Jack Forrester

Madagascan stink bug (Halyini tribe)

Stink bugs are some of the most beautiful insects in my opinion, so seeing this absolute jewel of one during our first day hike in the Analamazaotra rainforest of Madagascar was an early highlight of the whole trip.

I’ll never forget the day I was accidentally introduced to macrophotography after stumbling across an image by @explorewithdara featuring a stink bug adorned in the most exquisite blues and golds. At the time, about five years ago now, I had quite a bad phobia of insects, but seeing the otherworldly patterns and regal colors of that stink bug through Dara’s lens opened my eyes to the utter beauty of the insect world that I allowed my misplaced fears to obscure.

All these years later, getting to journey to my dream destination of Madagsacar, and then seeing this glorious stink bug in the rainforest - it brought me right back to that same revelatory experience that dissolved my fear into pure fascination.

The final image is of stunning little stink bug nymph I found nearby. No idea if they’re the same species, but they had a similar glistening aura. Thanks to @inaturalistorg I was able to narrow these stink bugs down to the tribe Halyini - although a quick online search revealed that this tribe is basically a “dumping ground” for miscellaneous spp… so who knows wtf these guys are. I’ll just stick Madagascan in front 😎🇲🇬

~•~

Sony a6700
Laowa 65mm macro lens
Godox V1 speedlite flash w/ #cygnustechdiffuser

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