Business end of a clegg

[StuartUK]

Stacked shots of the head of a female common clegg, Haematopota pluvialis. Canon EOS R with MP65, F4.0, ISO 4.0, 3:1. The black scale line at the top is 1mm long. 123 shots in the front view, 65 in the side view.

Horseflies have amazing eyes! The colours and patterns are caused by iridesence - like an oil film on a puddle. In this case, there is a thin, transparent layer over the surface of the eye and light rays reflected from the upper and lower surfaces of this layer interfere with each other causing the colours we see. As the dead specimen dries out, this transparent covering shrinks and its optical properties change. The colours and pattern will disappear. Within days, the eyes will become a dull, uniform red-brown!

 

[Monkeyhanger]

Excellent shots and some useful information

 

[Tringa]

Superb shots, Stuart. They are brilliant creatures, even though they pack a punch.

Dave

 

[Deleted member 3428]

Very detailed shots Stuart.
So how/what do you use to kill it? I assume it is dead to take amount of shots without it moving even slightly.

 

[StuartUK]

So how/what do you use to kill it? I assume it is dead to take amount of shots without it moving even slightly.

The traditional way most Dipterists use is Ethyl Acetate. Just a ciuple of drops on a twist of loo paper added to the tube. But this tends to lead to the eyes collapsing quite quickly, especially in the smaller stuff. So I have been experimenting with CO2. I use one of thoe bicycle tyre inflator gadgets to inject CO2 straight into my pooter. Knocks the flies down pretty much instantly so I can transfer them to a tube. They will wake up quite quickly, so the tube goes into the freezer when I get home - set of tubes from one trip sealed in a zip-lock freezer bag. That will keep them 'fresh' until I can deal with them. When you take the bag out of the freezer, don't unseal it until it has warmed up to room temperature - otherwise you get condensation all over everything. For stacking, I try to pin them such that the pin isn't in shot. It is also a good idea to allow some time for rigor mortis to pass so that you can position legs, etc as you want. For bigger stuff like horseflies, this may take some hours, but for little stuff, it's not long.

 

[Deleted member 3428]

Very interesting Stuart, thanks for the insight.