Western thrashing ant attacking insect larva.

Western thrashing ant attacking insect larva.

We arrived at an area of southwest Washington called Long Beach yesterday.  This morning I was out for a quiet walk with my camera; it was equipped with a macro lens and macro lighting system.  It is always fun to explore new places to see what kinds of finds can be discovered.  I had quite a bit of luck as I ended up with half a dozen pictures which I am excited about.  The one above is an example.

Thrashing ants feed on a wide variety of foods.  They will take seeds, honeydew from aphids, and small prey items such as this insect larva.  Ants have very strong jaws.  They are capable of subduing smaller insects with relative ease and, when working together, can overpower significantly larger creatures.  They will bring their find back to the nest where it will be fed to larvae, the queen, and shared amongst the adults. 

When in “bug mode,” I am scanning the environment for any sign of minuscule activity.  I look underneath leaves, especially if parts of them are eaten, on flowers, stems, and even on bare ground.  I am constantly turning over stuff.  I found an amazing beetle which I will do a blog on later this way.  A wonderful spider was lying in wait on a flower, and a mass of eggs was hidden away on the underside of a leaf.  The ant, as you can tell, was on the ground.

There are a few issues with macro photography which makes it a challenge to do well.  The three main ones are depth of field, ability to focus closely, and amount of light.  I used a Nikon DSLR camera with a 105 mm macro lens equipped with dual lens mounted macro flashes.  I keep the shutter speed at the flash synch speed (1/250) and the aperture small (f/57).  The flashes provide all of the light necessary.  Getting this close to the ground is not as easy for me as it used to be, so I turned on Liveview.  This allows me to look at the LCD screen on the camera’s back from a distance instead of establishing an uncomfortable, not to mention undignified, crouching pose.

I use Liveview infrequently for a number of reasons.  It depletes the battery faster for one.  The shutter response is much slower; when the shutter release is activated it takes the camera about half a second before the picture is taken.  Things can change significantly in half a second.  Then there is the viewing experience.  I LOVE looking through the viewfinder; it is bright, sharp, clear, and I can pick a point of focus easily.  I also can see the viewfinder information display easily and know if my settings are off.  However, there are times when I find it a useful feature.

I took about six photos of the battle between predator and prey then left to find other subjects.  The one above was the best of the lot. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Willow sawfly larvae; not a caterpillar.

Image
Willow sawfly larvae feeding on a willow leaf. Insects can be very hard to identify, and sometimes even getting the right group of insects can be challenging.  The above photo of a sawfly larva is a good example. Initially, one would probably mistake these caterpillar-like creatures as being either butterfly or moth larvae.  Both sawflies and lepidoptera (the group butterflies and moths belong to) have similar looking young.  The easiest way to tell if it is a caterpillar or sawfly is by paying attention to the prolegs. Prolegs are those peculiar suction cup type feet that exist at the back end of caterpillars.  We know all insects have 6 legs, so why do caterpillars seem to have so many more?  It turns out the first three pairs are the true legs.  The caterpillar's head is close to them.  The rest of the caterpillar has a series of false legs, called prolegs, which continue to the end of the individual.  The number of proleg pairs will help identify if it is a sawfly larva
Read more

The maze of life.

Image
The skeletonizing of a leaf by a leaf miner. Born to tunnel; a simple egg laid on a leaf produces a tiny caterpillar.  It immediately becomes an industrial machine, boring into the leaf and consuming the matter between layers.  Barely visible to the human eye, it proceeds in a relatively straight line until it finds an obstacle.  Undeterred, it changes direction and continues its momentum; becoming larger with each centimeter consumed.  The tunnels become larger and its progress faster.  Soon it has consumed almost half an entire leaf.  Thwarted by the main vein running through the middle, it is now large enough to chew through the tougher structure.  Continuing the destruction, the caterpillar finds an outside edge.  It is time to rest.  Spinning silken web, it makes a bed out of the very vegetation it has been consuming.  When it wakes, it will no longer be a caterpillar, but a newly emerged moth bent on laying its own eggs to start the cycle all over again. This caterpillar is
Read more

Cottonwood leaf beetles.

Image
A pair of cottonwood leaf beetles, on a cottonwood leaf. Cottonwood is a kind of tree which is usually found around fresh water.  It grows fast and the trees themselves can become very large.  They only live a short time (for a tree) though, around 80 years, and leave their remains as fodder for all kinds of creatures.  The trees are important because of the stabilizing properties they have for banks and beaches.  While alive, the trees are a favourite food of beavers (the bark) and the leaves are consumed by numerous mammal and insect species.  One of those is the cottonwood beetle. Cottonwood beetles reproduce rapidly and can spawn several generations in a season.  Although cottonwood is their primary food source, they will also take poplar, willow, and aspen.  In large numbers, these insects can defoliate a tree and are serious pests in management areas.  As summer ends adults will find their way under bark or leaf litter on the ground.  Those that survive predation and the sc
Read more