# Close up Insects not quite macro



## John Starkey (21 Jul 2010)

Hi All,took these yesterday at a local pond,taken with a canon 70-200mm f/4 L +1x4 extender hand held,one or two were taken with a canon 100mm 2.8 macro non is hand held,hense not real close up macro (forgot my tripod   )
Hope you like them,
regards,
john.






































Thanks for looking.


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## GHNelson (21 Jul 2010)

Superb Photos
Wish i had a decent camera.
hoggie


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## andyh (21 Jul 2010)

WOW! They are great.

That blue dragon fly is awesome!


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## Stickleback (21 Jul 2010)

Love it


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## ghostsword (21 Jul 2010)

The bee look great.


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## wearsbunnyslippers (21 Jul 2010)

those are some great shots!


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## vauxhallmark (21 Jul 2010)

Gorgeous Dragon/Damsel flies (can never remember which is which!)!

Mark


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## Simon D (21 Jul 2010)

Stunning pics as usual John, keep posting 'em. 

One of the first sections I look at is Photography, I love it


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## George Farmer (22 Jul 2010)

Great shots, John!

The bee is great; a different composition that works.

Thanks for sharing.


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## John Starkey (24 Jul 2010)

Glad you liked them and made the effort to say so,
much appreciated ,
Regards,
John.


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## Mark Evans (24 Jul 2010)

John! quality images mate! 

I need to get down the river myself.


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## Lisa_Perry75 (26 Jul 2010)

Looking good John


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## Dan Crawford (26 Jul 2010)

BOOM! Lovely work as ever John, with all these quality images you're really spoiling us!


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## John Starkey (30 Jul 2010)

Thanks Mark,Lisa,& Dan.


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## dw1305 (30 Jul 2010)

Hi all,
Lovely photos, I can add a few I.D's. The large green Dragonfly is a female Emperor (_Anax imperator_) she is laying her eggs. The other brown Dragonfly is a Brown Hawker _Aeshna grandis_. The Damselfly is a male, he is probably the Common Blue Damsel _Enallagma cyathigerum_, as he only looks to have 1 thoracic stripe. The Azure Damselfly is also very common, and looks very similar. The Bumblebee is feeding on the Globe Thistle (_Echinops ritro_), she is a worker of either _Bombus terrestris or B. lucorum_, probably the former (the yellow stripes are bright yellow in _B. terrestris_ and a bit paler in _B. lucorum_), but they are difficult to tell apart. Interestingly although we don't have many species of Bumblebee putting a definitive name to many of them (or almost any bee or wasp) is quite difficult.
The white butterfly is a Large White (Pieris brassicae), 2 obvious black spots and a large black wing tip mean that it is a Large White and not a Small White (_P. rapi_). Green-veined White (_P. napi_) is the other common one, but it has green markings on the underwings. The flower it is feeding on is _Verbena bonarensis_.

cheers Darrel


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## LondonDragon (31 Jul 2010)

Great work john


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## Graeme Edwards (31 Jul 2010)

dw1305 said:
			
		

> Hi all,
> Lovely photos, I can add a few I.D's. The large green Dragonfly is a female Emperor (_Anax imperator_) she is laying her eggs. The other brown Dragonfly is a Brown Hawker _Aeshna grandis_. The Damselfly is a male, he is probably the Common Blue Damsel _Enallagma cyathigerum_, as he only looks to have 1 thoracic stripe. The Azure Damselfly is also very common, and looks very similar. The Bumblebee is feeding on the Globe Thistle (_Echinops ritro_), she is a worker of either _Bombus terrestris or B. lucorum_, probably the former (the yellow stripes are bright yellow in _B. terrestris_ and a bit paler in _B. lucorum_), but they are difficult to tell apart. Interestingly although we don't have many species of Bumblebee putting a definitive name to many of them (or almost any bee or wasp) is quite difficult.
> The white butterfly is a Large White (Pieris brassicae), 2 obvious black spots and a large black wing tip mean that it is a Large White and not a Small White (_P. rapi_). Green-veined White (_P. napi_) is the other common one, but it has green markings on the underwings. The flower it is feeding on is _Verbena bonarensis_.
> 
> cheers Darrel



Darrel, the fountain of all knowledge on british flora and fauna. Good work.

John, love the pics mate. Glad to see you got on your belly and got amongst it, more than can be said for me lately. The bee picture for me is the best, i just love the color.

Cheers.


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## Lisa_Perry75 (31 Jul 2010)

Heres a quite good bumblebee guide
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/bombus/bumblebeeid.html


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## dw1305 (2 Aug 2010)

Hi all,
The link on Lisa's post is a good one. The other Bumblebee to look out for in S. Britain is the tree nesting _Bombus hypnorum,_ that has arrived from the continent since about 2000. I saw one yesterday at our allotment on the rapsberry flowers, so they have reached at least Wiltshire, and they are quite distinctive, they are the only black white and buff bumblebee. <http://www.bwars.com/bombus_hypnorum_map.htm>






From <http://www.bwars.com/bombus_hypnorum.htm>

cheers Darrel


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## swackett (4 Aug 2010)

Hi,

Having a play with my new 100mm macro over the weekend and got this image of a bumble bee, not sure which type though, maybe Darrel could shed some light on this...


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