The Digging Bug

By TroyB

 

Back in the "old" days, when the D30 was state of the art (2001, in case you haven't been keeping track), and my friend and shooting partner JT was still using a Minolta FILM rig (if you can imagine), we were exploring an out of the way place in South America that I like. On this particular day, we were even more out of the way than usual when we stumbled across one of the most fascinating insects I had ever seen. At first glance, I thought we were crossing paths with a pesky wasp or hornet, and unlike the relatively docile ones you find in North America, South Americans hornets should be given WIDE berth, since they seem to be perpetually angry about something. I still have no idea what this bug actually is, so if there are any entomologists out there who have a moment to send an e-mail, please let me know what I found!

This industrious creature amazed us with the speed at which it could dig a hole. It is able to move it's front legs so quickly that they are no longer visible to the naked eye, while at the same time, the sand it is moving comes flying out the back in a continuous stream. In less than 10 minutes, it had created a hole about 1.5 times the diameter of it's body, and deep enough that it could not be seen without a flashlight, even on a bright sunny afternoon.
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All shots in this grouping were taken in November 2001 on an EOS D30 with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS lens @ 400mm, ISO 400, Av mode f5.6. There was very little variation in the ambient light from cloud cover, so the shutter speed stayed relatively constant at 1/800th of a second. Even at this high shutter speed, the legs and sand are moving so fast that there is some blurring. 

 

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