Author Archives: Michael

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Spiders ARE cute!

Proof Q.E.D   Related Images:

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Buckfast Butterfly Farm

Butterflies and… otters? I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Buckfast Butterfly Farm and Dartmoor Otter Sanctuary located in Devon, UK. As much as I love the incredibly cute little otters, of particular interest […]

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Syrphidae (Hoverflies)

Delightful Deceivers The most noticeable thing about hoverflies, syrphid flies, flower flies, or whatever you might be inclined to call them, is their across the board resemblance to various types of bees and wasps. It’s […]

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How many eyes do bees have?

Like many insects, bees have five eyes; two compound eyes and three small simple eyes in the center of their head (referred to as ocelli). For more discussion on ocelli, see my post on Fly […]

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Pollen Baskets

Honey bees, bumble bees, stingless bees and orchid bees all collect pollen using structures on their hind legs which are delightfully termed ‘pollen baskets’. Here we have a few images of a European honey bee […]

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Apocrita (Bees, Wasps and Ants)

What’s the skinny? Most people will have noticed the similarities between bees and wasps and wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they are members of the same suborder of insects, called Apocrita. It turns out […]

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Green Jumping CANNIBAL Spiders (Mopsus mormon)

    Cutest Cannibal* Ever Here we have both the male and female of the green jumping spider, which is common in my home of Queensland, Australia. I found these two on separate days, but […]

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Fly Eyes

Flies may be annoying, but they sure do make great macro photography subjects. Here we have a little fella adjusting one of his many thousand contact lenses. If you look closely at the cropped image […]

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