Cymatodera sp. Checkered Beetle (Cleridae)
Arizona
photo details: Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon 20D
f/16, 1/250 sec, ISO 100, indirect strobe in a white box
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Trox - Hide Beetle - Arizona, USA
Scarab's shrewd cousin,
Elytra warty like hide.
Must be Trogidae!
Photo details: Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, f/16, 1/250 sec, indirect strobe in white box
Pasimachus sp. ground beetle, Arizona
My apologies for the lack of blogging the past few days. I've been taking some time away from posting for the holidays, but I'll be back next week. In the meantime, here's a Pasimachus ground beetle...
photo details: Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon…
Epicauta pardalis - spotted blister beetle
Tucson, Arizona
Here's a beetle so toxic it can kill a horse. The horse doesn't even need to ingest the beetle, it just needs to ingest something that the beetle bled on. Blister beetles produce the defensive compound cantharadin- the active…
Amblycheila cylindriformis, New Mexico
The Giant Tiger Beetle Amblycheila cylindriformis is a tank of an insect, at 35mm in length the largest tiger beetle in North America.  Unlike the more familiar day-active Cicindela tiger beetles, the flightless Amblycheila lumbers about at night, catching…
The bumps/pits on the elytra - do they have a purpose like in the Stenocara sp. of Africa?
Hmm... looking at the photo details - "indirect stobe in a white box" ..you mean the strobe is in the whitebox or the beetle in a whitebox flash outside like traditionaly small product photography? Whatever the method the results are wonderful.
I have no idea about the elytral pits- I'd assume they help reinforce the rigidity of the elytra. Lots of different beetles have them.
I've got a large cardboard box, entirely white inside, that serves as a little bug photo studio. I fire the flash inside the box and I get an even white light, as for product photography. This isn't really a field technique...