Bumper Macro Post

I have added a diverse selection of macro images due to my lack of blog posts in the last two weeks.

I would like to make special mention of a message / comment that I received from M - from Australia.  The content and sincerity of your comment is much appreciated.  Australia and its people currently endure terrible climatic conditions and M has covered the current weather situation and Cyclone Yasi's approach with a blogpost of 3 February 2011.  Here is the link.

http://feelingsshared.blogspot.com/ 

There is a link to A Snails Eye View on the blog - Snail being situated in North Queensland which is right in the path of the cyclone.  http://snailseyeview.blogspot.com  I really need to spend some time on these two blogs - diverse animal life, bugs, frogs etc.

Positive thoughts to our Australian friends.

Common geranium bronze butterfly - I still think it is a common blue (due to blue colours on top/upper parts of wings and abdomen).

Daddy long legs spider - carrying what appears to be a mole (actually some kind of bug in the web sack)

Dragonfly - macro head shot

Tiny leafhopper - front on shot - definitely one of my favourite macro images.

Brown lynx spider with warpaint-like mask.  I have added a tighter crop as a second image.  Lynx spiders are such interesting spiders - fast, excellent climbers, excellent jumpers and the spines on the legs are so pronounced.

Unknown bug - I have never seen this type of bug before.  Found another 2 which are similar (but which do not have the yellow stripe separating the abdomen from thorax.  The other two have yellow spots (two lumps) on the upper abdomen (where this bug has the two blue/red lumps on its upper abdomen).  Any ideas as to identification?

Ichneumonid wasp - angled shot.

Sugar granule / crystal.  I was fiddling with a new flash setup and had an extreme macro diopter [Raynox MSN202] on the Panasonic.  I definitely did not get the lighting right, but was alarmed to see this black foreign body in the sugar crystal.  Note this is an ordinary white sugar crystal which I randomly selected from our sugar bowl, it is not oversized.  It was number 3 or 4 in the lineup, but the black "hair" caught my attention when magnifying.  Anyone out there have any idea what this foreign body is?  I will sample another 10 crystals at some point.  Should I find a similar foreign body then I will be forced to question the producers and request an explanation.  At this point I attribute the presence of the foreign body as merely one dirty grain among 10 000.  I read somewhere that white sugar is called white death - mmmm - may be truth in that statement somewhere.  Note that this foreign body is microscopic and not visible to the naked eye and something this small should not pose any problem for the human digestive system.  I did make sure to include the reflection - just in case someone claims the image was photoshopped to include the black "hair".

Remember:  Click any image to enlarge.

Comments always welcome and appreciated.