A mahout leads an elephant calf to the river Tunga for bathing at the Sakrebailu Elephant Camp in Sakrebailu in the southern state of Karnataka, India, November 12, 2016. (Photo by Abhishek N. Chinnappa/Reuters)

A bonnet macaque sits on consecrated idols of snakes during the Nag Panchami festival inside a temple on the outskirts of Bengaluru, India, August 19, 2015. (Photo by Abhishek N. Chinnappa/Reuters)

Heavy artillery on parade during a review of the Moscow Garrison troops during the May Day celebrations in Red Square, passing posters of Lenin and Stalin. (Photo by N. Sitnikov/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1st May 1947

Buddhist monks take shelter under a tarpaulin sheet to protect themselves from the rain as they attend the birthday celebrations of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (unseen) at Drepung Loseling Monastery in Mundgod, in the southern state of Karnataka, India, July 6, 2016. (Photo by Abhishek N. Chinnappa/Reuters)

Belgian-Dutch racing driver Maz Verstappen was racing for Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka at Suzuka International Circuit on October 9, 2022 when a spider on the camera lens threatened to get in the way of the action. (Photo by DPPI)

People watch as workers inflate a near-10 metre high giant spider by Singaporean artist Jackson Tan in Singapore's Marina Bay financial district on February 6, 2017. The spider is one of several inflatable creatures that will form the Art-Zoo, a section created by Singaporean artist Jackson Tan for the iLight Marina Bay annual light-art festival in the city-state. (Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP Photo)

“Hey! I'm Thomas Shahan, an artist and macrophotographer from Oklahoma. In my spare time over the past few years, I've been shooting portraiture of local arthropods. Why would I devote countless hours to tramping through forests, fields and the like searching for insects and spiders? Well, despite some common beliefs, arthropods (members of the phylum Arthropoda – insects, spiders, crustaceans...) represent an endlessly varied, wildly beautiful and fascinating bunch of animals with surprisingly personable faces and behavior. Often, all it takes is simply inspecting their lives on a closer level to turn repulsion to reverence”. – Thomas Shahan

Photo: Adult Male Jumping Spider at Sunset – Phidippus mystaceus. (Photo by Thomas Shahan; Source: Flickr)

A juvenile specimen of the recently-discovered Australian Peacock spider, Maratus Albus, sits on the nib of a pencil in this undated picture taken in Western Australia's Nuytsland Nature Reserve. (Photo by Jurgen Otto/Reuters)