Horntail Woodwasp

[svalley]

Hymenoptera: family Siricidae: Urocerus cressoni Norton





The woodwasps in this family all have long, highly modified ovipositors that are carried in a protective sheath which is split longtudinally. The ovipositor itself is also split and the 2 halves articulate (like an electric carving knife) to drill into a tree and lay eggs.



This image shows the sculpturing of the ovipositor tip that helps them drill into the wood. Many species also inject a toxic mucus ans several species of fungi, that may kill the tree. Some species are attracted to forest fires and show up while it is still smoldering. It is unknown whether they are attracted to the heat or the smoke. Some are also attracted to the scent of ethanol and turpentine.

These images were shot with a Leica MZ16 Stereomicroscope w/extended depth of field imaging system and processed with ImagePro Software. The 2 habitus shots were composed of about 20 tiles each that were stitched together with PhotoShop CS2
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"You can't build a time machine without weird optics"
Steve Valley - Albany, Oregon

[rjlittlefield]

Beautiful -- and beautifully done!

Any chance of getting a link to a high res version? <begging puppy emoticon goes here>

--Rik

[svalley]

Rik, thanks. I don't have the high res files on my computer here at home and I am off work until Monday, so I will set one up then. We expect the book on these wasps to be released in the next few weeks. The images of the females are printed full page on 8.5x11. I am really looking forward to seeing it and the coolest thing is, they can be ordered for free! I will post the ordering info, if anyone is interested.
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"You can't build a time machine without weird optics"
Steve Valley - Albany, Oregon

[Charles Krebs]

Really nice work Steve....
I'll be traveling for a week or two, so I'll put in my request now for you to add the ordering info to this post when it is available.

[rjlittlefield]

Steve,

That will be a very cool book to see!

A brief thinking-aloud about the technology... 8.5x11 inches at 304.8 dpi (12 pixels/mm) is 2591 x 3353 pixels. That's almost exactly equal to the 2592 x 3888 pixels that are captured by a Canon 400D (Digital Rebel XTi) in a single frame, and substantially less than the 2704 x 4064 pixels captured by a Canon EOS-1Ds.

So it's an interesting tradeoff. If the goal is specifically to capture images at a resolution suitable for the book, then there's no need for multi-tile stitching. Just stick a really good macro lens on the front of a high-res DSLR, and shoot one stack.

On the other hand, if you want best achievable resolution, then there's currently no practical substitute for stitching. At 7800 x 7100 pixels, the moth that I did for my Mom's Christmas present (here) was way beyond the capacity of any digital camera that I'd be willing to pay for.

It's funny how these things shift around as the technology evolves.

--Rik

[Bruce Williams]

Hi Steve,

Excellent photos - what a great job you have!

Your earlier posting of the Blue Horntail Head sent me of on a couple of hours of related reading/viewing (courtesy of Google) and I was thinking of asking then if you would post a close-up photo of the ovipositor, but decided that would be a bit "cheeky". So a particular thank you for the amazing pic and the information in this posting.

Bruce

[MacroLuv]

Great!
What a drill!
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The meaning of beauty is in sharing with others.

P.S.
Noticing of my "a" and "the" and other grammar
errors are welcome.