Face of a Southern Yellowjacket Queen (Vespula squamosa)

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    This past Friday, I went to a public lecture by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and was surprised to see that he used this image in his presentation. I remembered seeing the image on flickr a few times, and thought to myself that it would be great if had used some of my images I have posted, but obviously my images are not as well known. Some salticid images probably would have been a well recieved addition to his lecture...

    This morning I set out to look for jumping spiders as I often do, and decided to flip over a wooden platform were I know a Phidippus audax lives ( Click here to watch a video of this spider eating a harvestman ) and was surprised to find this female yellowjacket hanging out in the shade beneath the platform. She may have just come out of hibernation, so she didn't seem too keen on flying away, but kind of waddled around a bit slowly, giving me a chance to get a few photos.

    The above image is a crop from an image taken with the 50mm reversed to a few extension tubes. Make sure to view it in the largest size to appreciate all the fine detail!

    Quite a beautiful wasp, hopefully I can find a male someday.

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    For those of you interested - some new artwork of mine is posted here:

    www.flickr.com/photos/33209413@N02/

    scubapup, Deniz ŞENSOY, A.alFoudry, and 819 other people added this photo to their favorites.

    View 20 more comments

    1. FOTOLUCE STUDIO 24 months ago | reply

      You are great! [+ I LOVE wasps...]

    2. littleleeaah [deleted] 21 months ago | reply

      love this so much!

    3. light_breeze2010 21 months ago | reply

      WOW, a 50 and tubes!!? Amazing detail.

    4. daufine1 20 months ago | reply

      votre série de photos est incroyable.... j'aimerais arrrivé au 100ème de ce que vous faîtes...
      un très très grand bravo....

    5. Milusa 20 months ago | reply

      Hi, The Spectacular Insects Group's XVI contest of the month of November "Bees and wasps". This photo would be great for the contest. Read the rules!!!. Please consider posting this or another great photo at:
      www.flickr.com/groups/spectacular_insects/discuss/7215762...

    6. Godric Hufflepuff 20 months ago | reply

      You made this with "focus bracketing", right?

    7. Carlos Del Pico (Carlitus91) 18 months ago | reply

      Incredible men, incredble :O

    8. Lippy~Art 18 months ago | reply

      Amazing :-o

    9. SunSetStorm 14 months ago | reply

      totally awesome

    10. theninjaseal 12 months ago | reply

      This shot is totally stunning, I just had one question - I came here from your post about extension tubes and reverse mounting, and I wanted to know how far away from the wasp you were when you took this. Thanks! Great shot!

    11. xpisto1 11 months ago | reply

      Has she got three eyes or one? Beautiful photo, and beautiful creature, at a distance!

    12. Nema Pajand 6 weeks ago | reply

      Can I ask what camera u used for this photo

    13. Jumpin'Jack 6 weeks ago | reply

      Nema Pajand: You have the camera, lens and lighting data listed right there in photo tags - plus everything explained again in one of the early comments.
      If you only looked around a bit...

    14. Nema Pajand 6 weeks ago | reply

      Oh ok thanks it wasn't show some things for me before so I thought I'd ask

    15. stilfaded 2 weeks ago | reply

      This is amazing

    16. Max bert 9 days ago | reply

      This is pop

    17. lambog[ 9 days ago | reply

      please join extream fun and add funny or cool pics like this mutch

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