Q: While planning my area for the BioBlitz in Hermanus, it dawned that there are on the plants myriads of insects and spiders - the majority tiny - too tiny to photograph with a cellphone or Canon macro! How do I handle them? Can I take them home and photograph them through a microscope then send the images to iNat?
Vic Hamilton-Attwell (BOTSOC Hermanus)
A: Yes flower visitors are game for the City Nature Challenge. Many should be big enough to photograph easily. Although some you may have to wait for or sit very still until they visit your flower.
Provided that you are not breaking any laws: yes it may be a good idea to collect them and photograph them using a super macro lens, or a microscope, or a digital microscope. What also works is to photograph with a tripod at a very high resolution and then cropping tightly.
And of course, for more those insects with ants in their pants (or ants wearing pants as it were), storing them in the fridge until you have time to snap them will help to make them more manageable. Note though that they will warm up very quickly.
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Q: While planning my area for the BioBlitz in Hermanus, it dawned that there are on the plants myriads of insects and spiders - the majority tiny - too tiny to photograph with a cellphone or Canon macro! How do I handle them? Can I take them home and photograph them through a microscope then send the images to iNat?
Vic Hamilton-Attwell (BOTSOC Hermanus)
A: Yes flower visitors are game for the City Nature Challenge. Many should be big enough to photograph easily. Although some you may have to wait for or sit very still until they visit your flower.
Provided that you are not breaking any laws: yes it may be a good idea to collect them and photograph them using a super macro lens, or a microscope, or a digital microscope. What also works is to photograph with a tripod at a very high resolution and then cropping tightly.
And of course, for more those insects with ants in their pants (or ants wearing pants as it were), storing them in the fridge until you have time to snap them will help to make them more manageable. Note though that they will warm up very quickly.
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