Some butterflies from the local hot house

[tpe]

Some butterflies from the local hot house

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First i thought the yellow dots by the back legs were mites but on closer inspection it looks like pollen. Do these things use all 6 legs ever?

Tim

 

[ChrisA]

Nice set.

That looks more like mite eggs than pollen to me, btw.

 

[tpe]

Thanks for that, now to find some mite eggs references .

P.S. great site, Have you tried a white box (tuppaware is good and water proof) around your high speed shots it makes the flash at 1/32 is a lot more effective, but unfortunatly no black bacground though.

Tim

 

[ChrisA]

Tim

Thanks for that tip. I'd not thought of that, I will give it a go at some point. I've retried with some water paints on the balloon, but not posted them up which are better than the milk, but not perfect (I've just got another flash, to help with this.) . I' m slightly paused in that the trigger setup I used, I'm now putting into a box, and it's causing me a few wiring headaches, which I hope to sort out soon, so I can give it another go.

 

[tpe]

You have more patience than me, i am on my second, trying to figure out what component died was too much. I just bought another one and a box this time so it does not get destroyed so quickly. It means that if you need any components I have two of everyting except one fauly one, kind of russian roulette in small fiddly electronics . Best of luck and I look forward to seeing some more shots asap...

Tim

 

[ChrisA]

Duplicates can come in handy.. I failed to mention I've got some duplicate IC timers to switch in and out. I just hope my wiring problem is easy to spot!

 

[tpe]

Because of your suggestion about the mite eggs i had to take a closer look at the little ball things, i think they must be pollen, however there are some parasitic mite eggs that have little spikes over them too to hang on...

Tim

 

[ChrisA]

We that's an enhanced shot. I take it you went back and collected a sample and took under microscope.

I stand corrected if this is what pollen looks like.

 

[tpe]

Yes it was quite sad, the poor thing died from being out in the cold, even though it was taken back into the warm and fed and watered it was jut not good coming out to -5 degrees instead of the balmy 28 it was used to . It was in exactly the same place we left it, which made collecting a sample a simple case of putting the whole thing in an empty tick tac box and hoping no one missed it .

It also meant that we could get some more pics of it, this is done, with a very old 3x minolta lens rather than the microscope, in combineZP, not quite as user friendly as helicon, but free and well updated by the creator.

If anyone can see them it is a crosseyed 3d stereo pic too. I hope the size is O.K. as it gets resized in line here?

And a larger version that may make it easier to see
http://www.scientificillustration.net/_temp/monarch_stereo_03_1280.jpg



Tim

 

[NSP]

love them all!
also beautiful example of butterfly