Bed Bug Nymph | Close-up cell phone photography session.

joslud (74)modCCS Quality Hunterin CCS • 5 days ago (edited)

Greetings, friends of Camping Club Steemit. I'm sharing a photo shoot with you from an outdoor event. It was midday, but the weather was cool, the sky cloudy, and it was very windy (you'll see in the GIF image I'm sharing, where you can see how much the flowers where the insect was landing were moving).

I was in the backyard, photographing several bunches of hydrangeas, flowers that many people grow here in the village to decorate homes, gardens, and events. Suddenly, I saw a beautiful, almost reddish-orange insect hiding under the petals of one of the flowers.

Photo N° 1:


I took several photos and a few seconds of video, then I did some research on Google Lens, which led me to believe it was a "nymph" of some species of sucking bug. I continued investigating, and it's possible it's a member of the Reduviidae family. According to Wikipedia [1] "The Reduviidae" are a large family of predatory Hemiptera in the suborder Heteroptera. It includes assassin bugs, among others. Of the nearly 7,000 species.

I took several photos and a few seconds of video, then I did some research on Google Lens, which led me to believe it was a "nymph" of some species of sucking bug. I continued investigating, and it's possible it's a member of the Reduviidae family. According to Wikipedia [1]

"The Reduviidae" are a large family of predatory Hemiptera in the suborder Heteroptera. It includes assassin bugs, among others. Of the nearly 7,000 species.

Photo N° 2:


But this one, in particular, is a nymph, meaning it's still developing before becoming an adult bug. By chance, a curious ant appeared, and the bug quickly attempted to approach it, I don't know if to attack it or to explore.

Photo N° 3:


If it had eaten the ant, it would be a predatory bug, perhaps the assassin species. If not, it could be a "phytophagous" one that feeds on plant sap.

Photo N° 4:


The photo shoot was more artistic than scientific. Some photos were very sharp, and you can even see the texture of the petals and the small buds in the center of each flower. The insect stood out quite a bit thanks to its color and black legs.

Photo N° 5:


Then I edited the photos, using Lightroom, to crop and achieve frames that highlighted the insect. I also worked on livening up the colors and lowering the lighting. Remember that it was It was midday and although it was cloudy, the sun was shining high.