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Enrico Bonino — Extreme Macro Photography and Paleontology

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Explore my newest Instagram Images

Fresh photo drop on Instagram
Take a look (you’ll need an account) — which one’s your favorite?

Zigrasimecia thate CHAUL, 2023, preserved in Burmese amber from Kachin State, Myanmar, and dating back nearly 99 million years to the Late Cretaceous. Very elegant, complete, detailed and long legged cf. Docidiadia burmitica cf. Nabidae nymph (Heteroptera: Cimicomorpha), Burmese amber, ~99 Ma. Proterosceliopsis sp. A perfect Mesoblattinidae and possible ophiocordyceps fungus protruding from the anterior side of the body. cf. Kachinitermopsis burmensis Trapped in Burmese amber for ~99 million years, meet Anoeuma lawrencei, a mid-Cretaceous beetle that doesn't quite fit anywhere. Described in 2021 (Li, Robin Kundrata & Cai), this soft-bodied elateroid has short elytra that leave the abdomen exposed, hind wing venation that anchors it firmly in Elateroidea, yet a character combination that resists placement in any known family. The other day I found a butterfly (Vanessa cardui) in a very poor state of preservation, which I collected to take some photographs using the supplied microscope lenses, starting with a Sigma macro lens (90mm) for an overall view, before moving on to Mitutoyo microscope lenses at 5x, 10x, 20x and finally 50x magnification. Resting gently on the edge of this piece of amber lies a feather, perfect in its shape and delicacy. Whether it belongs to a feathered dinosaur or a bird, I cannot say; both belong to the same evolutionary line, so it could belong to either. This is a acari with a structure I have never seen before. It is undoubtedly part of the abdomen, and it is not an overlap of two different elements. Embolemidae (Hymenoptera : Chrysidoidea) Perspicuus cf. vrsanskyi KOUBOVA & MLYNSKY (2020) is an extinct dictyopteran genus originally assigned to Umenocoleidae (subfamily Vitisminae) and subsequently transferred by some authors to Cratovitismidae, a reassignment that reflects ongoing instability in umenocoleid systematics. It is known from mid-Cretaceous Burmese (Kachin) amber and from the Late Cretaceous of Hungary, with three described species: the type P. vrsanskyi, P. pilosus, and P. csincsii. These species are assigned to a fast-moving arboreal herbivore ecology. I am extremely pleased to see the publication of a new article by Andrei Legalov on a new genus of beetle belonging to the family Nemonychidae, which I discovered and shared with Andrei for study, in Burmese amber. Burmecaelinus cf. armis Dilaridae (Neuroptera) Dilaridae (Neuroptera) Larva of whirligig beetles, Cretogyrus beuteli ZHAO et al. 2019 Another package with three AmberArt II books is ready to head off to the USA. Symphrasinae (Neuroptera: Mantispidae) An unusual coleopteran specimen, tentatively assigned to Tenebrionoidea, preserved in opaque/impurity-rich amber. Any suggestions for a more precise identification? Cyclophoridae (Mollusca) in umbilical view, preserved in amber of poor optical clarity. The matrix contains abundant stellate trichomes, scattered terpene oil droplets, and fecal pellets, consistent with entrapment in a resin flow active within leaf litter or bark debris in close proximity to a trichome-bearing plant surface. Cancris auriculus (left) and Planulina ariminensis (right) digitally mirrored. A big Pyramidulina raphanus with a small Stylostomella to its left. In addition to an impressive number of foraminifera, these Pliocene clays also yield gastropods, lamellibranchs, and, in this case, what appears to be a fish scale. Since it was tiny and translucent, I tried to capture it using two crossed polarizing filters, what a surprise to see the colors of birefringence emerge when processing the RAW file. The allure of the spiral runs through every scale of existence. In the minute chambers of foraminifera, each new loculus added at a constant angle to the last, the logarithmic spiral emerges not as ornament but as structural necessity, the only geometry that allows growth without change of form. Two unusual alate and spinose ostracods: Cytheropteron sp. (top) and Lixouria aquila RUGGIERI, 1972 (bottom), in which the adductor muscle scars, located in the center-left area of the valve, are also visible. I really like a lot this foraminifera, it is not a new image acquired by the Artemis II mission around the hidden face of the Moon. :-) Miliolinids are benthic foraminifera of the suborder Miliolina, immediately recognizable by their porcelaneous, imperforate wall, dense and opaque, with the creamy-white appearance that distinguishes them from the glassy tests of rotaliid foraminifera. Their chambers coil in shifting planes around a longitudinal axis, producing the looping geometries typical of genera such as Quinqueloculina, Triloculina, and Pyrgo

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