Some details from the insect world – March 22, 2015

Almost two weeks ago, on a short trip to the Comana Woods to see how Nature is waking up after the long winter, I’ve found some of the first invertebrates of the year.

Among them, a small jumping spider and a bee-fly.

I’ve spent a lot of time photographing this two small beings. The first one, the spider, was a little less cooperative due to the fact that it was very much alive at the time of the shot, and moving all-around.

I’ve used for both subjects the old super-macrophotography setup, the Canon 550D and the SMC Pentax-M inverted objective. The light used was from a macro-ring flash, not the best choice for artistic shots, but very efficient for high-resolution images showing small details on insect bodies.

First, the spider. Notice the reflection of the macro-ring light in the frontal eyes.

And the bee-fly (a fly that mimics bees) of the species Bombylius major, found already dead on the ground. First shot presents the head and most of it’s proboscis:

A detailed view of it’s right eye (large image!):

And another of it’s wing:

Spring is here now, so I’m very sure that many more shots like these (or better) will appear on this blog, since a lot of possible subjects are now emerging from their winter cocoons/shelters.