I am a postgraduate student from Perth, Western Australia with a passion for terrestrial arthropods, especially ants and spiders. This blog is a place for me to share my interest in their photography, ecology and natural history. I can be contacted at myrmician at gmail dot com. Happy adventuring.
New Photos
myrmician 
hey mate, good to see you started up a blog. i think it will be perfect for your needs – quite often you post some interesting pics on flickr that can only be seen attached to another. you’ll also be able to manage and format your content a bit better (your stream is packed with it). how far are you into the PhD degree? i see your honours thesis is avaiable to download, i’ll have to check it out. it must be handy being able to use your pics – good luck with it all anyhow.
Hey, Cain – thanks for the comment! I have wanted to have a blog for a long time, but just never bothered to start one up. I can’t imagine I will be all that regular in my posts, but it is good to have a place to dump any ideas that I can’t really put down on my Flickr.
I have about a year to go, but will most likely take another 6 months on top of that to finish writing up. See you around :]
You have a blog! I haven’t been very active on Flickr of late, so I didn’t see you start this up. I look forward to hearing about your six- and eight-legged adventures!
Hey, Stu! Yeah, just started it – thanks, mate.
Hello myrmician,
I have seen your collection of pictures of Ptilocnemus lemur at the flickr.com. This are very good pictures. I am willing to use a part of it for my homepage https://www.reduviidae.de if it is ok for you?
Very thanks and best regards.
Hi Daniel – that is fine. Just give me credit on the photo and link back to either this blog or my Flickr page if you can.
Hey!
A great blog you got here :)
Neat design and awesome photos :)
PS: I’d recommend you to pay Deviantart a visit ^^
Thanks! Re: Deviantart – What the…
Hi Farhan,
My name is Nikki and I’ve just started studying a Master of Science (Zoology) at Melbourne University, and I will be working on peacock spiders (Maratus). I was looking at photos on Flickr of various species, and noticed you have come across some M.pavonis a couple of times. I was interested in finding out what kinds of habitats you discovered this species in? I am interested in studying this species, but there is little information on where to find them or in which type of habitat, except for general locations. I know they reside in and around Melbourne (as well as W.A), but I was hoping for a little more detail so that my searches will be more efficient. If you remember the type of habitat – type of vegetation, moisture, whether coastal or not etc – it would be fantastic if you could offer me some advice. In addition, if you know whether they prefer to be on the ground or on trees that would also be helpful!
Thank you for your time – It is very much appreciated!
Regards,
Nikki Quittner
Hi Nikki – Congratulations on your candidature! What an awesome project to pick up. I have been finding Maratus pavonis in spring among leaf litter at Herdsman Lake. The area is currently being re-vegetated, but I mostly find them in open areas. The males seem to prefer to try and display from some sort of vantage point and will sometimes clamber onto the trunks of trees or sticks protruding from the ground, but seem to prefer the highest (relative to their micro-habitat) edges of leaves the most. The leaf litter at Herdsman Lake is dominated by dry, yellow-brown leaves of Eucalyptus rudis at that time of year. Closer to the waters edge there are mostly sedges and rushes, along with Melaleuca rhaphiophylla trees, but I have not had much luck finding them there. Herdsman Lake is about 15mins drive from the coast. If you have any further questions, feel free to email me. I would be interested to know what aspects of these spiders’ biology you are working on.
Hi Farhan,
I’m a postdoc studying color polymorphism (in insectivorous snakes, sorry!) at the University of California, Berkeley. Your post about polymorphism in spiders came up in a Google search, and I just wanted to tell you how much I love your photos! Awesome blog, cool info and GREAT visuals! It’s almost enough to make reptiles seem boring :) Best of luck to you!
Cheers,
Alison
Haha, I won’t hold it against you! Thanks for the kind words and best of luck with your studies as well.