JMC mentioned the fluorescent yellow-green color of acacia log ends. I have noticed that the sap wood of black walnut (abundant in Illinois) occasionally will fluoresce. I use a UV cure lacquer on my wood working projects. In my ukulele UV tanning booth the finish fully hardens in 20 minutes. The fl...

Tonikon wrote

A while ago I also photographed a lacewing...

A lovely specimen indeed! The green lacewings I have photographed in Northern Illinois often have eyes like golden BBs when fresh. They become black after they have been dead for a while.

Nice image!

I was struck by the resemblance to Lacewings. Especially the brilliant spherical eyes. I checked BugGuide and discovered that Lacewings and Ant Lions are closely related. Interesting!

https://bugguide.net/node/view/61


Keith

Thanks Rik. The convex beads on the interior are amazing! In the transition between instars the vision must get pretty degraded.

Keith

This is fascinating! I can see the convex curvature of the exterior (distal) surface of the cuticle lens, but wonder about the interior surface contour. Is it spherical and continuous spanning the compound eye or dimpled by each ommatidium? Does it provide the mold to shape the corneal lenses reveal...

Rik wrote favorably about “Complex Worlds from Simpler Nervous Systems”. I must second his strong endorsement. After reading the very enlightening discussion on jumping spiders I shall never look at them the same way!

Keith

Very nice. Note the little black "pick axes" that are left behind when the nymph exit the egg. They are quite interesting and probably important for breaking out of the egg. Many years ago I tried to image them, but I did not have the greatest equipment for this. I think they could be more accuratel...

Stink bug eggs are interesting to observe. I have made time lapse movies of nymphs emerging. The hatch is synchronized and most emerge within an hour or so of their siblings. Squash bug eggs are similar. Bug eggs are good subjects. There is much interesting detail Stink Bug embryos with good caption...

Assassin bug?

Keith
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I recently built a tape dispenser and had to make the cutter. My attempts at machining a serrated cutter from sheet metal were unsuccessful. Then I repurposed a used hacksaw blade and with some sharpening it worked perfectly. The serrations on the jaws of the ant would work well. Interesting subject...

Very interesting Rik!

Many years ago I recall watching winged ants swarm up from the ground in a steady stream. They did this in the Arizona desert right after a big rainstorm. They were small ants, but bigger than this.

Thanks for sharing!

Keith

flies usually lay eggs, don't they? Do some of them carry their young around or was this some sort of parasite? Egg laying the norm. Parasite probable . Live birth unlikely, but who knows? There are millions of species of flies... I am filming the development of long legged fly (Dolichopodidae) egg...

Taken with my point and shoot Panasonic DC-ZS70. Hand held. Some fill flash on last two. Light mostly from ambient cloudy day. http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/userpix/1597_6F65742F5EBA486FB5FBDAAADBE65B0B_1.jpg http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/userpix/1597_CD646B56EA594B81ACC9DD9CD9CC4AA1...

Sykes wrote: you need to be aware of window violation, your brain detects it is an impossible situation. I went to the link and read about 3D window violation. I am more familiar with various Windows 10 violations. I commit them frequently. I have the good fortune of easily perceiving stereo in 3D p...

My wife and I took an anniversary stroll in the nearby park. We hoped to look for warblers as the spring migration through northern Illinois draws to a close. We struck out on warblers, but as we walked home I noticed some tiny doli flies on the leaves of skunk cabbage growing along the bank of a sm...