Photography

Isabelle S. Betancourt
Wildlife and Portrait Photography

Please reach me through the contact form if you are interested in purchasing a license for my work or if you are interested in hiring me for contract work.

Spiders and Insects

Featured

Portrait of a Cratosomus weevil in Colombia

When he noticed that I was looking for insects to photograph, the gardener walked over to me with a bright red dragonfly.
Kolkata, India.

The vibrant red flower of the mistletoe attracts butterflies such as the Large Orange Sulphur (Phoebis agarithe).
La Paz, BCS, Mexico

Portrait of a freshly emerged Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly (Battus philenor)

A leaf-cutter bee (Megachilidae) visits flowers in Logan Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The scopa under the abdomen is brimming with pollen.

Happy Birthday baby bugs! Thirteen young true bug nymphs remain gathered around their egg cluster. Interestingly, they are of two different instars or molt development stages. The two paler baby bugs on the right side have freshly molted into the second instar and will soon darken like the others of the second instar. They were born on the underside of a redbud leaf in my backyard when I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

An Orb weaver rests ready and listening on her wonderfully woven web in a New Jersey backyard.

An earthy emerald (Phrudocentra janeira), which visited a porch light in Costa Rica

Once upon a leaf in Colombia.
Mesosemia mevania (Hewitson 1857) Family: Riodinidae

Protected by a shield of its larval hairs, a tiger moth goes through the incredible process of metamorphosis. While it looks inactive from the outside, there is an abundance of molecular activity inside pupa.

Perched so the wings are in full view. Butterfly wings are mosaics carrying all sorts of messages and purpose. The patterns of the scales range in purpose from defending the butterfly to attracting a mates.

Insect Portraits

Portrait of Macracantha arcuata. A spikey spider from the Bornean peat swamp forest of Central Kalimantan

Insect Portraits

On the western coast of Costa Rica, a butterfly catches the final glow of the day perched on top of a cactus

Dragonfly wings and color are dazzling indeed. Even taking those away and focusing on their other forms and structures, they are a sight to behold.

Costa Rica - Through the power of teamwork, ants take down prey ten times their size.

At Tuanan Orangutan Research Station in Indonesia, the laundry soap is popular among the resident bees and butterflies. They fly to the clothes and the laundry lines to lap up minerals.

As dusk falls in Palangka Raya, Indonesia, two butterflies mate upon a fallen and shriveled palm leaf. (Tribe Satyrini)

Strike a pose! Some insects run and others hide, but this raspy cricket stands her ground, flings open her wings, and lifts her front food like she going to stomp it on the ground. An impressive display!

The Chinese Mantis (Tenodera sinensis) locks her spikey front raptorial leg around a cricket leg to secure it as she devourers it.

With her front legs raised and fangs bared, is clear that the tarantula wants no visitors. Be gone!
Tuanan, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

A non-native species on a non-native plant. The thistle tortoise beetle on thistle matches it’s host plant’s hue impeccably.
Backyard, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Native bee on a native flower. Despite having lost one antennae, the sweat bee is still going strong and engages her remaining antennae with the flower surface as she forages.

Eggs from the insides of her prey drip down as the mantis devours her feast.
Tenodera sinensis (Saurssure, 1871)
Backyard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

While working outside on the picnic blanket during the pandemic, I had the honor of being joined by a crab spider.
Backyard, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A native Pearl Crescent Butterfly (Phyciodes tharos) perched on a non-native Queen Anne’s Lace flower.
Backyard, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Once upon a cone flower in my grandmother’s garden.
You can clearly see the three ocelli on the ‘forehead’ of the sweat bee. These extra eyes help with detecting movement and light!
New Jersey, United States.

A robber fly rests atop a leafless branch close to the peak of Gunung Ungaran. The moisture of the passing clouds collects on its body.

Not an ant but an and-mimicking spider rests in its silky hide upon a leaf in a Yogyakarta backyard.

Vertebrates in the Wild

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They may look like teeth, but in fact what are in between the lips of this unidentified orangutan are the seeds of Akar Kamunda (Leucomphalos callicarpus)! Kamunda, a type of pea vine in the family Fabaceae, is one of the orangutan’s most commonly eaten foods in the Mawas Conservation Area. They eat their seeds, flowers, and young leaves. Not only can we see the evidence of the empty seed pods falling from the sky, but also when they are eating akar kamunda one can hear the pleasant ‘Pop!” of the seed pods as the orangutan chows down.

Ranthambore, India

People in the Field and Lab

I seek to capture their moments of concentration, exploration, grit, & passion.

Anthropologist and morphologist, Eva Hernandez-Janer examines the orangutan vertebrate.

Them Bones

In early December 2022, while heading out to my field site to set up insect traps, my assistant and I encountered four large arm and leg bones on the trail. A team was sent out the next day to collect the bones and whatever else they were able to find and they came back with a half-complete skeleton of a large orangutan male.

Featured

Pak Sudin offers me the fruit of Tuptup Kabali. This fruit is often eaten by orangutans at Tuanan in the Mawas Conservation Area. It is also edible for humans. I tried it and it was mildly sweet, however there wasn’t much edible flesh around the seed.

Dr. Gelhaus, one of the few world experts on crane flies, examines craneflies in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Entomology Collection

Ladybug Legacy

Anwar identified a ladybug and so his name goes on the ID label to be preserved forever in the collection.

Rachel Davis, Biodiversity Intern at Penn State University's Frost museum encounters a baby turtle while out in the field.

Steve Mason, a Curatorial Assistant at the Academy of Natural Sciences prepares moths specimens for integration into the collection through a meticulous process called spreading. The wings are drawn apart using pins and wax paper. They are then held flat in place with glass slides. When the wings, body, and antennae are in their proper places, the spreading board is placed into a cabinet to sit for almost a month to allow the parts to dry and therefore fix in place.

Pak Harley constructs desks for the rooms of the Tuanan Research Camp in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Local research assistant, Idun, poses for the camera goofily by holding the GPS up to his ear as if it is a phone. (Tuanan Orangutan Research Project)

Looking Out from Upon An Ancient Indian Fort

Photography

Isabelle S. BetancourtWildlife and Portrait Photography

Spiders and Insects

Vertebrates in the Wild

People in the Field and Lab

I seek to capture their moments of concentration, exploration, grit, & passion.

Them Bones

Isabelle S. Betancourt
Wildlife and Portrait Photography