Critter Close-up Pics Just For Fun

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:02:05 pm

Some of these come from the Close-ups Guessing Game, but you've never seen the whole thing. Some are new pics I've never shown.

If you have specific information about any of these pics, feel free to add to the thread, but it's mostly just a thread you can check out once a month just to look at some cool critter pictures.

I'm not going to add the pics from the Festival of Hawks thread, so from now on they'll be always stuff you haven't seen yet.

I'll add them as I take them, but I won't be actively hunting them down like the Close-ups Guessing Game thread, so who knows how often it'll be updated.

Other photography buffs can add close-ups of their critters here any time they want. The only "critters" that probably won't be included here are birds and pets, since it would cramp already existing threads.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:04:16 pm

Here is a spider about with about a half inch body not counting leg spread. Saw him today on the plywood of a lean-to I'm in the middle of building.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:04:53 pm

...or it could be a her......

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:06:06 pm

No wonder they can hang on, even with me pounding a hammer. Check out the little hooks they can dig in to the wood.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:06:40 pm

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:08:00 pm

Just (I think) a Skipper I snapped while walking my daughter's dog in the conservation area across the street.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:09:03 pm

Ok, you may have seen this pic on the beekeeping thread, also taken in the conservation area.....

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:09:57 pm

....but here's a close-up of the eyes.....

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:10:53 pm

....and another bottom view close-up of all the pollen.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:12:21 pm

The next two types of critters are pics I took for the Close-ups Guessing Game, but I never showed you the actual critters. Daddy-long-legs and grasshopper.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:12:44 pm

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:13:52 pm

Reduced photo and the one after this is actual pixel size on the memory card.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:14:15 pm

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:16:08 pm

The last set for today (or this week, or who knows...) is this mantis in the grass we came across. They have this urge to mantle. You'll see pics of the arms stretched up. The mantis climbed the camera. :lol:

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:16:31 pm

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:16:53 pm

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:17:38 pm

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:19:57 pm

Everywhere I turned, her eyes looked right at me. It's amazing that there really is somebody inside there. Critters aren't people obviously, but their cognizance is pretty impressive.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 13:22:46 pm

Well, that's all for now, but I'll post more as I come across them, be it snakes, possums, snails & slugs, or whatever, besides wild birds and pets. I'll also check my old photo caches for ones you may have not seen before. Check around from time to time if you like this sort of thing. See you for now. :wink:

admin · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 14:30:16 pm

Took these on a holiday to Brazil earlier this year.

selvedge · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 15:45:57 pm

uncadonego wrote:

No wonder they can hang on, even with me pounding a hammer. Check out the little hooks they can dig in to the wood.

Yes those hooks are efficient, but so is the liquid they become when you hit them with the hammer. Splat.

portbelly · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 16:21:31 pm

Incredible shots "uncadonego"

You must have an excellent camera.

portbelly · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 16:38:11 pm

Took this last summer in our garden. haven't seen one before of since. They are scarce, the museum tells me.

'Net-casting Spider'

Alternative Name/s
Ogre-faced Spiders

The spider has excellent eyesight, with a huge pair of forward facing eyes that help it to see at night. The genus commonly encountered in gardens is Deinopis. Another genus, Avella, has less prominent eyes.

Net-casting Spiders have stick-like bodies, with spindly legs. Members of the genus Deinopis have a large, prominent pair of eyes at the front of the head (hence their other common name of Ogre-faced Spiders) and vary in colouring from fawn to pinkish brown or chocolate brown. Members of the genus Avella have smaller eyes and have subtle greenish brown to grey patterning. The males are smaller and even more slender and stick-like than the females, and can differ from them in their colour and patterning.
Size range
1.5-2.5 cm
Distribution

Net-casting Spiders are widely distributed in forest habitats of south-eastern Australia.
Habitat

They are often seen on fine summer nights among garden shrubs and trees.
Behaviour and adaptations
Feeding and Diet

They are nocturnal, feeding on ants, beetles, crickets and other spiders.
Feeding Habits

arthropod-feeder, carnivorous, insectivorous

The net is a blueish-white square of wool-like cribellate silk, whose coiled lines are designed to stretch and entangle prey. In order to have an aiming point, the spider often drops splashes of white faecal droppings onto the leaf or bark substrate over which it is poised. When an insect walks across this 'target', the spider plunges its net downward to envelop and entangle it. If successful, the spider silk-wraps the prey item, bites and paralyses it, and then feeds on it. Net strikes will also be made at flying insects that stray too close. An unused net is sometimes stored by hanging it on nearby leaves for the next night's hunting, or the spider may eat it.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 17:00:32 pm

Cool post, portbelly!

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 18:17:11 pm

Now that the close-up has been solved on the Guessing Game thread, I can post the original shot of the laying hen.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 18:17:33 pm

uncadonego · **Posted:** Fri Oct 07, 2011 14:33:03 pm

A couple of landers on the horse stall I'm building. This beetle, not sure what type, but it was pretty small compared to the others, so it was probably Ringo. :roll:

uncadonego · **Posted:** Fri Oct 07, 2011 14:33:34 pm

Seriously though, it was about a quarter inch long.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Fri Oct 07, 2011 14:36:02 pm

This guy landed and took off before I could walk around the building and get a shot of the front. Also pretty small for a dragonfly, about a 2 inch wingspan. A little bit of damage to the back wings as well.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Fri Oct 07, 2011 14:37:23 pm

Other interesting bugs landed today, but they either took off too early for me to set up the camera, or I was on the ladder with the drill, etc...

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sat Oct 08, 2011 11:05:53 am

Put up a 2 X 6 today for the loft floor, and found this guy was on the moist underside where it sat on the ground. I moved him after the pics so he wouldn't dry out ten feet above ground in the open sun.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sat Oct 08, 2011 11:06:14 am

Catweazle · **Posted:** Sun Oct 09, 2011 00:43:00 am

Brilliant photos here, they look professional! Isn't it just amazing to see up close the details of an insect like the eyes, or the little hooks on the spider's feet. And the wings on that dragon fly look just like windows in a cathedral, with the lead lining (haven't a clue what the actual term is).

Just curious to know, what sort of camera are you using?

I also love trying to see how close I can get to things like insects and flowers, but my camera isn't quite the best for that. Still, you may be interesting to see this thread, which has a few: http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15963

What the heck, may as well add a pic from that thread here:

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 09, 2011 17:28:37 pm

Some awesome shots on that thread!

It's actually a cheapo camera, but the super macro is the nice part. Mind you, with the auto focus, you must take several shots, because it may focus one time on the back leg of the bug, when you wanted the face, for example.

FUJIFILM FINEPIX S1500

Today's visitor to the horse stall really checked the place out. He was there for hours checking nooks and crannies. I wonder if he's thinking of setting up shop. Nasty biters, but cool looking critters.

Assassin bug.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 09, 2011 17:29:54 pm

See the little flecks of sawdust stuck to him?

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 09, 2011 17:30:25 pm

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 09, 2011 17:31:53 pm

Same shot as the last, but this is true pixel size. They're built like armour. See his eyes looking right at me again, just like the mantis?
I like it when you can see that in the shot.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 09, 2011 17:42:03 pm

Oh Catweazle, I forgot to mention that with the super macro setting, you can get up to 1cm away from the subject. You have to be mindful of lighting, that close almost every position tends to put you in shadow until you get the hang of it. Also, you have to be mellow with the bugs that close or they won't stick around. The slug.....?.....not an issue. :lol:

I have two other recent macro threads right now.

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=30297

and also

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30864

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 18:55:24 pm

Rained all day, so no bugs. I and the family were the only ones senseless enough to be out in the rain.

Wet wood. Slippery wood. Wacking a 2 X 4 really hard to get it in place. The hammer slid away from the wood and I pounded myself, really hard, in the kneecap. I'm glad it wasn't a clean miss, I probably would have shattered it, but the slight strike on the wood before it slipped off absorbed enough of the energy so that I'm in one piece. Man, it sure hurts though.

The best I can do on a rainy rainy day is show you a couple of midges that got through the screen door, attracted by the overhead oven light.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 18:56:29 pm

Catweazle · **Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 19:34:00 pm

Hey, uncadonego - does this count? :lol:

(Taken during my recent travels in the South of France)

"Bonjour M'sieur! Ã‡a va?"

uncadonego · **Posted:** Fri Oct 14, 2011 14:45:51 pm

Not close enough! :lol:

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2011 01:48:21 am

EDIT: Off to fix these! :roll:

Here's some that I took of a ______??

What is it?

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:21:06 am

The pics are small, but it looks like a praying mantis.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:54:13 am

Not as clear as digital. This was taken in '86. I was using a regular film camera, an old Pentax K-1000. I got a macro screw-on a bit later after this. With the macro lens, I could have gotten w-a-y closer and clearer. This is just a scan of an old print.

Banana Spider

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:14:27 am

I think also somewhere "85-7" era. Sorry about the speckles on the prints. This is one of those flies that passes itself off as a bee.

Catweazle · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2011 19:59:43 pm

Aha, so that's what those things are. I've always wondered. Any idea what they're actually called, or just a "fly-bee"? Actually, sounds like the name of a budget airline. Flybee - the more you spend, the more you save! :lol:

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2011 20:19:40 pm

Hover Flies.

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2011 20:47:59 pm

uncadonego · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2011 20:52:57 pm


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Critter Close-up Pics Just For Fun

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