# Corfu 2009



## Deroplatys

About time i posted all of the 204 pics 
It was an amazing holiday, i hate air travel and think im going to die on the spot every time but i loved every minute of being in an exotic country, just bug hunting 24/7, its amazing when every single species is new to you 
Anyway to start it off, here's my luggage being packed before leaving home 
You can see what it all is in the link below.






http://www.flickr.com/photos/invertsfromhell/3824327602/in/set-72157616619927337/

No photo's of getting their but this was my first find of interested 
An unusual looking small Salticid.













These treehopper's were everywhere.







I recognised this spider, its an Icius sp., i found an accidentally imported one in a garden centre once although that one wasnt being dismantled by ants 







Was a big robber fly on the same wall.







Another tree hopper.







View from the hotel.







Near reception this tree was loaded with these interesting shield bugs.



















Very nice crab spider, wish i could of brought some back 







This was my 2nd time in Corfu, 1st time i wasnt taking many photo's but i soon found these massive crickets i remember from last time, would make an interesting species in culture 













Treehopper with a big head.







Was also tempted to bring some of these interesting snails back.







Saw these stunning shield bugs in Alicante too.













This was a fairly wide plant hopper.







Massive spider nest with sack hatching, the spider was like an orb weaver looking thing with massive spines on the abdomen, the web was like a huge cobweb with a crosshatch pattern on what was like a floor of web under it.







Interesting looking crickets which always were found hiding leaf buds.







Very nice grass hopper, the wings were a pastel blue colour 







Another jumping spider, i think all the Icius sp. i saw were I.hamatus, this ones a male eating a treehopper.













Nice looking long horned bush cricket or katydid.

























Believe it not we actually have these shield bugs introduced here in parts, the nymphs are stunning, the adults look like normal green shields but with a bit of white on them, think they come from africa so their probably not native to Corfu either.



















Another shield bug, this one was massive, about the size of a £2 coin, forgot to photograph the adults >_<







Think this was my first crab of the holiday.







Found this stunning near white Uroborid spider along a beach.

























This small butterfly landed right next to me whilst taking photo's of the spider, think it was laying eggs, let me get close to it though 







Another of the interesting grasshoppers.







Shame i couldnt get closer to this dragon fly.







Saw a couple of these nice beetles about, this one was found on the same beach as the dragon fly and spider.







On the way back i found this large Egyptian locust i think they are, there was an article on keeping these in PRK i think. One point it had a test nibble on my finger ^_^

























Back up the pathway leading to the hotel i found a juvenile Icius female with some big prey 













One of my favourite finds, my first every wild stick insect! A first instar hatchling no less :mrgreen:







Bit of an ugly looking crab spider, apparantly you can get nice black and red or yellow morphs but i only found these drab ones.







Baby scorplings, they were tiny 
Would of loved to brought some back, but this species is already in culture i think. I found tonnes of them, adults and all.







Older one







Here's an adult of those colourful shield bugs.







Here's a very cool find, a thread legged bug 







Wasp nest, pretty sure thats mantis ooths next to it.













Here's another very good find 







Whilst waiting at a bus stop ready to take us to the main city i think there was an interesting area behind it, managed to find this amazingly colourful wasp, the thorax was much more metalic green in real life.







Lace wing eggs i think.







Yellow morph of those spiny crab spiders.







Stunning plant hopper.







Massive male orb weaver, female must be huge :O







When we got to the town, with some random woman in the corner lol, it was packed.







Past the fence there was an amzing little woodland type place next to the hotel, there was some of my best finds round there, its where i found most of the scorps too, here's an interesting millipede i found.







Maybe the highlight of the holiday was a boat trip to this remote spot on the island, it was simply amazing, i found my best every finds up there, it really was incredible, it was just like being dumped in the middle of the best bug hunting location :mrgreen: 
Here's the scenery leading up to it.



















Wierd rock formation next to this house.







James Bond scene right? never got round to watching a single one Bond film :? 







And the location, behind that vibrant bush was a massive lake with a forest next to it if i remember and lots of bushy scrub land, perfect mantis habitat. Overly bright sun was in my eyes 







Firstly i icaught this chubby biggish grasshopper.



















Nicely coloured shieldbug, there was several in the same bush if i remember.







Large chubby jumping spider in the same bush, shame i couldnt catch it and get better photo's.







There were several of these scenes in that bush, probably the young of those shieldbugs.







Now this is my favourite mantis species i caught to date, wasnt expecting these at all, had no diea they were there lol. There was loads running around the pebbles along the scrubland  
Wish i had them now 































This photo i had to do something i hate with, i had to edit it >_<
Annoyingly i just turned the brightness up so its more true to life, for some reason this particular photo, the best one of these mantids came out very dark :? 







Saw a couple of these large lanky mites under stones.







Another one of those mantids, darker morph. I reckon they were all adult females i found, didnt see any males but these have tiny vistigial wings is it called?
Their not nymph wing buds their just tiny reseeding wings i think.







Had to have a break to eat and all <_<
It was very nice though, the meat on the kebab tasted real good, slovaki chicken i think its called, was a year ago so i probably cant remember.







2 for 1 photo lol







Here's a nice coloured morph of Iris oratoria, my dad spotted this one, its left raptorial arm was a regrown one.







And here after finishing my dinner i caught my biggest ever wild insect 
Spotted the huge monster on some bin bags chucked in a hedge, looked like a toy from a distance. They have a very nasty powerful bite and are voracious predators, still handled it though 
There's a very similar species on ebay at the minute, i was pretty shocked, im sure their meant to be very rare and protected.































We had another stop at a beach further down, some interesting finds but the previous one was the best 

Interestingly coloured silverfish.













Cicada eggs.







Nice largish salticid.







View on the way back.







Later after we were back hotel i found one of those crab spiders eating a bee lol, also found several swallowtail catepillars, cant remeber if these photo's were taken before i after the trip.













Cant remeber when i found this one, might of been my first mantis of the holiday, another Iris oratoria, very nice mantids 

























Small young grasshopper







Snakefly larvae







Scolependra sp. found down a path by the pool, going to attempt and catch one next time, wait for the hospital report 







Very funny looking wasp found around the pool, let me get pretty close to it, nice looking little thing.







Another swallowtail catepillar.







Another different Katydid.







Colourful juvenile Icius sp.







More Euscorpius flavicaudis, including my best scorpion photo's 

























Colourful true bug







PSP time 







Now for a spot of bug hunting at night which i did a lot of, found a spider, centipede and moth 

Small orb weaver.


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## Deroplatys

House centipede, hard to fine one that keeps still.







Moth, reminds me of an Ermine moth we have here.







Another day, 3sum :yikes: 







Big female Icius found on a tree which was another good hot spot.







Another katydid.







Every time we went to the beach apart from once after a storm brought all sorts of crap up, we were snorkling all the time, their was some stunning stuff down there, colourful exotic looking sea slugs, all kinda of fish and crustaceans, and my favorite, cuttlefish 
Managed to catch some crabs and even a snapping shrimp which was a first, their the ones that one claw is basically formed into a hotter than the sun cannon lol.

Interesting fuzzy crab with a big claw.







Look at that water in the background  







These crabs where a lot more common.



















Bright red strawberry shrimp i nearly forgot  







Snapping shrimp



















Nice little ground hopper.







Hatching Uroborid sack.







Another katydid.













Bit of a drab moth.







Very interesting beetle mimic, a cricket 







Natures little prick <_<







One of those snails roaming at night.







Assasin bug nymph i think.







Small lizard found near a great beach 







Another crab spider.







Wierd ass scale bug type thing.







Views from the road.













Funny standing moth.













Another stubby grasshopper.







Nice looking shield bug nymph.







Another ground hopper from above.







Another millipede.







A different thread legged bug, either another species or maybe only one sex has wings like the previous one.







Wingless brown katydid, thinks its wingless anyway, unless its not adult yet and gets huge 



















Another trip out now, saw this wierd church and got some artsy fartsy photo's. 







Black and white version.







Some proffesional photograph would take this shot and link it to some hidden touchy feely crap about how it shows something about something and get loads of comments, views and recognition, i just took it cause i was in corfu and there wasnt any bugs to see yet 







Different view of the tower.







This was whilst up a town, still puzzles me to this day, i found this tiny leaf hopper dead on the on the end of a leaf with its wings spread out, looked alive and if it was about to take off, the colours are amazing :O







Giant stick insect egg?!?!?







Lol its a seedy thing from a tree 
Not sure where all these photo's fit in the timeline, didnt upload them in order 
Here's some photo's from back near the hotel.

Very interesting wasp, _Gasteruption sp._







The flower was swarming with tonnes of different bugs, here's a different kind of wasp, or maybe sawfly.







Small butterfly.







Dysdera sp.?







Another bug locust/grasshopper, would love to tell the difference :/







This was out the front of our door, a tiny spider with a great web design and camo 







Millipede.







Giant spider nest again.







Towards the bottom of that prickly pear i think its called were several of these daddy long legs, look way better than our crappy ones 







This was the start of the best storm i have ever seen in my life, there was more thunder and lightening then that i've ever seen at all in the UK, even this amazing type of reddish lightening that sort of spread over the clouds real quick. The bog standard lightening was awesome too, was cool to see it strike near a house on the mountain then all the lights go straight out, bet they were crapping them selves lol.







Different day we went to another stretch of beach, at the end was this interesting completely abandoned massive hotel thing, didnt go in but went on the roof and stuff, was pretty cool 

End of the beach







Inside the shed.







Overgrown front.







Hopper nymph, green morph.







Ivy was everywhere.







View from the outside bar.







View through a block of concrete, either the concrete was on a slope or the sea was 







Towards the end of the beach near the rocks i found this biggish jumping spider.







Back at the hotel i found this large ground beetle.



















More ants working on some twigs.







Furry snail? never seen a snail with hairs :/







Another photo i've wondered about, i think they are some eggs from some kind of true bug, they looked like drops of gold.







Another stick insect nymph, my 2nd 













I recognised what this was instantly, which is pretty good considering what it is, an ant mimicking jumping spider :mrgreen:
I honestly never expected one of these in Corfu, one of my favorite finds 













Here's a chunky twig mimicking catepillar.







Here's another massive Egyption locust, _Anacridium aegyptium_, i found outside the doctors, yes the doctors. I had swimmers ear or something like that i think they said, i was snorkeling whenever i had the chance  































This was the last day now, went on one final bug hunt beyond the hotel, didnt find much but i found everything i wanted to and more before 

Only found a buttefly and this shield bug of interest, i also spotted a male webspinner but the wind blew it away before i had the chance 













The view behind the hotel, all you could see was this for miles, no one else was there just me and my dad.



















And finally the view from the plane window on the way back, still despise flying


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## Tarantula_Hawk

Wow those are a lot of nice pictures. Glad you had a nice time. The Mediterranean basin has awesome invertebrate fauna. 
I'll help you with some spider ID's:
- Your first Salticidae is a male _Marpissa nivoyi_ (which you also have in the UK).
- I remember your _Icius_ finding in the Uk. As you can see they are very abundant in the Mediterranean. I see you found lots of them, most probably _I. hamatus_.
- Your first Thomisidae is _Thomisus onustus_.
- The massive spider nest is built by _Cyrtophora citricola_, commonly called tent web spider, originally an old world species. Your picture also shows the typical eggsacs. Its considered subsocial and can form large colonies (and very large web aggregations).
- The Uloboridae you found is _Uloborus walckenaerius_.
- The ugly Thomisidae is _Synema globosum_, which as you said, is very variable in color and can be very nice (the males are black). Commonly called Napoleon spider since the mark on the abdomen apperently resembles his hat. 
- Another _Thomisus onustus_, this time yellow morph (they can gradually change colors depending on the flower they stay on).
- The large male Araneidae is _Neoscona byzanthina_ (nice find).
- The chubby Salticidae should be a light _Carrhotus xanthogramma_, too bad it quickly ran away.
- the "largish salticid" is a male _Evarcha jucunda_.
- Another _Thomisus onustus_
- The spider you found at night is an Araneidae, _Neoscona subfusca_. 
- Another Thomisidae, this time _Runcinia grammica_.
- Dysderidae and i'd leave it to family level. Its an incredibly diverse and complicated family in the Mediterranean basin.
- The tiny spider in the orbweb looks like _Zilla diodia_, but im not sure since its too far/small.
- Another _Cyrtophora citricola_.
- The Pholcidae is _Holocnemus pluchei _, a typically light loving daddy long leg (as opposed to most others, less colored ones which prefer dark corners). It's an interesting spider, found in open habitat and often associated with _Cyrtophora citricola_ on which it is known to occasionally feed on by invading their webs, using aggressive mimecry.
- The Salticidae from the beach is a male _Menemerus semilimbatus_.
- Finally the ant mimic, which is a _Leptorchestes_ sp. 

A big congrats to the lucky finding of the giant predatory cricket (_Saga_ sp.) which, as far as i know, is very rare and protected. Very nice and very bitey too. 
The things next to the paper wasp nest you think are ooths are actually nests of solitary potter wasps (Vespidae;Eumeninae).
As for the ground dwelling mantis you found, its _Geomantis larvoides_.

Ok ok, i'll stop, i'm not even sure if you needed all this info.


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## Deroplatys

Tarantula_Hawk said:


> - Your first Salticidae is a male _Marpissa nivoyi_ (which you also have in the UK).
> - The large male Araneidae is _Neoscona byzanthina_ (nice find).
> - The chubby Salticidae should be a light _Carrhotus xanthogramma_, too bad it quickly ran away.
> - the "largish salticid" is a male _Evarcha jucunda_.
> - The spider you found at night is an Araneidae, _Neoscona subfusca_.
> - The Pholcidae is _Holocnemus pluchei _, a typically light loving daddy long leg (as opposed to most others, less colored ones which prefer dark corners). It's an interesting spider, found in open habitat and often associated with _Cyrtophora citricola_ on which it is known to occasionally feed on by invading their webs, using aggressive mimecry.
> - The Salticidae from the beach is a male _Menemerus semilimbatus_.
> - Finally the ant mimic, which is a _Leptorchestes_ sp.


Many thanks Tarantula Hawk, i had many of the others already previously ID'd but not the above, much appreciated 
And i was not expecting to find the Saga either 
Went on a boat trip and it was just sitting on some trash, it was so big it looked like a toy, it was very nice and docile though, must of just liked me


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## yakman

That's a great report, you really found a lot of insects - congratulations.

The photos were first class too. Thanks for taking the time to post it here.


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## RyTheTGuy

These are some awesome pictures!


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