Spring has Sprung

Although some nights are still a little cold, Spring has established itself at last with increased insect life - being a good sign that the trend will continue into summer.
The early arrivals have begun to make themselves more apparent, one of them the Stick Insect.
This specimen was around 30cm long.

It was great to get a good shot of the most unusual mouth structure of this insect - one that works like a pair of sideways angled snips as the creature trims away at the leaves

Tiny Orb Weaver Spiders have begun to appear, as have a variety of caterpillars.

Im looking forward to photographing them with the new equipment purchased this last winter, with the aim to reveal new insights into their construction and behaviour.

Stick Insect

Today I was lucky enough to photograph a reasonably large Stick Insect.

They seemed fairly common when I was younger, not so now.

Perhaps I spent more time looking. :)

It was interesting to note the vertically arranged mouth parts, enabling easy shredding of leaves.

The plant being consumed is a Black Wattle 

Having never seen a Stick Insect feeding, this was a great photographic opportunity for me to capture one of natures more interesting and unusual forms in its day to day activities.

Summer Break

I thought that I should take advantage of the inclement weather of recent days to get into posting a blog or two. The break over Xmas/new year (hope you all had fun) was quite productive photographically and, with photographer Petra Sing on visit from Europe (pictured below), I was able to snap many Gigs of material.

The following shots are a collection on insects, arachnids, reptiles, and fungal forms.

These were taken at a number of areas over the holiday break.

I hope you enjoy this eclectic mix of summer pics, with more to come as I get to process them.