Small Critters I Saw First Time!

I spent one morning last weekend looking for the very small living organisms on leaves and trunks. I am particularly looking for lady beetles. But it turned out that there's a lot of insects and spiders there that have long been hiding from me, so it seems. They are not actually hiding, I just did not particularly spend time watching them. This time I was able to observe the other world these creatures occupy. I have been living in the farm since birth, and yet I only know the obvious. Those smaller than 1.0cm are unknown to me. It was amazing as this world unfolded in my eyes. I ended up following wherever they went, because i need to get their pictures, even if we have not been formally introduced. Therefore, i really don't know yet their names.

 The owner of this house is so shy it suddenly hide into the sanctity of the branches and leaves. It is so high on the tree that i cannot look for him. I don't even know how he looks like. But at least i took the photo of its house, and I really love it twinkling against the morning sky.

 This organism looks bizarre, at least to me. I wonder if the rest of the population in their world thinks like me too. It is hard and stuck itself on a dense lichen patch at the trunk of a citrus tree. I am awed at the openings of that concave structure, whether it is a house or the actual organism. I don't even know if it is abandoned or if it is already dead. Hopefully, i will be able to be informed of my dilemma.

This insect is also at the branch of the citrus, it is a flying insect but mostly stays on the branch. It is about 1cm in length up to the tip of its snout, whatever that thing is! I have been scrutinizing it with the macro lens, but it always go to the other side of the branch away from me. Eventually, it flew away, left me with nothing of particular significance! I guess it is associated with the oozing disease of citrus.

I am very sure this is a spider, LOL, of course it has 4 pairs of legs! Great, it is an arachnid, belonging to the family Arachnidae. Oh I am so knowledgeable about it, can you get my sarcasm? Farther from knowing it is a spider, i don't know anything about it. But it is cute! (Thanks Randy Emmitt for telling us this is a jumping spider)

 This one is a spider too, but this one gave me the longest time to decipher. Its form is a bit unusual for a spider. The head is bent as a flap parallel to its abdomen when resting. It can also glide through a string from its abdomen, where it attaches itself for protection when provoked. I actually provoked it to move so many times, but sometimes it just stopped with that folded body stance, maybe to mimic something for purpose that i will just leave it alone. Those very long legs covered its head, I am really so perplexed. I will still post this to the Arachnophiles forum for possible ID.

 Again, this is another spider, and it has beautiful artistic design. It is also very small in length. The nice thing is it is not attempting to hide from me, he just allowed me to take its photos. I read somewhere, that in other species the colors can be deceiving sometimes. A brightly colored one can be poisonous. But I will not be poisoned by this one, unless it projects some liquid trajectorially to its assumed predator. Lovely eh!

And the highlight of my morning is seeing this insect, maybe wasp, doing its best to kill this cricket that is bigger than him. I wish i had a video equipment to take the struggling predator and prey, it was very interesting! The predator did not leave its hold on the head until the prey is immovable and paralyzed. Then its problem now is to haul it to the safety of its sanctuary. He tried to pull it upside down, then push it on the other side, but still he can't move it. Actually it is heavy for him. So he waited, until maybe the prey is dead and doesn't cling to the leaf surface anymore. Then at that position he was able to move it away. When he reached the leafy portion of the plant he got lost from my sight.