Nature close up, What did you see out there? Options

[CP]

Hey everyone,

Thought it would be good to have a thread for any nature pictures of close up small things you found on your adventures.
Flowers, animals, minerals whatever......if you found it outdoors in nature's tiny world, this is the perfect thread to share it in. Post em' up!

Here is one to start it off that I shot recently.
I know Denise just love's the flowers so the first one is for her. Hibiscuss flower nearly 12" across

[Denise]

Here is a little different kind of encounter. This little guy usually only comes out at night, but I found one hidding just after sunrise. Gads! The thing has toes....hehe



We have been doing a little more research on this one since Timmy keeps having encounters with them. Poor guy! First he had one in his pants when he went to put them on. He felt it move, so he grabbed it pulling it away from him. Sad to say, this caused its body to oooze down his leg. He said it felt like sand running down his leg. When I first saw what was left of it, I thought spider but it only had 6 legs. That led us to crickets, and there it was, the Jerusalem cricket. These things are good sized! Facinating things to learn about! (see Wikipedia link below). A few nights later when he was trying to go to sleep, he told us he heard a strange tapping noice. We looked all over but couldnt find anything.

As we were researching the Jerusalem cricket
We clicked the sound file it has for the "drumming" sound it makes.

Similar to true crickets, each species of Jerusalem cricket produces a different song during mating. This song takes the form of a characteristic drumming in which the insect beats its abdomen against the ground.

Timmy was close doing his school work and came running over saying "Whats that sound? Thats the sound I heard the other night."

Bingo!