Aphids.....Its whats for dinner

[Patrick Sparkman]

It has been constantly windy here, so it has been difficult to get out and shoot the flowers and bugs. But it finally laid down a little and I found a few. This guy was great! He got in several cool poses, and you can see a couple of aphids hiding from him. I believe this is a juvenile assassin bug, but I could be wrong. I did not see him attack the aphids, but it sure would have been neat. :bg3:

BTW - this guy is only about 1/8" long.

Canon EOS-1D IV, MP-E65, MT-24 diffused set manually, iso400,f16,1/300 sec, Normal Lightroom adjustments, minimal crop, a little Tim Grey dodging/burning on highlights. All comments welcome.

[Mitch Haimov]

Wow--exquisite! Light, composition, subject, texture, color are all there. Would enough DOF to fully cover the antennae be nice? Sure. But frankly, I am impressed that you were able to pull off as much DOF as you did at that magnification, and you placed it perfectly.

[Brendan Dozier]

Very cool image, Patrick! Like the comp, and outstanding exp, detail on "The Assasin". Dark BG really makes color pop. Capturing an attack would be very cool too. Nice job!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Patrick. This is a very nice image! The bug gave you a good pose, I like the comp, the subjects show up well against the dark background (I like that it isn't solid black), the bug is sharp, and the DOF is acceptable elsewhere. Also, you did a nice job with the lighting in that the image does not look like it was flashed. Well done.

Despite this bug's fearsome-looking beak, I don't think it is an assassin bug - they all seem to have smaller heads (you might check on bugguide.net to see what I mean). I'm wondering if this might be a nymph of one of the Red Bugs (Family Pyrrhocoridae). These are plant feeders. Some of the nymph photos I've found resemble this guy, but I haven't found a perfect match yet. If anyone else can identify this insect, please chime in. :S3:

[Ken Childs]

Hi Patrick, great capture here! You MP-E65 shooters are making me very jealous! The sharpness is where it needs to be, the comp looks great and the color of the bug is perfect, IMHO! A little more DOF would be nice but I know with that lens, that's asking for a lot!

I see Steve beat me to the punch on the bug ID....it's definitely not an assassin. Google image search assassin nymph and you'll see that they are a lot more prehistoric looking.

[Patrick Sparkman]

Steve, Ken,

I am sure you guys are correct, and this is probably some kind of Red Bug. I guess I saw the feeding tube, and just hoped that it was an assassin bug. Makes sense, as I am sure an assassin would have attacked the aphids.

Ken,

If you don't have an MP-E65, get one! I love mine! This thing is for insects like my 800 f5.6 is for birds, only a lot smaller and lighter.

[Ed Cordes]

Outstanding detail and super BG. A bit off the left would be nice.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Patrick, wonderful details and colors on the bug. Very well handled! I do find that I'm a little distracted by the large amount of plant in the frame. You might try a vertical crop with the left of the frame just next to the first big upward pointing thorn, like below. I also cropped some off the right.
Assassin bugs (Reduviidae) and the other large group of predacious bugs the damsel bugs (Nabidae) are characterized by the fact that they have a clear "neck" and a somewhat elongated head compared to the other bugs. You can tell the difference between the two predacious groups by counting the number of lids of the rostrum (the feeding tube): Reduviidae have 3 lids, Nabidae 4.

[Patrick Sparkman]

Thanks Jerry, I really like your crop!

[kostas nianiopoulos]

i his color against the green and the kar BG , a verry good image nicely done !!!