Creatures on my hand close up and personal.

Photos of local creatures on my hand. This is a winged bull ant (Myrmecia gratiosa). It is vigilant and aggressive with a very painful sting but this one seemed happy to walk on my hand while I took snaps with my other hand.
“Continue reading” for all sorts of remarkable creepy-crawlies on my hand. 26 photos.

This is bizarre. From Wikipedia:
“But the bulldog-ant of Australia affords us the most extraordinary example of this kind; for if it is cut in two, a battle begins between the head and the tail. The head seizes the tail in its teeth, and the tail defends itself bravely by stinging the head: the battle may last for half an hour, until they die or are dragged away by other ants. This contest takes place every time the experiment is tried.”

This is a Bobtail trying to look fearsome. These slow moving lizards are common around here. They are often happy to take a piece of fruit.

Note: NEVER touch creatures on your hand or pick them up. They will bite, sting, maim or otherwise use whatever their special weapon is. If they want to walk on your hand then fine. If they have gone there in the first place, then you are just something to be walked on and not a threat.

The TRICK to direct creatures is to put your hand down or up to direct them. Most have decided to go up or down and will change direction on your hand if you lift or rotate it. Insects that want to fly off often want to get to the highest point first. You can make sure they never get there – at least until you have enough pictures.

The Huntsman spider commonly sneaks into houses and takes up residence on walls in Australia. Generally mind their own business. One of the creatures happy to shake hands.

Wasp on an iPhone and my finger. It got into our house and tried to use the phone. I grabbed the camera and the wasp obligingly remained on the phone for 20 – 30 shots then flew away.

Some friendly visitors to our rural property include cockchafers, Monarch butterfly (weighing 0.4 g), golden orb spider (weighing 4 g), cockroach, stick insects x2 and a kangaroo tick having a snack.

While this Golden Orb spider is more rural, the urban orb spiders are getting bigger.

Above: a not-so-friendly kangaroo tick sucking my blood.

Above: a rather disgusting slug. I don’t want this one enlarged, but you can click it if you like “gross”. I could still feel the slime for ages. It would not come off with hand washing or a variety of solvents.

Above: look closely into this Antlion’s eye for the colourful view of the compound eye. I only noticed this after processing the photo.

Above, a longicorn beetle and a curious cat. Apologies for the left handed photography. Right photo shows a large wasp revving for takeoff.

Becoming a photographer experienced in bugs-on-hands, this time I let the wasp go on my left hand so I could hold the camera in the right! It was a lucky shot that caught the wasp in mid air as it flew off.

A big frog I found on my doorstep

A grass frog and a large moth in somewhat similar photos.

A Huntsman starts up my arm reluctantly. I don’t think he likes how humans smell.

Being a photographer experienced in creatures-on-hands, this time I let the wasp go on my left hand so I could hold the camera in the right (!) It was a lucky shot that caught the wasp in mid air as it flew off.