I first saw this species of stomatopod in the field this year. They are really beautiful animals, with subtle but vibrant color accents on their dactyls, antennae, eyes, and on the edges of some of their somites (body segments). This individual is about 72 mm in length, and the species seems to be fairly docile (for stomatopods).
This animal also has very beautiful fluorescent patterns on its body:
I talked previously about fluorescence in stomatopods here. However, I don’t know if the patterns on G. platysoma are used to amplify any particular signals. These animals live in shallow water and would have less use for fluorescent signal amplification.
Thanks for this shot. It’s great!
Thanks.
I really need to get an appropriate lens for this kind of thing one of these days. I took this with a 50mm prime from two feet away and cropped the animal out. It looks OK, but not nearly the sharpness or detail I want to achieve.
I would agree that a 50mm isn’t the best lens, but even in the larger size linked from the post it’s a very nice photo!
Slight correction: I meant the best lens for underwater macro photography.
Whoa- that fluorescence shot is stunning!
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