Experiment in the garden

[fuzzyedges]

Ive got my 100mm macro back from repair so I decided to try screwing a 50mm in reverse on the end of it then started adding extention tubes

No insect is over 2mm in length

Havnt a clue what they are but trying to find them with the reverse 50 was bad but with an extension tube was nigh on impossable

The whole set up is really heavy and after a ages of trying to locate the target then trying to get it into focus and not shake with the weight x time is a real effort

I can see potential but tripod and stationary objects would be the way to go me thinks  

 

 

100mm and reverse 50mm

 

 

 

100mm + 50mm + 36mm tube

 

 

[JohnP]

An interesting experiment Fuzzy, 10 out of 10 for effort and results.

[fuzzyedges]

The concensus seems to be the last two are exoskeletons

[FUJI]

Well done you,

I too have experimented like that, but the heavy lenses and rings, plus manual focusssing made things exceptionally difficult.

I have seen similar things to what you show on Stinging Nettles.......the first Im not sure of, but the other two look like Exo skeletons or bodies of Greenfly/Aphids.

FUJI

[Paul]

The first one has been gotten by a parasitic creature which drains the life out of the aphid from the inside, then attaches itself to a leaf to develop and ultimately leave.

 

 

Good efforts m8.

 

Paul.

[fuzzyedges]

Thanks for the info

here is a bit more I have now found thanks to everyones efforts

 

Animals can gain protection against predators and parasites by living in groups. The encounter-dilution effect provides protection when the probability of detection of a group does not increase in proportion to group size (i.e. encounter effect), so that predators do not offset the encounter effect by attacking more members of the group (i.e. dilution effect). In this paper, we propose a novel mechanism by which prey insects could gain by producing decoys that act as multiple targets for predators or parasitoids if these decoys are recognised as preys or hosts and negatively affect the patch foraging strategy of these predators and parasitoids. Such a decoy mechanism could be present in aphid colonies in which aphid exuviae are recognised and attacked by Aphidiine wasps.

 

Taken from

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/8/338

[Terry]

Nice set. Interesting technique