| Insects,
Spiders and other Arthropods |
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Australia
is the land of poisonous animals - it's not just the snakes and marine
life which sink their toxic fangs into you, the insects and other little
critters will do it, too.
Now
I don't know if this particular Australian spider is poisonous, but it's
certainly attractive. |
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This
inhabitant isn't quite so attractive, unless you're especially fond of
cockroaches.
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You
need to be on your guard against even the smallest insects, like these
nest-building ants which use formic acid as a defense. |
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Brunei
has some of the best preserved rainforest on the island of Borneo, not
because the inhabitants are fervent environmentalists, but because they're
so rich with offshore oil wealth that they haven't bothered destroying
their forests.
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Ecology
is a relatively recent concept, especially in this part of the world, so
there are few natural places set aside for viewing or walking. |
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Nevertheless
there are still opportunities to see some of the local insect life, which
can be surprisingly attractive, familiar and at the same time like nothing
you've ever seen.
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As
well as being a mecca for bird watchers, the small nation of Costa
Rica is also a hotbed of diversity in the insect world, with around
1250 species of butterfly, 500 species more than the entire United States. |
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The
intense level of competition present in the tropical jungle not only produces
a large number of different species, but also a fantastic array of weird
and wonderful adaptations.
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And
although Costa Rica's proximity to the United States makes it one of the
most visited eco-tourism destinations and also a favorite of ecological
study, it's still possible to capture on film critters like this caterpillar
in the tarchon family which hasn't been scientifically classified yet. |
The
further from large land masses that you go, the fewer species of animal
there are.
Fiji
is quite a long way into the Pacific, but the prevailing westerly winds
ensure that some birds and insects make their way to these shores.
Once here they develop separately from their ancestors, which is why two
thirds of Fiji's dragonflies and damselflies are found only here.
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As
well as dragonflies and damselflies for the odonatologists, there are some
nice butterflies, moths and caterpillars to keep the lepidopterists happy. |
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Not
every insect here is as cute and cuddly as a dragonfly, a butterfly or
even a caterpillar.
As
well as hairy and ferocious robber flies, there are a lot of spiders, including
some which are guaranteed to terrify the nervous.
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They
might not be poisonous, but the butterflies of Guatemala
are treacherous and deceitful, like this "Tropical" Buckeye butterfly pretending
to be an ordinary Buckeye butterfly... |
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...or
this butterfly pretending to be a leaf...
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...or
this Thoas Swallowtail pretending to have a great big smile. |
The
insects of Indonesia are often weird and wonderful, like this small
treehopper with absurdly shaped spikes on its head.
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There
are many colorful and interesting beetles to see, such as tiger beetles,
tortoise beetles and ridiculously large rhinoceros beetles. |
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This
is a country where the moths are frequently as showy and exotic as their
butterfly cousins.
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The
most beautiful beetle I ever saw was this Japanese Tiger beetle in the
grounds of the Chion-in temple in Kyoto.
If
it hadn't been so small it would also have been one of the most threatening,
with its bug eyes and cruel jaws. |
Talking
about bug eyes, Japan is a great
place for all those people (we know who you are - and where you live) who
believe that there are alien lifeforms among us, watching and waiting to
make their move.
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Here's
one bug-eyed monster you definitely don't want a close encounter with -
a 6 or 7 inch Giant Wood Spider on the sub-tropical island of Okinawa. |
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I
stood for 15 minutes in the middle of a stream in the Genting Highlands
of Malaysia to take photos of a brilliant metallically colored dragonfly.
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But
I realized a day later that I hadn't loaded the film into the camera correctly,
and so I didn't have any photographs! |
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My
photographs of insects in their natural environment might be lacking, but
I made up for it by visiting several butterfly farms,
one
in the capital Kuala Lumpur and another on the island of Penang.
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Mexico's
extensive natural areas have been severely ravaged by people, particularly
in the last few hundred years.
There's
isn't too much large wildlife to speak of anymore but there are still lots
of attractive insects, like this gorgeous two-tailed swallowtail butterfly,
one of many on my page of Butterflies
of Central Mexico. |
This
is a golden tortoise beetle, a species which is capable of rapidly changing
color by moving liquids around under its shell.
I have
it on reliable authority that this orange color indicates that it's in
a "disturbed" state, no doubt because of the presence of me taking photos!
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Quasimodo
had nothing on this hunchbacked beauty, sucking on a succulent branch.
It's
a variety of treehopper, all the more interesting because it was snacking
in the middle of one of Mexico city's main thoroughfares. |
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Zealand has been separated from other land masses for a very long time,
which means that it has developed some unique insect life, particularly
in the area of endemic spiders.
There
is only one poisonous native spider, the katipo, which inhabits sand dunes
but never bites anyone. In recent years, however, several toxic
Australian species have made their home here. |
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The
forests are home to various interesting species, like stick insects and
glow worms. |
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The
local dragonflies and damselflies provide interest while hiking.
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My
two week trip to the Philippines in 2006 was extraordinary because I failed
to get a single photograph of a bird or of a butterfly.
However
I did get quite a few photos
of Philippines wildlife, including a fair number of interestingly shaped
and colored true bugs, like this one. |
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As
you might expect from the tropics, I came across several really strange
looking insects, including a moth which didn't seem able to decide whether
it wanted to imitate an ant or a mosquito, and this very spiky golden ant,
which seemed to have no problems with its identity.
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There
are a few critters which are definitely at the "creepy" end of the scale,
including spiders, leeches and millipedes.
This
millipede is the largest I've ever seen, measuring a good 20 centimeters
from head to tail. |
| The
beautiful "peacock" butterfly was the only insect on my mind when I visited
Russia
in 2005, and I was fortunate to see quite a few of them in the Moscow region,
along with a few other butterflies and some interesting caterpillars. |
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Butterflies
weren't the only attractive insects I've seen in Russia, in 2007 I went
to the town of Gelendzhik on the Black Sea, where I came across this nice
twenty-two spot ladybird beetle, as well as a variety of attractive dragonfly
species. |
The
trip to Gelendzhik revealed plenty of less savory characters, too, like
this wasp dragging off a caterpillar which it has paralyzed as food for
its young.
There
were also a few interesting flies like the first scorpionfly I've ever
seen, plenty of true bugs and a small number of spiders.
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The
Solomon Islands, just to the east of Papua New Guinea, are home to numerous
interesting insects. |
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It's
not often that you see an insect flying so motionlessly and precisely that
you can take a photograph of it in mid-flight.
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If
you're a tiny male spider with pretensions of being Don Juan, and you've
found the hairy-legged girl of your dreams, then plan your attack carefully.
First,
make sure you approach from behind. Do it when she's too busy
eating a nice juicy grasshopper to notice you. And then... |
| Thailand
is a wonderland for the bug enthusiast, with a profusion of beautiful butterflies,
dragonflies and beetles.
But
it also harbors a good share of insects and arachnids that most people
don't regard so highly, like this large scorpion I was lucky enough to
run across one night. |
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If
you step outside any night then you're likely to find interesting denizens
of the dark, most completely harmless like this weirdly shaped stick insect
prowling around Erawan national park. |
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And
then there are the critters that look as dangerous as a scorpion but are
actually as harmless as a kitten, like this tailless whip scorpion.
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Because
of their proximity to South America, the islands of Trinidad
and Tobago have a wealth of fascinating insect life, like this Blue
Transparent butterfly, whose wings are as transparent as the name suggests. |
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The
huge owl butterfly doesn't seem too colorful, but on the inside it's a
startling blue, and even the pattern on the outside is marvellous.
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In
a remarkably complex pattern of behavior, leafcutter ants build distinctive
paths through the jungle to help them move vast amounts of vegetable matter,
not to eat, but to use as compost for the fungus they use as their only
food source. |
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mainland United States might not be in the tropics, but it's so large and
has such a wide variety of habitats that it can still support a very diverse
collection of insects, including many interesting moths and butterflies.
Indeed
the Monarch butterfly, a native of the USA, is probably the most well known
butterfly in the world. |
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There
are so many lakes and waterways in America,
it's no wonder that there are many different types of dragonflies and damselflies,
some
of which pose nicely for my camera and some of which just wouldn't sit
down long enough to photograph. |
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Formerly
known as the New Hebrides, Vanuatu consists of a group of islands in the
Western Pacific ocean. |
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I
wasn't specifically looking for insects when I was here (that interest
came later),
but
I did stumble across a few very attractive critters, like these beetles.
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Some
of the spiders were too big and too exposed to be missed, but others like
this one were hidden away a bit better. |
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I visited Vietnam I made special efforts to visit three of the national
parks - Cuc Phuong in the north near Hanoi, Bach Ma in the center of the
country near the old imperial city of Hue and Cat Tien in the south near
Saigon. All three of these parks are excellent places to see
the colorful and amazingly patterned insects of all kinds which are such
a typical part of life in the tropics, and which helped me choose this
destination.
Before
I left the country I felt disappointed about how few of Vietnam's
butterflies I'd seen, but when I got home I realized that I had more
photos of butterflies than I'd collected on any previous trip, and it was
the wealth of other fauna which had misled me. |
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In
Vietnam and other tropical countries you don't even have to go to the national
parks to see a lot of amazing insect life.
I found
this colorful longhorn beetle and many other interesting critters beside
the path to the tourist Perfume Pagoda; there were many butterflies and
dragonflies in the small formal gardens in one of the emperor's tombs near
Hue, and other insects were waiting for their closeups right in the center
of some of the cities I visited. |
Besides
the butterflies, the other group of arthropods which impressed me most
here were the
spiders. I saw dozens of attractively colored spiders in
different shades of red, pink, orange and even green. I came
across the largest jumping spider I've ever seen as well as the giant wood
spider, which spins the largest web of any of these creatures; I also happened
across my first ever tarantula, as well as a spider which mimicked an ant
(not to mention a moth which mimicked a spider). Most extraordinary
of all was a spider with a strangely shaped belly, a clear window on the
side of the belly and eggs clearly visible within its belly!
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