Red damsel

Red damsel - Agriocnemis femina femina (Brauer, 1868)

Very early session today, started shooting at 06:30. The bees were out, feeding on the ripe fruit, not sure if it is dates or figs, or something similar. I fired off a few shots as a possible follow up to yesterday's blip. I wanted more, but this was a reasonable blip backup. It is strange how these bees are so active in the cool of the first light. They do look like western honey bees and that might be an explanation, as the bees are gone in the heat of the mid afternoon.

The big ants were not in attendance today, so that left mosquitoes. Still having a difficult time capturing a decent mosquito image. It has a lot to do with the fact that the head is so small and I want the wispy brush antennae and the tail in focus, but the poor light and the small depth of field is preventing this.

However, I finally managed to nail the small red damsel. This too has been a nightmare to capture, I have literally taken many hundreds of shots of this illusive creature over the last months. Again, low light and depth of field being the culprits. This time I had my monopod with me, I upped the speed and used fill in flash. Even managed some dew drop highlights.

Not a bad session, just glad to get one of my difficult insects out of the way.

Dave