Photographs from H.R. Giger and Sorayama Hajime exhibit in Osaka, Japan.

Recently things have been warming up here as Spring is rapidly approaching! First of the seasonal flowers to bloom in Japan are the Plum Blossoms, while not as numerous or widely planted as the more famous

These delightful moths are active during the day and much like their name implies are very much like hummingbirds. They both consume nectar from flowers while in flight. It's really a fantastic example

Carpenter Bees are big! Xylocopa appendiculata circumlovans, the species common here in Osaka and throughout Japan, grows to a bit more than 2cm long, and is a heavily built, stocky insect. Recently, as

The cosmos flowers are in full bloom and as such have attracted the attention of multitudes of butterflies and bees! In this post I've selected a few of the butterflies that chanced to find themselves

Recently, the number of spiders I've been spotting in the house has gone up sharply! It's nearing the end of the summer here and the slightly cooler evening temperatures combined with frequently rainy

This very small ant is dining on a perfectly vine ripened tomato in the garden. It's eaten so much it's abdomen is stretched out like a balloon. Ants can eat more than they need for themselves in order

Jumping spiders are my favourite macro subject. I think they are wonderfully charismatic. Many people dislike spiders, some very few species can indeed be dangerous but the overwhelming majority are harmless

Sometimes it is possible to get very close to a dragonfly, they seem to have a mercurial personality that varies between "run from everything" to "meh, nothing really bothers me".

Incredibly well camouflaged phasmids sometimes called stick insects, stick bugs or walking sticks are very difficult to find. Though not-uncommon I'd lived in Japan for 16 years before I spotted my first

Though it looks very much like an ant, it is in fact a spider. Related to jumping spiders they aren't very skilled at jumping. They are however accomplished mimics. Myrmarachnea japonica They move in an

Caterpillars are great! Their sole purpose is to eat as much as they can to accumulate the resources they will need in their adult form as either a butterfly or moth. Some will never eat as an adult as

The Praying Mantis is a fascinating creature! I was quite lucky that in the fall, a mantis had placed an ootheca, an egg case on the rose bush directly outside of my dining room window! I was even luckier

What big jaws you have! These very small ants are a challenge to photograph! The worker cast is only about 1.5 to 2mm long, with the queen the largest in the entire colony only 7 to 8mm. They are identified

Weevils are beetles, one of the most diverse orders of insects (400,000 species so far), and the largest family of beetles are the weevils with about 83,000 species described! Some of the species in my

Flies have incredible eyes! Two large compound eyes and a triplet of small simple eyes at the top of the head. The compound eyes take can take up more than half of the surface of the head! Zoomed out a

Hasarius adansoni is a fairly common jumping spider found in many parts of the world. The males have a very striking black and white colour pattern. As it's the rainy season these spiders can often be

I met this healthy looking frog, a Japanese Wrinkled Frog (Glandirana rugosa) on a path near a rice field, the field had recently been flooded to prepare for planting. Currently, there is quite a symphony

Many people are under the impression that butterflies are smooth, they have often large brightly wings after all and are associated with flowers and sunlight. It comes as a surprise then that butterflies