I had been looking for some cool bugs to photograph for Joan while in Kazakhstan, but was finding very little interesting. And when I did, there was normally a much more exciting bird nearby that stole my attention. I found this beetle while hiding up against a rocky slope, waiting for some Grey-necked Buntings to come out so that I could videoscope them. It was in these minutes of quiet and solitude that the exoskeleton presented itself.
This is my favorite of the shots as there is nice depth, looking out across the flat desert to the Tien Chan mountains in the distance (on the border with China).Dale Forbes
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12 comments:
YIKES!!! Would NOT want this fellow walking on me! Great photos though!
Very cool! I agree, like the last shot best. And I'm sure Joan will love this.
What an interesting looking beetle Dale. Thank you so much for taking this for me. :) It looks very much like one of our tapping beetles we have here. I do love to see these and compare them to ours. More please. :)
Gaelyn - yes I DO love it. :)
so Joan, you are telling me I found a Kazakhstani toktokie? Cool. Very cool.
I will have a lizard for you in the next few days...
Sharon, don't worry, these guys hardly ever cause any real bodily damage. ;-)
Hi Gaelyn, now that is a wonderful life and blog you have created for yourself. Thank you for sharing it with me. you get any cool beetles where you are at the moment?
I can't get over the detail you were able to pick up on that insect! Even more impressive is that its black. I have a hard time photographing black anything and brining out its features. Very cool
LOL!! I am sure they don't call it that there, but yes, that is what it looks like. :)
...I have yet to embrace my inner bug-child, but I'm starting to see their beauty. I'm going to get out soon to photograph a few. Wonderful detail...
Hi Kim, it certainly helped that the beetle had a very smooth, shiny but "bumpy" exoskeleton so that lots of detail shows up easily.
Kelly, spend enough time on Joan's blog and almost anyone will start to take an interest in bugs ;-) and early hominids.
I am just trying to photograph *bugs* lately... starting with spiders found about the basement (very old house, you know how it is).
Nice shots! I wouldn't care for one of these to be crawling over me but I see the beauty in insects.
Dale
To my uneducated eye, it looks like a long-legged,lumpy version of a Bloody-nosed Beetle (a flightless beetle with fused elytra which makes a living out of being squashed by careless birdwatchers on nature reserve tracks.
Mike W (WWN)
Mike, is this like the office web account? there are a whole pile of blogs attached to it (some of which very old), the birdwatching mag blog, and "Eddie's World", but no link through to your blog.
For those of you who do not know Mike's blog, it is well worth a visit - nice photos with great stories scattered about.
http://weedworld.blogspot.com
Thanks, Dale, for pointing that out (I think it is now sorted); and thanks for the plug.
Mike W
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