Shieldbug bubble blowing

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:01 am

Spotted a shieldbug sitting on a pear leaf in the garden. Managed to cut the leaf off and put it on a sunchair for easier shooting without disturbing the shield bug at all. Did some focus stack sequences and then it lowered it's proboscis and started blowing bubbles for me. Not seen a shieldbug do this before.
It was returned to the pear tree after still sitting on it's leaf.
All shots focus stacked using zerene stacker.
Not sure if moving the bug to a sunchair counts as a studio shot or not ?

brian v.

sonyalpha · Post by **sonyalpha** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:44 am

Wow! Wow! and Triple Wow! Brian,

This set is one of your best I think.........These have to be prize winners:

I keep coming back to view them:

I really must get down to practising your hand stacking techniques......I did try with my shield bug the other day....without success:

Your MPE65 lens is one amazing bit of kit.......................once again ..................you are a real inspiration:

Your technique is just to steady your camera on a nearby solid surface....yes???

sonyalpha

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 1:20 am

sonyalpha wrote:Wow! Wow! and Triple Wow! Brian,

This set is one of your best I think.........These have to be prize winners:

I keep coming back to view them:

I really must get down to practising your hand stacking techniques......I did try with my shield bug the other day....without success:

Your MPE65 lens is one amazing bit of kit.......................once again ..................you are a real inspiration:

Your technique is just to steady your camera on a nearby solid surface....yes???

sonyalpha

Thanks SA

Yes for these I was either resting the lens on the sunchair or on my lefthand on the sun chair. The shieldbug just sat there watching what I was doing so I could also move the leaf around to get different shooting angles.

Brian v.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 2:54 am

I didn't know that they did that too! I guess quite a few insects blow bubbles.

Good post there Brian!

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 4:23 am

It may be a way of getting rid of excessive water from the sap it sucks.

Note in the following link the sap the spittlebug ingests is 99% water:-

http://homepage.mac.com/keithmjohnson/s ... ubbles.pdf

Honeydew was probably originally the way aphids got rid of the excess water and sugars they did not need in order to get enough of the other nutrients, only later to evolve into a symbiotic relationship with ants. Maybe flies and other bugs get rid of these excesses by mouth?

However it may be a fright reaction on being cornered, expelling its recent meal ready for flight as a distraction method? Some animals (including humans?) urinate when they feel cornered before fleeing, no doubt in evolutionary terms as a distraction method before flight.

DaveW

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:12 am

Impressive, even without the bubble!

Harold

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:12 am

Lovely shots, Brian. Great color and texture. The focus stacking enhances without becoming obvious by itself.

LordV wrote:Not sure if moving the bug to a sunchair counts as a studio shot or not ?

Me either. So then another way to think about it is "where would these images fit by appearance?" To my eye they're definitely at home here in Nature.

--Rik

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 11:16 pm

Thanks for the comments all- appreciated

Dave,
Don't think this was a startle reaction, shieldbugs will normally just walk off in the opposite direction or if really scared give off exudate from glands on the thorax. Bugs that excrete honeydew do it at the other end:).
This looked like more what happens when a fly blows drops (mind you don't think anybody actually knows why they do it either but lots of theories).
The blowing of the bubbles seems to take a lot of concentration by the insect and they become semi-oblivious to what is going on around them.
Brian v.

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Sun Oct 17, 2010 3:20 am

Very nice!

I can even see the structure of the leaf reflected through the bubble.
It is part of the leaf that is not in the focus of the lens, right?
Is there a possibility, theoretically, that the bubble reflects the part of leaf (focused), which is itself in the focus of the lens, with stacking no deeper than this?
Which would be more relevant, the distance from the bubble to the leaf, angle of shot, or something else?
Bubble picture is a bit intrigue. Bubble seems to be divided into two parts.
The upper part which has the reflection of the leaf and smaller lower part without it.
Is the dividing line actually the edge of the leaf?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Oct 17, 2010 6:55 am

MacroLuv, the small drop of water is not reflecting the leaf, it is refracting it. A small drop of water acts like a short wide-angle lens. It takes light coming from behind the drop and focuses it to form a small inverted image in front of the drop. A large depth of field would be required to have both the small inverted image and the leaf it represents be in focus at the same time.

I believe the "dividing line" you see in the bubble is an in-focus image of the same brownish line that you can see severely out of focus underneath the bug. Perhaps Brian remembers what that was physically?

--Rik

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Sun Oct 17, 2010 7:37 am

Thanks Rik.
I'm sorry for wrong expression.
I understand the lens effect of small drop of water.
Brownish line - central vein of leaf, maybe?

jgknight · Post by **jgknight** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 8:51 pm

Excellent series. You did well to capture it.

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:59 pm

Thanks for the comments

Think the line in the drop refaction is the leaf edge with the white sunchair beyond it.

Dave - you may be right re the bubble blowing fright distraction - found the self same shieldbug yesterday - took a few shots and it started blowing droplets again ! or maybe it's a natural performer in front of the camera

Brian v.

pbertner · Post by **pbertner** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 2:26 pm

Very impressive Brian, lovely subdued colours in the leaf, I always find the undersides of leaves to detract but here it works very well. Last shot is just stunning! Penultimate pic the white in the background is a little distracting, but only just,

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:03 pm

pbertner wrote:Very impressive Brian, lovely subdued colours in the leaf, I always find the undersides of leaves to detract but here it works very well. Last shot is just stunning! Penultimate pic the white in the background is a little distracting, but only just,

Thanks Paul for the comments

Must admit I rather like the more subtle colour and veining you often find on the underside of leaves - I did try a some differential hand stacking with #3 see below to reduce the background interference but preferred the full stack.

Brian V.

Shieldbug bubble blowing

Shieldbug bubble blowing

Re: Shieldbug bubble blowing