Category Archives: Winter

Runner on a Pin

By Adrian | Published 21 March, 2013
Walking on pearl

Walking on pearl

Spring in Alberta! We are in the midst of another snow storm, which means we have a long wait for outdoor bugs. So here is another juvenile running crab spider, this time found on the washroom ceiling by my daughter. Pin-head is 6mm in diameter.

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Macro Lens Medley

By Adrian | Published 19 March, 2013
Left to Right

The long and the short of them.

Left to right: Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Macro Autofocus Lens (Canon EOS mount), Canon Macro Photo MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Manual Focus Lens, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro Autofocus Lens, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 SP AF Di Macro Lens for Nikon AF, Vivitar  Series 1 105mm for Nikon and an Olympus  Zuiko 50mm macro lens.

Over the years my macro equipment has transitioned from the era of film to the digital present, and in that time I have accumulated a few macro lenses. The picture above shows most of them: missing is an Olympus-mount Tamron SP 90mm macro lenses that provided only half-life size 1:2 mag.

All the above lenses give 1:1 (life-size) magnification. Why so many sizes if they all produce the same magnification? What are the benefits or handicaps of each?

Find out at a Macro Workshop!

 

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The Week on Sunday #25

By Adrian | Published 17 March, 2013

♦ Opening with – ‘The Life of an Entomolgist” (Hat-tip to Maria Pineda).  Leaf-litter extraction with creative animation and rollicking music:

♦ Most butterfly watchers have probably noticed the similarity that the tail-end of hairstreak (Family Lycaenidae, sub-family Theclinae) wings have to antenna, with an eye-spot added in for good effect. This is a type of false-head mimicry that was believed to have evolved to protect the butterflies from predatory birds by causing them to strike against less-vulnerable parts of the anatomy.

Red-banded_Hairstreak by Wikipedia: User: "Umbris"

Red-banded_Hairstreak by Wikipedia: User: “Umbris”

This bird-driven selective evolution has been called into question in a recent study by lepidopterist Andrei Sourakov:

“Everything we observe out there has been blamed on birds: aposematic coloration, mimicry and various defensive patterns like eyes-pots,” said study author Andrei Sourakov, a collection coordinator at the Florida Museum of Natural History’s McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity on the UF campus. “It’s a big step in general and a big leap of faith to realize that a creature as tiny as a jumping spider, whose brain and life span are really small compared to birds, can actually be partially responsible for the great diversity of patterns that evolved out there among Lepidoptera and other insects.” (from: UF study shows spiders, not birds, may drive evolution of some butterflies)

Read the full free study, with photographs: Two heads are better than one: false head allows Calycopis cecrops (Lycaenidae) to escape predation by a Jumping Spider, Phidippus pulcherrimus(Salticidae).

♦ While the Hairstreak has evolved a second ‘head’, other Lepidoptera have different solutions. In this older study from 2006 (PLOS One), metalmark moths in the genus Brenthia were found to mimic jumping spiders, one of their predators.

Figure 1. Brenthia moths are jumping spider mimics. show more The moth (upper image) mimics jumping spiders (lower image) with wing markings, wing positioning, posture, and movement (drawing by Virginia Wagner). These moths survive encounters with jumping spiders more often than controls. Moreover, jumping spiders respond to them with territorial displays that are normally directed towards other jumping spiders, indicating that Brenthia moths are being mistakenly recognized as jumping spiders, and not as potential prey.

Figure 1. Brenthia moths are jumping spider mimics.
show more
The moth (upper image) mimics jumping spiders (lower image) with wing markings, wing positioning, posture, and movement (drawing by Virginia Wagner).
These moths survive encounters with jumping spiders more often than controls.
Moreover, jumping spiders respond to them with territorial displays that are normally directed towards other jumping spiders, indicating that Brenthia moths are being mistakenly recognized as jumping spiders, and not as potential prey.

2-journal.pone.0000045.g002

Figure 2. Brenthia hexaselena.
show more
a, Prepared specimen of B. hexaselena.
b, Live B. hexaselena, FW – forewing, HW – hindwing.

3-journal.pone.0000045.g003

Figure 3. Phiale formosa.

 

 

 

“In controlled trials, Brenthia had higher survival rates than other similarly sized moths in the presence of jumping spiders and jumping spiders responded to Brenthia with territorial displays, indicating that Brenthia were sometimes mistaken for jumping spiders, and not recognized as prey.”

 

Citation: Rota J, Wagner DL (2006) Predator Mimicry: Metalmark Moths Mimic Their Jumping Spider Predators. PLoS ONE 1(1): e45. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000045

♦ Spiders again, showing those with a propensity for eating warm-blooded, furry and flying mammals:

Figure 2. Bats caught by spiders. A - Adult female Avicularia urticans feeding on a Greater Sac-winged Bat (Saccopteryx bilineata) on the side of a palm tree near the Rio Yarapa, Peru (photo by Rick West, Victoria, Canada; report # 1). B - Adult Proboscis Bat (Rhynchonycteris naso) entangled in a web of Argiope savignyi at the La Selva Biological Station, northern Costa Rica (photo by Mirjam Knörnschild, Ulm, Germany; report # 14). C - Dead bat (presumably Centronycteris centralis) entangled in an orb-web in Belize (photo by Carol Farneti-Foster, Belice City, Belize; report # 12). D - Dead bat (Myotis sp.) entangled in a web of Nephila clavipes in La Sirena, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica (photo by Harald & Gisela Unger, Köln, Germany; report # 17). E - A bat caught in the web of an araneid spider (possibly Eriophora sp.) in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica (photo by Cassidy Metcalf, USA; report # 18). F - Live bat trapped in web of Nephilengys cruentata in a thatch roof at Nisela Lodge, Swaziland (photo by Donald Schultz, Hollywood, USA; report # 47). G - Volant juvenile Proboscis Bat (Rhynchonycteris naso) entangled in web of Nephila clavipes photographed in a palm swamp forest near Madre de Dios, Peru (photo by Sam Barnard, Colorado Springs, USA; report # 7). H - Dead bat entangled in web of a female Nephila clavipes in tropical rainforest in the middle of the Rio Dulce River Canyon near Livingston, Guatemala (photo by Sam & Samantha Bloomquist, Indianapolis, USA; report # 11). I - Dead bat (Rhinolophus cornutus orii) caught in the web of a female Nephila pilipes on Amami-Oshima Island, Japan (photo by Yasunori Maezono, Kyoto University, Japan; report # 35). J, K - A small bat (superfamily Rhinolophoidea) entangled in web of Nephila pilipes at the top of the Cockatoo Hill near Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia (photo by Carmen Fabro, Cockatoo Hill, Australia; report # 39). The spider pressed its mouth against the dead, wrapped bat, indicating that it was feeding on it. A Nephila pilipes male also present in the web (K) may have been feeding on the bat as well. L - Dead vespertilionid bat entangled in the web of a female Nephila pilipes in the Aberdeen Country Park, Hong Kong (photo by Carol S.K. Liu from AFCD Hong Kong, China; report # 32). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058120.g002

Figure 2. Bats caught by spiders. A -
Adult female Avicularia urticans feeding on a Greater Sac-winged Bat (Saccopteryx bilineata) on the side of a palm tree near the Rio Yarapa, Peru (photo by Rick West, Victoria, Canada; report # 1). B – Adult Proboscis Bat (Rhynchonycteris naso) entangled in a web of Argiope savignyi at the La Selva Biological Station, northern Costa Rica (photo by Mirjam Knörnschild, Ulm, Germany; report # 14). C – Dead bat (presumably Centronycteris centralis) entangled in an orb-web in Belize (photo by Carol Farneti-Foster, Belice City, Belize; report # 12). D – Dead bat (Myotis sp.) entangled in a web of Nephila clavipes in La Sirena, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica (photo by Harald & Gisela Unger, Köln, Germany; report # 17). E – A bat caught in the web of an araneid spider (possibly Eriophora sp.) in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica (photo by Cassidy Metcalf, USA; report # 18). F – Live bat trapped in web of Nephilengys cruentata in a thatch roof at Nisela Lodge, Swaziland (photo by Donald Schultz, Hollywood, USA; report # 47). G – Volant juvenile Proboscis Bat (Rhynchonycteris naso) entangled in web of Nephila clavipes photographed in a palm swamp forest near Madre de Dios, Peru (photo by Sam Barnard, Colorado Springs, USA; report # 7). H – Dead bat entangled in web of a female Nephila clavipes in tropical rainforest in the middle of the Rio Dulce River Canyon near Livingston, Guatemala (photo by Sam & Samantha Bloomquist, Indianapolis, USA; report # 11). I – Dead bat (Rhinolophus cornutus orii) caught in the web of a female Nephila pilipes on Amami-Oshima Island, Japan (photo by Yasunori Maezono, Kyoto University, Japan; report # 35). J, K – A small bat (superfamily Rhinolophoidea) entangled in web of Nephila pilipes at the top of the Cockatoo Hill near Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia (photo by Carmen Fabro, Cockatoo Hill, Australia; report # 39). The spider pressed its mouth against the dead, wrapped bat, indicating that it was feeding on it. A Nephila pilipes male also present in the web (K) may have been feeding on the bat as well. L – Dead vespertilionid bat entangled in the web of a female Nephila pilipes in the Aberdeen Country Park, Hong Kong (photo by Carol S.K. Liu from AFCD Hong Kong, China; report # 32).
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058120.g002

Citation: Nyffeler M, Knörnschild M (2013) Bat Predation by Spiders. PLoS ONE 8(3): e58120. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058120

Synemosyna2s

♦ And finally, back to mimicry with an article on ant mimics at Myrmecos. Alex Wild has pulled together all his ant-mimic images into one collection. I like the Aphantochilus rogersi (Thomisidae) Crab spider the best! This is a treat not to be missed — click on the image to see the gallery. 

 

 

 

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The Week on Sunday #24 (not for Arachnophobes)

By Adrian | Published 10 March, 2013

♦  Kicking off this week with a NG documentary in praise of spiders…

♦ As the video says, finding new species of spider is really not a rare event, but this article at Wired Magazine brought to my attention an Open Access paper at ZooKeys called: A revision of the continental species of Copa Simon, 1885 (Araneae, Corinnidae) in the Afrotropical Region by Charles Richard Haddad. Of course, being a non-specialist amateur, I read only the abstract and look at the pictures ( :) ), but sifting through this study shows the amazing amount of work that was required by Haddad to do a revision of Copa taxonomy. He examined hundreds of specimens from all over Africa, obtained from collections all over the world. A new species, Copa kei (images 5 and 6 below), from the Great Kei river area on the east side of South Africa is also described . These spiders look a lot like our wolf spiders (family Lycosidae) but as you can see below, more distinctive in pattern, with the first four photographs showing the range of variability in one species, Copa flavoplumosa.

Figures 1–6. General habitus photographs of Copa flavoplumosa Simon, 1885 (1–4) and Copa kei sp. n. (5, 6): 1 female from Lesideng Research Camp, Botswana 2 female from Livingtone, Zambia 3 male and 4 female from Wildlives Game Farm, Zambia 5 female from Hogsback, South Africa 6 male from Cwebe Nature Reserve, South Africa.

Figures 1–6.
General habitus photographs of Copa flavoplumosa Simon, 1885 (1–4) and Copa kei sp. n. (5, 6): 1 female from Lesideng Research Camp, Botswana 2 female from Livingtone, Zambia 3 male and 4 female from Wildlives Game Farm, Zambia 5 female from Hogsback, South Africa 6 male from Cwebe Nature Reserve, South Africa.

There is also some very cool SEM images showing distinctive features on the spiders, all available for viewing at the open access paper.

belize_graphic2si♦ Part of the joy of being a photographer of bugs lies in the need to solve the technical problems around obtaining good images, where the bar for ‘good’ is continuously being pushed higher and higher. One way to stay up-to-date on what bug photographers are doing is to continuously scan the web for new developments and techniques, which can be tedious and time-consuming. Another way is to join a workshop. While I have begun my series of mini-macro workshops here in Edmonton, there is even a greater opportunity for learning what’s best in macro photography by attending a BugShot workshop. The next Bugshot workshop is scheduled for September 22-29, 2013 in Belize, and it features four of the greatest macro photographers in the world: Alex Wild, John Abbott, Thomas Shahan  and Piotr Naskrecki! The diversity of combined talent here is really mind-boggling! I simply cannot think of a better location and better qualified instructors for such an event. 

♦ Of course, searching the web for solutions to bug photography problems can still be helpful. For instance  regular off-the-shelf flash units offer great possibilities for macro photographers, but the light they produce can be harsh and glaring if used unadulterated. In the last week Alex Wild revealed a simple diffuser for Canon’s MT-24EX twin  flash, and Sean McCann showed off a home-made replica of the Lumiquest diffusers suitable for a single flash. And just a few weeks before that, Ted MacRae  featured another article on Canon MT-24EX flash diffusion for a 100mm macro lens.

So many solutions, so little time…

Until next week.

 

 

 

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The Week on Sunday #23

By Adrian | Published 3 March, 2013

♦ A splendid idea…

I remember the young Gerald Durrell did a similar experiment with bits of glass and beads, but this is a much more lavish process!

♦ BBC has a new buggy season ahead: take a look at all the bug-wonder taking place in 2013 at Alien Nation. BBC Four supersizes the insect world in an ambitious new season.

♦ An extensive article on the plight of bees in the Fight of the Bumblebee over at The Walrus.

♦ Piotr Naskrecki is one masterful macro photographer!  Part of that skill is patience, and he lost a lot of sleep coming up with the shots for this time-lapse of a chinese mantid shedding its exoskeleton.

Visit The Smaller Majority for more on this sequence.

♦ And sealing this Week on Sunday? Sean McCann gives another insight into a low-cost macro solution in Cheapskate Tuesday 6: A simple flash bracket. Variable-friction arms are the latest trend amoung many solutions on how to place a flash over your subject.

That’s all for this week.

 

 

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Dancing on the Head of a Pin – Philodromus Spider

By Adrian | Published 26 February, 2013

This is the second running crab spider (Philodromus sp., Philodromidae) I have found in the home this year, a juvenile, and a runner indeed…

On the head of a pin

On the (5.5 mm dia.)  head of a pin

Soon after this photograph was taken, the house furnace went on and warm air began to flow from an over-head vent. The little tyke responded by standing on its tippy-toes and then began casting a silken line…

Continue reading »

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Golden Dragon(fly) Warrior

By Adrian | Published 25 February, 2013

I made this short video vignette of a display featured in: Edo: Arts of Japan’s Last Shogun Age at the Art Gallery of Alberta. The display at the entrance to the gallery was a suit of Edo-period (Tokugawa Era) Samurai armour, which featured a dragonfly helmet crest (maedate). Japanese art has always fascinated me, and being greeted by this golden dragonfly mounted in such a martial fashion, had me grinning with pleasure, and after taking the video and some photographs (permitted if used for social media, but no flash allowed…how progressive!) I went striding around the gallery, looking out for more insect details. Alas, there was only one more piece, a cabinet with inlaid butterflies in the top surface, but nothing to match the magnificence of the Golden Dragonfly Warrior.

 

The old Japanese word for dragonfly was kachimushi, meaning ‘victory bug‘, so the dragonfly motif could often be found as decoration for different parts of a warrior’s armour, weapons or as decoration on the fabric.

Unfortunately, the Edo: Arts of Japan’s Last Shogun Age completed its run at the AGA on 18 February.

The exhibition is organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria with assistance from the Canadian Department of Heritage, Museum Assistance Program and curated by Barry Till, Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

(Video and photographs taken with a Olympus E-PM1, ISO 1600, f5 @ 1/10 sec.)

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