Male Sphaerophoria scripta
Size: 9 mm

Early morning stack of a male hoverfly resting on a dry flower head.

Stacked from 42 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker. Exposure settings: 1s, f/5.6, ISO64.

Here I used a Laowa 25 mm f/2.8 mounted on an Olympus EM-1mkII body. Magnification: 3X so the horisontal of view is 5.6 mm.

Tags:   Olympus EM-1mkII Laowa 25/2.8 Zerene stacker syrphidae hover fly insect macro

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Pholcus phalangioides
Body length: 8 mm


Focus stacked studio image of a female Pholcus made several years ago.


This is an introduced species that has become cosmopolitan thanks to human activities. Here in Sweden they're unable to survive in nature but thrive indoors. In fact, they seem to effectively outcompete the giant house spider (Eratigena atrica) wherever they're introduced!

This is a female specimen which is easily to tell from the lack of enlarged, boxing glove like pedipalps.


This living specimen was captured in a small container and left there for a couple of hours to "settle in". With some patience she remained still enough for me to capture the sequence of 143 images needed to complete this sequence before she was release back into her favorite corner of my apartment.

Canon 5DmkII, Nikon PB-6 bellows, Mitutoyo M-Plan Apo 5X/0.14, morfanon tube lens

Tags:   arachnid spider macro Zerene Stacker Canon 5DmkII Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5x/0.14 mmm

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Cerura vinula Puss moth caterpillar
70mm

This puss moth caterpillar was climbing up one of the countless shrub like balsam poplars girding the beach in Byrum, Öland.

I shot this with the DIY macro-fisheye rig based on a CCTV lens relayed through a reversed Canon 24/2.8 STM (described earlier).

Tags:   wide angle macro macro lepidoptera cerura vinula cctv Canon 760D puss moth caterpillar

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Prosena siberita, Tachinidae
Size: 8 mm

Parasitic fly perched on Laserpitium latifolium.

This species has such an elegant proboscis ("tongue")! If you're familiar with stinging flies like the tse-tse fly you might suspect P. siberita of having similarly annoying habits. However, this species is a perfectly harmless nectar feeder! Of course, if you're a beetle larva you might disagree since these flies parasitize the larvae of scarab beetles!

Stacked from 35 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 760D, Canon MP-E65

Tags:   insect diptera tachinidae fly Canon 760D Zerene Stacker Canon MP-E65

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Trichoptera 30mm


Studio image of a nest building caddisfly larva.


This is one of the pioneer species in a pond I've been engaged in building in the nature reserve right next to where I live.


Stacked from 119 exposures in Zerene Stacker (dead, prepared specimen).


Sony NEX-7, Canon MP-E65, two Jansjö LED-lamps

Tags:   macro trichoptera studio Zerene Stacker Sony NEX-7 caddisfly Canon MP-E65 insect

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