Tylopelta gibbera,, f, sternites

Tylopelta gibbera, a wee, brown, spec-like, treehopper. This species runs from Central America north where it quietly sips sap from the tick-trefoil plant group. These specimens came from the Sarah Kocher lab at Princeton, where they were imprisoned in small net cages in greenhouses while Sarah and her white-coated lab staff use lasers to listen in on treehopper sex talk; where competing males shout to females by drumming on the plants making tiny vibes that, if played correctly, are aphrodesial to any female in the area. They are using the treehopper's molecules to deconstruct why, where, and how these sexy vibrations vary across the landscape. Who knew. Both 10x and 5x shots involved. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, and 10x Nikon microscope lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200. USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.