My bathroom is haven for spiders. Huntsman spider, Cellar spiders (Pholcidae), Adanson’s House Jumper are all coexist with us. They also help rid my bathroom of pesky cockroaches, ants and mosquitoes. The Newest entree to my bathroom spider menagerie is a long-jawed orb-weaver Tetragnatha species. I was surprised to find this relatively common garden dwelling … Read more
I spotted this Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa latipes) on a dry twig. It was holding a twig with its jaws and hanging limp and remained so for quite a long time. It was the resting behavior of these bees. Unfortunately the twig was fairly deep in the bush. Fear of waking this bee when I approached … Read more
Long-legged flies, Family Dolichopodidae, make up quite a large family and together with the shore flies, Family Ephydridae, are amongst the most common true flies to be encountered along the shores of our ponds, lakes and streams. Unlike the pesky houseflies, which are nusiance mongerers, Long Legged flies are beneficial, in that they prey upon … Read more
I found this hammerhead worm, Bipalium species in my car shed being teased by ants. I was using Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS on Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash which was not very adequately diffused. The bare flash, despite my feeble attempts to diuffuse it, caused some amount … Read more
Focus stacking is a technique which helps to extend an apparent depth of field in a picture. It works especially well for macro and landscape shots. It will be more useful when the smallest aperture is often insufficient to render everything in focus. When we require more depth of field (or more area in focus), … Read more
As I was crouching on the ground to capture some short horned grasshoppers, a curious spider which was watching me all along wanted to have a closer look at me. It started climbed on my pants. Here is that very bold jumping spider Hyllus cf. semicupreus posing on my pants 🙂 Hyllus semicupreus is also … Read more