Insects & Arachnids

In the garden, no one can hear you scream. An orb web spider waiting to hurt a cicada.

annuver jumping spider

The sharp end of a net casting spider. I'm pretty sure that this is a rufous net casting spider (Deinopis subrufa). Also known as the ogre-faced spider. Yup I can see that. Shrek with fangs.

A jumping spider about to, errr, jump. He might not have eyes in the back of his head but he's got them everywhere else.

Not 100% sure, but I think that this shaggy guy is a Varied Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina)

A female Cruiser (Vindula arsinoe)

OK, I don't know what species the butterfly is. Or the plant. So as a nature study this is right up there with the most useless photos you could find. Let's just say that this was taken at the Stratford Butterfly Farm in the UK on a sunny day in July 2005.

This photo is another in a long line of 'OK set up but didn't you realise how horrible the background was?'. Well if I'd realised, I would have moved that branch/twig/blight-on-an-OK- photo before I took it wouldn't I? And to top it off, I don't know what species the butterfly or the plant is. So, we conclude that this photo has few redeeming features but we post it anyway. Hopefully no one will come this way to rub salt into my own self inflicted wounds. Stratford Butterfly Farm, UK, July 2005

I like this photo but didn't I make a total hash of the background? I mean, could I have made it any more annoying if I'd tried? No I don't think so either. But the butterfly has a lot of character. To what do we attribute his unkempt look? Out on the nectar the night before? Got into a brawl with a moth? We'll never know. Stratford Butterfly Farm, UK, July 2005

A cicada recreating the famous scene from 'Alien'

Spider: 1 - 0 :Moth I'm not sure what the moth is (apart from dead) but the spider is a white crab spider (I think)

I know that a lot of people aren't huge fans of spiders but c'mon, you gotta admit that this is a pretty impressive animal even if it does scare the ---- out of you This is a decent sized adult brown huntsman that I relocated from inside the house to outside the house Just after I took this shot, he spotted a moth and ran off. I proved that I'm not as cool, calm and collected around spiders as I thought I was 'cos I nearly jumped out of my skin. Damn these guys are fast and they accelerate from nought to scary very very rapidly.

A cicada recreating the famous scene from 'Alien'