Assassin …
What’s this coming up the branch, a new kind of bug, a mutant … or is it an assassin bug holding on to dinner.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look … and click again
She sees me and does an about-turn. But then she can’t see me past her package and I no longer exist in her small world. Until …
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… I get around the other side. But she soon settles down, me being no apparent threat. Unwilling to relinquish her catch.
Up close you can just see how she uses her lance/proboscis/stabber to pierce and hold onto her prey.
And later that day, after her meal, she’s wandering a flower spike in the garden and positioning herself for the next days hunting. … But… what’s that in the background? It looks like a face but it’s a spider sitting in its web.
If there’s anything can discourage an assassin bug it’s this spider, an orb weaver. But they never meet this dark night. Who knows what may be the next …
… all grown up, what the Assassin Baby eventually develops into.
It has been an unusual year in many respects but the point here is there has been very few small creatures in the garden.
I can think of a number of reasons – combinations of rain, sun, birds, etc – but at summer’s end the ‘last man standing’ is the assassin bug.
So, I present to you the winner of this years trophy … well, thank god – whatever that is – insects don’t have personalities.
And every body dies eventually.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Nature's Place 
Dear Mark, your photos absolutely good. Can you share your equipment list, i remembered some posts in the site but i can not find. From photos i reached panasonic cam and 30mm lens (some of them), and did you try cpl filter (with or without raynox)
regards
Hi Uygar.
The only ‘list’ is here – https://beingmark.com/macro-illustrated/ – some ways down the page (Exif is always in the image files). You will find a lot there to help along the way to mastering macro. It’s not all about the gear.
Best … M
I am the only female I know that likes spiders. The photos of this one are spectacular.
Thanks Kim. Have a series coming up … of a spider moulting.
You have cool bugs down under! Thanks for giving us such a spectacular glimpse!
Thanks Mary.
Wow. A view of the spider’s spinnerets. Very cool. I take it that’s you in the background of the Assassin Bug photo Mark? Mustache or shadow? How did you manage to capture yourself?
I have one shot where you can see the spider’s ‘black teeth’ – for another post.
It does look like a face, now I look again, but that’s the spider in the background, a different individual but same kind.