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Prajwal J Ullal
04-07-2014, 04:46 PM
For the past one month or so I have been getting frequent guests in my home, in the evening, in form of moths and most of the time I try to capture a photograph of them, either by mobile or camera, depends on my energy level or drowsiness. Yesterday I had a bumper visit with 5 types of moth and this particular one, the biggest of them, seemed a bit too deterred and weak and wasn't staying on the wall, rather preferred staying somewhere on the ground or rather flying into some dark places. After sometime though it settled down onto a mouthwash bottle and stayed there as if it had frozen down. So I brought it onto a comfortable place and started shooting it, that's when I realized or spotted some bright spot on its back and on close observation, via reverse lens technique, I could spot something like a mite and then tried capturing that parasite.

The image that I am sharing is a composite image of the moth and the close up on the mite/parasite

EXIF:
Canon EOS 550D
Canon 18-55 IS
Location: Dahisar, Mumbai

Main moth:
Shutterspeed: 1/200
f/25
ISO 100
Inbuilt flash used

Parasite:
Shutterspeed: 1/80
f/0
ISO 100

Regrets for sharing a composite/ collage image and I am not sure if this is worth sharing in Indiawilds's forum, but I felt it was a unique phenomenon and hence shared it.

Abhishek Jamalabad
06-07-2014, 07:46 AM
That does look like a mite. Not sure that is the reason behind the moths behaviour though, as I have seen small butterflies behaving normally while carrying multiple mites.

Roopak Gangadharan
08-07-2014, 11:54 AM
nice observation.
Rgds
Roopak

Mrudul Godbole
10-07-2014, 02:55 PM
Nice observation and good you could capture this mite as well as the moth. Thanks for sharing the details.

Sabyasachi Patra
12-07-2014, 12:03 PM
Really interesting. Good that you could notice such a minute creature. Thanks for sharing.