hisr's Identifications

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The sinkhole of Kopaïs is one of the many sinkholes draining the old lake Kopaïs.

It is home to a colony of bats and a large number of Cave crickets (most likely the endemic Dolichopoda vandeli, first described by Boudout Saltet in 1970 and named in honour of Albert Vandel). This is a smallish individual, female (ovipositor not visible in the frame, but it was there).The length from the antennae to the end of the frame is about 15-20mm.

Like the way we get to see all her mouthparts (or at least a large proportion of them; the detail in the eye and the splash of mud on the first leg. Everyone gets muddy in Kopaïs!

Shot on a D3100 with sole source of light a tethered ring-flash held to frame left. 55mm Nikkor Micro AI f/2.8 on a 2x TC on 68mm of tubes. Levels (and sharpness) tweaked in Gimp.

Please note I am happy to receive critique through the comment box.

The Great Pothole of the Asteriou Monastery on Hymettus is home to a large population of Dolichopoda sp., these spiders, some horseshoe bats and various other invertebrates.

This cheeky chappie was caught on his web using 68mm of extension tubes with the kit lens, focused manually at 55mm, and a ring flash held off camera, above, for lighting in an otherwise pitch black environment. The spider's body has a width of about 5-6mm. The frame is as shot, reduced to 1600 pixels on the long side for uploading, after being tagged and tweaked for levels in GIMP.

I am happy with the transparency of the body, the hairs, and the fact I managed to get the eyes in focus.

This is the first record of the cave orb-weaver spider Meta bourneti Simon, 1922 (Araneae: Tetragnathidae) in Crete. It was found during the research in the framework of LIFE-GRECABAT project (https://www.lifegrecabat.eu/en)