UFO or a Tortoise Beetle Pupa?
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,379 Major grins
I found this while looking for insects to photograph in my garden. I had never seen anything like it before.
My first thought was that it was an empty Green Shield-bug skin. Then I saw that the thing itself had an empty skin around its tail end, the tail gripping the leaf. This was typical of a ladybird larva, when pupating, but the shape and size were wrong.
Anyway, I took a series of photographs, including one with the leaf pulled back to reveal the underside of the pupa. (My finger tip cropped out, focus not ideal but structures visible after heavy processing).
Olympus EM-1, Kiron 105mm macro, f11 ISO 800, twin TTL flash, hand-held.
The cross-eye stereo shows its flying characteristics.
Harold
My first thought was that it was an empty Green Shield-bug skin. Then I saw that the thing itself had an empty skin around its tail end, the tail gripping the leaf. This was typical of a ladybird larva, when pupating, but the shape and size were wrong.
Anyway, I took a series of photographs, including one with the leaf pulled back to reveal the underside of the pupa. (My finger tip cropped out, focus not ideal but structures visible after heavy processing).
Olympus EM-1, Kiron 105mm macro, f11 ISO 800, twin TTL flash, hand-held.
The cross-eye stereo shows its flying characteristics.
Harold
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