Pitter Patter Of Little Tarsus

[AlP]

Snow arrived last night so instead of putting on my snow tires today I decided to photograph some type of worse for wear Altica flea beetle. Of course, in celebration of "old man winter's" arrival my ultrasonic cleaner died today too. So with a little hand swishing in the deceased machine and some small blasts of air from a can of Dust Off, I was left with these. I found the tarsus, setae and claw more interesting (truthfully the hand cleaning wasn't very effective). I can honestly say I am not a "footie" photographer but I am giving it a shot. I secretly really admire other macro/micro shooters work on this site. So...

Right front tarsus

Left front tarsus

Right middle tarsus. The blue/green background in the images is actually the insect. Images are at 8x, 151 steps at 10µm.

[wwheeler48]

Beautiful!

[Adalbert]

very nice

[hayath]

Wonderful!

[MarkSturtevant]

Nicely done. The small bits of debris can be removed in post with cloning and healing tools in a photo editor.

[AlP]

Nicely done. The small bits of debris can be removed in post with cloning and healing tools in a photo editor.

Issue resolved, new ultrasonic cleaner arrived Thursday (smiley face). Twas a dirty insect and I didn't feel like cleaning it post. A couple of snaps after a little cleaning. I think it is a Dogbane beetle (Chrysochus auratus). Excellent for practicing on due to its shininess.

[Olympusman]

Nice shots. Interesting how extensive the pulvilli are on this specimen.

Mike

[Olympusman]

Nice shots. Interesting how extensive the pulvilli are on this specimen.

Mike