Fly blowing bubble & small Robber fly
Jul 3, 2015 14:26:06 #
I took about 20 shots of the little (about 4 mm) fly blowing a bubble hoping I would get a good one. The Robber fly was also very small, about 5 mm.
Jul 3, 2015 15:03:42 #
Well, I'm impressed with the results of live stacks. The innate challenges of any stack + the added challenge of possible movement of the subject make these even more impressive.
:thumbup:
:thumbup:
Jul 3, 2015 16:28:04 #
LoneRangeFinder wrote:
Sorry, Allen. These are single shots. My wording was misleading. I was working the angles to try to get a good shot. The bubble increasingly got larger then all of a sudden it was gone & the fly took off. It was too windy to attempt live stacks on this outing.Well, I'm impressed with the results of live stacks. The innate challenges of any stack + the added challenge of possible movement of the subject make these even more impressive. :thumbup:
Jul 3, 2015 17:24:17 #
dig the first one.......bubble end makes me think of the old claw and glass ball feet on antique furniture
Jul 3, 2015 19:07:06 #
Both excellent shots NP43. I really like the first one, one of those complete package macros, good focus, good illumination, good composition with action.
Jul 3, 2015 20:35:14 #
Jul 4, 2015 12:02:21 #
I had never heard of this before and so looked it up but, although lots of flies seem to do it, the reasons why do not seem to have been established. Something to do with digestion has been suggested.
Jul 4, 2015 20:04:16 #
These are not "bubbles" of air, rather droplets of digestive juices. Most flies do not have chewing mouth parts. Instead, their mouths are either a long, penetrating hollow proboscis, or an articulated suction tongue. Both designs ingest liquidized food of their prey, after injection or application of acidic juices.
Jul 4, 2015 20:43:05 #
Jul 5, 2015 04:35:34 #
Nikonian72 wrote:
I knew you would have the answer Douglass, thanks.These are not "bubbles" of air, rather droplets of digestive juices.
Jul 5, 2015 08:48:24 #
Nikonian72 wrote:
Thanks, Douglass. Interesting subject. In an effort to properly title future posts of this behavior, I did a brief search. Seems that the term (bubbling) is used in a lot of papers describing this behavior. Remarkable that this behavior has so much documentation. Seems they do this when the liquid has a high water content. For those interested, a short quote from one source: "When the level of dilution and total volume of food ingested were great enough, engorged flies entered extended quiescent postfeeding periods during which they extrude orally droplets of liquid crop contents (“bubbling”). After this they reinitiated feeding, followed by more bubbling and feeding bouts." Read more here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/pm7456xh34021528These are not "bubbles" of air, rather droplets of digestive juices. Most flies do not have chewing mouth parts. Instead, their mouths are either a long, penetrating hollow proboscis, or an articulated suction tongue. Both designs ingest liquidized food of their prey, after injection or application of acidic juices.
Jul 5, 2015 18:07:04 #
Oddly enough I actually saw a fly doing this today. Without your post I might not have noticed. Interesting information here.
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