Molting Water Scorpion

[Steve Maxson]

Recently, I was fortunate enough to observe and photograph the molting process of this Water Scorpion (Ranatra sp). (I'm guessing that few people have ever seen this.) Here is a representative image from fairly late in the molt. This individual was right at the water surface (likely so it could continue to breath during at least part of the process) which limited the compositional possibilities. The bright yellow color of the new exoskeleton is rather striking. Photographed in my 2.5 gallon aquarium setup, 1D IV, 100 mm macro, 1/125, f/11, ISO 160, 2 radio-triggered 430EX flashes (manual mode, diffused), tripod, live view manual focus. I removed some of the floating bits of debris in the water and ran nr on the background. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[John Robinson]

Great stuff Steve- never seen it myself-( but then I haven't seen a lot of things !!)
Would be a little more balanced I feel with something above the wtaer meniscus. Always a problem with surface stuff though.
Good work.
John

[Jonathan Ashton]

I feel a WOW coming on here! Great shot and to have been there and got such a high quality image must be incredibly satisfying.
Steve, I am wondering how you "operate" this tank. Do you keep it indoors or out (i.e. is temperature a consideration). Do you stock it and leave it for a few days just to observe what may be there or do you find something fresh on a regular basis and replace the subjects regularly?

[Steve Maxson]

Thanks John and Jon!

Jon: I keep the tank on my basement workbench - so temperature is quite constant and probably not too different from that in the summertime ponds where I find my subjects. Typically, I capture subjects with a fine-mesh net and bring them home in buckets. I then can select subjects to place in the aquarium. Sometimes I may have only one subject in the tank - especially if it is something rather large, but most of the time I have a variety of invertebrates in there simultaneously. These subjects may remain in the aquarium for a week or so and I check periodically through the day to see if any are doing something interesting or are posing nicely. As most of my subjects are predators, predation inevitably occurs (just like it does out in the ponds) - sometimes this presents good photo opportunities. If you have a small subject you really want to photograph, don't put it in the tank along with a bunch of larger predators. :S3: For this reason, I have a number of small holding tanks where I can keep the larger predators away from the smaller ones until I am ready to photograph. I release subjects once I am finished with them. Eventually the tank starts to get dirty with lots of small bits of debris in the water. The 2.5 gal size is small enough that I can pick it up, dump the water, rinse everything, and start over.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Steve that is very helpful.

[Madjid Momeni-Moghaddam]

congrats dear Stephan ,its amazing moment ,I like molting process of your subject,The World is complicated!