Yellowstone Trip #2

[scitch]

Here are some more pictures from my trip to Yellowstone. These are all single images taken by hand with a Sony Alpha 200 and a Tamron macro lens.

First, there was a plant with large ants crawling all over it on the edge of a river. I stopped to take pictures of the ants and later noticed all of the smaller insects. Highly cropped.



Black bee that is different than the bees I have at home so it was interesting to me. Very highly cropped.



This damsel fly is so well camouflaged as to be almost invisible. Slightly cropped.



This is one of a mating pair of black butterflies. I thought that it had orange eyes until I zoomed in close and saw that those weren't eyes at all. Very highly cropped.



Here is a fly with a very colorful body. Moderately cropped.



Here's a fly perched atop a very pretty flower. Slightly cropped.



By they way, what does it mean when someone says "100% cropped"?

Mike

[rjlittlefield]

Looks like you had fun.

Image #1, the smaller insects are aphids. Probably being tended by the ant, who trades protection for a sweet exudate produced by the aphids.

Image #5, the green metallic "fly" appears to be a chrysidid wasp. They are parasitic on other wasps. See HERE for a closer view.

Image #6, I don't recognize the fly. The flower appears to be a Columbine (Aquilegia).

[scitch]

Thanks for the info, Rik. It was a great trip and there are still more insect and flower pictures on my hard drive. Oh, yeah, and some bears, moose, bison, geysers, hotsprings, waterfalls, bald eagles, beavers, otters, osprey, hawks, elk, pronghorn, etc. It was an amazing photography trip. Over 3,500 pictures taken in 8 days.

Insects are incredibly interesting to learn about. Coming from a physics guy, that's pretty amazing.

Your wasp picture is incredible. You are incredibly patient to get 170+ images to stack without any vibration and perfect lighting.

Tomorrow, I'll post one that I'd really like an ID on. It looks like a huge bee that lives in a hole in the ground in a field of hot springs with the spots on its eyes like a damselfly. Pretty cool.

[PaulFurman]

Great shot of the ant and aphids!

[scitch]

Thanks, Paul. That whole thing about the ants getting a sweet treat from the aphids is pretty amazing. Interesting creatures.