First Insect Photo & Flea Circuses
I took my first spring insect photos today after seeing a queen bumblebee flying around the garden. There were quite a few hoppers about, one of which I photographed:
Stenocranus minutus (Hemiptera: Delphacidae)
I’m hoping to go out and catch one because I can’t quite get enough detail in a photo, but I will be getting a new (macro) lens which should help when taking photos of small insects! I had a look on the British Bugs site but didn’t see anything which had the black mark on the wing (until Joe identified it for me on Flickr!).
Tonight’s episode of QI (now in the “F” series) had a flora and fauna theme, of which one of the topics was flea circuses. I had always thought that flea circuses were mechanical and did not use fleas, but Stephen Fry has dispelled me of my ignorance! It seems that this is a common misconception and that flea circuses did use live fleas, although there were some mechanical “flea circuses” too.
Tags: Delphacidae, flea circus, Hemiptera, Homoptera, Photography, Siphonaptera, spring, Stenocranus minutus
Interesting about the flea circuses! I had a peak at a wikipedia article, and was quite horrified to read that “There are historical reports of fleas glued to the base of the flea circus enclosure, instruments were then glued to the flea performers and the enclosure was heated. The fleas fought to escape giving the impression of fleas playing musical instruments.”
Horrid!
Also, a film I really like apparently has a performer who uses fleas carrying poison with the aim of assassinating people. Seeing as I hadn’t remembered that before reading the article, I think it’s about time I watched the film again! (The film is ‘The City of Lost Children’.)