Keeping an eye on us

These critters all dropped in to visit this week.

Hornet under glass

Hundreds of eyes, and toothed jaws.

Winged ant termite*. Running.

Not running.

Crane fly on carpet. Sleeping with his eyes open.

1/3 of the crane fly. I cropped out miles of leg.

Shot in the dark. Fly on outside of window, 10:00 PM.

Mosquito, with double reflection from glass door.

June bug. He came to help with the watering.

And a cute jumping spider, very small, was running around on my kitchen stove. Luckily for him, I wasn't cooking.

Such nice fuzzy pedipalps!

Eyes in the back of his head. Very useful.

Sitting up to beg like a puppy. Sorry, I had no spider treats for him.

I took him outside; the stove is no place to practice your jumps on.

*See comments. Thanks, Christopher!

Ceiling monitor

I have another visitor. He turned up at the door yesterday, came in (with help), then found himself a comfy spot and settled in.

He's on the ceiling; been there since last night.

Small magpie moth, Anania hortulata.

See those big eyes? Together, they're bigger than the rest of the head. Moths have compound eyes, up to 17,000 individual light receptors, ommatidia, in each large eye. There is no eyelid; these eyes are always open. And because of their relative size, they may, as in this little moth, be looking straight at you, no matter where you are. (Sort of like some spooky paintings.)

It's a weird feeling, having a pair of eyes on the ceiling, always staring down at me.

"I'm watching you, down there!"