Many thanks to all, for the kind comments.
As to the first photo, the moth was not very large, not a lot bigger than the wasp, prolly less than 50% larger in body. Still, I was maxed out at f/40 on both shots, so nothing else can be done for DOF.
MHD: No diffuser was used on the flash. These shots were in full, bright daylight, in the mid afternoon. The combination of shutter speed and f/stop was a huge, light eating, monster and I had a number of shots that were underexposed as it was.
These shots were basically experimental. I've never used the flash like this before, at such high shutter speeds. The high shutter speeds were to reduce hand held camera shake and motion blur of the subjects that moved far more rapidly than I could keep up with, either by themselves or in gusts of wind that would take them completely out of the frame.
