here's one of a MASSIVE praying mantis that i caught in my bag when i saw it in a corridor (i was saving it's life) i took it home to my garden, relesed it, and photograhed it. the *^&^ thing repayed my kindness my promplty biting my on the finger. it's spikes were so huge they actually drew blood. while i phtographed it, it kept trying to destroy my lens and kept COMING close, rather than running away like most things ten centimetres long!
here's one more(groan) of a bettle, sorry--beetle--that i shot with my brand new flash, costing three hours of work and scorched fingers (i built it myself) i don't know about you guys--but it like the way the sadow envelopes the beetle, which shines golden like (hint! hint!)
incidentally, this coorg place is a photographer's deligjt. anybody want to go there, get in touch with me and i'll give you the adress of an awesome plave to saty there.
one more shot from coorg. it's some sort of bizzzare spider that mimics a mantis (i think) notice the way it holds its front two legs. i think it waits for flying insects to come and rest on the leaf, and then--ziiip---it pounces! i noticed traces of silk on the underside of the leaf, confiming that it's a spider.
i have around twenty spiders cohabiting in my room but it's pretty difficult to keep these wild, super specialized species indoors. many of these really speacilaed spiders feed on a narrow band of species, need exact conditions, etc, etc--so basically; not possible to keep most spiders indoors. i tired to keep a giant wood spider indoors, much to the horror of everybody (it was six inches, and built a web that was never less than four feet across) but i was eventually forced to throw it outside. (not beacause i found it's habit of spinning a web across the door irritating---it was running short of food )
i tried to keep spiders indoors so i could shoot them at leasiure, but i found it too irritating too generate a nice background. and it's not very nice to wake up witha massive spider on your face.
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but it's pretty difficult to keep these wild, super specialized species indoors. many of these really speacilaed spiders feed on a narrow band of species, need exact conditions, etc, etc--so basically; not possible to keep most spiders indoors. i tired to keep a giant wood spider indoors, much to the horror of everybody (it was six inches, and built a web that was never less than four feet across) but i was eventually forced to throw it outside. (not beacause i found it's habit of spinning a web across the door irritating---it was running short of food 
) 