Once again feeding from the Honey Pot :)
IPClark
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Once again I captured a visitor to our home. This time a Helophilus Trivittatus Hover Fly (Male). This guy was a large one. Almost as large as the Drone flies that seem to have invaded our garden.
Having captured it within a glass, I once again set to providing a small droplet of honey on a sheet of white paper. Placing the glass over it, I waited about a minute before the hover found the honey and gorged itself.
Firstly a cheeky little shot in the glass.
Then a variation of shots. Sorry there's so many but when you have such a compliant subject, you take liberties
The next two, you can see a couple of droplets on the eye
This one I took as a typical entomology study book style shot
And this final shot was taken with two extension tubes (can't remember which ones)
Having captured it within a glass, I once again set to providing a small droplet of honey on a sheet of white paper. Placing the glass over it, I waited about a minute before the hover found the honey and gorged itself.
Firstly a cheeky little shot in the glass.
Then a variation of shots. Sorry there's so many but when you have such a compliant subject, you take liberties
The next two, you can see a couple of droplets on the eye
This one I took as a typical entomology study book style shot
And this final shot was taken with two extension tubes (can't remember which ones)
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I quite often do this with insects I find in the house before releasing them outside. Only problem is sometimes they don't want to leave the honey
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hahah Yes it did survive. Same species as the one in the Spider series but this was a couple of days before and it was set free with a full belly
Actually, I tried this a week or two ago and noticed that with the hover, the belly became golden yellow. I'd not realised their underneath was translucent.
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The shots were taken in our conservatory which is rather akin to a very large light tent, only 16ft x 16ft and Probably 12ft high at the apex of the polycarbonate roof
When I capture them, I either let them free outside or if I'm going to photograph like in these shots, I'll capture them in a small 200ml plastic tumbler with a piece of paper underneath. For these images, once they were feeding, I could easily remove the tumbler and they were happy to stick around until gorged
They're never kept in captivity for any lengthy period of time.
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