A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
396: Myscelia Orsis Butterfly
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© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2012, 2017
insect
All posts tagged insect
A selection of photographs taken in Brazil in 2013.
Part 32:
Belo Horizonte (MG) – Mug at base of tree
Belo Horizonte (MG) – Spider
Belo Horizonte (MG) – Mug at base of tree
Belo Horizonte (MG) – Spider
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2013, 2017
A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
350: Cicada exoskeleton
When the long and dry winter is over in Belo Horizonte, you will hear shrill sounds that welcome the spring. Sounds that can be very loud, but they are caused by insects: the cicadas. The male cicades that had buried themselves in order to survive the winter, will appear again when they receive some signal that spring has come. They then climb the trees and produce the sound by moving their paws to a specific organ that serves as a percussion instrument. The males compete for the females, sometimes they aggregate and call them in chorus. The young cicadas will change their skins, and leave their exoskeleton (a so-called exuvia) on the plant, tree, or fruit, where the skinchange has occurred. The exoskeleton in the picture was left on a jackfruit.
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2011, 2017
A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
348: Transparent wings
This butterfly may be a general appearance in the parks in Belo Horizonte, it does not occur in the wild in the immediate vicinity. The Greta Oto is mainly found in tropical rain forests, where the flowers grow from which the butterfly lives. It looks like a fragile insect, but this butterfly is pretty strong. It can carry a multiple of its own weight and can travel about ten kilometers a day. The wings are transparent, and that is unique in the animal world. Some aquatic animals such as jellyfish are transparent, but on land and in the air it is very rare to observe transparent animals. The light is not absorbed by the wings and is also not reflected. Thanks to a not fully understood microstructure, light is bent in such a way that our eyes recognize it as transparent. In this way, this butterfly can protect itself against its predators.
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2011, 2017
A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
333: Butterfly and blue flowers
I found this butterfly in the butterfly garden of Parque Municipal in Belo Horizonte. Using Google, it was fairly easy to find out that this butterfly is called a maria-boba (‘Crazy Mary’). The scientific name is Heliconius ethilla narcaea, described by Godart in Rio de Janeiro in 1819. This butterfly species is quite common, from Panama to the extreme south of Brazil. It flies quite slowly, but it doesn’t need to be really afraid of hunters: they are poisonous for their predators. You will find this flutter mainly in the passionflower bushes, but other colorful (mainly red) flowers also attract its attention, including the blue flowers in the photo.
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2011, 2017
A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
288: Dragonfly
Dragonflies are common in Brazil. I have often found them along the waterfront of a natural pond where they exert their graceful dancing along the shore and across the water surface. However, I photographed this dragonfly in the Botanical Garden in Belo Horizonte. At small pond, which contained a variety of water plants, I counted a handful of different types of dragonflies. Dragonflies in different colors and sizes. The warm sun shone almost perpendicular to this slender dragonfly, leaving a sharp shadow on a lush green leaf .
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2010, 2017
A selection of photographs taken in Brazil in 2011.
Part 08:
Belo Horizonte (MG) – Old cicada skins
Ouro Preto (MG) – Graffiti in a restaurant
Belo Horizonte (MG) – Old cicada skins
Belo Horizonte (MG) – Old cicada skin on a jackfruit
Belo Horizonte (MG) – Old cicada skins
Ouro Preto (MG) – Graffiti in a restaurant
Belo Horizonte (MG) – Old cicada skins
Belo Horizonte (MG) – Old cicada skin on a jackfruit
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2011, 2017
A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
105. Cicada
AUGUST 2007: Cicada
The start of the Brazilian spring is announced with a lot of noise. A penetrating noise, as if someone had activated the alarm system in a factory. Surprisingly, this sound is produced by an insect: a cicada. Brazilians call it a cigarra. The cicadas live in trees. The sound they produce is developed by a special organ at their anterior abdominal region. The first days are used to test and to optimize the sound quality. Then they please their neighbors with serenades from dawn to dusk. The cicadas are not fixed to one tree, but they move on, until they have found their female counterpart. When I was in Vitória, it was obvious to me that the cicadas already had started their noisy serenades, while in Belo Horizonte – about 600 km away – the cicadas hadn’t appeared yet. The cicada on the photograph apparently got lost, and landed on a safety net on the sixth floor. Like a professional artist, it posed in front of my lens.
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2007, 2014
Adriano Antoine 