What insect was this?

[Pekkerhead]

you freaked me out a bit, so I did a google search and found out that you get rather large banana spiders here (can span over 10 inches).

wish I had never asked now, I will be having creepy crawly nightmares now

[eirrab]

The big snails are Giant African Snails. Considered a real pest now, they were introduced in WWII by the Japanese as food for their soldiers as the supply lines were attacked all the time. Becareful not to take the empty shells to other countries as they freak out in customs and quarantine in case they still have 'eggs'. I've seen them over 8 inches long in Papua New Guinea.

[hello_there]

The big snails are Giant African Snails. Considered a real pest now, they were introduced in WWII by the Japanese as food for their soldiers as the supply lines were attacked all the time. Becareful not to take the empty shells to other countries as they freak out in customs and quarantine in case they still have 'eggs'. I've seen them over 8 inches long in Papua New Guinea.

I'm pretty sure I won't be touching them or taking them anywhere. I just wish I had never seen it. I can't imagine having to eat that thing.

[Mr.Bing]

One of these?

this is a cicada. they are quite common in these parts.
and in chicago this is the year they end their 17 year hibernation and come out from underground to mate.

[JohanSWE]

Regarding spiders, Me, my wife and some friends went to Cheng chau today for some photo shooting and hiking.
And i can say that there are a lot! of BIG spiders there.
Not exaggerating i saw a good 30+ nets huge nets with spiders in various sizes from 1cm to about 12cm.
Got a few really good snaps with the macro that i will upload if anyone wanna see these monstrous beasts.

[Pekkerhead]

definitely upload them, let's have a peek.

Regarding the cicadas, I have seen afew of these suckers lying around on the road (usually after some heavy rain) and the cicadas are definitely BIGGER than the thing I saw. The cicadas I have been seeing are around 2 to 3 inches in length and have a fairly big girth. Guess I shall never know unless I splat one and take a photo :-)

[JohanSWE]

well it turns out those spiders I saw are the so called "banana spiders" we don't have them back home so didn't know what they looked like until i googled it.
But I will upload them tmr.

On a side note, this is a different kind of spider not similar to the two I mentioned before.

[m_ichelle12]

regarding about spider, this is the biggest one I encounter in nature Oh and a milipede....