Details of Cryptorhynchus lapathi, a willow weevil

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

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rjlittlefield
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Details of Cryptorhynchus lapathi, a willow weevil

Post by rjlittlefield »

This subject is Cryptorhynchus lapathi, variously known as the "Poplar-and-Willow Borer" or just "willow weevil".

The beast has some economic importance, so it is described in detail in numerous places. See for example https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS ... borer.html .

Here, I am interested just in a couple of anatomical details. All stereo pairs are crossed-eye.

First, some of its more spectacular scales. The dark areas in these clusters are basically black holes -- the camera saw no discernable light even with enough over-exposure to blow out the rest of the beast.

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Now, backing out to show almost the whole beetle. The scales shown above are near the middle of its back, on the segment behind the head.

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Closer again, showing scales on the elytra, just left of image center in the wider view. I was surprised to see the deep pits, each with a single large scale sitting flat in the bottom of the pit.

Image


This beast does a great job of protecting its snout when threatened, by tucking it into a ventral groove on the thorax that is so deep it can contain essentially the whole snout. I do not know how the antennae are held by a defensive live beetle. I suspect they would be tucked alongside the snout.

Image

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In life, the snout has its typical appearance:

Image


All images except the last were shot with Canon R7 camera using electronic shutter and one or two Jansjö LED lamps shining through a hemispherical diffuser, ISO 100, typically 0.4 second exposure time.

The first image used Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 20X NA 0.42 at 12.75X (nominal 12.5X), using Raynox DCR-250 tube lens front-forward. 302 frames at 0.0025 mm focus step. It is a crop, field width about 0.56 mm.

All other studio images were shot with Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X NA 0.14 at 3.17X (nominal 3.125X), using Raynox DCR-250 tube lens front-forward, around 150 frames at 0.025 mm focus step. Widest view is essentially the whole frame, the others are crops.

The live image is, um, I really don't know. I shot it back in 2014, sent it to a beetle expert at Oregon State University for ID, and in the intervening 8 years managed to lose the original JPEG. All that I had left was the email, which contained a cropped version that was only 893 pixels wide. For amusement, I tried upsizing it by 2X using Topaz Gigapixel IA. I liked the result a lot better the the email version, so that's what you're seeing here, downsized again to 1024 pixels for forum display.

--Rik

MarkSturtevant
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Re: Details of Cryptorhynchus lapathi, a willow weevil

Post by MarkSturtevant »

Very cool! Intriguing about the scales in the pits. I have no idea what that is about.
Mark Sturtevant
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wwheeler48
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Re: Details of Cryptorhynchus lapathi, a willow weevil

Post by wwheeler48 »

Rik
Those are incredible images. The 3D stuff is incredible. I will have to do more of that. I will try to do it on the spider pedipalps we talked about. Next I may try a little video...

Beatsy
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Re: Details of Cryptorhynchus lapathi, a willow weevil

Post by Beatsy »

Wonderful set. Lots of context and even more lovely zooming in for detail. Just how I like it! Ta.

Marcepstein
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Re: Details of Cryptorhynchus lapathi, a willow weevil

Post by Marcepstein »

Nice images and interesting story. The presentation is very neatly done. How do you put spaces between images and text?

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