Meet the neighbours:
- The images include close ups of a tree cricket, a boll weevil, various wasps, moths and a carpet beetle
- They were taken by North Carolina-based photographer, Daniel Kariko, using two different microscopes
- He is hoping his ‘Suburban Symbiosis' project will make people see common insects in a new light
Most of us swat flies and bugs away, thinking they are nothing more than a nuisance.
But to Daniel Kariko, these creatures are works of art – and by capturing them under the microscope he is hoping make people see them in a new light.
From a tree cricket to a boll weevil, the North Carolina photographer’s latest portraits bring you face to face with these ‘alien’ creatures.
Pictured is a Boll weevil found on front porch doormat by Daniel Kariko. There are over 40,000 species of true weevils in the family Circulionidae, beetle-like creatures typified by a long snout and clubbed antennae
Dubbed ‘Suburban Symbiosis: Insectum domesticus’, Kariko started the project 2011 when the biology department at East Carolina University opened its lab to other departments.
According to a report in
Wired, Kariko shoots the dead insects under both a stereoscopic microscope and a scanning electron microscope. He then combines the images in Photoshop.
The stunning colours are captured using a stereoscopic microscope, with the help of tiny LEDs that illuminate the creatures.
Kariko says it usually takes six shots with various focal lengths on the microscope to create a final image.
After this is done, the same creature is captured using a scanning electron microscope, which provides the detail and the resolution for the images.
Kariko says many of the best images are of creatures that we consider to be common place.
Dubbed ‘Suburban Symbiosis: Insectum domesticus’, Kariko started the project 2011 when the biology department at East Carolina University, opened its lab to other departments. Pictured is an unidentified moth found in an office hallway
Pictured on the left is an extreme close-up view of the head of a cuckoo wasp by Daniel Kariko. Common names also include jewel wasp, gold wasp or emerald wasp, reflecting their brilliantly coloured, metal-like bodies. On the left is an image of a wheel bug
This terrifying creature is a carpet beetle found on a bathroom rug. It is around 3 mm-long and belongs to the family Dermestidae