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I am posting this here because of the potential wide interest in the subject and in the Laowa lens.
Sometimes were are so focused on small things that we fails to see the larger ones. These images nearly didn’t happen because of such a circumstance.
I was searching through some long-dead, well-rotted tree remnants in a shaded and permanently damp spot in our garden. I pulled out a chunk about 2 inches/50 mm thick and about 18 inches/45cm long. It had some tiny orange club fungi on it so I took them to our “pub bench” table and collected my camera.
As I supported and orientated the wood, I saw some ark swellings on one end. Oncloser examination, I saw that they were much like a moth pupa but with an inverted operculum (my choice of term) at one end, rather like the lid of a Pringles tube. This feature stopped it from, otherwise, being a moth cocoon. I later measured them at about 7mm long.
I took the photos then did a lot of internet searching for matching images. Eventually, I sent some images to two knowledgeable people. Although I do not yet have a definitive answer, I seems that these are cocoons of mycetophilids, Fungus Gnats. Thanks to Jon Cole and Malcolm Storey for input. Malcom suggested they were mycetophilids and a search shows images in BugGuide, for Epicypta which look identical.
I will add more details in this topic if I get them. It seems that these may have sometimes been overlooked in habitat.
For the low magnification shots I used:
Olympus EM-1 (aperture priority), Olympus 4/3 x2 TC, Olympus 4/3 50mm f2 macro, f10, hand-held. (No TC and f11 for the first one).
For the higher magnifications:
Olympus EM-1 (aperture priority mode), Laowa 25mm f2.8 2.5x-5x ultra-macro at x2.5 and f8, hand-held.
Harold
Crosseye stereos:
Sometimes were are so focused on small things that we fails to see the larger ones. These images nearly didn’t happen because of such a circumstance.
I was searching through some long-dead, well-rotted tree remnants in a shaded and permanently damp spot in our garden. I pulled out a chunk about 2 inches/50 mm thick and about 18 inches/45cm long. It had some tiny orange club fungi on it so I took them to our “pub bench” table and collected my camera.
As I supported and orientated the wood, I saw some ark swellings on one end. Oncloser examination, I saw that they were much like a moth pupa but with an inverted operculum (my choice of term) at one end, rather like the lid of a Pringles tube. This feature stopped it from, otherwise, being a moth cocoon. I later measured them at about 7mm long.
I took the photos then did a lot of internet searching for matching images. Eventually, I sent some images to two knowledgeable people. Although I do not yet have a definitive answer, I seems that these are cocoons of mycetophilids, Fungus Gnats. Thanks to Jon Cole and Malcolm Storey for input. Malcom suggested they were mycetophilids and a search shows images in BugGuide, for Epicypta which look identical.
I will add more details in this topic if I get them. It seems that these may have sometimes been overlooked in habitat.
For the low magnification shots I used:
Olympus EM-1 (aperture priority), Olympus 4/3 x2 TC, Olympus 4/3 50mm f2 macro, f10, hand-held. (No TC and f11 for the first one).
For the higher magnifications:
Olympus EM-1 (aperture priority mode), Laowa 25mm f2.8 2.5x-5x ultra-macro at x2.5 and f8, hand-held.
Harold
Crosseye stereos:
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