Great job finding the orchids and capturing them. A wonderful experience!

Welcome to the forum. I'm looking forward to any contributions your may have.

I seem to have taken this thread into uncharted territory. Sorry Mark.

My sincerest condolences to his family. He was a true force in our community, showing the way for all who followed.

The mandible seem broken to me, and that would be interesting in itself. I often discover abnormalities or impairments in insects that I shoot and have come to believe that is what makes them available as subjects, too weak or exhausted to flee.

Looks like a new art form!

no. It's an inside joke, as in inside my own head. I've been able to discern striations in a number of 7x photos I've taken but not what causes them. When I see higher res images, I learn what's just beyond the horizon of what I'm shooting. I often wonder if others process these things the same way....

No doubt about it now. The striated setae/bristles are actually grooved.

I enjoyed your Flickr postings ... again.

Sorry, I got lost. What is the objective you tested?

Rik, your work is amazing. I LOLed when I saw your candy cane ant 'cause that's exactly what I do with volunteer at home specimen, but not with these results. Further to this, the exterior process is interesting and I believe I've seen a similar structure in midges associated with the wing mechanism...

Ah!!! Unobtainium, the alchemists "idée fixe".

A great opening!

I have no doubt you will be impressed by the results

... did a very rough glue job

But if only we charged more, we would do a much better job!

I couldn't help but imagine that much of the "issues" raised in the review pages were only a care away from being mitigated. LOL Hi Tech meets Real Life.

More here - https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/bitstream/handle/20.500.11850/146274/eth-25220-01.pdf and here - https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/bitstream/handle/20.500.11850/146308/eth-25255-01.pdf Colour scanning: 3 passes, dichroic filters with > 75% transmission Other characteristics...