<< Previous Next >>

Thread-winged Lacewing


Thread-winged Lacewing
Photo Information
Copyright: Ivan Kruys (Argus) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 4883 W: 248 N: 15171] (48744)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2010-05-12
Categories: Insects
Camera: Canon 50D, Canon EF 300 f4L + Canon 1.4 converter
Exposure: f/7.1, 1/200 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Date Submitted: 2010-05-23 7:05
Viewed: 1767
Points: 66
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Lesvos, or Lesbos is popular with naturalists because its proximity to the Turkish mainland and its wetlands, varied soils lead to an interesting flora and fauna. Most of all it is popular with bird watchers, especially during the end of April and beginning of May.

Unlike much of the rest of Europe traditional methods of agriculture with little use of pesticides and chemicals allows the survival of some species of insects like this spectacular Lacewing.

Thread-winged Lacewing (Nemoptera sinuata)
Also know as the Spoon-tailed Lacewing.

Lacewings belong to the Neuroptera family of insects.
This species occurs in SE Europe and Turkey. There is another similar species of Nemoptera in SW Europe.

We visited an area a small reservoir between Petra and Molivos that was rich in butterflies attracted to the wild flowers.
On the first visit we saw one of these thread-wings but a couple of days later the area was swarming with them. We later saw them in other parts of the island.

They fly using only the forewings. The hindwings may be used for balance. The long streamer- like ‘tails’ are separate and are likely to be used as signals to others of its species.
The total length of these is about 8cm.

Little was known about its biology until relatively recently. The adults have special jaws adapted to feed on pollen. The eggs are laid on the ground and the larvae are carnivorous, like those of other lacewings. They live under the surface of the ground to feed on microorganisms.

This was taken at a distance of about 1.8 meters (6 ft). After light cropping and size reduction, the image was slightly sharpened and treated for shade reduction.

When hot, sunny and windy this delicate insect is difficult to photograph and the BG is often busy as it keeps low to the ground.

You can see another image of this species in the WORKSHOP
uleko, Pentaxfriend, marius-secan, flashpoint, mwmod99, boreocypriensis, CeltickRanger, CatherineD, jlinaresp, Adanac, rousettus, juanit, anel, vanda, cirano, Noisette, briGG, maurydv, jusninasirun has marked this note useful
Only registered TrekNature members may rate photo notes.
Add Critique [Critiquing Guidelines] 
Only registered TrekNature members may write critiques.
Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To Adanac: ThanksArgus 1 05-24 03:23
You must be logged in to start a discussion.

Critiques [Translate]

Hi Ivan,

Beautiful composition
Lovely pose of this intresting insect
Perfect POV
a little OE on the flower but a great shot

TFS Thijs
BTW the WS is Fantastic

Sencillamente espectacular

Felicidades

  • Great 
  • zetu Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 998 W: 27 N: 3852] (16713)
  • [2010-05-23 8:08]

Hello Ivan
Wow! What an interesting insect and you capture with great details, perfect focus and natural colors
Regards
Razvan

Hello Ivan,
Excellent capture. Superb details and colours.
Very good sharpness and focus. First quality image.
Interesting and useful photographer's note.
Marius.

Wow!Interested insect.This is a photo with very good clarity.
Congratulations!

Amazing capture of this little fellow, Ivan! Certainly an interesting and unknown species for me. Your work with the Photoshop has been quite successful and the background really looks fantastic. A bit overexposure on the yellow flower but the main subject looks well balanced. Good work and congratulations for this fantastic presentation!
Regards,
George Veltchev

fabulous shot ,beautiful colors

Hello Ivan,
Wonderful image with this interesting insect. Colors, details and composition are all excellent. Well done!
Regards,
Mircea

  • Great 
  • PeterZ Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3944 W: 141 N: 10449] (35567)
  • [2010-05-23 11:06]

Hello Ivan,
Fantastic photo of this striking insect. Colours, sharpness, details, DOF, POV and composition are all amazing. What a beauty, the insect and the photo!
Regards,
Peter

hello Ivan
this is a beauty with great details and good sharpness
beautiful colours ,i like this insect very much
greeting lou

nice capture, TFS Ori

Hej Dostum Ivan,

Very original work from Lesvos days, your placement of the lacewing is wonderful. Great focus and exposure too.
The veins of the wings is well seen, and the DOF is shallow enough for background blurring.
TFS and have a nice week dostum!
Cheers,

Bayram

hello Ivan

the form of this butterfly, its pose, your POV on it and with
the background flowers, rendered this photo very beautiful,
with fine focus excellent sharpness and details, TFS

Asbed

Hello Ivan,
What a beauty! I never saw this Nemoptera. Fantastic capture with focus on all the insect. Cheers,
Catherine

Wow, that's a fantastic catch, Ivan, I realy would love to see this one flying, must look very special and beautiful.
Excellent shot, impressive insect, thanks
Sabine - wishnugaruda

Ciao Ivan, fantastic butterfly, I nevber see before, thanks, wonderful blurry BG, splendid colors, excellent sharpness and fine details, very well done my friend, have a good week, ciao Silvio

Hello Ivan friend, I had not seen these insect so beautiful before, thanks! ... POV from above is perfect to appreciate the amazing structure of this insect. The BG ia lije a poem diffuse and bright. My special congratulations for the approach is very good! whole insect in focus, WOW!... I enjoy the WS superbly with lateral POV, nice to see the insect in both ways. Thanks for sharing. Greetings, Jesús

  • Great 
  • Adanac Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1433 W: 1 N: 6136] (20976)
  • [2010-05-23 17:43]
  • [+]

Hello Ivan,
Both images are wonderful with great colours and sharp focus. I must ask if you know what the red bugs are they look like a weevil of some sort. Thanks for sharing this excellent posting Ivan.
Rick

merhaba Ivan dostum
two great shots of beautiful Nemoptera sinuata. I also like these Neuropteran insects.
you nicely captured both of them with great sharpness of focus and from dorsal and lateral aspects. colors, exposure and composition great. your notes also good and informative as always. thanks for sharing, have a nice new week, my friend
Ahmet

Ciao Ivan. Great POV here and indeed interesting compo. The details on the insect is perfect A new specie for me, so TFS!

Roberto

  • Great 
  • foozi Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 2607 W: 0 N: 6238] (22995)
  • [2010-05-24 2:25]

Hello Ivan,
to me this is like a miracle. The insect is out of my thought. I never believe if there is no photo like this one. Wonderful in its sharpness and clarity. the black and white is so stunningly composed against the blurry grey background. Such a beauty and it is well shown from the top.
congratulations Ivan and you have further make me nature, through such a discovery.

Regards,
Foozi

  • Great 
  • lousat Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3581 W: 36 N: 11283] (42484)
  • [2010-05-24 4:31]

Hi Ivan,all is fantastic in these 2 pics!!The beauty of the specie,the incredible sharpness and the beautifuls composition,this is whitout doubt the pic of a day,what a class!!!!My greats compliments.Have a nice day,LUCIANO

Hello Ivan

Wonderful capture of this striking insect.
Great POV with excellent sharpness,colours and detail.The focusing is spot on.
TFS
Anita & Mike

  • Great 
  • anel Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 2597 W: 3 N: 7168] (30643)
  • [2010-05-24 11:03]

Bonsoir Ivan,
Une image hautement intéressante, un insecte si rarement montré. Je me souviens l'avoir vu la première fois sur une image de "litoriachloris" et je dois dire que je suis à chaque fois impressionnée par la beauté et l'étrangeté de cet insecte. Excellente image à la coloration naturelle et un bon focus sur l'ensemble de l'insecte. Je suis un peu jalouse...
Bonne soirée à vous deux
Amitiés
Anne

  • Great 
  • vanda Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 317 W: 23 N: 681] (3326)
  • [2010-05-24 13:32]

Hi Ivan!
A great sharp capture! Excellent POV and blurry B/G.
Fine details of the insect: its pose is fantastic!! Congratulations.
Ciao! Vanda
---------------
Thanks for your visit and comment

Qué envidia Ivan, de estas especies creo que no tengo ninguna aún. Creo que resolviste perfectamente el tema del encuadre, a veces complicado en estos insectos de curioso y largo tamaño. La toma zenital favorece la vison de esta maravilla de la naturaleza.

Un abrazo.

  • Great 
  • cirano Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 994 W: 0 N: 940] (13462)
  • [2010-05-24 14:20]

Hello Ivan,
What a beautiful image with great sharpness and splendid colors.Very nice POV and perfect details.TFS and best regards,
Dûrzan

Helo Ivan
What a beautiful subject, i have never seen before,
I like his long Streamers and the superb wings markings, wonderful sharp details
nice pose and BG
Have a good night
Jacqueline

Hy Ivan
Let me congratulet you for this unnusual insect (for me), never seen before. Amazing wings with b-w pattern. TFs this image with good notes too.
Kind regards,
oana

  • Great 
  • nagraj Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1241 W: 108 N: 2671] (11878)
  • [2010-05-25 6:04]

Hi,
How I missed this beautiful species in the first place. An image of this species could not be better than this, good viewpoint showing the salient features of the insect in all its glory, the WS image too is good. tfs.
nagraj.v

  • Great 
  • fiyo Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1044 W: 5 N: 3421] (14039)
  • [2010-05-25 13:02]

Merhaba Ivan,
çok güzel bir makro; renkler, netlik ve detaylarıyla çok güzel bir kompozisyon olmuş.
Tebrik ederim, selam ve sevgiler..

  • Great 
  • briGG Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 195 W: 2 N: 344] (1823)
  • [2010-05-26 11:50]

hello Ivan,

beautiful insect!!!
I like also the workshop. Excellent position too.
This Nemoptera... reminds me of a dragonfly! :)

Excellent shot with a lot of refinement!
TFS

brigitte

Hallo Ivan,
fantastic capture and wonderful composition
TFS
Best regards
Maurizio

Hello Ivan.
This one is so special - a specimen I haven't seen before. To me, it is like a cross between butterflies and dragonflies. Love your pov with the whole body in sharp details.
Really nice and thanks for sharing.
Regards.
Jusni

Calibration Check
















0123456789ABCDEF