Blood Sucker Or Just A Sucker?
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,379 Major grins
I recently tried to get shots of midges with spectacular antennae. They hide down amongst the leaves of my balm plants. I had decided that these were males of non-biting midges, Chironomidae.
In yet another attempt, I saw something which surprised me. One individual seemed bloated with blood but in the thorax, not in the abdomen. So, were these biting midges after all, and females? And why would the blood meal be in the thorax, These insects are so small that this could be determined only by a high magnification image.
So, armed with my EM-1, with reversed Schneider HM 40mm at f16 , with a TC and extension behind it, I used a FOV 6mm wide and the usual twin flash.
I didn't get quite the quality of images I wanted but the mystery was cleared up. The red/pink mass was outside the thorax, comprised of numerous mites which I conclude must be Prostigmata, possibly Pyemotidae.
These phoretic (travelling) mites has hitched a lift on this "sucker". This individual seems to have lost most of the filaments from its antennae.
Harold
In yet another attempt, I saw something which surprised me. One individual seemed bloated with blood but in the thorax, not in the abdomen. So, were these biting midges after all, and females? And why would the blood meal be in the thorax, These insects are so small that this could be determined only by a high magnification image.
So, armed with my EM-1, with reversed Schneider HM 40mm at f16 , with a TC and extension behind it, I used a FOV 6mm wide and the usual twin flash.
I didn't get quite the quality of images I wanted but the mystery was cleared up. The red/pink mass was outside the thorax, comprised of numerous mites which I conclude must be Prostigmata, possibly Pyemotidae.
These phoretic (travelling) mites has hitched a lift on this "sucker". This individual seems to have lost most of the filaments from its antennae.
Harold
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