tadamcochran's Favorites

I had been in awe of beetles like this ever since I saw them in a museum tray many years ago, but suffice it to say that when I encountered this one in the field for the first time, it was..."glorious"!
Scanned from 35mm Ektachrome slide.

Group of Brachymesia gravida

This is no multiple exposure, digital quackery or any such sorcery. I took a break from my sullen and soulless responsibilities to explore the checkerboard array of ephemeral ponds at a water reclamation site.

By far Brachymesia gravida was the most prolific anisopteran species, outnumbering its nearest competitor by probably 50:1. I'm not a mathematician but I was shooting a 150mm lens on a 1.5 crop sensor at between 1-2 meters...so whatever the dimensions are for this field-of-view, this vantage could be multiplied the length of at least two of the ponds which had the highest density (and smelled the worst). I guess you'd have to add more vertical room too. There were literally hundreds if their numbers did indeed not break one thousand.

It was amazing to take a step and watch a cloud of Pennants ascend and waver before softly returning to their perches.