Category Archives: Science
Rarely photographed bees and other species
I’m writing this post as I think this past month was unusually high in number of interesting findings, including species that possibly got recorded alive for the first time – not photographed recently but from my archive. I haven’t been out photographing lately due to high gas/lodging prices and the diminishing returns of short 1-2 days expeditions, so in the meantime I’ve been processing older photos that either I haven’t followed through with identification at the time or just didn’t think they looked good enough compared to other photos I got in the queue to post.
When I say possibly recorded alive for the first time, it’s difficult to say for sure as my reference is google not showing any indexed photos of live (or sometimes not even fixed) specimens, they might have been photographed before but maybe just not identified or not uploaded anywhere, as is the case with myself, they were just sitting in my hard disk for years.… Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Science
Tagged bees, entomology, Insects, macrophotography, photonaturalism
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Fluorescent harvestmen
Discocyrtus species on UV
ISO400 | 8s | f/11 @ 34mm / Canon 450D, Canon 18-55 5.6 IS
The colors of this photo have not been altered, this is the result of the glowing caparace of a harvestmen under a ultraviolet flashlight. During the 8 seconds of exposure with the camera on a tripod it’s body remained motionless, while the entire movement of the second pair of legs acting as antennae got registered continuously.
Harvestmen are often mistaken as spiders, but despite having a similar overall shape (the general opinion, though I disagree), they belong to an entire different order, they are also arachnids but placed under Opiliones, which is the same taxonomic level of difference between a spider and a scorpion, for instance.… Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Photo Journal, Science
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Acanthoponera queen
Last week I went into my usual rainforest spot and came across a very nice finding, a queen of the pretty uncommon Acanthoponera genus, you can find the full story on the Meet your Neighbours page.
Acanthoponera mucronata queen
Canon XSi, ISO400 | f/11 | 1/200 @28mm on a reversed Soligor 28-35mm
One flash on camera and one held at the left. Stack of 3 shots.
Acanthoponera mucronata queen
Canon XSi, ISO800 | f/18 | 1/200 @45mm on 18-55mm 5.6 IS +22 diopter (Raynox msn-202)
Despite the Acanthoponera being a first timer for me, looking through my archive I see in the past I had come across at least one ant of this same subfamily in the area, another predator, a worker of Heteroponera flava, I remember this one was seen during the day (as well as another one in a different region) on a rotten log on the ground, as opposed to the nocturnal sighting of the Acanthoponera.… Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Photo Journal, Science
Tagged ant queen, brazil, rainforest, rare insect
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