Wealth in Rain

Insects, bugs, crawlers, and the like are still, to my mind, some of the most fascinating creatures on the planet, a dizzyingly spinning geodesic globule planet full of, I admit, engrossing, enrapturing creatures. But it's the insects (not to mention a few reptiles, lizards, and animals, but only a few) which retain a kind of primordial, dinosaurian, prokaryotic look about them that makes them so richly present and reminds us, as people, how far the planet has come, from where it has come and where we have thus arrived (not, however, to imply that we have arrived at anything permanent or fixed), from where we have come, and where, potentially, it (the planet) and we might be going (let us hope against the evidence that this direction is auspicious). Miroslaw Swietek recently captured a slew of macro images of rain-sprinkled insects, taking the photos early in the morning when the dew was still clinging to the insects in his native village in Poland, when the insects are still torporous and immune to the intrusion of the camera. The result is simply gorgeous and can be found at the link provided. A few images have been provided by moi for interest-piquing purposes only. 



Notice how the water magnifies the numerous high-powered lenses of the dragonfly's eye, showing how honeycombed and clustered they are. More lens = more pixels = better and more blisteringly precise vision.

The dragonflies, thanks to their compoundness and complexity, are consistently awestriking. The subtle goat-tee of bubbled waterdrops is lovely.

The bejeweled beetle!