Water boatman - a common true bug.

The insect above is a water boatman; they are commonly found in freshwater ecosystems throughout the world. On a summer's day you can see them in ponds and lakes near the shoreline. They typically do not venture into the deep. Corixidae, the family of true bugs that water boatman belong to, are hunters and seek prey which can be overpowered. The front four legs are used in holding any captives while the back two legs are equipped with paddles commonly called oars. They are adept at swimming but are air breathers and must surface occasionally to the surface. A small bubble of air is trapped beneath the wings and allows the insect to breathe underwater.

All true bugs have a biting/sucking mouthpart called a beak. Once captured, the corixid stabs its victim with its beak and injects digestive fluids that break down the surrounding tissues. The newly liquified mass is drawn up by the same device which dispatched the now still prey. Water boatman do not pose any threat to humans and are an important part of the ecosystem and its food web. Some of its larger relatives on the other hand can inflict a great amount of pain. The most notorious of these is the giant water bug; a four-inch long behemoth commonly called a toe-biter for good reasons.

I spend a couple of days by a lake with my photo gear and capturing equipment. I use an APS-C DSLR with a 35 mm extension tube and a 105 mm macro lens equipped with three macro flashes triggered wirelessly by the camera. This is mounted on a tripod and positioned where I can photograph my subjects with relative ease. I use a white plastic basin and a small container such as a petri dish where I can limit the movements of my subject. I shoot manually and compensate for the white background by using flash exposure compensation. The shutter speed is always at maximum (1/250) and the aperture is small to allow a reasonable depth of field (f/32 in this case). I can vary the distance of the camera to the insect with the tripod and can alter focus to adjust for subject size. I have had a lot of success with this method. The white background allows for excellent viewing in most cases.

Thanks for reading.     Ericspix     Eric Svendsen