six-spot-burnet-caterpillar Photo

Photographer’s Note

The Six-Spot burnet ( Zygaena filipendulae ) looks like the other day flying moth the Cinnabar , they have a lot in common , not only are the both black and red in colour ( the cinnabar is stripped while the different Burnets have red spots to the appropiate number). the catterpillars are also very brightly coloured, as you can see the burnet is almost Floursent yellow with black spots, while the cinnabar is alternate stripes of yellow and black , these bright show-off colours are there to advertise that they are highly poisonous (Cyanides)having absorbed and concentrated them, this also passes on into the adult moths and is probabley why they can get away with flying in daylight.
Taken at one of the dragonfly ponds while stalking a male four-spot chaser he did a runner and this was standing out like a "sore thumb" on a dead twig, about 25mm / 1inch long,main food plant are clovers and vetches .
Adjustments
saturation +8 lightness -4 to darken the very bright beastie down a fraction
contrast +2 brightness -2
Sharpen edges -edit -fade back to 75%
crop and save image

mogens-j, carper, AdrianW, Jeppe has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

milloup (1829) 2004-06-30 18:43

Quite a chubby fellow compared to Jeppe's bunch ;-) Loads of details here, even the branch looks hairy. The background looks a bit fuzzy, but nothing NeatImage won't take care of, if you ask it to ;-)

mogens-j (56) 2004-06-30 19:13

Very hairy fellow Robert. Great capture - very sharp and clear. I like the diagonal composition. Well done - as usual one should say;-).

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carper (67302) 2004-07-01 3:30

Really great marco Robert,
Great composition, very good colours, and great dof, and your note, it's great, Thank you.
points later

Jeppe (18624) 2004-07-04 13:28

Great capture Robert - too bad I missed this one.

Quite a fellow - must be a fine meal for a bird ;-) I guess the stategy for my caterpillar bunch was to be big even small - by sticking together. Thanks for sharing you fine series of shots - very informative note as well.