Wasp or ???

Oddities week - day 7

Here we are again, final day of the series. Today's plan was for a mantis blip, but not a mantis in sight, in fact, not much of anything in sight!

Finally, I saw an interesting wasp. It was kind of similar to the wasp that I blipped earlier in the series, but I was getting desperate. As I was moving in, the leaf in my face looked at me! I could not believe it, I was six inches away from one of the most incredible lizards. I took the shot more as a memento than anything.

The beauty of this lizard, is that its camouflage is so effective, he just assumes that he is invisible. The lizard just stays absolutely still and I was able to move around and collect all the images that I wanted, only moving in for the close-ups once I was happy with everything else. He did eventually wander away, when I nearly poked his eye out with my skylight!

The bad thing is, of course, finding the damn thing in the first place. I have blipped this species of lizard once before and if you remember, I only found that one by accidentally stepping on its tail. That turned out to be one of my most successful blips.

So, what to blip - it was impossible to decide as I wanted to show you everything. Close-ups to show the incredible detail of the eye, ear and skin texture. Location shots to show how effective the camouflage is. Distance shots to show the length of the tail. I thought of doing a combo, but I thought that would cheapen the whole blip.

I chose this shot so that you could visualize my first encounter. If you ever visit just one of my folios, now is the time to do it, as I have posted all the lizard keepers there. If you have a particular favorite, I will change the blip image to the most popular tomorrow, you choose for me!

I hope you enjoyed oddities week, it has proven very popular with all but one making it to spotlight. I need a blipping rest now the pressure is off.

Dave