Today we have some nice insect photos by reader Mark Sturtevant:
Here is a new installment of pictures, which you may add to the queue for your readers.
First we have a female meadowhawk dragonfly. Since it has pale legs, I suggest that it is the autumn meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum):
Next is an item that remains high up on my ‘get the shot’ list: the spectacular and very large green darner dragonfly (Anax junius). I really want to get full pictures of these amazing insects, but the problem is that they just do not land very often! I spotted this beautiful male roosting a tree, but when I tried to move some leaves aside to show more of it… zip! It was gone in a flash.
The next two pictures are an update of a young Chinese praying mantis (Tenodera sinensis) that I had shown earlier. Here she is all grown up, having just molted the previous night. It is always a treat to have one of these around as they are extraordinarily alert, turning their head to check out any movement. These two pictures are among my favorite pictures that I had taken this past summer, and they are worth a double click to embiggen.
Finally: the last thing that some insects see!
Really nice photos. The dragonfly seems like a harmless helicopter until you see them eating mayflies and leaving the wings all over the ground.
Love the mantises. And kudos for the dragonflies: I find them really hard to photograph, because of the way they fly sideways.
Please encourage these marvelous photographers to use iNaturalist
Excellent, and it gives us the opportunity to compare a pedestrian hunter with a flying hunter: looking at the last (and impressive) picture, one can notice that at most about 25 ommatidia in each eye (the dark ones) do contribute a direct image of your objective. The dragonfly of the first picture seems to have a far better visual acuity, the corresponding dark spot involving several hundreds of ommatidies.
Thank you. I had not thought of counting ommatidia in a pseudopupil before as a means of comparing visual acuity.
That is so fascinating, Jaques! I had to go back and zoom in again, this time even further, on those pics!
Also, I love the term “pedestrian hunter.” Next time I take a stroll, I think I’ll consider myself a terrestrial.
Great photos Mark! The big Anax and Aesna species are really tough to photograph.
The picture of the Meadowhawk shows very niceley the spines on the tibiae and how they form a kind of basket to assist in catching aerial prey – almost like a baseball mitt!
Thanks. Although odonates are awesome fliers that rake in other insects with their legs, I suspect that they have pretty much lost the power of walking. At least I cannot think of an occasion where I see one take a step.
Whoa, once I embiggened her, I was really struck by her beauty. All the subtle colors of blue and green and pink are magnificent. I imagine the recent molt shows off the colors more.
I can see why these are some of your favorite pics from the Summer. Mine too!
Though the green darner dragonfly is pretty damn cool as well. 🙂
Thanks!
All of your shots were worth enlarging, Mark!
Very nice seeing how the mantid is put together. The top flexible, fleshy-looking leg-segment for instance. (Trochanter? Coxa?)
I also find intriguing what looks like some nearly external (but no doubt under some epidermal-like layer) plumbing under the torso just behind the head. And possibly spiracles lower down? (Or are they only on the abdomen?)
And in the last shot that gal sure looks like she has a tongue. 😀 No doubt licking her lips…
The basal leg segment is the coxa, which is very elongated in the front legs of mantids. I also wonder a lot about all the little fleshy folds and bumpy things visible in this picture. I think there are a pair of spiracles visible on the underside of the elongated prothorax.
Thanks! Your first remark finally reminded me to Google it; I’d never have pegged that trochanter for a leg part. Very cool.
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/mantids/images/biolog1a.jpg
Yes, those’re what I thought could be spiracles! Such a super macro!