There is a place in the middle of Istra peninsula, in Croatia, where I live, made of many hills and deep narrow valleys between them, covered with dense forest, where even in this very sunny time of the year, in the middle of the bright day, you can be in deep shade, and not able to do a decent photograph without a good flash.
It's a rich habitat, with many wonderful surprises, but difficult to explore photographically.
I made these pictures about ten years ago when I had enough patience and equipment, during the July and August, using some external flashes ... and a lot of free time.
So, let's go into the forest, to see the wonders ...
... hidden deep beneath the dense foliage. This young cricket has just come out of its old skin...
... and now is resting, very vulnerable, partially translucent and soft, on a thorny branch.
Not far from there, a bigger young cricket of the same species is feeding on a larger leaf.
A large butterfly with a great camouflage is consuming the sap of the tree.
This small moth is walking through a field of lichens on the branch of the same tree.
This colorful bug is resting on the long narrow leaf of one of the plants that are growing under the trees.
Some of these plants have pretty strange and interesting flowers.
There are many interesting surprises to be found here on the ground ... like this colorful little fungi ...
... or this, very delicate and elegant one, that quickly grows ... and even more quickly dissolves in some sort of black goo ...... or these incredible little shells ...
... covered with hair.
I never saw these pretty peculiar harry snails before...
... and I never saw them anywhere outside these woods.
They are living under the bark and inside the rotten wood. Is difficult to observe them there, so I put one on the piece of white paper that I carried with me, to take a better look and some different shots.
And here is a little GIF. :D So you can see some movement in this post.
This little scorpion ...
... is another well-hidden '' under the bark'' creature that I photographed that way, on the white paper.
Up, on the lower, hanging branches of some trees ...
... I found these caterpillars ...
... and a hairy spider with his pray ...
... a bumblebee.
Somewhere near ... in the web of the same species ...
... a different catch - the wasp.
This black beetle is crawling on the forest floor.
And this similar-looking one, but of another species, is just lying on a stone ...very compact ...
... looking like some strange steampunk battle machine.
Some shiny little Coleoptera on the leaves of the small plants ...
... and some of them are mating.
Another large species of butterfly that is feeding mostly on the sap from the trees, very typical for this forest.
There are some little streams running through these valleys ... and there you can find many of these very common frogs.
And sometimes, upon the branches or down in the fallen foliage, you can find this other species ...
... a bit smaller and more elegant brown forest frog, a great jumper. Is pretty rare here in the peninsula, I saw her only a few times in my life, mostly long ago when I was a kid.
An interesting bud on a thorny branch.
It's a spider.
A very interestingly shaped little species with cool bud mimicry.
On another, thicker branch ... another butterfly.
A colorful one, this time.
Down on the ground ...
... in the hole on the rotting stump ... a spider ... with the cocoon nest ...
... and on the same piece of wood ... a roly-poly and her "ghost shell"
The rotting wood is lying everywhere on the forest floor ... and is filled with a moltitude of these big fat beetle larvae.
I don't know the exact species, but I'm pretty sure that is a big Coleoptera.
A snake ...
... exploring the forest floor.
A crane fly ...
... and upstairs on the branches ... this elegant, long-legged spider ...
... has caught one.
A colorful roly-poly down on the ground.
Here on the forest floor, I found another amazing little thing...
... mimicking the many small roots and branches covering the soil ... this one related to scorpions and daddy longlegs.
Here you can see its peculiar movements.
A pale young sprout of a plant in the deep shade.
An elegant small mushroom rising from the rotting wood.
A slug on the vegetation by the narrow stream.
Interesting translucent larvae ...
... in its slimy shelter.
Another sheltered larva.
Another spider ...
... on a large leaf.
Phallic little fungi ...
... and a lovely little umbrella.
There are many small snails ...
... of various species ...
... hiding or crawling ...
... all around the place.
This one is sticking to an empty shell of another similar species, I don't know the background of this behavior and situation ... but is a cool scene ... so I photographed it :D
I found these big ...
... and quite beautiful ...
... yellow snails ...
... only in one of these green little valleys.
They were climbing the trees and old stumps near a larger stream.
I never saw them before ... or since ... or anywhere else ...
And that's it. This shady little forest exploration is over.
THE END
( As always in these posts on Steemit, the GIFs and the photographs, are my work )
Oh :) I almost forgot, most of the pictures are enlargeable for a better view of the details.