Stink Bug Pair

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Stink Bugs Erthesina fullo preparing to mate. One of the earlier images from my macro lens. Photographed in March, around 10pm in Sanjay Gandhi National Park during a light-trap insect survey with BNHS. (Hence didn't have the free time to try various compositions... clicked mostly record shots that night)
The ocelli (simple eyes) are visible as red dots on the head.

Canon 500D, Canon 100mm Macro USM
Manual Exposure
Tv 1/200
Av 16.0
ISO 400
Flash On
Flash EC +1 1/3
Hand held
Moderate crop for a tighter composition.
Manually focused on the bug on the right. I think now that I should have focused on the bug on the left. Was reluctant to further narrow down the aperture.

Thanks, C&C awaited.
(PS: The stink bug I had posted earlier- Stink Bug - Indiawilds: Land of the Tiger. Conservation, Wildlife Photography, Communities was not Erthesina fullo. Moderators, if you could kindly delete the binomial name mentioned in that post, I would be very grateful.)

[Sabyasachi Patra]

It is nice that you got them mating. It would have been good if you had access to a tripod. Would love to do some multiple flash setups for these fellows. One needs some experimentation with flash and diffusers to contain the shadows.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi
PS: Deleted the binomial nomenclature from the other image.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice observation. Good you could photograph them when mating. I agree focusing on the left one would have been better. I think f16 was good enough else the shutter speed would have been low. You didn't get time to try other compositions, else a bit wider composition would have been good. Thanks for sharing.

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Nice image Abhishek, good that you have got some natural history moments to capture. Are the two red dots their eyes or eyes are above them, pardon my ignorance I am keen to know where the eyes are.
tfs

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Praveen: The 2 large brown round structures at the sides of the head are compound eyes, the primary sight organs which can form detailed images. The small red dots are the simple eyes, which are additional sight organs serving only to detect light intensity. Some insects have a single simple eye, while some others have 3. The compound eyes are always present as a pair.

Mrudul: The original image is wider and includes the entire bodies of both bugs. However, due to most of the bodies being out of focus, I cropped to draw attention to the head and thorax. If necessary I can post the full frame image as well.