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Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon


Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon
Photo Information
Copyright: Bente Feldballe (milloup) Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 482 W: 40 N: 619] (1716)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2004-08-21
Categories: Insects
Camera: Canon EOS 300D, Tamron 28-300XR, Hama Close-up +2
Exposure: f/13.0, 1/160 seconds
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): Sexy nature, Insect Mating, Dedications at Trek Nature, Mating, Syrphidae (Hover flies) of Europe-1, Dipterans (except Hover flies) of Europe-2 [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2005-02-05 18:33
Viewed: 6188
Favorites: 2 [view]
Points: 56
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Well, it seems to be all the rage to dedicate photos to others these days, so I'll dedicate this one to Lívio and Shírley - Shírley who wants to be an insect in her next life ;-)) All I can say is: Pick your species carefully, my friend.. Not a dung fly, surely, their females get squashed right into the cowpats during the mating (I just saw a program about that recently). Much better to opt for something like a dance fly, then. They have quite a funny mating behaviour, and it's the females that do the picking and choosing ;-))

Anyway, I'm not 100% sure of the ID here, if I'm not correct, please let me know ;-))
Females of Eupeodes corollae lay up to 1000 eggs. One single E. corollae larvae can suck out more than 800 aphids.
Hoverflies or syrphids (scientific name: Syrphidae) are one of the most eyecatching flies. Almost everybody has seen a hoverfly either in natural habitats or in parks, gardens or even on balconies. Many species are more or less as big as or even bigger than houseflies and have yellow or orange patterns (spots or bands) on their back (called abdomen). At first glance, many of them can be mistaken for bees or wasps. Syrphids, however, are absolutely harmless. They cannot sting nor bite.
Hoverflies are not only nice looking insects with an interesting behavior (hovering!) but also important pollinators. The larvae of many species act as effective predators of aphids and other insects. Other syrphid larvae feed on a wide range of dead organic matter and act as decomposers. As such, they make the minerals in the dead organisms available for the living plants again.
Behaviour, life span
All hoverflies are diurnal. They are most active in the morning and in the afternoon when the sun is shining. At noon, temperature is often too high for many insects. They would risk to loose too much water by transpiration and get over-heated. The flies try to endure unfavorable conditions (e.g. cold, rainy, stormy or hot weather) by sitting motionsless on low plants in thick vegetation, under leaves and at other protected places.
Good places for hoverfly watching are sites with lots of suitable flowers and egg laying sites. These are also the localities where males and females mate. In some species the males just sit on a leaf, twig or stem and watch their environment waiting for females. Others hover, ready to mate or patrol those areas which females are laying eggs or feeding.
An adult fly lives just some days or a few weeks. It has many enemies: wasps, spiders, birds, lizards, small mammals, etc. In contrast, the life span of the larvae may last up to two (or more?) years. Health and life span of larvae and adults can be influcenced by parasites and parasitoids. If the physical (weather!) and biological (nutrition!) conditions are good several species complete their life circle (egg - 3 larvae instars - pupa - adult) within about one month.
azulu, Luc, scottevers7, willie, sAner, elroyie, Signal-Womb, mogens-j, marhowie, carper, PDP, sandpiper2, gerhardt, Callie, extramundi, JeanMichel, livios, wishnugaruda, roconnell has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To sandpiper2: Blurred backgroundmilloup 2 02-07 16:34
To gerhardt: True ;-))milloup 1 02-07 09:28
To PDP: Lazing..milloup 4 02-06 19:09
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • azulu Gold Star Critiquer [C: 111 W: 0 N: 75] (374)
  • [2005-02-05 19:43]

Hey Bente. This macro is great. Excellent details. Very nice composition with good colors and sharpness. You captured a great moment. Nice note. Good job.

Congratulations

Alexandre

This is a very fine picture Bente. It seems to be the mating season for flies on TN these days.
;-)
I love the background and the fine details of the flies.
Very good.

Superb Macro Shot! Amazing color and detail. Great framing and composition. Great notes. Excellent Work!!!

Great macro Milloup. This is one of your best. Very well done

  • Great 
  • sAner Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1455 W: 74 N: 1426] (4750)
  • [2005-02-06 3:41]

Razorsharp detais! Now THIS is a nice macro shot. Well done. Fine colors and presentation. TFS.

Great catch with excellent details and DOF, very good note as well.

Great shot, very sharp and great BG.
Very well done.
TFS.

A brilliant macro,Bente,straight into my favourites. And an excellent note. I have to say, your English is impeccable. Your spelling,grammer and punctuation is better than many with English as their first language ... no offence to anyone else out there.
A really good post. Thanks for that. Cheers, Steve.

Fascinating moment captured here and the detail is stunning. Very well spotted and well done Bente.

Excellent capture Bente. Very shapr and great handling of the very limited dof. The colours looks great as well as the flies working on the next generations.

Bente, Great sharpness & detail seen in your piggy-backed partners! Great BG also..Looks like this great combination of lens & filter has served you very, very well. TFS!

  • Great 
  • carper Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1973 W: 119 N: 2582] (8439)
  • [2005-02-06 14:22]

Very nice this one Bente,
I like the fantastic pof on this good shot, the details are very nice, and the dof is good too, very good macro shot.

  • Great 
  • PDP Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor [C: 2821 W: 344 N: 3779] (11769)
  • [2005-02-06 15:15]
  • [+]

Lazing??? I think not :-) Fantastic shot Bente, I'm missing my hoverflies. Thanks for posting this and reminding me. The details are perfect and what a moment.

Well done.

Wow! this shot is very clear and sharp.
lover insects :)

Great macro. For f13 you have a good blurred background, or that from post-processing?
Nice composition and POV.

Very good macro Bente.
Great detalls, composition and colours.
I like the green BG. Very good note.
Great work.

Exeptional quality macro, Bente. The composition is striking and the details are clear. Just a pleasure to look at this. Well done.

(clunk! ... sound of me leaving my weapons at the door)

Shirley doesn't have to be an insect to do the choosing. We all know that a real lady does not pursue a man.

But neither does a mouse trap a mouse... :)

(Slop! ...armed again!)

  • Great 
  • Luc Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1835 W: 301 N: 4287] (14767)
  • [2005-02-08 20:02]

Critique:
Personal assessment of the photo: perfect to my eyes.
Great visual impact.
Aptness of the photo for the site: excelent.
Personal assessment of the note: excelent.
Comment:
Hy Bente, is obsessed to you? ;-)
An excelent macro-post. I particulary like the intro of your note.
Thanks a lot for sharing.

  • Great 
  • Callie Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1101 W: 95 N: 2610] (7555)
  • [2005-02-12 12:28]

Bente, I cannot let this one pass - who is in the DRIVINg seat? Pity Japie is not here, he would appreciate this one
This aside, I am amazed what you pull out of your lens and the extension rings - I will have to use my tripod, and find some small things to shoot as well.

  • Great 
  • edji Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Note Writer [C: 83 W: 8 N: 22] (426)
  • [2005-02-18 16:24]

Very good macro shot. Sharpness and DOF are good.

I am totally blown away by these phots Bente. The detail, composition and colors are fantastic. Amazing, totaly amazing.

Beautiful, clean and artistic work. I like it very much, Bente. Fanstastic colours and detail. Congratulations. Regards, Felipe.

I love your note, Bente. Peace and love seem to be the leitmotiv in your recent postings. Spring is a reality now :-). But this one is exceptional, with an outstanding sharpness, a brilliant light control and wow, what a DOF! "No nits" would be an understatement here. I don't know how much time you spend in searching those gems, but, sure, the harvest is top quality!

  • Great 
  • livios Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2150 W: 319 N: 4263] (16942)
  • [2005-05-24 19:53]

Bente, this is another great moment you managed to capture.

Excellent composition, sharpness and pov. Sharpness and colors are perfect.

P.S.: I added your picture to a theme of mine.

Hallo Bente,
in these days I see a lot of insects in love.
But I've never seen a couple of this beautiful hoverflies. Hoverflies are my favorite insects, so many species, wonderful.
Your photo is absolute perfect, light, colours DOF and POV, nothing more to say - just perfect.
Thanks a lot, bye
Sabine - wishnugaruda

The clarity is amazing, as is the color. The overall composition is wonderfully balanced and full of texture. Well done.

Hello Bente.

Excellent picture, nice composition and colors.
Very good detils.

Regards.
Jose Luis.

  • Great 
  • Mello Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 140 W: 34 N: 480] (2419)
  • [2010-02-28 4:59]

I simply loved this fine capture dear Bente.
All the technical things are very well done and your POV and OOF BR is so good.
Thanks and please, come back to post...
See you,
Francisco

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