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mothwingOne of my Christmas presents was a macro lense. I tried it out on various items in our flat today, like a critter I caught in the tub and Crocky's flowers.
Surprise thermobia is surprising:
The species of the bug above, firebrats or Ofenfischchen, is over three hundred fifty million years old, though it is difficult to date these exactly from what I've read. Fossils are found from as early as the late Devonian and the early Carboniferous period. They lived in the hot equatorial regions on which tree ferns and 15m relatives of today's horsetail evolved and spread, forests which would become our coal deposits. Their species evolved before winged insects had, their order is thought to be the link between winged insects and their wingless ancestors. They retain their flexible abdomen in contrast to many other insect species which helps them to move quickly, and their long feelers and bristles function as an early-warning system. They can live up to four years and live in warm areas, feeding on lichen, algae, and anything else organic that they can obtain.
Unless, of course, you are a creationist, in which case ignore the above: these were specifically created by the Lord to live under our floorboards.
These little insects normally live only in areas warmer than 40°C, which our flat is really not, but it might be approaching that temperature under the boiler, who knows. It has taken up residence in our bathroom - which does not have a window, so it might be sufficiently warm, dark and damp in the crags between the floorboards under the linoleum.
"Kiss my cerci!" - They are pretty fast. This one was befuddled by the sudden light, trapped in our bath tub, and somewhat shellshocked by the flash, otherwise I probably wouldn't even have been able to take pictures.
Scary flower face is scary:
Whenever I trawl through the flower photo groups on DeviantArt, I see loads of these - gerbera must be the most popular flowers ever.
And then I discovered that my camera has a filter function and I could take as many blue-tinted pictures as I liked:
Yeah. Back to work.
Surprise thermobia is surprising:
The species of the bug above, firebrats or Ofenfischchen, is over three hundred fifty million years old, though it is difficult to date these exactly from what I've read. Fossils are found from as early as the late Devonian and the early Carboniferous period. They lived in the hot equatorial regions on which tree ferns and 15m relatives of today's horsetail evolved and spread, forests which would become our coal deposits. Their species evolved before winged insects had, their order is thought to be the link between winged insects and their wingless ancestors. They retain their flexible abdomen in contrast to many other insect species which helps them to move quickly, and their long feelers and bristles function as an early-warning system. They can live up to four years and live in warm areas, feeding on lichen, algae, and anything else organic that they can obtain.
Unless, of course, you are a creationist, in which case ignore the above: these were specifically created by the Lord to live under our floorboards.
These little insects normally live only in areas warmer than 40°C, which our flat is really not, but it might be approaching that temperature under the boiler, who knows. It has taken up residence in our bathroom - which does not have a window, so it might be sufficiently warm, dark and damp in the crags between the floorboards under the linoleum.
"Kiss my cerci!" - They are pretty fast. This one was befuddled by the sudden light, trapped in our bath tub, and somewhat shellshocked by the flash, otherwise I probably wouldn't even have been able to take pictures.
Scary flower face is scary:
Whenever I trawl through the flower photo groups on DeviantArt, I see loads of these - gerbera must be the most popular flowers ever.
And then I discovered that my camera has a filter function and I could take as many blue-tinted pictures as I liked:
Yeah. Back to work.
