Its time for another update to my Personal Photography Project.
You can check out this post for a more detailed explanation, but essentially my aim with this is to show you some pictures of invertebrates, and by using the simple black background you can appreciate how beautiful they are.
Previous Themes:
Spiders
Butterflies
'Green'
White Plume Moth - Pterophorus pentadactyla
Last night I set up another Moth Trap session. Using a bright light, I can see what Moths and other nocturnal insects are active at this time of year, and I can catch anything interesting to take photos off.
Angle Shades Moth - Phlogophora meticulosa
After catching them, I placed them in the fridge to calm them down and help relax them. Then I took a few pictures of them with my simple 'studio' set up. They will be released alive and unharmed later on this evening. This Angle Shades (seen above) was one of the better moths seen last night. I don't the species very often here, so I'm always excited to see it!
Grass Veneer Moth - Crambus pascuella
Lots of the smaller moth species can be a dull grey or brown and a little bit 'boring'. But there still some beautiful moths here as well including this lovely little Grass Moth. Only 12mm long and a rich golden yellow colour proves that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes
Caddisfly - Limnephilus marmoratus
Of course my aim with Moth Trapping, is to see moths. But there is plenty of other cool insects to see at night. This is a type of caddisfly. You might think that it looks similar to some small moths... but it is a different group of insects: Trichoptera. They are very closely related to moths so it is understandable to get them mixed up. A very interesting group of insects (the larvae are found in water for instance!) and I'll write a separate post on them in the future.
Greenbottle Fly - Lucilla species
Last, but not least, is this Greenbottle Fly. I don't care if you like them or not, Flies are flippin' cool! They are superb fliers and have evolved to fit into a huge variety of ecological niches to exploit lots of different food sources.
Once again, I hope you enjoyed the pictures and found this post interesting. As I mentioned earlier, all of these will be released safely and unharmed after the sun has set this evening.
All names confirmed and checked via Wikispieces
More of these images can be seen on my Website