Nicky Bay
@nickybay.bsky.social
Macro photographer, cat slave, dedicated to flood your feed with cool spiders, insects, snakes, or anything small that moves.
Please take some time to look through some of the discoveries photographed in 2025. It should interest some invertebrate enthusiasts. yes? yes? bit.ly/nickybay2025
Macro Highlights – The Best of 2025 - Macro Photography by Nicky Bay
After years of trudging through forests and peering into the hidden lives of tiny creatures, the number of lifers I get should rightfully decline but 2025 proved to be remarkably defiant. This year de...
bit.ly
Oh, you're tired after taking care of your one kid for the entire day?
I finally got to observe these tiny theridiosomatids that live at the edge of streams, thanks to Yuya Suzuki. Then my 9-year-old showed me her comic book detailing Wendilgarda's hunting strategies to tell me what a noob I am. 😱😱😱
This is the Sunburst Candy Spider from Thailand. Not AI (sucks to have to declare this). Very real and had been on my wish list for a long time. The taxonomic placement is unclear, so we are leaving it at Cyrtarachninae.
Blind cave spiders~ This occurs due to the process of regressive evolution. In an environment without light, vision provides no advantage in finding prey or avoiding predators. The loss of their eyes means that energy and resources once used for eyes are instead allocated to other traits.
Been looking for a fresh specimen of Leucauge sarawakensis for a long time! Each time we found one, someone walked into its web. Hence, the ex situ shots.
A collection of pretty stag beetles that fight with their mandibles. I had one grasping my lens before. They are ridiculously strong! bit.ly/lucanidae
Lucanidae Checklist: Stag Beetles - Macro Photography by Nicky Bay
Stag Beetles from the family Lucanidae are strikingly charismatic beetles, easily recognised by the males' oversized, antler-like jaws that resemble a stag's horns. These impressive mandibles are used...
bit.ly
Here are 3 incredibly beautiful mantids that I saw last month. Toxodera fimbriata Paratoxodera meggitti Hymenopus coronatus
Here are 3 beautiful mantidflies that I saw last month! They are neither mantises nor flies; their larvae are parasitoids of spider eggs, and these adults appear to mimic wasps. Euclimacia rufocincta Tuberonotha sp. Euclimacia sp.
A pair of treehoppers tending to their eggs. The dorsal fin seems to be variable, as we've seen individuals nearby without any dorsal fin at all. Some also have a red longitudinal stripe on their wings. Pyrgauchenia sp. Gunung Trusmadi, Sabah, Malaysia
Black-femur Selenocosmia, a mini gorilla. EM10m4, Laowa 50mm 2:1, dual Raynox, 2.1mm cctv fisheye, lighted with Godox V350 diffused, handheld without looking through the viewfinder nor LCD screen. Working distance about 1cm to its face.
The primary eyes of spiders are known to exhibit a pigment ring shortly after ecdysis (moulting). During this phase, the lens grows until the pigment ring is no longer visible. The pigment rings are typically more visible in salticids and deinopids.
This is the mystery spider egg sac covered with a veil of pink silk that was determined to be woven by a Poltys based on several rounds of discussion on iNaturalist and Twitter. Thanks to @arachnonaut.bsky.social for the lead!
The biology of scale insects is a mystery to me. What's their life cycle like? How do they eat? How do they mate? How do they lay eggs? What do their larvae look like? How do they even move?
Has anyone seen and identified these large (~10mm) male araneids before? Longitudinal fovea, shoulder horns and stout tibia II with a distal pair of spines. Not many araneids have large males so that narrows down quite a bit. Specimens found in Singapore.
Taking a pause on lantern bugs. Not sure what's next so here's a pleasing fungus beetle (why pleasing?) from the Peruvian Amazon. It's blue, so enjoy it! Probably Cypherotylus debauvei, previously under the genus Gibbifer.
I happen to photograph stuff other than lantern bugs. Which is your favourite? www.nickybay.com/macro-highli...
Macro Highlights – The Best of 2024 - Macro Photography by Nicky Bay
2024 has been a very special year. For many of us, going to another country for macro photography is a huge endeavor which involves a myriad of work and family logistics planning while we are away. Mo...
nickybay.com
Not a parent caring for its young, but 2 species of lantern bugs from Ecuador. The smaller Scaralis cf. nigronotata had scampered under Scaralis cf. picta for shelter. Some trees attract more lantern bugs. We found at least 4 species on this tree alone. Yummy sap?
Pyrops clavatus is typically covered with a white waxy layer, but has one of the largest bulbous tips at the end of its "snout". Are you all sick of my lantern bug posts yet? What should I focus on next? 😅
I found this beautiful pair of Pyrops intricatus on this tree and waited for several hours in hope that they would... you know you know. But it didn't happen.
Zanna nobilis is a unique saw-toothed lantern bug with multiple tubercles lining its "snout". If you look up close, you would see patterns like those found on a blue-ringed octopus.
Pyrops whiteheadi is endemic to Borneo and pretty common in Sabah. It sports a shorter and crooked looking blue "snout" with pretty yellow galaxy-spots adoring its green-veined wings.
Lantern bugs usually exhibit bright and beautiful colours while in flight. That's when their hind wings are exposed. Sometimes they may open their wings for a split second, especially when wet. Here's Pyrops spinolae photographed in the rain. This particular morph exists only in Northern Thailand.
It is the month of Christmas and I'm spamming lantern bug photos so....
Many species of lantern bugs tend to roost on the same host tree. On this particular tree in the Ecuadorian Amazon, we saw at least 4 species of lantern bugs in the day and another few others at night. Here's a rockband of Scaralis cf. picta.
