Dioxyna picciola
During my time on the wildflowery embankment along Mopac at Braker Lane on March 18, I got in close to photograph the bud of a greenthread, Thelesperma filifolium. That’s when I noticed a tiny insect on it, not much more than 1/8 of an inch long (3mm). In looking more carefully, I realized I was seeing two insects, one on top of the other. Not recognizing them, I turned to Val Bugh, who quickly identified these for me as “the almost perpetually mating fruit flies… Dioxyna picciola. I think they don’t mate ALL the time, but they are so small that it is easier to notice them as a pair.” On the esthetic side, note the way the bud lines up with the center of a greenthread flower head. Note also the pleasant colors, including a little indigo from nearby bluebonnets. Below you get a better look at the action in a side view from a different frame.
Given the insects’ tiny size, the low light due to overcast skies, and the fact that the breeze moved the greenthread bud even as the flies sometimes moved about on it, I set a high ISO and a fast shutter speed and adopted the strategy of taking a bunch of pictures in the hope that a few of them would turn out okay. My minimally acceptable rate ended up being only one in six.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
The photo of the flower is really fantastic. Looks a bit like the flower is part of another one. (Meaning the yellow blur in the background.)
rabirius
March 26, 2020 at 4:42 AM
The greenthread bud that the insects are on is in the foreground. Separately, a distance beyond that and therefore well out of focus, is an open greenthread flower head. The reddish-brown disk at the center of that flower head is mostly blocked by the bud, but the outermost part of the disk manages to create a reddish halo around the bud. I worked to get that alignment.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 6:32 AM
Very striking! In colour and also in the layers of detail. Nice.
Ms. Liz
March 26, 2020 at 4:46 AM
Thanks. I knew what I wanted but the conditions made it difficult. I was pleased to end up with a few showable pictures.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 6:38 AM
I didn’t realize they were insects in the first image at all! How remarkable and wonderful your images are. Loved the second one. It’s so sharp and clear. 1 really good one is all you need!
circadianreflections
March 26, 2020 at 7:14 AM
I understand how someone glancing at the first picture might not make out the insects at first. I experienced that lack of initial recognition, too, when I was among the wildflowers, because the flies are so tiny.
Yes, one picture is all it takes. I still wish I could’ve had greater depth of field and therefore more parts of the flies in focus. Conditions didn’t allow it.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 7:33 AM
Would you have tried focus stacking if there wasn’t wind?
circadianreflections
March 26, 2020 at 7:42 AM
I can see the advantage of that, but probably not, because I don’t carry a tripod around with me.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 7:51 AM
…and I take mine everywhere my camera goes. 😊
circadianreflections
March 26, 2020 at 8:03 AM
I know a bunch of photographers in Austin who do that, too.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 8:14 AM
For a clever take on stacking, see the last sentence in Robert Parker’s comment, below.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 8:20 AM
Ah, fruit flies…that takes me back to genetics class in college. Boy, did we hate them by the end of the semester! The female here appears to have her ovipositor poised over the flower bud, rather than on fruit.
melissabluefineart
March 26, 2020 at 7:34 AM
You’re right. In any case, with a sunflower-family wildflower like greenthread there’d be fruit in the technical botanical sense but not fruit in the common English sense, like an apple or a strawberry.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 7:55 AM
True, and that is what I concluded although with some surprise.
melissabluefineart
March 27, 2020 at 8:42 AM
You’re having great success centering the subject on a colorful background. I begin to suspect you’re carting all these blooms into a studio! Just kidding, I know these are taken in the field. Where you’re fielding flies, no photo-stacking, but definitely insect-stacking
Robert Parker
March 26, 2020 at 8:13 AM
Insect-stacking: well said! Speaking of fruit flies, your wording “fielding flies” reminded me of the name Fielding Mellish in Woody Allen’s “Bananas.”
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 8:18 AM
One in six is darned good, given the circumstances. Those greenthreads certainly offered you some intriguing photos. Even the smallest patch of flowers can be a world unto itself, and this is a wonderful view of the private lives of a pair that called it home — at least, for a few seconds. Also on the aesthetic side, the patterning of their wings is lovely.
I think the current gloom and doom atmosphere may be getting to me. When I read your title, my first thought was of piccolo players poisoned by dioxin. The actual subject matter was far more pleasing!
shoreacres
March 26, 2020 at 8:26 AM
Piccolo players poisoned by dioxin—your ever-vivid imagination sure went negative on that one. Yes, we’re all at least a little down now.
You appreciate how hard it often is to get decent pictures out in the field. Still we try, because those worlds unto themselves are worth the looking and recording. I categorized the one-in-six ratio as minimally acceptable. Displaying the pictures at these small sizes covers up some of the imperfections.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 9:04 AM
Sometimes your imagination scares me, Linda!
krikitarts
March 27, 2020 at 2:48 PM
The bud soon to open up in front of the blurred background provided by a flower in full bloom makes an impressive combination, Steve.
Peter Klopp
March 26, 2020 at 8:34 AM
You won’t be surprised to hear that I agree with you, Peter. I’ve long been fond of rich colors and abstraction.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 9:06 AM
First of all, beautiful photographs. I employ the same strategy in low light, windy situations: keep snapping. In situations like this, photography is a numbers game. It is also apparent that fruit flies not only like a banana; they like each other.
Michael Scandling
March 26, 2020 at 11:06 AM
In the days when we had to pay for film and developing, that strategy would have been too costly. Digital has freed us to be profligate when there’s a reason to, and in this case the overcast, the breeze, and the minuteness of the subjects provided good reasons.
You may know linguists’ reaction to “Fruit flies like an apple.” They compare it to “Time flies like an arrow.” (For the sake of euphony and better parallelism, I changed the kind of fruit.)
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 4:17 PM
It’s true, once you’ve made the investment, pixels are free. On the second point, I’ll stick with Groucho‘s quote.
Michael Scandling
March 26, 2020 at 4:48 PM
Was Groucho supposed to have said “Fruit flies like a banana”?
In Manhattan about 50 years ago there was a gallery called A Bird Can Fly But a Fly Can’t Bird.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 4:51 PM
I just looked it up. Groucho probably didn’t say it. Groucho probably didn’t say half the things he said, just like Yogi Berra.
Michael Scandling
March 26, 2020 at 4:57 PM
Thanks for checking. Here’s an article with more information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow;_fruit_flies_like_a_banana
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 5:11 PM
Thank you. That is the exact resource I checked. He also didn’t say the thing he supposedly said about politics, but I like it anyway.
Michael Scandling
March 26, 2020 at 5:17 PM
Is it this one? “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 5:20 PM
That’s the one. Not that it has any bearing on reality or anything…
Michael Scandling
March 26, 2020 at 5:21 PM
Now, what ever would make you think that?
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 5:27 PM
There’s this city on the Potomac River, you see…
Michael Scandling
March 26, 2020 at 5:31 PM
Oh, now I get it.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2020 at 5:34 PM
Nice work with those tiny fruit flies, Steve. They do seem to mate constantly. One reason they were such suitable subjects in biology classes.
Steve Gingold
March 27, 2020 at 2:17 PM
Yes, this made me think about why biologists have often chosen fruit flies for experiments involving many generations. Photographing these little critters was a nuisance.
Steve Schwartzman
March 27, 2020 at 4:18 PM
Your main photo is nothing short of spectacular. You executed your goal perfectly in this one. One could almost miss the fauna without a close look–I’ve had a few photos with little critters that I didn’t notice at all until I was developing the image–I call these bonus bugs. And as for the smaller photo, good on ya, mate!
krikitarts
March 27, 2020 at 2:45 PM
I’ve got to admit I was pretty pleased with the main picture’s colors and composition. Your comment that “one could almost miss the fauna” applies to me, who might well have missed it. Like you, I’ve had my share of pictures where I noticed an insect or spider only when processing the image; in some of those cases I’ve wished I’d noticed at the time I took the picture so I could’ve gotten better focus.
Steve Schwartzman
March 27, 2020 at 4:30 PM
Just one more random thought: we nature photographers, as old-time troupers in a vaudeville show, we have to have our wits about us at all times and be ready to adapt when the fruit flies.
krikitarts
March 28, 2020 at 3:12 PM
Sorry–guess you had this thought pretty well covered in your first reply to Michael. Must learn to read all the comments before adding what I cleverly thought was an original. Ah, well, great minds…
krikitarts
March 28, 2020 at 3:16 PM
Great minds, yes. We’re always ready for another take on that play on words—or any other.
Steve Schwartzman
March 28, 2020 at 3:29 PM
Love the background spotlight here … great alignment!
denisebushphoto
March 30, 2020 at 12:34 PM
It’s better than having to get a front-wheel alignment for your car!
Steve Schwartzman
March 30, 2020 at 4:16 PM
Well spotted! Great shot of the bud Steve …
Julie@frogpondfarm
April 3, 2020 at 3:04 PM
I was happy with the composition, the colors, and the presence of those mating fruit flies.
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2020 at 4:18 PM