Strange Looking Spidey

We were on our way to the Pisang waterfall again last Sunday when we chanced upon this strange looking spider. At first glance we thought it had a huge pair of pincers but on closeup, the two things sticking up were from the hind-section.

I've never seen this type of spider before and managed to get these two decent (I hope) closeups of it. Andrew from MNS mentioned this as a type of Spiney Spider.

1 Aug 2007: Spider identified! Thanks to Milo for pointing out the web-reference sites.
Specie of Orb Web Spider of family Araneidae
This is a Curved Spiny Spider (Gasteracantha arcuata) a.k.a. Horned Spider

Beautiful Wings

Sometimes nature is cooperative, and these are the times that we get to capture the splendour of these winged beauties.

Not only did it gave me a side profile ...




... but it opened its beautiful wings as well.





My apologies. This was posted before, long time back but I kind of admired the colour contrast of the dragonfly against the flower and the wings, beautiful in its own right - funtional simplicity.

More Ancient Than Dinosaurs

They were said to have appeared in the Devonian Period (406 - 306 Million Years Ago), even before dinosaurs walked the earth.




A complex array of lenses gives the dragonfly a 360 degree view.

{To see the facets on the eye, click on the picture to view the full image}