Plume moth (or a little owl?)

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 1:36 pm

I shot this plume moth the other night, I think it looks like an owl of some kind at this magnification!

Shot with Olympus 38mm/f2.8 bellows lens, 50 images stacked in Zerene stacker.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 2:02 pm

My word! Where did you find that? I've tried attracting moths with a bright light but only ever see an occasional tiny one.

Aynia · Post by **Aynia** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:16 pm

I love looking at your photos Laurie!!

Super!

Owl??!!! maybe!!

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:25 pm

Thanks!

Chris, We have a little low power (11w maybe?) light outside the back door that comes on when it gets dark. It seems to attract quite a few bugs, I've found lacewings, caddisflies, flies, spiders, moths (and probably other stuff I can't remember) in it's area...

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 11:34 pm

Nice photograph!
Looks like an old & wise owl indeed...

Barry

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:03 am

This one makes me grin every time I look at it. (Three times now!) Nice work.

--Rik

morfa · Post by **morfa** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 4:22 am

Brilliant work Laurie! I really like the framing which makes the owl-resemblance is quite striking.

/John

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:30 pm

Like it

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:56 pm

lauriek wrote:I shot this plume moth the other night, I think it looks like an owl of some kind at this magnification!

Before I saw the image I thought you were stretching a point but it really does. Maybe you should have checked how much of 360 degrees its head could rotate.

A very striking shot. A triumph for one of my favourite lenses.

Harold

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 3:07 pm

It looks like it can only see forwards, is that unusual for a moth?

I have a 150W light outside. I keep checking, nothing there!

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 3:17 pm

ChrisR wrote:It looks like it can only see forwards, is that unusual for a moth/

No, but it would be for an owl!

Harold

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 4:03 pm

ChrisR wrote:It looks like it can only see forwards, is that unusual for a moth?

I suspect an illusion. In the picture, it appears there is a hood or cowl around and behind the eyes, preventing them from seeing much except forward. However, the "front edge" of that cowl is actually a couple of ordinary threadlike antennae, here tucked down beside the head and inside the legs. When the moth is active, the antennae will be held up and forward, and the moth will have full view to the sides and somewhat back as usual.

--Rik

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 5:53 pm

Rik's absolutely right on the antennae, it's a bit of a trick that it looks like an owl, though not intentional on my part!

To be honest I've never seen a live plume moth with it's wings held as this specimen ended up, alive they always seem to have their wings perpendicular to the body but once frozen this specimen ended up in an odd posture with it's wings folded, and as mentioned the antennae dropped down to look like the 'cowl' around an owls eyes.

Thanks all!

What amazes me most about these moths is that they can actually fly at all with the amount of wing area they have, guess that shows the efficiency of nature.

Harold, that lens now has a special place in my collection, I think it's my current favourite. I suspect the 10x Nikon CF has slightly more resolution available but I find the magnification range of this lens extremely useful.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:16 pm

The 10X Nikon CF has quite a bit more resolution than the Olympus 38 mm f/2.8 bellows lens. See HERE for direct comparison.

But as I noted in that thread, the Oly 38 is definitely my most used lens.

--Rik

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 6:06 am

Thanks Rik, I'd managed to miss some of the middle of that thread...

Plume moth (or a little owl?)

Plume moth (or a little owl?)

Re: Plume moth (or a little owl?)