Swapping spit

Wonderful response to yesterday's mantis battle blip. I have to admit it did hurt my eyes also, it was so difficult to separate the mantis from the flower, but I guess that is the whole point of the camouflage.

Messing about on the computer at 4am so a late blip safari today. There wasn't anything to snap on the first part of my daily route, but I was surprised to find a herd of red headed ants out in the sun. They usually keep to the shade, so I was able to capture some images with decent lighting for a change.

One of the ant shots that I have been after for a long while now, is of the mouth parts, like a lot of insects, they have a mouth full of fingers, very 'alien' like, easy to see were the sci-fi boys get their inspiration, we have said this before many times.

I still didn't get the shot I was looking for and will continue to work on that, but I did get this image of a pair of redheads getting friendly (in my dreams). A lot of legs for you all to cope with, nut there are only six apiece. You can clearly see the mouth fingers in action but it may be better to go large if you can stand it!

The ants were continually being attacked by wasps, two types. I did capture a couple of images, but didn't nail them, That would have been a tremendous blip. The ants fought back aggressively and the wasps were cautious but persistent, another shot to add to my blip list.

The rest of the safari was quite disappointing with not a lot on offer. The mantis was still on the same flower head, but I didn't bother with that. I picked up a couple of nice dragon shots and a female golden orb weaver spider with a male crawling over it. A couple of nice damsels of the humanoid species, high up in a tree. A bit young for the picking, I prefer windfall. I don't know what they were saying to me, but it wasn't 'nice weather' judging by the tone of the laughter!

Dave