Asparagus Beetle Larva Ecdysis (Moult)

e6filmusere6filmuser Registered Users Posts: 3,379 Major grins
edited August 19, 2015 in Holy Macro
Having recently posted images of the larvae feeding on my asparagus plants, I checked the plants again, in search of better angles of view than previously.

There were larvae present but I had photographed only one when I noticed that one had a pale dorsal bulge. The process that I witnessed over about the next hour is summarised in these new images.

I show the initial bulge and split skin, through to the active larva after emerging. The larvae moved around rather rapidly after the preceding, almost imperceptible emergence, and the image is not as I would like.

Almost all of this was shot with the battery warning light flashing throughout and the need to frequently turn off the camera to conserve power.

I used my extended Printing Nikkor 105mm (at f11) setup, with a FOV around 10mm. I used twin flash but the cramped location gave the second flash a few knocks and it may not have shone much light on the subject for some frames. Hand-held.

Where I could get the nearby larva also in focus I did so but, otherwise it was a useful OOF background.

The amount of cropping varies from none to significant, as may be judged from the magnification of each image.

Harold


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