Thomas Shahan has a great series of photo’s on Flickr. Extreme bug close ups that really show the colors you normally don’t see. They don’t even look scary anymore, and some of their names are quite special. In order of appearance: ommatidia of a dragonfly, blue faced meadow hawk, pink grasshopper, transverse flower fly, large fly head, damsel fly head, male stripped horsefly. Asked about where the beautiful colors come from, Thomas replies: ‘Arthropods have vibrant colors for countless different reasons – but at least with the salticids they often have ornate markings & setae as a result of sexual selection – many salticids have wild and amazing courtship displays!’. It’s all about sex!
