1. Beetles - pwd a

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Key:

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Bo - 1998 Borneo

Vn - 1999 Venezuela

Ec - 2000 Ecuador

CR - 2001 Costa Rica

Th - 2002 Thailand

Oz - 2003 Australia

Md - 2004 Madagascar

UK - United Kingdom

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After my expedition to climb the active Sangay volcano in Ecuador, I spent the next few Xmases visiting various tropical countries for macro photography of endemic insects, the intention being to blow up the tiniest of bugs to A3 prints, and it became something of a passion to find the smallest subjects.

 

Below left is one of the tiniest bugs I captured: a minuscule click beetle from Madagascar, with the rings of my fingerprint for comparison.

 

To the right of it is a beetle from Australia. At first it might not seem significant, but the hexagonal lattice in the background is the superfine weave of a net placed outside at night to capture insects attracted by the mercury lamp behind it. This weave is barely visible to the human eye.