The Tiny Pest - _TNY_8152S2
So I'm out looking for interesting hoverflies in a rather large shrubby cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa) when I notice something way smaller, nothing more than a black speck in the center of one of the very yellow flowers.
Fortunately I had the Canon MP-E65mm on my camera so I wound it up all the way out to 5:1 magnification and managed two shots of it. It moved enough between shots to make a program like Zerene Stacker not being able to handle it, but I blended the two manually using Photoshop and ended up with this result.
Being sub-2 mm in length, this strawberry blossom weevil (Anthonomus rubi) is actually a quite serious pest on raspberries and strawberries.
Here it is on my hand for a sense of the scale: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/50322776203/
The Tiny Pest - _TNY_8152S2
So I'm out looking for interesting hoverflies in a rather large shrubby cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa) when I notice something way smaller, nothing more than a black speck in the center of one of the very yellow flowers.
Fortunately I had the Canon MP-E65mm on my camera so I wound it up all the way out to 5:1 magnification and managed two shots of it. It moved enough between shots to make a program like Zerene Stacker not being able to handle it, but I blended the two manually using Photoshop and ended up with this result.
Being sub-2 mm in length, this strawberry blossom weevil (Anthonomus rubi) is actually a quite serious pest on raspberries and strawberries.
Here it is on my hand for a sense of the scale: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/50322776203/