@fishermod submitted: A few bugs I encountered while in Taiwan, specifically during a rainy day at Elephant Mountain in Taipei. Identification would be appreciated.
First (the main photo since Tumblr won't let me submit without one but will only let me put one there), a wasp(?) that landed on my umbrella and sat around for a while. It seemed perfectly fine with me taking photos of it, chilling there and fanning its wings. Maybe it was trying to dry them off?
On to the butterflies! Whatever this plant is, the local butterflies sure seemed to like it.
(division marker between the two kinds of butterflies I saw there
One last bonus picture: I was hiking in nearby Maokong when I walked face-first into a giant spiderweb. I took a photo of the web, but either the spider is too well-camouflaged or (more likely) fled when I bumped into it. Any idea what could've made a web this big?
The first fellow is a hover fly! They're meant to mimic wasps so I guess it was successful. The first butterfly is one of the swallowtails in Papilio but I'd need more photos to tell which species. The second one is in the genus Euploea, possibly a blue-banded king crow. I'm afraid I couldn't say which type of spider made the web without being able to see more of the pattern detail! The first two that come to mind though would be the giant golden orbweaver or the Joro spider. If the silk was yellow rather than white, it would be the former. Both are large spiders that make large webs and they're common in Taiwan, though :)
