Female Striped Horse Fly (Tabanus lineola)
Click here to view the larger image as Flickr's resizing creates moiré artifacts!
I'm not sure if a fly can be any more beautiful than a female Striped Horse Fly (Tabanus lineola) and I doubt I could have found a more perfect specimen. I've been planning this shot for years now, and as I left the house heading out to my favorite bug spot the day that I took this photo, I thought to myself "how great would it be if I could find a cooperative T. lineola female today?"
And sure enough - almost as soon as I arrived at the park, I spotted a large female cleaning her eyes on the railing of the bridge I find salticids on! She was quite battleworn and uncooperative, and I gave up chasing her around pretty quickly. Soon after, another female landed nearby (the fly pictured above and below), and instantly caught my eye - she was smaller and cleaner with brighter, more deeply saturated eyes. I proceeded to photograph her from just about every imaginable angle and magnification I am capable of, and she sat cooperatively the entire time despite grooming her eyes and wandering about a bit.
It's worth noting that male Tabanids are completely harmless as they merely feed on nectar and pollen. It's the females (like the beauty above) that feed off vertebrate blood and have those wonderfully vicious scissor-like mouthparts that easily rip through human flesh. Despite the bad reputation, I haven't been bitten by one of these radiant flies yet - although that would make for a great photo should it ever happen. To determine the gender of large Tabanids - the males have compound eyes that touch in the center of the head (As seen here.)
To read more about the compound eyes of arthropods check out the Wikipedia page (featuring one of my photographs as an illustration) on ommatidium here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ommatidium
...and it's possible I may upload some new artwork on my other account soon:
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The image above is a manual focus stack of two images taken at f/11 with an SMC Pentax-M 50mm f/2.0 prime lens reversed to a set of extension tubes on a Pentax K200D.
Comments and faves
PKski, Marco Siguenza, * Rhonda *, Rami ™, and 530 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Thomas Shahan (36 months ago | reply)
To put things in perspective a bit, here she is (all 15mm of her) on the rusty railing I found her on:
A pseudo-dorsal view:
A detail of the compound eye structure from 4:1 photo:
Since I made a comparison of jumping spider hair to laurel leaves a couple days ago, I'll compare the eye markings of this female to Kanye West's shutter sunglasses:
PKski (36 months ago | reply)
Amazing macro. Love those eyes. Faved.
354616416 [deleted] (36 months ago | reply)
Amazing!!!
Sandor... (36 months ago | reply)
Amazing! How on Earth you do that! :)
f_msantos (36 months ago | reply)
WooooW
Marco Siguenza (36 months ago | reply)
Amazing!! love it
Modo Frodo's Cabinet of Curiosities (36 months ago | reply)
Superb! This rocks!
Rami ™ (36 months ago | reply)
Perfection
mj_stevo (36 months ago | reply)
very nicely done
Kriss on flickr (36 months ago | reply)
Really impressive this one again !!!
s@ndrinha (36 months ago | reply)
amei.
jametoro (36 months ago | reply)
Amazing.....................
Elliotphotos (36 months ago | reply)
Wow, these are incredible photos!
Rémy_ERRA (36 months ago | reply)
Excellent.
julesoflondon (36 months ago | reply)
Amazing capture my friend!
klythawk (36 months ago | reply)
Incredible. Congratulations !!!!
Keep the Funk alive (36 months ago | reply)
AMAZING...Love it!
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Seen in my contacts' photos. (?)
kestrel360 (36 months ago | reply)
Diddy doesn't even come close......!
avarummage (36 months ago | reply)
cool ,was the third shot done with the bellows and 35mm?
Santiago Antonio Castro (36 months ago | reply)
Great photography my friend. Perfect light, colors, sharpness and DOF.
Greetings.
All-seeing Cuttlefish (36 months ago | reply)
Beautiful! The horse flies in my neck of the world bite fiercely... does this beauty have fangs?
Rached MILADI- Exposition collective... (36 months ago | reply)
Spectacular...
Robert's Macro Photography Join Me on Face Book (36 months ago | reply)
Beautiful Macro
Marco Antonio Losas (36 months ago | reply)
Fantastic macro, the eyes are spectaculars. Great job
Coder (36 months ago | reply)
Great shot!
Sky Noir (36 months ago | reply)
Just wow!
birdrman (36 months ago | reply)
Stunning macro! Excellent!
CaZen (36 months ago | reply)
Strikingly beautiful subject, and I like the background bokeh.
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Seen in Macro Photos (NO LIMITS) (?)
aidys1 (36 months ago | reply)
Now he is a beauty wonderful macro Aidy
J e n s (36 months ago | reply)
I do have evil childhood memories about a less beautiful Horse Fly...
Great shots!!
MacRo_b (36 months ago | reply)
A stunning image Thomas with beautiful colours. And a very nicely written description too...
Damian * // www.dsfotografia.com.ar (36 months ago | reply)
Wow!! Amazing shots!! Awesome!
MichaelCobh (36 months ago | reply)
Wow
WillJL (36 months ago | reply)
Very stylin' bug.
SouthWestDreams (36 months ago | reply)
Amazing work!
amillionwalks (36 months ago | reply)
Seen In Beautiful Bugs!
Wow - amazing!!!
damack1 (36 months ago | reply)
Wow! That's all I can say. Just ..... wow!
Litehouseman (36 months ago | reply)
Wow, that's once awesome macro!
kl4530 (36 months ago | reply)
You da man on bug eye's.
Sérgio Castrø (36 months ago | reply)
I'd love to see some EXIF info!
Norm Townsend (36 months ago | reply)
I'm glad you got the subject and photo's you wanted, great job :)
ac4photos ( More off than on - Computer Woes ) (36 months ago | reply)
Simply awesome !!
More amazing beauty in nature... and shown so well here :)
kampang (36 months ago | reply)
The colours on the eyes are simply amazing!
Ed Tse (36 months ago | reply)
I definitely pictured Kanye's shutter glasses when I saw this photo. Great shot! I love the detailed shot of the compound eye.
This photo was invited and added to the Macros de Naturaleza - Macros of Nature (Post 1, comment 3) group.
jenofdiamond (36 months ago | reply)
Just frickn amazing work!
Filan (36 months ago | reply)
Extremely beautiful photography
Robson Bento (36 months ago | reply)
Come onnnnnnnn! masterpiece
Nené ƸӜƷ (36 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called INTENSOS ANIMALES / Intense animals.(P1/C1), and we'd love to have this added to the group!
WOWWW!!!!!!!
This photo was invited and added to the INTENSOS ANIMALES / Intense animals. (P1 C3) group.
debashis_a_ghosh (36 months ago | reply)
This is a Spectacular Photo of an Insect!
You are invited to post this image to "Spectacular Insects, invite only!
www.flickr.com/groups/spectacular_insects/
darbians (36 months ago | reply)
Damn I was goinig to mentio the resembalance to kanye but you allready noticed it. A great shot so much detail as always.