Hey, "Click" on This!

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sat May 13, 2006 7:02 pm

Click Beetle
Canon 20D
Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens
Manual exposure
On Camera Flash
1/250 sec. @ f/6.3 ISO 200
Late afternoon in shade

Many posts back I made a comment that I was more interested in the subjects themselves, than in the photographic techniques used to capture them.

Well if someone will pass me that bottle of hot sauce, I will go ahead and eat this crow.

With the recent acquisition of a new toy (note tech. data for the above image), my interests in photography or should I say macrophotography, have made a drastic turn about. Thanks for all of your help and inspiration my friends.

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Sun May 14, 2006 2:04 am

Hi Ken,

Interesting subject! Nice picture! The technique is interesting but we can't do without these great subjects! Have you tried to photograph the underside? You can see the clicking mechanism.

I hope you don't mind the following shameless selfpromotion:

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artdec05/click.html

Wim

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun May 14, 2006 3:06 am

Wim asked:

Have you tried to photograph the underside? You can see the clicking mechanism.

I'm lucky to get any side I can Wim

Your shots of the clicking mechanism are quite interesting. It is nice to know and see how things work in nature. Thanks for your comments Wim

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun May 14, 2006 9:04 am

Wim,

Thanks for the link to your click beetle page. These beetles have amused me since I was a small child. I was playing with one at dinnertime just a couple of nights ago. (Hhmm, perhaps now I am a big child?)

Like you, I have read about the clicking mechanism but I do not find the explanations very, uh, explanatory. Yes, there is a spine that fits into a groove, but exactly what does it have to do with the click? Presumably the click is produced by using muscles to store energy in a springy tissue, then suddenly release it using a catch of some sort. But where is the spring? Where is the catch?

These details have been worked out for many insects. (See here for froghoppers, which turn out to be way more impressive than fleas

). But I haven't been able to find them for the click beetle. Do you know where to look?

--Rik

PS. Hey Ken, nice picture! Sorry to get distracted by the mechanics of the beetle.