Canon PowerShot G9
ƒ/4
8.205 mm
1/400
80

with the massive compound eye…. and hundreds of little lenses and sensors lookin’ at ya. This little guy’s eye wraps back and over the back of the head… my latest buzzin’ visitor.

Reminds me of my earlier ramblings on eye designs, provoked by my hawk eye photo in Science.

Eyes have evolved independently at least 40 times, and are now present in 96% of metazoan species. The physics of light have constrained solutions to eight basic types of optics, as seen in this chart from my flickr post.

30 responses to “Superfly”

  1. shawnhoon Avatar
    shawnhoon

    Omatidia is one of my favorite words for some weird reason.

    Reply
  2. jensiuk Avatar
    jensiuk

    Wow! Great Detail!!

    Reply
  3. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    thanks. I like the Moire eyes

    @shawnmoon: nice…. Insect anatomy gets even weirder when you consider the male black damselfly…

    Water Bed

    Reply
  4. Nap0 Avatar
    Nap0

    Great macro picture, it looks like he posed for you 🙂

    Reply
  5. gfurry Avatar
    gfurry

    very cool shot. I was thinking of picking up a G9 this weekend. This shot might have just pushed me enough to do it.

    Reply
  6. nhr Avatar
    nhr

    Looks like one of these blood-sucking, potentially disease-carrying female horse flies. KILL IT.

    Reply
  7. restlessthought Avatar
    restlessthought

    never realized how beautiful a fly’s eyes really are…..well, dang, now i’m gonna’ feel exponentially bad when swatting those fractal eyes.

    Reply
  8. Simply Shot Photography Avatar
    Simply Shot Photography

    freakin awesome!

    Reply
  9. sbove Avatar
    sbove

    Photos like this always make me think: "remember, the full design for this little micro-bot-critter, about 1MegaBase, is in every cell of its body, it has the same HW, the same OS, and the same run-time software language as your own…and it self assembles, self-automates, self sustains, and self reproduces such that each of its progeny carry a bit of variation to DRIVE its own evolution as its living environment allows/demands…and compared to most life forms, it is gargantuan in size. And then I remember to be amazed. Nice shot and thanks for the reminder 😉

    Reply
  10. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    yes, ’tis awe inspiring… and not that different for us humans. Our genome, the entire set of digital data that executes in our cells to make us, is smaller than Microsoft Office… Says a lot about Microsoft too.

    Reply
  11. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    "Our genome, the entire set of digital data that executes in our cells to make us, is smaller than Microsoft Office… Says a lot about Microsoft too. "

    True… talk about how much energy we use to make 1 gallon of gasoline to move a car, and to deliver it from the oil pit, to the gasoline station… how many calories are burnt and CO2 released to produce 1m3 of gas to move an engine and to deliver it to the destined engine… and how much energy will that engine produce as an outcome and for what purpose (most industry results are waste(d))?

    (apply the concept to the manufacture of almost any kind of energy in full force nowadays)…

    Our brain designs solutions in a very poor (macro systemically) cost-effective way (compared to nature). Microsoft Office vs the genome is yet another example.

    well… I think!

    Now, mom nature runs with some trillions of years of trial an error ahead of us…

    Now (2)… isn´t it a bit of a luxury for a fly to have such an eye system?! (sounds like having the latest intel quad-core microprocessor, but with a 500GHz buffer… so much capacity not possibly being fully used!). To have bigger eyes than brains doesn´t look like a good symptom, ha!

    Would we, humans, with the complexity of our nervous system and brain function (which is to a great extent related to the visual function) , go sort of crazy trying to handle sucha complex array of data, had we compound eyes? How a human would behave with such a vision?

    Reply
  12. aeroculus Avatar
    aeroculus

    when viewed large, I think that I can truly say that flies are, well,….beautiful.

    Reply
  13. PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE Avatar
    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    @Gi : "Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other…" The Republic- Preface. Platon

    =)

    Reply
  14. lively taste Avatar
    lively taste

    You looking at me kid??? Not going to commit to beautiful but certainly a fascinating little guy photographed beautifully!
    Seen in the Weekend Showcase at
    The World Through My Eyes

    Reply
  15. spotted existence Avatar
    spotted existence

    Incredible macro, well done indeed.

    Reply
  16. peeet1000 Avatar
    peeet1000

    This is one of a kind!

    The World Through My Eyes

    Reply
  17. Sfumati Avatar
    Sfumati

    Best macro of a fly i’ve ever seen…tremendous shot… very nice!

    Reply
  18. the popular photographer Avatar
    the popular photographer

    Wow! Just Wow!

    Reply
  19. teddypetal Avatar
    teddypetal

    Please add this fantastic photo to
    All About Insects

    Come see our amazing insects and add yours to our pool!
    All About Insects

    Reply
  20. nahkuri Avatar
    nahkuri

    Great!

    Seen in Macro 1-2-3 group.

    Reply
  21. tigertina1 Avatar
    tigertina1

    great shot

    Reply
  22. JimReeves Avatar
    JimReeves

    "They have landed"

    Seen in The Best Of JUNE at
    The World Through My Eyes

    Reply
  23. Lori Greig Avatar
    Lori Greig

    Impressive!
    Seen in The Best Of JUNE at
    The World Through My Eyes

    Reply
  24. Walwyn Avatar
    Walwyn

    Very nice female Tabanidae:

    Seen in The Best Of JUNE at
    The World Through My Eyes
    i><a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/t

    Reply
  25. Ran_ Avatar
    Ran_

    Very cool!
    Seen in The Best Of JUNE at
    The World Through My Eyes

    Reply
  26. yotaroo76 Avatar
    yotaroo76

    Ciao, sono amministratore di un gruppo chiamato I LOVE G9. Ci farebbe piacere aggiungere l’elemento al gruppo.’itself amount’

    Reply
  27. LA Lassie Avatar
    LA Lassie

    "CONGRATULATIONS – TO YOU !"
    ~ From the QEMD "Finch" Group ~
    Cedar Waxwing
    This photo was "Chosen as a Fave"
    in the Best Viewed on Large Thread
    ~ For the month of October 2008 ~

    Reply
  28. LA Lassie Avatar
    LA Lassie

    Thanks Steve, for posting this into the QEMD Finch Group. The students
    in Kosova are still enjoying the site and they noticed that you haven’t posted
    in a while. I told them you were busy with other things most probably – but
    they all said to tell you HELLO, DR. STEVE

    They liked this shot – when viewed on Original size it is totally
    amazing to study. They have been studying the compound eye,
    so it fit right into their studies.

    I hope others will view it on Large Size also. Seen in my Contacts

    Reply
  29. flagrant letter Avatar
    flagrant letter

    The pair... ~ A Gorgeous Shot
    I saw this in the QEMD "Finch" Group

    Reply
  30. Brook F Avatar
    Brook F

    Great macro, I’m hoping to have this kind of success with a macro lens. Not quite there, yet…

    Reply

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