03-06-2016 11:37 AM
I am not sure if Ni is the place I should be. I basically ran across it randomly. I am an emeritus professor. Just before I retired I ran an experiment which allowed me to determine what trait or combination of traits made caterpillars more susceptible to be parasitized by other insects (AKA parasitoids). The most powerful predictor of susceptibility was being green. This of course seemed, at first consideration, to be counterintuitive. That is, one would think that a green caterpillar would not be easily visible against a green leaf. My ultimate hypothsis was that perhaps caterpillars and leaves rflected differentially in UV; understanding that parasitoids can see in UV. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find away to captures images of caterpillars on leaves since most cameras are designed to block UV. So, I am wondering whether anything is available here to do what I hope to accomplish. Thank you.
03-06-2016 03:48 PM
03-07-2016 08:09 AM
Leaves are highly visible in the IR spectrum. I have played about with an IR pass filter for my DSLR and can get some amazing shots of trees, grass etc. Have a look at this article on taking IR images, all of the examples are green tree based.
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/technique/camera_skills/how-to-shoot-infrared-photos-3934
At these kind of wavelengths you are mainly looking at reflectance and not heat signatures, so it is not quite what you would normally think.
IR is also a lot easier to deal with as many cameras will work in this range,
Mike
03-07-2016 09:39 AM
03-21-2016 08:32 PM
Any other thoughts out there. This is a tough one but I do appreciate thoughts, guidance, and sources of infomation on the subject. Thanks.
The emeritus professor
03-22-2016 11:06 AM
this website looks quite interesting: http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_IR_rev01UV.html#top_page
also the english wikipedia article does look promising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_photography
03-24-2016 06:08 PM