small wasp

Moved

… john and jane balaban, 5 August, 2009 - 12:09pm

Fantastic

A superb female of the family Eucoilidae of superfamily Cynipoidea. Contrary to related Gall Wasps, these insects parasitize maggots and pupae of small flies, especially Acalyptrate Schizophora. Moniliform antennae and the small "crater" in the middle of the scutellum are the hallmarks for this special family.

… Richard Vernier, 2 November, 2006 - 10:51am

Eucoilidae

I didn't notice the "crater", but it does look realy distinctive. Thanks Richard for identifying a new family for bugguide!

… tom murray, 2 November, 2006 - 11:24am

Thank YOU, Tom.

If it is possible, Tom, your images have gotten even BETTER than when I first discovered your work over at Pbase. Just outstanding:-)

… Eric R. Eaton, 2 November, 2006 - 2:17pm

That's very nice Eric

A combination of upgrading equiptment earlier this year, and learning from experience, and talking with other photographers, can make a difference.
On a technical note, I've cut back my f-stop to 11, because I was told that higher than that the image starts to degrade, and I've noticed better results since then.

… tom murray, 2 November, 2006 - 2:24pm

We read your comment about f-stop with interest!

We're going to try that ourselves at the very next opportunity, but we're wondering if there was an explanation given as to why this is the case. At least with slide film, it always seemed that the smaller aperture/higher f-stop/greater depth of field gave a better image. Any thoughts?

… john and jane balaban, 3 November, 2006 - 6:29pm

This is what I've been told

A higher f-stop does give better depth of field, but it looses some of the fine detail that you want in macro photos. The explanation I got was that when the aperature is too small, the light actually has to bend to cover the sensor.

… tom murray, 3 November, 2006 - 6:50pm