| Madagascar Afremail Part 4 | |
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Of all the countries in Africa I have visited, Madagascar takes the cake on having the biggest, the hairiest, most numerous, ubiquitous, most beautiful and scariest creepy crawlies I have ever seen. Take a look!
1. There was often something interesting to greet us at our more rustic accommodations.
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4. Sometimes, they were a little creepy.
5. Sometimes they were more than a little creepy.
6. Some just plain made your skin crawl. These bats were big, about a foot (25 cm) from head to toe and were really loud.
7. This wasn't a Motel 6, but this guy told me he would keep the light on for me.
8. Chameleons were just plain cool dudes!
(Rob's Photo)
9. Although, I don't think this lady appreciated being woken up by my flashlight and then blinded by my camera flash.
10. These crawlies were really small, the second smallest chameleon species on earth.
11. This guy was not too thrilled though.
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14. The frogs were fun. Did you know there are no amphibians other than frogs on Madagascar, including no toads?
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(Rob's Photo)
17. The snakes were always laid back.
18. Really, Rob looks like a professional snake handler in this one, but really he was scared s-less. The snake was sound as a pound.
19. This guy was about 7 inches long, including antennae.
20. There were lots of randomly odd insects here and there in the forests.
21. This is a very interesting beetle. His "neck" is actually his abdomen (length of blue line), while his head is very small, just at the tip (red circle). Click here for a magnified shot. And, it is a he, as the females do not have the elongated abdomen (Trachelophorus giraffa).
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23. A big green weevil.
24. Camouflaged cicada.
25. This guy was awesome!
26. I found him in the s-ter one night.
27. There were even ornery beetles. I was playing tug of war with my soup spoon with this guy, but I started it I guess.
28. The same ornery beetle..
29. Some creepy crawlies even made it to the dinner plate in Madagascar, including bats, spiders, freshwater crabs, crayfish, snails, turtles, frogs, snakes, etc. Of this list, Rob and I tried only bat, which was pretty good actually.
30. There was even parasitic flies (Hippoboscidae - common name louse flies), instead of the typical annoying flies that you normally find everywhere.
31.The arrow is pointing to the only typical annoying fly in the photo.
32. The creepy crawlies that really took the grand prize in Madagascar were the spiders. I mean these guy were nasty. We didn't even get photos of the big ones or the hairy ones. And they were everywhere (just kidding future clients).
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34. These guys tended to make their webs on the sides of lean-tos, sheds, under balconies and darker eves. To get an idea of his size, scroll down to the last photo.
35. These guys tended to make their webs in open fly-ways in the forests, like above a trail, over a creek or near waterfalls. This one is about the size of golf ball, only a little bit less round.
36. In this photo, you can see the spider on the left, waiting, and the food (two day geckos) on the right, possibly unaware of their close proximity to danger.
37. I could only put my hand so close!
(Rob's Photo)
38. The female is the large one, and the smaller ones are courting males hoping that they won't end up as dinner. The female was probably about 4 inches long, excluding the legs.
(Rob's Photo)
39. I believe, although we never actually saw it, that this is the species that is commonly eaten on the island, especially in areas near the rainforests, although these spiders are common everywhere.
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41. I am more worried about all those spider webs on the cactus than I am about the beware of dog sign. I took this photo along side the street in a small town we stopped at to change buses (Ihosy).
42./141
(Rob's Photo)