Has the deadline been extended?

Tony M.

Still a few Chequered Skips at Glasdrum, although most are a bit tatty now. This was the best I saw: 2-DSC05258.JPG Many really fresh SPBFs: 3-DSC05145.JPG 1-DSC05182.JPG The Northern Brown Argus is just out in Bishop Middleham Quarry. I saw about a dozen, all very fresh. Sadly, no artaxerxes . 4-DS...

In the interests of science, I stayed up until 5 am last night waiting for my second DS egg to hatch. At risk of overkill, I post below another sequence. From the first break in the shell to the final emergence took over four hours! I felt like a lepidopterous midwife... The larva was active in burs...

Thanks, guys - I do feel I was very lucky. Pete, I was using a Sony A65 set to its 2x teleconverter + 60mm of extension tubes and a Sigma 105mm macro. It was set up on the rig that I use for photostacking (roughly two cheap Chinese sliders fixed to a bit of angle girder and screwed to a wooden base....

2-DSC04760.JPG 3-DSC04762.JPG 4-DSC04766.JPG 5-DSC04767.JPG 6-DSC04768.JPG Very lucky last evening to witness a Dingy Skip egg hatching. The top of the egg had started to go black during the day, so I checked on it every hour or so. the larva appeared to be trying to bite through the eggshell, whic...

For anyone interested in 'photo-stacking', especially at high magnification, the SLT has a great advantage in that it has no mirror and therefore no 'earthquake' effect from the mirror slap. (A65 + Sigma 105 macro + Nikor 10x plan objective. 99 image stack.).

Tony M.

That is seriously brilliant, Guy. Shame you can't do a nice thick oil copy on a cornflake packet - Christie's might be fooled too .

Tony M.

The 'AAARrrrggh!' was just that I managed to get it wrong - again....

T.

Thanks, Guy - aarrrrggh!

TM

This was photographed in Bulgaria in June. I think it is Chequered Blue - would someone kindly confirm (or otherwise ).


Tony M.

Thanks very much, guys.

I had it down originally as Common, but the lack of a cell spot made me doubtful. Unfortunately, this is the only image that I was able to take.

Tony M.

This was taken in the Pyrenees in June. Is it Turquoise Blue?

Tony M.

Roger - many thanks for your input. It's a really fascinating group. I'm pretty sure that I saw many malvoides during my visit. They were smallish, dark and appeared to have a pronounced white spot in the middle of the upper hw. This spot was nothing like so obvious in the subsequent photographs, wh...

Hi Goldie,

Common Marbled Carpet (Chloroclysta truncata) - a very variable species.

Tony M.

Very many thanks, Guy, for your expertise and rapid response. Sadly, I rarely have opportunity to visit places where there are many Pyrgus types, so it is difficult to accumulate the necessary experience. However, your suggestion of 'just look and identify' really rang a bell - female Orange Tips se...

DSC00720 - Copy.JPG DSC00707.JPG DSC00613.JPG DSC00585.JPG After this fascinating discourse, would someone kindly offer an opinion on the attached photographs of Pyrgus species? (Apart from the dreadful focus, that is :( ). They were all taken at the beginning of June in the Pyrenees, near to Gedre...

- but the background is a little "messy".

Couldn't agree more. As my subject was sitting on a pile of recently deposited cows**t, I'm not really surprised .

Well done to all who entered - some seriously Grade A shots.

Tony M.

Completely agree with Phil's last. We have too many bunny-huggers and hair shirts. What we need is a really virulent new bacterium or virus to (at least) decimate the global human population. Mankind might than have a second chance and, hopefully, would not make such a balls-up next time. :D :D Tony...

Good shot, Charles - it made me smile, and brightened a Monday morning.

Tony.

Further to my last post, here is an underside photo of O. knightorum, showing the diagnostic yellow band on the underwing.

Tony M.