#arthropology

Hemipterid nymph, probably Achilidae, in mid-molt. Photographed in a Karri forest in mid winter near Donnelly River.

Any help with an ID appreciated. This is a specimen showing ordinary, less freshly molted colours:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDqUAZUjdLL/?utm_medium=copy_link

A native ladybug, Harmonia conformis, photographed while I released it into the garden.

While I enjoy my proper macro lenses, a reverse mounted lens gives excellent extra magnification. This is my first proper photography with an old Pentax 35-70, mounted backwards. It extremely helpfully has has an aperture control ring.

If you want to try a reverse lens, it’s the cheapest way to get into macro photography. Simply holding a lens on the camera backwards works, though of course you risk getting dust in your lens and it’s very inconvenient. Experimenting with different lenses and some DIY to attach a bayonet to the front of the lens can give you something quite useable. Wide lenses often give good magnification (try a kit lens at 18mm). Very old lenses with manual aperture control are good, because of course you can’t use in-camera aperture control, and a wide open aperture is quite limiting.

Scolopendra sp, in a karri forest, south west WA.