Jaws of Death

Picosvistas · Post by **Picosvistas** » Fri Jun 21, 2019 8:45 am

The predatory larvae of an antlion (Myrmeleontidae). Handheld natural light stack 33 images. Asturias. Northern Spain.

Thank you for looking

Frank

mawyatt · Post by **mawyatt** » Fri Jun 21, 2019 10:27 am

Frank,

Great shot!!! We have those here in Florida, they create little cone shaped traps in the loose sand by "flicking" the sand out, and ants can't climb out if they fall in.

Best,

Troels · Post by **Troels** » Sat Jun 22, 2019 8:03 am

Very nice.
They are obviously difficult to shoot because they are always burrowed in the sand with only the jaws visible, if anything.
This must have been digged out. Does it play dead since you were able to do a bracketing sequence?

Picosvistas · Post by **Picosvistas** » Sat Jun 22, 2019 10:56 pm

Troels wrote:Very nice.
They are obviously difficult to shoot because they are always burrowed in the sand with only the jaws visible, if anything.
This must have been digged out. Does it play dead since you were able to do a bracketing sequence?

We have several living along a wall by the side of the house. This one was carefully removed from its sand trap on to the gravel at the side. They do sit pretty still after a couple of attempts to burrow back down. I took 9 sets, on 8 of them the thing moved but on the 9th I got lucky and only the antennae had any movement.

SteveB · Post by **SteveB** » Sun Jun 23, 2019 11:19 am

Stunning! Do they have eyes?

Picosvistas · Post by **Picosvistas** » Sun Jun 23, 2019 11:21 am

SteveB wrote:Stunning! Do they have eyes?

Not noticeable.

Dalantech · Post by **Dalantech** » Mon Jun 24, 2019 1:37 am

Really nice work, especially using natural light as the light source -kinda stunned you were able to get a sharp image. My only .02 is that when you do a stack don't forget to check out the foreground and if there's something between the camera and the subject you get it in focus as well. My eye gets drawn right to the out of focus area at the bottom of the frame.