A great tip from David Pritchard on the Facebook Odonate Larvae and Exuviae - the Nespresso Display Cube Capsule Dispenser, a 12cm perspex cube with good optical clarity. My previous attempt at underwater habitus shots of aquatic bugs (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Duckweed) was only semi-successful due to the iffy optical quality of the container I was using. Nespresso's cube is very sturdy and appears optically clear to the eye - to find alternatives, Google "acrylic display cube" and you'll come up with a whole range of sizes and prices. To put it to the test I used one of the long suffering Large Red Damselfly larva from my pond.
The optical quality seems to be OK so it would be fine for larger aquatic species, and might be useful for terrestrial species too. What was immediately obvious is that a 12cm cube is too big for the species I am likely to photograph, so I struggled to get as much detail as I would have liked. I can solve the size problem with a moveable clear acrylic divider which can easily be shifted backwards and forwards to create the optimum photographic enclosure, although I haven't had chance to try this out yet.
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