A Swift River Cruiser dragonfly (Macromia illinoiensis) exuvia was collected, with permission from park staff, on 27 May 2017 along the Potomac River at Riverbend Park in Fairfax County, Virginia USA.
27 MAY 2017 | Riverbend Park | Swift River Cruiser (exuvia)
The preceding image shows the remnant ommatidia clearly.
From this viewpoint, it’s harder to see the prominent horn on the face that is a key field mark for larvae/exuviae in the Family Macromiidae (Cruisers). The base of the triangular horn is located above the labium (face mask), between the long, thin antennae; the apex of the triangle is pointed toward the viewer.
It’s easier to see the horn in the featured photo in my last blog post.
Tech Tips
The subject was photographed against a pure white background (255, 255, 255) using the “Meet Your Neighbours” (MYN) technique.
20 photos of the specimen were taken using 2.5x magnification at an aperture of f/4; in-camera focus peaking was used to highlight select areas in each photo. RAW FILE CONVERTER EX 3.0 was used to convert Fujifilm RAF files to TIFF files. Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 was used to create a focus-stacked composite image that was edited using Apple Aperture.
Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.
Tags: BoG Photo Studio, Family Macromiidae (Cruisers), female, focus stacking, gear talk, Macromia illinoiensis, Meet Your Neighbours, ommatidia, Potomac River, Riverbend Park, studio photography, Swift River Cruiser dragonfly
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