Crazy Eyes 2

Buenos Aires Province, Argentina | March 2012

While the eyes of this female horse fly (family Tabanidae) aren’t quite as striking as those of Tabanus lineolus (the wonderfully dimorphic males and females of which were made famous by Thomas Shahan and Ralph Holzehthal), they still managed to catch my eye as I was scouting for more pedestrian types of insect in a soybean field in central Argentina this past week. We know this is a female due to the separated eyes (males have larger eyes that meet at the middle of the head—supposedly the better to see females with); and by the obvious, blade-like mouthparts, which the females use to slice mammal skin so they can lap the blood that their eggs need for development prior to being laid while males forego specialized mouthparts and concentrate on using their huge eyes to look for females.

Female horse flies have well-separated eyes and distinct, blade-like mouthparts.

 

I suspect this individual had recently emerged from the soil (where many horse flies pupate) and was still hardening off, as she was very calm sitting on the leaf and allowed me to steady the leaf with one hand as I snapped a few photos with the other. I would have loved to have switched out the 100mm lens I was using and put on my 65mm 1-5X lens to really zoom in on those striking eyes. Unfortunately, I don’t think my field companions shared or understood my fascination with this little insect. If anybody has a clue about the identity of this species please let me know.

Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2012

Frenatae 2011 Calendar

Ralph Holzenthal - Tabanidae. Adobe Illustrator, gradient mesh/Adobe Photoshop.

Even though we’re now in the latter part of February, I wanted to spread the word about a cool insect-themed calendar shown to me by a colleague during my recent trip to Brazil. Produced by Frenatae, the Graduate Student Entomology Club at the University of Minnesota, the calendar features original work by students using computer illustration techniques taught in a UMN course titled, ENT 5051, Scientific Illustration of Insects. The mastermind behind this course is Dr. Ralph W. Holzenthal, who – as can be seen by the stunning image above of a female (L) and male (R) Tabanus lineola – knows a thing or two about insect illustration! While the course covers traditional techniques such as pen & ink, pencil, watercolor, etc., its major emphasis is on computer-assisted techniques using Adobe Illustrator® and Photoshop®. This includes instruction on preparing full habitus color illustrations of insects on the computer. How I wish a course such as this had been available when I was in graduate school (of course, how I wish computers had been available when I was in graduate school!).

While Dr. Holzenthal’s illustrative skills are obvious, it’s also clear that he excels at teaching these skills to his students, as evidenced by this selection of my favorite images (not surprisingly, all beetles!) from the course website galleries:

Caitlin Krueger - Scarabaeidae

Martha Megarry - Scarabaeidae

Heather Cummins - Zopheridae

.
It should be pointed out that all of these Photoshop illustrations represent original artwork and not modified photographs!

I ordered my copy of the calendar as soon as I returned home from my trip. You can order one too by sending a check for $12 to the following address:

Frenatae
1980 Folwell Ave Rm 219
St Paul, MN 55108

My thanks to Dr. Holzenthal for allowing me to post this small selection of images from his website.

Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2011