Mating Insects
Mating Insects
Written by Tuesday, 15 September 2009 00:00
“All nature's creatures join to express nature's purpose. Somewhere in their mounting and mating, rutting and butting is the very secret of nature itself.” Graham Swift
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Mating Butterflies We were visiting Chester zoo and went into the Butterfly house. Having admired various beautiful and very tame butterflies we noticed a couple of pairs mating, partly hidden in the deep foliage of the plants. We tried taking various shots from different corners to avoid capturing the distracting background. These were the two that we liked the most. Photos by Marina Parha and Nicholas Parchas Shooting Data: Camera: Nikon D2X |
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Mating insects Mating is part of life and, for many species, this is the most important aspect of it. It is argued that there are two instincts common in humans and animals; survival and reproduction. For many species reproduction comes first, since they either die shortly after they mate or are willing to risk their lives to protect their offspring. If shooting mating insects is your task, you soon realize a couple of things. First, that some of them (like flies) mate in the open whilst others seek a shelter and try to hide as well as they can (some beetles, for example). The second is that most insects are seasonal breeders mating in a narrow time frame; this is necessitated by the fact that their life span is limited while their life cycle is determined by seasonal variations. For some of the beetles shown here the mating season seems to be narrower than a week. To find them mating the photographer needs to be a good observer and have plenty of luck. Butterflies are easy to spot if they fly. Once they get engaged in mating activity they will not stop; if threatened (by an approaching human, for example) they will just fly to another place to continue. This means that they fly while mating; the sight of two of them flying, joined, is impossible to miss (the complex is abnormally large and they fly erratically, since one of them has to carry the other one, too). All the photographer has to do is to make sure s/he spots the place they landed and approach carefully, making sure his/her shadow does not fall on them at any time. Any sudden change in light intensity is interpreted as danger and the pair will fly at once. The two species of butterfly shown here follow different mating patterns. The first one mates in the open: one individual of the pair has a blue tint on the body and the upper side of its wings which the other individual lacks. The second species uses its colouration as a camouflage and chooses to mate on tree trunks where it becomes almost invisible. The beetles and the fly mate anywhere. If you happen to see a pair of beetles mating be sure that there are many more in the vicinity. In contrast, flies are loners although definitely more easily found. It should be noted that none of the pairs which is presented in this album stopped the mating process because of our presence or the use of flash. Photos by Marina Parha and George J. Reclos Shooting Data:1. Camera: Nikon D3x 2. Camera: Nikon D3x 3. Camera: Nikon D3x 4. Camera: Nikon D700 5. Camera: Nikon D700 6. Camera: Nikon D700 |
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Mating Dragonflies I do not often get the opportunity to use a macro lens so when I do I am always on the lookout for interesting subjects. I was in Sale Park during the second part of July this year and got impressed by the number of livelulae around. I noticed this pair mating amongst the low foliage covering the ground. I took a number of photos which I was not happy with; the depth of field was either insufficient to give me the desired sharpness on both animals or large enough to include much of the distracting background. The pair continued mating while flying to different locations, annoyed at my persistence. Eventually they landed on the path so I managed to get a much better angle. I focussed on the heart shape created by the two joined bodies; I have never seen these insects mate before and the position of their bodies put a smile on my face. Photos by Nicholas Parchas Shooting Data: 1. Camera: Nikon D2X 2. Camera: Nikon D2X |
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