My Better Half often tells me that if I don't move around more I'll start to attract flies so I sit here now with a fly swatter by my side.

One of the little devils landed next to me as I was enjoying a morning cup of coffee. Little did it realize that I am an among the best swatters in the universe. Unfortunately for it there was not even a chance that it would lift off before meeting its unavoidable doom. A lighting fast flick of the wrist with a quick uplift on impact and it's over in a flash.

I celebrate another kill and add another notch on the trusty swatter as I continue to sip my morning coffee.

In tribute to the undermatched foe I have immortalized it in a focus stacking session at 5x magnification as I have many of its fallen brethren.

This is a yellow moth with brown pattern markings that I believe to be a False Crocus Geometer Moth (?) from what I can find that is very similar in color, antenna, wing shape and pattern markings. This moth was a given to me by our friends in Quincy, IL who found it expired in their shed and brought it to me when me met in Amana, IA over the weekend.

I brought it home and staged it for a focus stacking session at 5X magnification using a microscope objective as the camera's lens. This image consists of a stack of 451 images with constant LED diffused lighting and processed with Zerene Stacker into this final image.

This is a Crane Fly that had been sitting in the same spot on our porch all day yesterday. It wouldn't move so I suspect that it was nearing the end of its time with us. As evening approached I brought it in for a focus stacking session using a blue sample paint swatch to create the background. The brownish blur is its abdomen that is out of the focus range of the depth of the stack that I staged.

Because the lens that I use is a 5X power microscope objective with an open aperture (.13 NA) the depth of field is flat so only a few micron deep slice of the subject is in focus at any time.

I found this yellow black spotted Cucumber Beetle while scouting the yard yesterday foraging in one of the Hibiscus flowers along the fence and I brought it in for a focus stacking session.

Here's what I have learned about why they are considered to be a such a destructive pest:

"Striped and spotted cucumber beetles can cause serious losses in cucumbers, muskmelons, and watermelons. Cucumber beetles are a major concern to muskmelon and cucumber growers because they vector the bacteria that causes a disease, bacterial wilt of cucurbits.

While the adults feed mainly on foliage, pollen and flowers, their feeding on melon rinds late in the season may reduce market quality. Larvae of these insects feed on roots and stems, but this damage is minimal compared to the potential losses due to bacterial wilt. The spotted cucumber beetle are also known as the southern corn rootworm."