really nice shots, but its however very much not a Stilbum, instead this is a Hedychrum species, a male it looks like.

Great stuff - I am kinda missing the Lomo 3,7x though, from what I recall it handles being pushed down quite far, would be interesting to see how it competes with these real glass monsters

Gorgeous!

I'm curious about your stacking speeds, how long it take to complete, and what processor are you using?

Thanks!

Tremendous work as always! I'm surprised the "in-house" tube lens by Mitutoyo looks so poor, considering the quality of their lenses. Or is it just me that imagine things? The centre crop has low contrast and looks a lot less sharp than the others, but the off-centre and corner crops get progressive...

I was almost contemplating mentioning that males of Eumeninae (and Polistinae, but not Vespinae) have "pseudostingers" on their genitalia. They try to prick (excuse the pun, heh) you when being held, to make you think its about to sting. Dont know if they serve any additional purpose when it comes t...

Nice pictures, just from seeing the antenna tip I knew it belonged to the Eumeninae, and a male. Its for some reason a very common modification in the males of several genera of the Eumninae. It's normally not seen on images of live animals, as its on the inside/underside of the antenna. Not sure an...

Its the longhorn beetle Aromia moschata, and the "worm" is its ovipositor, as its a female

no idea about the lenses, but the stepper motors are certainly usable for making an automated stacking rail, if they work that is.

The family Ascalaphidae, "owl flies" in the order Neuroptera, really beautiful insects, they look like someone mixed a dragonfly with a butterfly!

It's a cicindelid, aka "tiger beetle", probably Cicindela aurulenta, a common tropical species in Asia, unless if was collected somewhere else?

Nice composition and striking colours! almost looks like a painting

The wasp belongs to the Pompilidae by the way, spider hunting wasps

If you are considering buying more RAM at today's steep prices I would recommend testing the free trial versions of other stacking software before you splurge on memory. Besides, it seems like its the cores and not the RAM that is giving you grief, so wouldn't buying more RAM simply make the "time u...

Impressive! It's a male Chrysura in the dichroa-complex, lots of similar species to choose from I'm afraid

Nice shots, the wasp belongs to the Platygastridae, classic egg parasitoids

Gosh - I honestly thought, for once, I'd actually nailed the ID myself (using online resources). I'll look it up tomorrow and edit as appropriate. Appreciate the info - even if it has rather burst my bubble! :) It is frustrating to be so consistently rubbish at ID'ing insects though... Thanks all f...