enough to get a picture...

I'll leave you with a shot of the great early morning light from the same day...

Until the next time...

How many shieldbugs make an autumn?

September means that even if we don't want to admit that autumn is here, it's certainly on its way. Autumn can be a good time to spot some of our native invertebrates though-dragonfly numbers are peaking and adult shieldbugs can be quite numerous, including Sloe Bugs, Forest Bugs, the tree dwelling 'Troilus luridus' and the ever present Green Shieldbug.

One of the smaller shieldbugs that seem to be quite numerous around early autumn time, is the Birch Shieldbug (Elasmostethus interstinctus) and both the nymphs and adults are quite striking...

Click on any photo for a larger view

I think these two pictures above show what are probably 3rd instar nymphs of the Birch Shieldbug. They were quite small and reasonably fast moving.

A slightly larger nymph

A final instar nymph

All of the nymphs featured here were found in the same spot, a birch tree beside a local pond. Some were underneath the leaves and others quite easy to spot against the darker upper-side of a leaf.

There were also a number of the adult insects on the same tree...

The adult

As you can see, they are very colourful little bugs. These shots have not been enhanced in any way either; it was a dull day and had been raining before I took these photos, hence the sheen some of them have but other than reducing the size to upload to the blog, this is exactly how they looked.

The birch tree in question seemed to have a thriving little shieldbug community as I also found a couple of parent bugs as well...

A Parent Bug

I shouldn't have been surprised I suppose at finding this bug-after all, it is associated with birch as well. Once again these are beautifully coloured bugs and like the green shieldbugs, hibernate through the winter months.

This one may be lucky to make it to winter, as those white spots on it's back are parasites. I've seen this species with the same parasite before and I think they are Tachinid fly parasites:they are laid in this position where it is almost impossible for the bug to remove them.

The parent bug gets its name from the females habit of sitting on her eggs and nymphs to protect them from parasites and I've often wondered if she has become the target rather than her offspring?

Troilus luridus

Troilus luridus is another tree dwelling shieldbug and is quite a bit larger than both the birch and parent bugs. It is also a predatory bug, rather than feeding on plants.

This photo shows a final instar Troilus luridus nymph feeding on a large caterpillar. I watched this take place and the caterpillar had no chance of escape-it was busy feeding when the nymph sidled up to it and inserted its proboscis before the larva could do anything at all;although, even given time, I'm not sure what it could have done?

Those then are some of the recent shieldbugs that I've found whilst out walking locally-in case you are thinking of trying to locate some for yourself, here's a snap of the tree and habitat where I found most of mine...

Until the next time then...

All photos in this blog entry taken with the 100mm macro leans and natural light only-I used my Canon 40d camera.