Muscid

[StuartUK]

Male Lispe tentaculata (Diptera, Muscidae) swept from the cattle poached, muddy edges of a pond. This is a widespread and not-uncommon species, but quite restricted in its habitat to muddy water margins. The spoon-shaped palps and modified front and rear metatarsi make it easy to ID! 53 shots with a step size of 0.05mm stacked using Zerene Stacker. Taken using Canon 80D with MPE-65 macro lens at about 2.5:1, f3.5, ISO 100.

 

[StuartUK]

Here is a female Dolichopus ungulatus (Diptera, Dolichopodidae) from the same sample. 36 shots at about 1.5:1, f4. This time shot with an 18% grey background. I am currently experimenting: white or grey background - which works best? These are intended for a book about the families of British flies so they will eventually have to be lifted off their backgrounds to be placed in the page layout - and that is probably easier with a white background, but you do tend to lose the paler hairs around the margins.