You know I find posts like this interesting and amusing to a point. You never seem to know when a particular photograph can stir up a little controversy in discussion. Hey Doug!...ever feel you've started a "range war?" Good posts guys!

MacroLuv wrote: I always thought about "cristata" as another form of the same species. I am not good at this but it may be that it belongs to the same family, just a different species within it. If you notice C. deformis is more cup shaped where as C. cristatella is cup shaped but to a lesser degree...

Dave W , an interesting link. :D Not extensive as far as lichens go but one good enough to identify the most commonly encountered species. Lichens are extremely hard to identify sometimes. I find them to be somewhat interesting but I do not research them or study them very much, not being particula...

Quite an unusaul effect there Mike, but it took a moment there to make heads or tails of the snake.

Well Paul, cobwebs or not, that is a very unusual beetle and a great shot on the glass . Beetle shots are getting pretty regular around here, usually its big fat hairy, creepy, crawly, spiders.

Hey nothing like a cocktail to to with your scarab huh Nikola. :lol: I know a few of my own but I don't think our editor Tom, would appreciate me mentioning them on the site and besides I refrain from the consumption of spirits nowadays. :wink: Anyway a really nice beetle photo, can't say as I have ...

Well Nikola, I don't know about beeing a cookie but it does have some very distinctive coloration. If this is a crab spider, it's the first I have seen with these colors. Very nice photograph

Other than thistles, I have never seen a flower with so many long thorns, especially branching ones. Interesting photograph.

Look at that! All wadded up. :shock: Makes you hurt all over just thinking about the possibility of being biten. They say it is tens if not hundereds as times as painful as a bee sting. Hope I never find out. A great image of the copper there Mike :D , found one just like him in the yard last summer...

Well I tell ya Steve, how's about sending some down to North Carolina. It has been and still is sweltering down here! A very refreshing photograph for a hot July!

These things will hurt you, I know. I always called them "horseflies." If they are not, they ought to be. I've seen some that wouldn't fit in a hall closet! Okay, so I am stretching it a little :lol: but they do get big and they hurt! :shock: Nice photograph however, did ya swat'm afterwards? :D

Wim replied:

The french eat anything!

Been to SE Asia lately? Def: "Road Kill"...fast food...just wasn't fast enough!

A very beautiful and interesting photograph Wim. Some folks say that Abalone are some pretty good table fare. Never have eaten one as I know of, not much on shell sea food but I do like clams, crab, lobster, and shrimp.

I've probably seen flies like this but I can't say that I know what species they are. Pretty neat how it holds its back legs up in the air while at rest.

These spiders have some really big and beautiful eyes; I wonder why spiders eyes are not faceted? Anway a really up close and very good shot of the jumpers eyes.