Author Archives: Adrian D. Thysse

Ento. 101: Wing Structure and Venation

By Adrian D. Thysse | Published 29 April, 2012

The saga continues: Entomology 101: Wing Structure and Wing Venation. In the last section I introduced insect wings and will now move on to look at wing structure and venation. This post will confine itself to the essentials, with a more detailed look at variations in wing structure when I cover the insect orders in [...]

Posted in Diptera, Entomology, Entomology 101, Insect, invertebrates, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sunday Bugfest 9

By Adrian D. Thysse | Published 4 December, 2011

This last week has been a bit of a blur, but I have managed to pick up a few buggy links. ◊ Opening with the bug-blog Queen — Bug Girl herself — speaking about her own blog, sea-monkeys for your pants and some sound blogging advice: (…conversation, not lecture; conversation not lecture…got it!) ◊ Wings from gills? The University [...]

Posted in Blog Link, Entomology, Insect, macro, New Book, photography, Science | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Time for a cuddle…

By Adrian D. Thysse | Published 29 November, 2011

An Alex Wild image posted on Google+ showed how photographs can misrepresent reality. (See the photo in Humanizing the Hordes at Photosynthesis). It reminded me of this photograph, taken not long after a day of rain: Photographed on a poplar leaf on the 19 September, 2011, Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, Alberta. Thanks to James Trager for the ID. (Corrected 03/11/2012) (Canon T2i with MP-E65mm macro lens, ISO 400, [...]

Posted in Alberta, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insect, macro, MP-E65, Provincial Park | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Sunday Bugfest 8

By Adrian D. Thysse | Published 27 November, 2011

A set of buggy finds from the last week: ◊ Clay Bolt from the photo project, Meet Your Neighbours, shows how he does the bright-white backgrounds that typifies MYN:   ◊ Entomologist Dr Art Evans is a Research Associate in the Entomology Department, Smithsonian Institution and the Department of Recent Invertebrates, Virginia Museum of Natural History. Besides this, he [...]

Posted in Arachnid, Blog Link, Bugs, Entomology, Insect, invertebrates, macro, photography, Roundup, Science, Video, Web LInk, White Studio | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Mating Hoverflies on Black

By Adrian D. Thysse | Published 23 November, 2011

This pair of hover flies (Syrphidae, possibly Allograpta obliqua Genus Sphaerophoria¹) stand out strongly against a black background. In the days of film, when many cameras only had a flash sync. speed of 1/60 sec., and you were shooting with low ISO film, almost all backgrounds would be black, unless your subject was positioned very near the background. [...]

Posted in Composition, Diptera, macro, Mating, photography, Summer, Syrphidae | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sunday Bugfest 7

By Adrian D. Thysse | Published 20 November, 2011

Another collection of my bug-based discoveries from the last week… ◊ There is more and more talk about the value of urban beehives. One company is trying to bring beekeeping into the space age. Learn more about the cool new beehive concept from Philips Design. (N.B. See critique at Bug Girl’s Blog) ◊ The recent discovery of a 47 [...]

Posted in invertebrates | Leave a comment

Moth

By Adrian D. Thysse | Published 20 November, 2011

The nice thing about being an amateur bug-watcher is that you can often still be struck by the commonplace, appreciating what others might hold in disdain. For instance, what I initially thought of us a distinctive, handsome sort-of-moth — I mean, take a look at the earthy wing tones with contrasting black veins, the raised shield behind [...]

Posted in Alberta, Autumn, Canada, Lepidoptera, macro, Noctuidae, Provincial Park | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments