Close-up photography: insects meet Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)

Here are some really killer photos…

My subject matter tonight is again about insects. More specifically, it is about a couple of insects that encountered the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) in my bog garden. Hmm…I guess we are really talking about insect corpses.

To be honest, my bog garden it isn’t really a garden, it’s just a big pot with a variety of carnivorous plants growing in it. But it is easily the most interesting spot in the whole garden. It is always fascinating to see what kind of bug has been trapped by which plant.

Anyhow, I think most people are familiar with Venus flytraps and how they trap insects. Venus flytraps grow in bogs and similar habitats that are low in the nitrogen and phosphorus that plants need to survive (nitrogen and phosphorus are primary nutrients for plants, along with potassium). So flytraps have evolved the ability to trap and digest insects and other arthropods in order to acquire these nutrients. Their “traps” are formed by two opposing lobes at the end of their leaves, each of which is fringed by a row of “teeth”. If a small enough prey touches the tiny hairs on the inner surface of the trap (it has to touch 2 hairs in a short period of time) the trap closes. If the prey is too big it might be able to muscle out of the trap. If not, If the edges of the trap slowly force themselves together, eventually sealing the trap to form a pouch around the prey. The trap then secretes enzymes into the pouch to digest the prey. Kind of creepy eh?

This first photo below is of a very long legged insect that has been successfully trapped by the plant. I have no idea what kind of critter it was—I’m guessing maybe a crane fly (family Tipulidae), but really, your guess is as good as mine. In fact, if you have a guess I’d love to hear it! [Update: The consensus is that it wasn’t an insect at all—it was a harvestman order Opiliones)—EC]

 

Once digestion is complete there isn’t much left of the prey than an empty husk. The trap then opens again and is ready for business once more. The second photo shows the remains of an insect in a newly re-opened trap. It looks like an ex-fly to me.

It sure is tough being a bug…

Cheers,
EC

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (photo 1:F11 @ 1/125 sec; photo 2: F22 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: on-camera flash (diffused)

A tail of two scorpions

Sorry about the title of this blog…I just couldn’t resist!

OK, I really didn’t plan on posting about scorpions again today, and I certainly didn’t plan on uploading another older photo. But I was reminded of a story today and decided to share it here. I’ll get to the story in a minute…

First I need to introduce the photo below of a desert hairy scorpion (Hadrurus arizonensis). These scorpions range through the Sonora and Mojave deserts of Mexico and the USA. They are probably the largest species of scorpion in North America, but their venom is not very toxic and so their sting is not considered dangerous. This is a digitized copy of a 35mm slide that was created along with the other scorpion photos I discussed yesterday. It was taken more than 20 years ago.

 

Now here’s the thing: I don’t remember having any desert hairy scorpions 20 years ago. I remember keeping a number of other species including Vaehovis sp., bark scorpions (Centruroides), fat-tailed scorpions (Androctonus) and death-stalkers (Leiurus quinquestriatus)—but not desert hairys. None of the slides of scorpions that I had scanned were labelled (oops), but they weren’t hard to identify. When I looked at this picture I thought it looked like a desert hairy, but I knew it couldn’t be one because—I’m repeating myself here—I was sure I didn’t have any back then. The scorpion in this picture looks nothing like Vaehovis, a bark scorpion or a fat-tailed scorpion. So I thought maybe it was a death-stalker and my identification skills were just lacking. But I needed to be sure. So yesterday I posted the photo on two websites: Arachnoboards—a discussion forum for people interested in arachnids (spiders and scorpions); and Scorpion Forum and asked the many experts on those sites to help identify it.

All of the responses to my query identified the critter as a desert hairy. Score one for my identification skills and zero for my memory. Apparently I really did have at least one specimen of desert hairy scorpion back then. [As you get older they say your memory is the second thing to go…I don’t remember what the first thing is (Ba-dum-bump!)].

One of the people that responded to my question asked me if someone had sold me the desert hairy as a death-stalker. And that reminded me of my story:

Back around when I took this photo I heard that a local dealer had some “Israeli gold” scorpions (Scorpio maurus). These are a smaller but very interesting species of scorpion that I was particularly interested in keeping and photographing. Their venom is not strong and they aren’t a dangerous species. I gave the dealer a call and went over to pick a couple up. He took me into the basement of his house, took a plastic tub off a shelf and opened it for me. Inside the tub was a seething mass of death-stalkers (Leiurus quinquestriatus)—which are unfortunately also sometimes called “Israeli gold” scorpions. Leiurus are also arguably the most dangerous scorpion on earth with venom approximately as toxic as that of a cobra. He didn’t believe me at first when I told him what he had. But I just happened to have a copy of Scorpions of Medical Importance (by Hugh L. Keegan) in my car. I showed him the descriptions of the two species of scorpions and convinced him of what he had. When he realized that he had been selling Leiurus to pet shops as Scorpio maurus he went a little pale. I suggested that he better start making calls to get them back. Amazingly he did…

And this story illustrates one reason that scientific names are so important.

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus OM-4 SLR
Lens: Tamron 90mm F2.5 macro lens
Settings: F16 @ 1/60 sec
Lighting: Vivitar 283 with vari-power module
Film: Fujichrome 50asa or 100asa
 

If you are interested in learning more about these or any other species of scorpions, I highly recommend that you check out the websites I mentioned above. They are loaded with good information and great people to chat with.p>

Macro photography of freshwater shrimp

I have to admit, I am really tired. I have been in long meetings for the past 3 days. It has meant leaving home very early in the morning and getting home late at night. Then for each of the past couple of nights I have stayed up late working on my blog. I think that tonight I am just going to post a few pictures and not take the time do write much about them. Tomorrow, once I have had a little sleep, I’ll maybe write a little more.

Tonight’s theme is shrimp. Below are 3 photos of some of the different freshwater shrimp I have kept in my aquarium. Although I have a few fish, I am really much more interested in keeping invertebrates.

Picture #1 is a close-up photo of a Flower shrimp (Atyopsis moluccensis). These shrimp are also called bamboo shrimp, wood shrimp, and Asian fan shrimp—talk about an identity crisis! They are widely distributed in the Indo Pacific and Asia.

 

Picture #2 is a macro photo of a Pinocchio shrimp (Caridina gracilirostris)—named (obviously) for their very long rostrums (the long spine-like structure that juts forward from its face).  As you can see, these shrimp are nearly transparent with a few splashes of colour. They are native to India.

Picture #3 is a macro photo of a cherry red shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda). Wild specimens of these shrimp (native to China) are a green-brown colour. But in captivity they have been bred to display a brilliant, beautiful red. This particular specimen is eating a bloodworm—the larva of a non-biting midge (Family Chironomidae).

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F14 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: on-camera flash set to maximum power

Oak trees, leaf litter, millipedes and my camera

Yesterday I went on a quest to find some oak trees. Oaks aren’t really common around my part of town, but I had a hot tip that there was a small grove of them in a area of forest not far from where I live. Once I got there it only took about 15 minutes of hiking around to find them: a group of big, beautiful old oaks. And underneath them I found what I was really looking for: two big handfuls of oak tree leaf litter. I took my booty and headed home.

You may now be wondering why I was looking for oak tree leaf litter. Those of you who know me well may have guessed that I was planning to search the leaf litter for interesting critters to photograph. That would be a good guess—I do enjoy rooting through leaf litter! But in this case, you would be wrong: I was actually looking for oak tree leaf litter to feed my new millipedes. Well, technically they belong to my 5 year old son. But when he asked me to get him some big millipedes I was (no surprise) more than happy to oblige.

The critters in question are specimens of Narceus annularis, sometimes called worm millipedes. These animals reach a length of approximately 10 cm and are—as far as I know—the largest species of millipede native to Canada. They range from the United States north into Southern Quebec and Ontario. They are apparently common and abundant in areas of oak and elm tree forest where they can be found in rotting logs and leaf litter. These millipedes compost the forest floor by eating decaying vegetation—including (you guessed it) oak tree leaves; hence my quest to collect leaf litter.

These animals are gentle, reclusive and (relatively) slow moving. But they are little bit tricky to photograph as they have the tendency to hide their head (a good defensive strategy); plus they are smooth, shiny and tubular shaped. That means (as you will see from the accompanying photos) that no matter what angle you shoot from, if you are using a flash you will get noticeable reflections. When I get the chance I will take one outside and try to get some nice photos using natural light.

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F16 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Olympus RF-11 ring flash (TTL)

As millipedes go, Narceus annularis are a pretty good size, but they are tiny compared to the real giants. The biggest of them all is the African giant black millipede Archispirostreptus gigas which can grow to a whopping 38 cm long. Keeping giant millipedes in captivity is a well established hobby in the USA and Europe. If you’d like to know more about giant millipedes I’d recommend checking out Giant Millipedes UK.