A Beetle

After picking some blackcurrants and raspberries from the garden yesterday I found this little creature at the bottom of the box. Having spent the night in the fridge I was allowed 15 minutes or so to take a photo before he woke up. The not particularly attractive background is the plastic box!



Anyone have any idea as to what species?

John K

Well thanks. A quick look on Wikipedia for Lagria hirta certainly shows his cousin. At least it doesn't suggest they are pests, which is good because I have put him back where he came from!
I tried to look it up in my extensive field guide book of Insects of Britain, and that species isn't even mentioned. So well done for knowing or finding that out.
Also a good bit of practice for my macro photography too; that Pringles tube came in handy.

Kind regards,

John K

Great shot, John. What did you use and how to get so close?

Philip

Hi John if you Google golden coloured beetles of Great Britain and look at Beetles Page1- a nature observers scrapbook, or Google Darkling Beetle and look at the images on that page it shows them quite clearly.

It states that there are 20,000 species of these beetles worldwide.

Thanks. As the creature had spent the night in the fridge with the fruit he was quite static (until he warmed up.) Normally the problem is chasing them around and never quite managing it as the ... depth of field... is quite tiny! The beetle was approx 1cm (3/8") in length.
All I did to take the photo was to put the K-5 on a tripod with the 100mm f2.8 macro and a Charlotte style Pringle tube, set the timer for 2 seconds delay, focus at the closest distance the lens allowed (used manual focus) and fire away. Exposure setting (1/180" @ f13.)
Final image cropped (not by a lot) and levels tweaked in Elements to bring out the head details as it was all rather black.
Using the Pringle tube method directs the light so that it looks fairly natural and allows the onboard flash exposure system to function.

John K

I'd never have thought to put that in for a search. Well done and thanks again.

John K

(and thank you John for the rest of the reply )

Philip

P.S. Forgot to add for anyone who's forgotten, or not seen it before, Charlotte's Pringle Tube is just below halfway down this thread - link. Great gadget!