I wear my suuun-glasses at night ...

[papilio_]

The first pic is the Orchid mantis as I'm used to seeing them ... but when the lights are turned off, whoa!!

I'd never even noticed till last night. Who can explain the mechanism and its purpose?

 

[Jay]

Infra-red night vision goggles? (=

 

[LAME]

Infra-red night vision goggles? (=

+1!

 

[Rick]

Yep. Mantis eyes darken in low-light conditions. Usually they just turn black but as you can see some species have interesting colors. Your pics are amazing.

 

[MantisMatt14]

Tenodera do the same thing! Very nice pics Micheal !

 

[dmina]

I love that! awesome photo's.. thanks for sharing!

 

[papilio_]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments!

I just recently noticed her eyes darkening at night when the lights are off, but only when I took these images did I see what a delicious color they turn!

 

[CosbyArt]

Very lovely, and a great capture. Makes me want to see what colors my nymphs have (as I have several species to try).

 

[macromatt]

Awesome! Nice pics too! What lens?

 

[papilio_]

Awesome! Nice pics too! What lens?

Thanks a lot Matt! These were taken with a Sigma Apo OS 150mm macro with a Raynox 250 attached.

 

[papilio_]

Very lovely, and a great capture. Makes me want to see what colors my nymphs have (as I have several species to try).

I'd be interested in that too, I was amazed by the color when I first saw the macro images!

 

[macromatt]

Cool, I may try the raynox on my mpe65

 

[papilio_]

Cool, I may try the raynox on my mpe65

I tried that but it didn't really do anything.

 

[Mcgonigal32]

Wow! Gorgeous photos!!

 

[meaganelise9]

beautiful! I had a budwing that I noticed this with. His eyes turned a beautiful pink at night.