It was SO gloomy yesterday afternoon. I traipsed around a local reserve in the drizzly rain and saw just a few flies about; then I spotted a few Collembola, all on Haw berries. The majority 'pinged' off when I tried to take a shot, but just managed to snap this one... not very detailed but looking through Eddie the Bugman's (fantastic) images, I thought it looked similar to D. ornata...

Venus Pool - Shropshire

Thanks to Frans for ID correction!

Here's a selection from the church stone wall where I photographed the previously-uploaded image. Eddie Nurcombe (Eddie The Bugman) reckons that looks like the alien import (and as yet unnamed) Katiannidae Genus nov.1 sp. nov.

The stone wall surrounds the church but I could only find these in a small section. In that area though, they were in some profusion. Certainly in the hundreds. It's a spot I will be no doubt returning to!

These too (to me anyway); also have the imported "alien" look to them. They are extremely active and very challenging to photograph. The largest individuals were around 0.8mm. Because they were on a solid wall, I was finding that as I moved around the surface, the lens was adjusting in and out and thus changing the magnification. That's why I'm not too sure of the size.

Canon 5D3 + MP-E 65mm Macro (at 5x) + 1.4x Tele-extender + ST24-EX Twin Lite flash.

One more of this action set to go, this shows how far Ischnura elegans can turn it's head when they clean their eyes, pretty impressive :)

I hope you are all having a great week, I have just realised what a pain job hunting is going to be, at least you can do it all online now :)

OK really chuffed to find these today, this is another new species for my list, it's also the smallest Collembola species in the UK (0.25-0.5mm) and is my second Neelidae species, only one Neelidae left to find, the final UK species to find is Neelides minutus which is rare.

These guys were about 0.5mm and they were so fast it was unbelievable, so I'm glad to at least have managed to get these shots. They are quite attractive Collembola, a beautiful orange colour with wonderful abdominal patterns. I think these are females, as I believe the males are a lot smaller. They can easily be mistaken for Mites and are almost impossible to spot without a magnifying glass, I was using a x4 loupe when looking for these little dudes. Taken with the MP-E at x5 and on 68mm of extension tubes in the rain LOL :o)

DOH !!!! I accidentally lost all my faves when I accidentally took this to private when trying to do a crop of the above in Aviary, DOH !!!!!!!!!!!!

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Love 'em or hate 'em, Horse-flies can have the most beautiful eyes in the insect world, so when I found this beauty I had to try a head on shot and fortunately due to the dire UK weather she stayed put and did not try to bite me.

This is a female Chrysops relictus or Twin-lobed Deerfly, this is the first time I have been able to photograph one of these beauties, I do have other images as well, so may upload more at a later date.

I struggled a bit with this one as she was on a leaf on a small shrub, so it was a bit tricky to get the angle. I was also shaking with excitement and a bit of fear, if she had decided to bite it could have been nasty for the both of us LOL :o)

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Woohooo my first Pisaura mirablis of 2012, these are commonly known as Nursery Web Spiders and I saw 3 today. This is a x5 MP-E image and no cropping here at all, a full sized image.

I love these Spiders, they are really beautiful, this is a female and she was under a bit of plywood. here is some wiki info :0)

The nursery web spider Pisaura mirabilis is a spider species of the family Pisauridae.

Males of this species offer food gifts to potential female mates. Some Pisaura mirabilis have also been observed to feign death, remaining still while holding the food gift in their mouths. When the female approaches and tries to take the food away, the male springs back to life and attempts to mate. The strategy of playing dead more than doubles a male's odds of successfully achieving copulation, from 40% to 89%. This is an example of a behavior originally evolved to ward off predators being adapted to a new purpose.

HER EYES FOLLOW YOU WHEREVER YOU GO ;o)

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A rather docile Dolerus niger hanging about at Wollaton Park on a cold blustery day. So I decided to try a stack at x4.5 magnification, this was a 9 image handheld stack of its noggin, I deliberately ignored the antennae as they were all over the shop, this is the reason why there are some small areas of poorer detail near the right eye. I still know virtually nothing about this species, there is not much on the internet about these guys.

OK not going to mention the weather anymore, not going to mention the weather anymore, not going to mention the weather anymore. NUFF SAID LOL ;o)

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16x20 inches

Acrylic on canvas paper.

Well I did manage a small window of opportunity, as I am at my parents I decided to go to Melton Country Park, I was hoping to see some larger insects today, but no joy there. So resorted to turning over bits of wood and using my magnifying glass to find stuff.

When I saw this fine beetle larvae(Carabidae), I thought brilliant, it wasn't until I started trying to photograph it that I noticed something small and yellow by it's front leg, I could not believe my luck a very very small Globular Springtail, really chuffed that I managed to get focus on the head of the larvae and the Springtail in the same shot, what a fluke LOL :o)

The larvae was about 1cm long and the Springtail was a fraction of that :o)

Just try and imagine what that Beetle larvae must look like from the Springtails POV :0)

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I found this fine fellow on top of a fence post and it certainly is a very striking Wolf Spider, I imagine it is possibly a Pardosa sp, but I have never seen the likes before, very distinctive pedipalps on this male Spider and he led me a merry dance on his fence post, he kept bigging himself up and running all over the place, but I have to say I love those eyes and striking white hairs, a very distinguished gentleman indeed. :o)

Pretty sure on ID now after finding my Spider ID book, Pardosa nigriceps, a new one for me :0)

Hope everyone has a cracking week and who knows I may eventually find some Damselflies LOL :o)

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One of the real motivations for getting up stupidly early are the Emerald Damselflies, one of my favourite Damselflies, they are so colourful and elegant and add some dew, love the glistening bokeh on the wings :)

A sunny male Common Darter from Monday morning, this is a two image stack.

I had a great day today volunteering for the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, it included coppicing Willow and dead hedging, a great day out and got to go into unseen territory at Attenborough, I now know what is beyond the iron gate in the Delta LOL :)

Well I guess with all this blummin' rain the grass has never been greener, I remember this time last year all the grass was brown and yellow along the riverside. Ok, this Damselfly was fairly close to the ground and this allowed a natural background of grass and vegetation, I'm starting to think that I should aim to emulate this with card backgrounds, so what I'm thinking of doing is taking some photo's of natural vegetation and printing them off onto card or firm photographic paper.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, hoping the weather behaves (Not convinced that it will mind).

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A 3 image stack of a Megalothorax minimus, a Springtail that is <0.4mm long.

I went out for an evening macro walk, really it was just to see if I could find any Damselflies, but no luck there. One thing I did find was this little guy on a fence, I think it might be a Phyllobius species, it was almost bronze in colour, with some hints of green. I'm now thinking it is possibly Phyllobius pyri :0)

These guys seem to be quite jittery, I eventually managed to get a 5 image stack at F/7.1, it had a habit of moving every time I tried to start a stack, but eventually I pulled this one off :o)

Well looks like the Damselflies are a good 2 weeks late this year and it's going to get cool again, but I will keep my eyes open :o)

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Gottcha, finally managed a shot of one before it flew off, these Yellow Dung Flies have been annoying me for a few weeks, they just don't want to stay still for a photo :)

Sun is shinin' in the sky

There ain't a cloud in sight

It's stopped rainin' ev'rybody's in a play

And don't you know

It's a beautiful new day hey,hey

Runnin' down the avenue

See how the sun shines brightly in the city

On the streets where once was pity

Mister blue sky is living here today hey, hey

Mister blue sky please tell us why

You had to hide away for so long

Where did we go wrong?

Hey you with the pretty face

Welcome to the human race

A celebration, mister blue sky's up there waitin'

And today is the day we've waited for :o)

Just thought this was appropriate now that the sun has returned, it is my favourite song to listen to on a sunny day, seriously try listening to it whilst walking in the sun, it will put a big smile on your face, thank you ELO :o)

This is the same Ischnura elegans as my previous posts, I'm really hoping to start finding more soon, can't believe it's May 22nd and I have only seen two Damselflies :o)

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New Bugman cake, click for male/female/kid animated cakes to share & enjoy. Wearable cakes & box! Decor box and cake also included! Regular or MyStory scripted.

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Junk%20Food/192/79/36

A Sminthurinus aureus found in the garden today, I managed to get a reflection of it as it was crossing a pool of water on the back of a leaf. Unfortunately just after this shot a gust of wind blew the leaf away and further opportunities were sadly lost.

I'm still having to use my 1000D for macro after a right old sensor clean fiasco, I'm having to order a Visible Dust EZ Sensor Cleaning Kit with smear away cleaning fluid, after research this seems the most effective system. Basically I have dark smears/streaks on my sensor, the people at LCE want to send my camera to Canon, I'm thinking this would be a waste of time. The streaks are only an issue with extreme macro and small aperture settings, if anyone can suggest anything else I would be grateful of any input. I'm pretty sure these streaks/smears are the result of a poor wet clean and I have heard they can occur with certain brands of cleaning swab.

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Fragile

Like a baby in your arms

Be gentle with me

I'd never willingly

Do you harm

Apologies

Are all you seem to get from me

But just like a child

You make me smile

When you care for me

And you know

It's a question of lust

It's a question of trust

It's a question of not letting

What we've built up crumble to dust

An' it is all of these things and more

That keep us together

Independence

Is still important for us though

We realize

It's easy to make the stupid mistake

Of letting go

Do you know what i mean?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOtRZOlE0WM&feature=related

Lust is number 4 and surprisingly Lust is associated with the colour Blue, kind of thought it would be red or pink, anyway an opportunity to include a bit of Depeche Mode, sorry this is a day late, but was suffering with creative block LOL :)

Lust or lechery (carnal "luxuria") is usually thought of as excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature. In Dante's Purgatorio, the penitent walks within flames to purge himself of lustful/sexual thoughts and feelings. In Dante's "Inferno", unforgiven souls of the sin of lust are blown about in restless hurricane-like winds symbolic of their own lack of self control to their lustful passions in earthly life.

Pride- Violet

Envy- Green

Gluttony- Orange

Lust- Blue

Wrath- Red

Greed- Yellow

Sloth- Light Blue

The answer of course, very green indeed, a rather gorgeous female Banded Demoiselle very early in the morning and covered in glorious dew. I was hoping to finally get a portrait together of one of the females, it is really difficult to get the flash right with these beauties, I always struggle to bring out the eye details, mainly because the eyes are very dark and too much flash and the metallic greens reflect too much. So I'm reasonably happy with this one. also a real bonus to get the wings in this position, they make interesting leading lines, these guys are not the best design for MP-E work due to their long legs and general size :o)

Thought I'd try an early rise, these guys will start to vanish soon and I'm running out of time, the background here is natural, the grass is so tall and it actually came out in the background. Calopteryx splendens are one of the most attractive members of Zygoptera in the UK, would like to see Calopteryx virgo at some point, they favour faster flowing waters.

Sorry for recent lack of activity, I will no doubt have another splurge of activity this weekend, Saturday sounds promising, sunny, but cooler :o)

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This is one I have meant to upload along time ago, as with a lot of these images, they seem to get lost in the mass of images on my hard drives. I think this is Entomobrya nicoleti, they are small Collembola and are very common, I can almost guarantee that there will be some on any fallen wood or bark, so not sure why I have only just decided to upload an image of one.

Went out this afternoon with camera bag in tow, get to my destination, open my camera bag and no camera, I had left it at home on the sofa DOH!!!!!!!!

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One of the 3 custom action figures I'll be giving away on my blog to celebrate the release of my comic 'Fight'.

jackteagle.blogspot.com/2011/07/fight-comic-competition.html

I found another emerging Damselfly yesterday and this was the moment just before it pulled itself out of it's exuviae. I cannot believe that I had not witnessed this last year, I must have spent ages looking for this last year and I've seen this happen three times already this year :)

A Harvestman on a fence post looking a little bit prehistoric in my eyes, once you start looking at them in more detail you notice spines and an almost armoured feel to them, I'm really starting to look forward to finding these guys :) This was taken at 5x magnification and is a focus stack of 8 images :)

I think this may be Mitopus morio, but then I'm not as yet an expert in Opiliones ID :)

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A male Common Blue Damselfly in all his glory, I decided to use a diffused flash for this one, so I had my camera set in manual, the shutter speed at 1/200, aperture F/8 and ISO 400, the flash was off camera set on TTL with -1 1/3 compensation, quite pleased with the results, it has really made this little guy stand out and also produced a pleasing bokeh. Had forgotten how tricky these are to get close to, even with a 100mm :o)

I really must get around to doing some portraits, these guys were a bit too active this afternoon, but I was quite pleased with the sudden rise in numbers, there were lots of Common Blues and Blue-tailed Damselflies, also lots of Banded Demoiselles around as well. I did spend a good 30mins sheltering under a bridge as a thunder storm went by :o)

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This is one from yesterday afternoon and it's a 26 image handheld focus stack using natural light of a female Salticus scenicus. One thing you have to remember is that these are all on a brick wall, this makes getting a good angle tricky and means I get some rather curious looks from passers by.

The main thing for doing these natural light stacks are the right sort of light, if the sun is too strong then you can get nasty specular highlights, too cloudy and you can't get a fast enough shutter speed, ideally some hazy afternoon sun works quite well. I tried again today, but failed miserably, the sun went in and I could only get a 1/40 shutter speed, I don't like using an ISO above 640 for these stacks, I really need that 5D MKIII LOL :o)

Shutter speed 1/125

Aperture F/5.6

ISO 500

Handheld 26 images

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On my walk today I stopped and sat on a park bench, I just happened to notice tiny black specks moving around by one of the bolts that holds the bench to the frame, sure enough there they were Sminthurinus niger, these guys are about 0.6mm long and resemble full stops moving about, they are very active little Collembola and it took some doing to get focused on them.

I first saw this species back in March on a trip to Wales, nice to find them again, I reckon I will go back to find them again a bit later on :)

Class Collembola

Order Symphypleona

Family Katiannidae

Genus Sminthurinus

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This was a slumbering (inactive) Hoverfly I found yesterday morning on some Ragwort, the Ragwort was in a shaded spot, even though the sun was up it was still a lot cooler in this spot. I think this is possibly an Eristalis species and it is a female. It was rather annoying when working on this guy as the Ragwort was next to a path and I kept getting Joggers, dog walkers and general walkers disturbing me every 5 minutes, but still worth the hassle LOL :o)

This is a handheld focus stack of 23 images using the MP-E at x5 magnification, I used an aperture of F/6.3, 1/125 shutter speed and ISO 320. I had lowered the shutter speed and increased the ISO so that the flash didn't startle the Hoverfly too much.

I hope everyone has a fabulous week :o)

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I've not been out with the camera today, but hoping to get out tomorrow. This is a teneral male Common Darter I found at my new favourite Darter area yesterday evening, the Memorial Gardens by the Victoria Embankment. There is a great rockery there with loads of great places for the Darters to perch and also some interesting perches as well. The best thing is the backgrounds provided by the rockery are my favourite, this is not the same Darter as my last taken in this area, this is a juvenile male, the one before was a juvenile female. Anyway, I just loved this one and the perch was so interesting and this is an artistic take on the subject.

Seems the stats on Flickr are all messed up again, I'm actually starting to look forward to losing them, at the moment they are a complete and utter nonsense :o)

I will try and give these guys a break, for a few days anyway or until I get a nice close MP-E stack :o)

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A new species for the list found yesterday, these were quite small at about 2mm long, they are all white and are another species that lacks a furca, the furca is the appendage that enables Springtails to jump, therefore this is another springless Springtail.

Class Collembola

Order Poduromorpha

Superfamily Onychiuroidea

Family Onychiuridae

Genus Protaphorura

Thanks to Frans for species identification :)

I found a few Darters today and this one invited me to dinner, I politely declined, I didn't like the look of the menu LOL :)

another from today ,don't think its a bee so any info please

(thanks to eddy the bugman for the i.d)

Spent half an hour or so chasing this Common Darter about, he would let me take a few shots and then he would fly off and land a little bit away, I am wondering now how long before we lose these for the year, I did see some early November last year and if the weather stays warm we could have a good year :)

Well woke up this afternoon after my last ever night shift (WooooHoooo), I decided a little early evening Damsel hunt was in order, had a great chat with this lovely Common Blue Damselfly and during my chat a Mozzie decided to take a chunk out of my arm, so straight to the Co-Op for some antihistamine and Mozzie spray :)

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Trying some lighting changes, basically I have put my plastic omnibounce style diffuser on and also have a Lastolite Apollo mini II light modifier over the flash, it seems to give a very soft lighting effect.

Another Springtail offering, starting to find a few of these now, just need to find some of those globular species. This is actually a focus stack of Orchesella cincta and was shot at 5x magnification and comprises 4 images. This guy is grazing on algae or mould and was about 4mm in length. I have included a crop in the comments section and this is well worth viewing on Black :)

This was another of yesterdays finds a dormant Neanura muscorum, this was a very obliging individual that I found on the underside of a bit of fallen bark, notice the head is almost retracted into the body when at rest, soon after I took the last frame of the stack this one decided enough is enough and wandered off.

This is a 13 image handheld focus stack at x7 magnification using an F/5.6 aperture. There are some quite nice textural qualities to the cuticle of these Collembola, you can also see the x3 ocelli on this individual. Neanura muscorum is a common UK species and can be easily found, they are large enough to be seen with the human eye, growing to 3mm in length, they are commonly found on rotting wood, bark and other decaying matter, I often find them under fallen wood/bark :o)

Also can you spot the phoretic nematodes on this one, it has 2. Nematodes often latch onto these guys for a free lift, they wrap themselves around the macrosetae on the Collembola.

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About the sum of my photography efforts today, it was quite windy out and trying to photograph stuff was not an easy task. Anyway, still a nice day and managed to avoid the one torrential downpour. The only things I really found were a couple of Common Darters, I did have one nice experience when a Darter flew up almost face to face, I then held my hand out, he came and checked it out and then landed on my finger, I like it when things like that happen :o)

I originally thought this was a female due to colouration, but I now know it is a teneral male Common Darter. I was using my Tamron 180mm on a 12mm extension tube all mounted on a monopod, this was taken at head height and was the only one I was happy with, this was taken when the sky clouded over :o)

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I found a most obliging Comma Butterfly today and it seemed quite happy to let me take numerous photographs, this is a top down view and is also an eight image stack, quite happy with how this one worked :)

I've been trying to get this shot for what seems like forever, inspired by the amazing work of Edward 'Eddie the Bugman' Nurcombe, a damsel with the eyes showing black and with the lenses in focus... I still can't for love nor money manage to get a focus stack to envelop a whole insect without blobby islands and overlaps, but that's my fault for not taking 50+ frames or using a tripod or flash and hoping to get a good result with hand held wobbling about with nothing to lean against, excuses excuses....

Still, I was more than pleased to get this shot. Have a look 'zoomed' in, I think their eyes are amazing. :@)

I found a few more of these guys this afternoon, this is the final instar of Elasmucha grisea, I think that this one must be getting near to the final moult due to its size and darkening colour. The interesting thing about this image though is the presence of the 2 white objects, does anyone know what they are????

I am not sure if they are the eggs of a parasite or could they be some sort of parasitic Mite? So if anyone knows then I would be most grateful for any information.

Thanks to Jan van Duinen, the white objects are Tachinidae eggs, which will hatch and the larvae will parasitise the Bug.

I did get a few Red Deer shots today, but there was no rutting action to be seen unfortunately :o(

I had 108mm of extension tubes mounted on a 1.4x teleconverter for the ocelli shot.

Lazy macro tip, if you want to avoid crawling on the ground looking for macro subjects then find a row of wooden fence posts next to trees or grassland and commence patrolling.

You will be amazed at what you can find, also the wooden fences and posts are great for resting your camera or yourself on and also provide excellent support. With some strategic angling, you can make the subject look like it is in a very organic and natural environment, it's also great fun.

Not sure of ID on this one yet, it was about the same size as the Pea Weevil, maybe a bit smaller, taken at x5 magnification, really nice head details on this baby, I love Weevils they are soooooo cute LOL :) Also got RedButtoned on my last Weevil, HURRAH :)

A weevil is any beetle from the Curculionoidea superfamily. They are usually small, less than 6 millimetres (0.24 in), and herbivorous. There are over 60,000 species in several families, mostly in the family Curculionidae (the true weevils). Some other beetles, although not closely related, bear the name "weevil", such as the biscuit weevil (Stegobium paniceum), which belongs to the family Anobiidae.

Many weevils are damaging to crops. The grain or wheat weevil (Sitophilus granarius) damages stored grain. The boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) attacks cotton crops. It lays its eggs inside cotton bolls, and the young weevils eat their way out.

Weevils are often found in dry foods including nuts and seeds, cereal and grain products, such as pancake mix. In the domestic setting, they are most likely to be observed when a bag of flour is opened. Their presence is often indicated by the granules of the infested item sticking together in strings, as if caught in a cobweb.

Any ID help appreciated :)

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After a very brief spell of drizzle this morning I found this lovely little Ischnura elegans sporting some very attractive raindrops, this is a two image stack.

This one was resting high up on a dead plant stem, holding the stem down with one hand, camera in the other, I need more hands, think I may have to get a plamp :)

OK I know I said no more Damsels, but I was really meaning Common Blue's and this isn't a Common Blue, sorry can't help myself :)

Thought I'd move on from Springtails to another Damselfly, I'm having lots of fun with Lightroom, you might initially select one colour as a background, but having Lightroom enables you to change the colours to a variety of others, so if you are not happy with your initial choice, then just change it in Lightroom LOL ;O)

The background was initially bright pink in this shot :o)

I do have about 5 new species of Springtail to upload, I found a new place and it's producing some great little Collembola. Reckon I might have to change my name to "Springtail Eddie" or "Eddie The Collembola Guy" LOL :o)

Anyway hope everyone is having a great weekend and well done team GB on another good day :o)

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This was a very unexpected find, I was watching some juvenile Bourletiella hortensis and suddenly I noticed this strange orange blob on an out of focus greyish blob, on focusing I suddenly realised what I had found, a Bourletiella hortensis carrying a parasitic mite. I guess it would be equivalent of one of us having a tick the size of a big rat, I wonder how long this Mite will stay attached, will it eventually kill the Springtail? It was really tricky trying to photograph this one, the Collembola kept hiding in cracks in the ground. It also looks like the Mite had changed position from the first shot in the comments, I lost sight of it for a while when it went down a crack in the soil :o) This little one was about 1.5mm in length at a guess :o)

I have wanted to capture something like this for a while, fascinating stuff I think you will agree.

More in comments, if anyone can put an ID to the mite then I would be grateful :o)

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I'm missing these guys loads, hoping some warm weather comes soon and encourages my Salticidae friends to come out to play LOL, this was taken back in March when we had proper Spring weather.

A very bright eyed looking Salticus scenicus on the bricks of Lady Bay Bridge, some nice details on the head of this beauty.

I hope everyone has a great week :o)

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One of the few Globular Springtails I found yesterday, I kind of wonder where they go when there is a frost, I was expecting to find a few frozen ones. I liked this one because there are loads of droplets on her lower head and the ocelli details are pretty good here as well, also loved the contrast :0)

Female Dicyrtomina saundersi taken at x5 mag and slightly cropped :0)

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