Butterfly closeups

Lord Vetinari

Managed to get some closeups of the normally timid holly blue butterfly today due I think to the high winds around at the moment here.
First 2 pics are uncropped, second 2 pics are crops from the first 2 pics. Taken with my MPE-65 lens

Brian V.

Richard

Your stuff never ceases to amaze me, Brian. I was wondering though...do you ever have nightmares with huge bugs closing in on you? Or are those just sweet dreams for you?

Cheers,

Scott_Quier

Those are sweet.

I have to wonder, what's with the filiments coming out of the eyes. I had always assumed that insect eyes were just a series of exposed lenses and, other-wise, smooth. Can you provide some background/information on what we are seeing here. Thanks.

Photography, just another opportunity to learn something new by better observing the world around us.

Lord Vetinari

rsinmadrid wrote:

Your stuff never ceases to amaze me, Brian. I was wondering though...do you ever have nightmares with huge bugs closing in on you? Or are those just sweet dreams for you?

Cheers,

Thanks Richard
No - No nightmares yet
Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

Scott_Quier wrote:

Those are sweet.

I have to wonder, what's with the filiments coming out of the eyes. I had always assumed that insect eyes were just a series of exposed lenses and, other-wise, smooth. Can you provide some background/information on what we are seeing here. Thanks.

Photography, just another opportunity to learn something new by better observing the world around us.

Thanks Scott

As I suspect you know many insects have compound eyes which is what you can see here but as I found out last year most bugs that are associated with flowers have hairs coming out of their eyes- including flies, butterflies, hoverflies and bees. The hairs are very fine and virtually transparent- they only show if the lighting is just right. I can only assume this is an adaption to stop pollen sticking to the surface of the eye- ie it sticks to the hairs and can be rubbed off
Brian V.

Sushant

holy moly, your pictures are amazing!

Scott_Quier

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Thanks Scott

As I suspect you know many insects have compound eyes which is what you can see here but as I found out last year most bugs that are associated with flowers have hairs coming out of their eyes- including flies, butterflies, hoverflies and bees. The hairs are very fine and virtually transparent- they only show if the lighting is just right. I can only assume this is an adaption to stop pollen sticking to the surface of the eye- ie it sticks to the hairs and can be rubbed off
Brian V.

Yeah, you're right in assuming I knew about the compound eyes (I'm getting more feeble all the time, but still just barely able to remember grade-school education, most of the time - humor is so difficult in this format!!). And if I didn't know about compound eyes, your wonderful photos would make that fact abundantly clear.

Your explaination for the fine hairs makes a lot of sense, especially in light of the fact that they only show up on insects that are likely to be putting their faces in places where their eyes are likely to get dusted/dirty.

Awais Yaqub

Amazing as always i really love your work

Lord Vetinari

Sushant wrote:

holy moly, your pictures are amazing!

Thanks Sushant
Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Amazing as always i really love your work

Thanks Awais- your comments are much appreciated.
Brian V.

ziggy53

Brian,

Does National Geographic know about you? I mean I think they should. These are truly spectacular images and equal some of the best I've seen. (... and I'm pretty old too.)

Bravo sir, bravo.

Thanks,

ziggy53

ChrisJ

Ziggy's got a point... the crop on the second one just blows me away. The textures and color are just great.

Lord Vetinari

Thanks for the comments Ziggy and Chris.
Hope NG don't know about me- they'd probably want macro bug shots from Mount Everest or something
Brian V.