More Olympus TG-6 Tomfoolery

Recently I wrote about using the in-camera focus stacking on the Olympus TG-6 for macro photography, today I thought I'd push it as hard as I can to test the limits of this camera. The first idea was to create multiple inage stacks (by pressing the shutter repeatedly) and then stack them all together using Helicon Focus. This was ... partly successful. My first test subject was ... a pencil. I made 9 image stacks then fed them into Helicon. 

The problem is that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't keep the camera from moving between stacks - any movement at all degrades the final Helicon stack. The best I managed was three aligned stacks (3x15=45 images), which is the pencil you see above. 

I then moved on to wildlife. With a small spider (Diplostyla concolor), about the same size as the pencil tip in the above image, I couldn't manage to get multiple stacks without camera movement - this was the best, a single set of 15 images. 

When I tried with the bug Drymus ryei, the same thing happened, but the result still wasn't bad. So it was time for the big head to head: Olympus TG-6 versus Sony a6500 with Sony 90mm macro lens - a camera with a 12MP sensor versus a setup with a 24MP sensor costing four times as much. 

Olympus TG-6

Sony a6500

And the result was ... well the Sony is better (duuh) (click on the photos for larger images), but the TG-6 gives it a run for its money, costs a fraction of the price and fits in a shirt pocket. Good job TG-6! 

I could of course carry on with this nonsense by putting the TG-6 on a tripod and using the Olympus OI.Share app to remote trigger the camera. But that, I'm sure you agree, would just be silly...

 

Parasitic Mites on Corixids

I ventured out recently, broke the centimetre-thick ice on a local pool and underneath, found abundant Corixids happily over wintering and unbothered by the cold. Among the species I found was this specimen of Callicorixa praeusta: 

You may notice the small red object protruding from the rear end. Looking closely, this was a mite attached to the bug rather than part of the Corixid: 

Phoretic (hitchhiker) mites are not uncommon on Arachnids but a little research told me that this was in fact the larva of a Hydrachna water mite.

These larvae are actually parasitic rather than phoretic, feeding on the haemolymph of the Corixid. There is some interesting information here: http://coo.fieldofscience.com/2014/12/hunter-balls-hydracha-water-mites.html  They are not as common on Corixids as on some other Arachnids and I have no idea how much harm they inflict on the host. 

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,

And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.

Augustus De Morgan 

 

 

Olympus TG-6 Update

The Olympus TG-6 is my goto camera, the one I pick up first. I'm amazed how good this camera is for macro photography, and how such a powerful package can slip into a shirt pocket. (Having said which, an iPhone beats it for landscape and portraits). I've already made a few tweaks to improve the quality of images this camera delivers but today I made a few more.

Photography is all about the lighting, macro photography even more so. I've previously written about how important the Olympus Light Guide is for macro photography, and made one tweak to improve this further. This simple (and cheap) macro diffuser for Olympus TG cameras is useful in avoiding the burnt out highlights which result from having the light source so close to the image. This is a particular problem with shiny objects such as beetles and water drops. It's cheap and it works but it's a bit limited in how it can be applied, so today I made Mark II - a circle of packaging foam crudely taped to the front of the Olympus Light Guide! This further level of diffusion on top of the Light Guide is much more flexible in how it can be used, producing less harsh images with more detail. 

The other thing I have explored today is the in-camera focus bracketing versus in-camera stacking. The TG-6 focus stacking has been my goto macro setting for any subject that's not moving. In contrast, in-camera focus bracketing produces a series of images which can be assembled into an image using third party software (in my case, Helicon Focus).  Producing such an image sequence manually with a camera as small as the TG-6 is not practical. Focus bracketing still requires a static subject, but the advantage is that you can pick and choose which images are included in the stack, plus which software such as Helicon is more sophisticated and allows more adjustments then the built in program. Stacking the images manually is an extra step but assuming you can brace the camera to avoid movement during the capture (or use a tripod and a remote shutter release, which seems a bit crazy for a camera this small), the improvement in the result is usually worthwhile. Put the diffuser and focus bracketing together and the output is great for such a small pocket camera. 

(click for larger image) 

 

Entomology Journal - October 2024

A month of variable weather and troublesome Hymenoptera...

VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera Recording and Checklist

After a great deal of work - mostly by my colleagues with a shamingly small contribution from me - we were finally able to publish the first two parts of our documentation of VC55 Bug Recording: 

LESOPS 63: VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera Part 1: Recorders and Recording. Sue Timms, Kate Nightingale & Alan Cann. Leicestershire & Rutland Entomological Society Occasional Publications Series 63, October 2024. ISSN 095–1019. Available at: https://www.naturespot.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-10/LESOPS63TerrestrialHeteroptera.pdf

LESOPS 64: VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera Part 2: Provisional Checklist. Sue Timms, Kate Nightingale & Alan Cann. Leicestershire & Rutland Entomological Society Occasional Publications Series 64, October 2024. ISSN 095–1019 Available at: https://www.naturespot.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-10/LESOPS64TerrestrialHeteropteraChecklist.pdf 

The plan is for more to follow in future, covering the other major groups. 

My Journal, October 2024

03.x.2024 

Worked on a range of Lygus specimens. I finally feel confident about these tricky bugs (as long as I can find a male!). 

04.x.2024

After the rain of the past week it was good to spend a day out at Melton Country Park. I was surprised to realise that I hadn't actually been there for nine years. I found a very good range of insects the highlights of which were Micronecta scholtzi, lots of Anthocoris limbatus and my favourite ladybird, Hippodamia variegata, the Adonis Ladybird.

05.x.2024

A friend dropped some specimens off for me to identify. The highlight was a male Anyphena numida. This is the first record of this spider for Leicestershire and Rutland. It was first identified in the UK in 2017 and is spreading rapidly from the southeast. 

10.x.2024

After much prevarication I finally cleaned the sensors on the microscope cameras. I don't like doing this because of the risk of damage but it seems to have worked well - far fewer annoying spots in the images now. 

11.x.2024

Quite a good frost, giving me hope for good autumn colour in the days to come took a trip to Cossington Meadows mostly targeting the pools with the dipnet. This produced some good records, including Corixia dentipes.

13.x.2024

Lots of fungi around but I'm very rusty on my ID skills. I'm aware that AI identification divides opinion, but it you think it's going to go away, you've lost the plot. The latest AI incarnation I've become aware of is the beta version of automated picture recognition on the Danish Fungal Atlas website. Seems pretty good to me, with the obvious limitations - https://ajcarthropoda.blogspot.com/2024/10/more-on-unstoppable-rise-of-ai.html

15.x.2024

Took a trip down to Blaby and Countesthorpe. Pond dipping produced a good range of species. 

17.x.2024

Enjoyed a very good LRES meeting at which Ray Morris discussed gall midges, even though galls and Diptera are not my area! Good to have face to face discussions. 

18.x.2024

After a misty start, took a trip to Shady Lane Arboretum on a sunny but windy afternoon before Storm Ashley hits over the weekend. 

21.x.2024

Visited a private estate at Osbaston to do some recording. In the walled garden we found the best growth of Mistletoe that I have ever seen on one of the old apple trees. Even better was the fact that it was only a few feet off the ground. Gently beating this produced a possible single specimen of Anthocoris visci, a Mistletoe-dependent species I have been looking for for two years. Unfortunately this turned out to be a female so we have been unable to confirm the species by dissection. However, a nearby Box hedge also produced Anthocoris butleri, also a good record.  Unfortunately I didn't spot a wasp nest I was standing next to (while trying not to fall in a stream) and managed to get stung on the hand by a wasp, but carried on recording after making a very swift exit, pursued by wasps. 

22.x.2024

Very pleased to have a flying visit from Jon Daws, dropping off some old record material. 

The hand which was stung by the wasp yesterday is now very swollen and painful making it difficult to do anything. I'm becoming increasingly annoyed that I didn't identify the wasp that stung me so that I could record it, and I regard an arm covered in very angry wasps as a rather poor excuse (even though running away as fast as possible was the smart thing to do under the circumstances). 

27.x.2024

Took Jon Daw's tuning fork (in D) to the Botanical Gardens to bother a few spiders in their webs. Moderately successful although there doesn't seem to be that much around at present. 

30.x.2024

A return visit to Osbaston to try to confirm the Anthocoris visci record from a week ago. Sadly we were unsuccessful. 

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More on the unstoppable rise of AI

I'm aware that AI identification divides opinion, but it you think it's going to go away, you've lost the plot. 

The latest AI incarnation I've become aware of is the beta version of automated picture recognition on the Danish Fungal Atlas website - https://svampe.databasen.org/en/imagevision

Denmark's mushroom atlas, Danmarks svampeatlas, is home to the well-known MycoKey software. The image recognition system is a logical extension of MycoKey. Trained on a Danish dataset of 250,000 images, this is pretty useful for UK users. Allowing people to identify fungi via AI - what could possibly go wrong? The software includes the disclaimer: 

Note that the system should be used with great care, and not as tool to identify edible fungi without involving knowledgeable humans with experience in fungal recognition. So please explore with curiosity and sanity.

It also flags when the ID results contain poisonous species. Beyond that, if people choose to ignore the warnings, well that's an argument in favour of natural selection as far as I'm concerned (although I'm pretty sure there are lawyers out there who would see it profitably differently). I've been playing with the AI, and as far as I can see it's pretty good. Although it lacks a probability score for search results that Obsidentify helpfully incorporates, it does have an unlabelled "confidence bar" for each hit. Each species returned does link to a useful guide text which includes spore details, etc. Obviously, if you think you'll be able to identify Cortinarius or Russulas from a mobile phone photo, you're probably not safe to be let out on your own. In future, it would be good if such apps could incorporate key ID information into the results returned, eg "check spore size" or "look for hairs on hind tibia". Even without that, unless you're a conspiracy theorist who thinks that this is all part of the great AI plot to take over, things can only get better. Because they're certainly not going to go away...

Lygus Identification for Dummies (like me)

For some time I have been unhappy about my ability to determine the species of certain Lygus specimens. A typical Lygus pratensis is easy - based on "shinyness" (pubescence) of the elytra and markings on the scutellum. (Having said which, the extent of seasonal colour variation in L. pratensis has only just dawned on me - not quite as extreme as Palomena prasina but not far off.) Likewise, a typical Lygus rugulipennis is easy - dull (pubescent) appearance. However, not all specimens are typical. A short time ago I found an atypical Lygus - quite shiny with Lygus wagneri-like markings on the scutellum: 

Such specimens are a problem. I find Nau's illustrations of the pubescence of the corium unhelpful (and he acknowledges the difficulty in distinguishing between certain specimens of L. pratensis and L. wagneri - Nau, B. (2004) Identification of plantbugs of the genus Lygus in Britain. Het News Issue 3, p11). 

Namyatova et al (2022) published a study of Lygus species including both habitus characters and male reproductive anatomy (Namyatova, A.A. Tyts, V.D. & Bolshakova, D.S. (2022) Identification and delimitation of the trans-Palearctic Lygus species (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae) using integrative approach. Insect Systematics & Evolution, 54(2), 146-192). According to Namyatova et al the overlap between L. pratensis and L. wagneri is explained by the fact that they are synonymous based on DNA homology, something which fits with observations of habitus. Leaving taxonomy issues to one side, the drawings of the spicule and the presence or absence of teeth on the right side of the small lobe of the vesica make distinguishing Lygus species (backed up by habitus) relatively straightforward. Although only males can be determined and dissection is required, this is at least a definite way of identifying atypical specimens with certainty. 

The issue now is that I have yet to encounter L. wagneri! Although we do have one record of this species in VC55 I am not convinced that it occurs here. However I am confident that if I do ever find a male L. wagneri I will be able to identify it with certainty! 

 

 

 

Entomology Journal - September 2024

Limited opportunities for entomology this month, and further truncated by bad weather later. 

 

My Journal, September 2024

10.ix.2024 

Finally managed to run the moth trap after missing the whole of August. 13/7 not too bad considering the trap blew over! The highlight was a nice Small Ranunculus, Hecatera dysodea. Followed on with more seasonal garden wrangling before the rain. 

12.ix.2024 

A very enjoyable evening at the first LRES meeting of the new season. I was able to pick up specimens from several people to check. 

13.ix.2024 

Another very cold night, the coldest September night for five years according to the Met Office. Spent some time checking the contents of a flight interceptor trap I was asked to look at. 

16.ix.2024 

A lovely autumn day, sat in the garden and watched a successful mating of Garden Spiders. Identified some of the bugs I had been given at LRES. 

17.ix.2024 

18/9 in the moth trap, not bad for a full moon, and while it was warm when the trap went on it got down to 6C in the early hours. Spent the rest of the day tackling the wildwood in the garden. The evening was the AGM for the local wildlife group, with a talk on urban botany in Leicester from Russell Parry - whose thought-provoking talk made me dream of electric sheep: https://ajcarthropoda.blogspot.com/2024/09/dreaming-of-electric-sheep.html

18.ix.2024 

A short local walk on what turned into a nice afternoon. Lots of Common Darters ovipositing in the Washbrook, and plenty of Ivy Bees - the numbers are going up steadily year by year. 

21.ix.2024 

A lovely morning which I used to play dodge the cows along the Soar at Croft Pasture. Using the vacuum sampler turned up a good range of invertebrates. Fortunately home again before the apocalyptic thunderstorms in the afternoon. 

22.ix.2024 

A biblical deluge to greet the Autumn Equinox brought the local frogs out, and with them the first "star jelly" of the season. 

23.ix.2024 

Spent a very wet day indoors working on Lygus specimens. Some progress made but I need more specimens! 

25.ix.2024 

Only 10/5 moths in the trap after a chilly night, so the highlight was a rather lovely Caddisfly, the Cinnamon Sedge, Limnephilus marmoratus, a new species for me. Attempted to hack back the vegetation in the garden ponds to restore some order. 

28.ix.2024 

Took advantage of a sunny afternoon to spend half an hour in Knighton Park beating trees for insects. My finds were down no doubt because of the recent heavy rain but it was good to get back out again in the sunshine for an hour. In the garden a Hawker dragonfly was interested in the newly cleared pond.

29.ix.2024 

A rather chilly outing to Billesdon with the dipnet and the beating tray. The pool produced a range of Corixids and I found more insects on the trees. Home before the rain started again. Looking at a few days on the microscope now until the rain stops. 

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Dreaming of Electric Sheep

Earlier this week at our local wildlife group Russell Parry gave an excellent talk on urban botany in Leicester. As part of this he discussed the frightening loss of plant species from the countryside and the concomitant(?) rise in urban species. As with all such changes, the causes are multifactorial, but one of the big drivers are management practices. In particular, one thing that Russell mentioned is the impossibility of replicating the Lammas system without appropriate winter grazing. No mowing regime can replicate the effect of light grazing over winter as this removes over-vigorous thugs, allowing delicate species to survive. Mechanical mowing is not a substitute as it cannot be carried out regularly through winter due to increasing rainfall, meaning the land is unavailable through flooding, or machinery cannot go on it without causing compaction (and loss of delicate species). 

This has given me much cause for thought since I listened to Russell's talk. We struggle with our small urban perennial meadow, where the thugs take over in the blink of an eye and winter flooding (and compaction) is an ever increasing problem. My first thought was around Rentasheep - for a monthly subscription would-be meadowers take delivery of a sheep (and portable fencing, presumably an electronic system with a collar on the sheep) for a few hours a month. Leaving aside issues of animal welfare, it didn't take long to figure out that this would be prohibitively expensive, and to be honest I can't see a tribe of itinerant door to door shepherds arising anytime pre-apocalypse. 

But there is a solution. Robot lawn mowers are all the rage and it wouldn't be that difficult for someone much cleverer than me to incorporate a slot for a mobile phone, so that with an AI image recognition appropriate app, a lawnmower with a suitable blade becomes an electric sheep (lightweight, although you could of course dial in the desired degree of poaching for optimum biodiversity in the same way that you set the cut height on a lawnmower). All the hardware and the software for this already exists, it's just a question of someone who cares enough stitching it all together. Surely it can't be long before I can pop into my local B&Q for a electric ovine (or mini-bovine)? 

Electric sheep are not limited to my urban pocket handkerchief meadow - it's also a practical and affordable management solution for rural landowners, not to mention hard pressed Wildlife Trusts. Of course, with rural crime what it is, there will need to be a second generation or robot guard dogs to prevent the electric sheep being nicked ... or do I mean rustled? Electric lamb chops anyone? 

Entomology Journal - August 2024

August has been a busy month for me with limited time for entomology. At last there are plenty of insects about although the season seems out of joint, weeks behind where it should be. 

Time for Harvestmen

This month I've been spending some time working on Harvestmen (Opliones), a group I've tended to shy away from as I found them very difficult to identify. Paul Richards Harvestmen of the British Isles (WildID) has been a great help and is highly recommended. As I haven't been able to get out as much as I would have liked, I've been playing with Opiliotrays (video) in the garden. 

More long-legged adventures here: Whole Notta Love (In the Opiliorium): https://ajcarthropoda.blogspot.com/2024/08/whole-notta-love-in-opiliorium.html

My Journal, August 2024

06.viii.2024 

Other commitments have prevented any entomology so far this month but I did manage to sneak out into the garden for 10 minutes for a late afternoon FIT Count. The Water Mint produced a good range of insects with a count of 28, although the bumblebees greatly preferred the Pickerelweed flowers next to the mint and steadfastly refused to enter the count zone. 

07.viii.2024 

A Steatoda nobilis web outside the back door has snagged a Lesser Stag Beetle, Dorcus parallelipipedus. These spiders make the strongest silk I know (try it), but even though this is a hefty beetle it's not quite the bat or lizard they have been known to catch (rarely). 

08.viii.2024 

The wanderer returns. While I was watching TV a love-lorn male House Spider crossed the carpet. Decades ago this used to be a common occurrence but I don't think it's happened for the last twenty years. First the Pholcus arrived, then the Steatoda, both bad news for the much larger House Spider. I haven't seen many Pholcus recently so this chap, deciding it's as near to autumn as makes no difference, set out in search of love. Good luck sir! 

13.viii.2024 

Escaped for 10 minutes sweeping my favourite local road verge (memories of lockdown). I was targeting two species and managed to find both, although one flew off before I could pot it and the other was immature. 

16.viii.2024 

There was an autumnal feel to the air first thing this morning, although it doesn't smell like autumn yet. It was all go on the FIT Count in the afternoon, 62 - my highest score to date, so much so that it was difficult to keep track of all the comings and goings, the Water Mint was really pulling them in. There are plenty of bees on the runner bean flowers now, hopefully they will start setting soon. 

17.viii.2024 

Since we are beyond the Inglorious Twelfth, I decided to take a look at the Heather at Charnwood Lodge. This was the first run out for the vacuum sampler since February and it turned out to be a good decision, sucking up multiple heathland specialists including Cymus claviculus, Orthotylus ericetorum, Scolopostethus decoratus and Stygnocoris sabulosus, all but one of which are new records for the site. This was a good haul, but in spite of that most of what I found was still immature and it feels like things are weeks behind where they normally would be. I then turned my attention to the Oaks and this produced the best find of the day, Theridion pinastri. This is not only the first record of this spider for VC55 but also a considerable northward range expansion for the species. Understandable considering Charnwood Lodge provides the perfect habitat it requires. 

20.viii.2024 

Went shopping: https://ajcarthropoda.blogspot.com/2024/08/entomological-forceps.html

22.viii.2024 

Recent stormy weather has limited opportunities for much entomology. 

23.viii.2024 

It feels like it's been a disastrous year for moths and data for the first half of the year from the Garden Moth Scheme shows that it's been the worst year since 2013. However, it's not outside the normal run of year to year variation. 

In the afternoon I popped out to the local arboretum where bugs abounded. 

26.viii.2024 

Out with Knighton Wild this morning monitoring water quality in the Washbrook as the follow-up to the Saffron Brook Project.  No change in the Trent Biotic Index (score = 4/10).  This isn't surprising as the inputs haven't changed - sewage releases from Oadby, surface runoff, and pet flea and tick treatments. 

30.viii.2024 

A nice day out at Coombs Meadows with friends. It had a late summer feel, everything a bit tired, and the entomology was a bit disappointing. However, the picnic at the end made up for it.

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