Curious about snails? Wish you had a pet octopus? Yeah, me too. So, whynot daydream a little whilst looking over some lovely pics documenting these beautifully complex, sometimes highly intelligent, sometimes really very not smart creatures? I ❤ 'em all!
Cepaea nemoralis
Brown-Lipped Snail
Classic.
Post your exoskeleton'd & many-legged creature-pics! (No gastropods!) Here're a couple cool local spiders I found up-close even:
Phiddipus audax
Bold-Jumper Spider
This is the female (left) of the family here in the midst of clearing a panel-glass door of all other life (that's another spider it's got hold of there), and the male (right) just hanging solo on some otherwise suspiciously lifeless vinyl siding. About the size of a quarter (legs included), these are strong/sturdy little beasts with super-quick reflexes which make for awesomely robotic twitch-movements. (They move backwards a lot.) Chelicerae (mouthparts) are an iridescent green colour for the female (hard to make out in-pic), whereas the male is overall more grey/beige with very detailed symmetrical markings.
Oh and uh, more of a gruesome but strangely beautiful shot of a controlled burn from Tommy Thompson park.