Just want to also say this section is great. Havn't been around much due to being busy with work and other stuff but will get a better look at it later, from what I saw its quite interesting. like the orange-tips, never seen oddities like that, some with varying steaks of orange in parts of their wings (somehow could be useful for me as I am writing a book on how genetics of butterflies or moths define local populations of a species) that will take quite a long time. I have started recently looking at local moth populations in different areas as moths are still around while butterflies are not.
Currently written a piece on Feathered Thorn as I caught quite a few in my garden and those where lighter coloured and slightly smaller than those I caught in a conifer forest as those were bigger and darker in colouration with more dark speckling in wings, see:
You can't really do this with butterflies except with pinned specimens, but with moths you can cam them down enough to photograph as a voucher specimen then release without killing it. What I have been doing is catching moths, noting the size of the moth, where it was taken and habitat and any notes such as male or female, marking, colour etc..
I started with using my Canon 500D, Sigma 105mm Macro, Tripod and a peice of grey card. I first photographed a ruler on the card (to show sizes of moths) then using the exact same settings, natural light, to take photos of the moths and make an image set of moths. Here is an example of Red-Green Carpet all taken in a Conifer forest not far from a mixed forest with some willows nearby:
- Red-Green Carpet
And here are some more I have been working on (first were taken in a oak/birch forest and rest from my garden):
- Various Macros
