Macro Dead Insects

I have been playing around with shooting dead insects using extension tubes, my macro lens and a flash. I've been impressed with the level of detail. Click on the images below to get the full view.

This some sort of winged ant, probably caught in a spider web on its nuptial flight.

An unknown species of fly.

These are Crane Fly wings I've saved in my collection of insect parts recovered from spider webs (they may or may not be part of an upcoming project).

Get Yer Freak On

I photographed these spiders in the act of mating. As you can see in close-up picture, their jaws are locked, and the male (left) has his pedipalps (read below), poking all around her body. Here is how Wikipedia breaks down the process:

Sperm transmission from male to female occurs indirectly. When a male is ready to mate, he spins a web pad upon which he discharges his seminal fluid. He then dips his pedipalps (also known as palpi), the small, leg-like appendages on the front of his cephalothorax, into the seminal fluid, picking it up by capillary attraction. Mature male spiders have swollen bulbs on the end of their palps for this purpose, and this is a useful way to identify the sex of a spider in the field. With his palps thus charged he goes off in search of a female. Copulation occurs when the male inserts one or both palps into the female's genital opening, known as the epigyne. He transfers his seminal fluid into the female by expanding the sinuses in his palp. Once the sperm is inside her, she stores it in a chamber and only uses it during the egg-laying process, when the eggs come into contact with the male sperm for the first time and are fertilized; this may be why the vivipary has never evolved in spiders.

Shortly after I took this photograph they separated. The male was lucky to get out alive.

Flickrin'

I just uploaded some new invertebrate photos to Flickr if anyone is interested (I don't think anybody is interested).

Lord of the Ring Flash II

This is my favorite ring flash shot so far...

Lord of the Ring Flash

I just got a cheap ring flash to use with the macro lens for my Nikon D80. The ring flash will let me get closer to tiny subjects. Until now I have been using the built in speedlight on the camera, the problem with that is that I can only get so close before the shadow of the lens barrel intrudes into the shot. I just started experimenting with the flash yesterday, already it seems like a big improvement. There are probably a lot of tricks of the trade I need to learn to get consistently good bug shots. Here are some of yesterday's results, it's best to click on them to see the detail.

Check out the clutch of eggs she is carrying, unfortunately, my back hallway is no place to raise a family.

Photographing Damselflies is extremely difficult they don't seem to stop moving...

If you click to enlarge on this you can see a lot of detail

I don't know what these are

If you click to enlarge this you can see the eye arrangement

Moth Wings

I found this pair of wings in a web near my front door. The spider appears to have eaten the body of the moth and left the non-nutritious wings behind.

Looking Around the School