There's something a little comforting about finding the same rare wasp species which made you obsessed with wasps, at the same location, on the same boardwalk, at the same time of year, the past 4 years. My favorite Mope, Uropelma formosum. 💙

Sicarius recoated with sand. They have special hairs that trap sand on their bodies to aid in camouflage.

This card needed a makeover….getting real close to finishing this deck!

(Redbubble) (Inprnt)

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タイワンクロボシシジミ

R6.5

Hehehehe

When I find out someone loves animals in the wolves/cats/bears way I’m like oh nice same but when I find out someone loves animals in the orange-footed pimpleback mussel way I’m like holy shit holy shit same let’s stop what we’re doing right now so you can tell me about all the invertebrates you’ve ever loved with that sweet pure heart and curious mind you have

Something else abt cockroaches is that they can also hold ur hand

Wasps so tiny you will question everything.

Imagine being so teeny tiny that you are an endoparasite on *leafhoppers* Leafhoppers are already in the "so small they go unnoticed" category, and you're just a little pest on a minuscule thing.

Of course the group that's most likely to choose this life? The wasps Wasps are some of the smallest insects. There are "fairy flies" that are parasites of the eggs of certain insects.

They are so small that air is "thick" to them and their wings have feathered edges are are oar shaped.

Some fairly flies are so tiny that their neurons are cells without nuclei. They got rid of them to save space. They can still think though... presumably the tiniest little thoughts.

Photo by Alexey Polilov, 2012

They lay their eggs inside of the eggs of 1-2mm long crop pests.

And... read the article to see what the males are like... they are even smaller somehow, but it's ... disturbing.

This is a Metaphycus wasp appreciation post.

I'm not sure if these are all different species, but they all have unique features. Wing stubs, half wings, full wings; white-tipped antennae, black-tipped antennae; chonky, longer; bright red, charred. All tiny, ♀️, ridiculous, and adorable. Enjoy. ❤️

Isopods are settling in well, got sent way more than I bought so hopefully they'll reproduce soon.

[VIDEO TAKEN: SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2023 | Video ID: A video of a black, yellow, white, and red lubber grasshopper on a piece of paper, wriggling its abdomen and opening and closing the dorsal and ventral valves of its ovipositor in a way that makes it look as if the back half of the animal is its own snapping creature /End IDs.]

Encountered this grasshopper and scooped it up with a letter! Which is about when I noticed it exhibiting this fascinating behavior! It's freaky but very interesting!

Okay, I know people as a general rule tend to not care about invertebrates as much as cute, fuzzy mammals, but this is a must-read if you care about animal welfare. The short version is that horseshoe crab blood has been used for decades in medicine as a way to test whether something is truly sterile; the blood clots in the presence of bacteria. Since then millions of horseshoe crabs have been captured and drained of blood, even though a synthetic alternative was developed a few years ago.

They go through a pretty brutal experience in the process. They're caught by fishermen who often throw them by their tails into a pile in the open air, and they're then trucked to a bleeding facility where they're strapped down and their blood is removed with needles jabbed directly into their hearts. Over half their blood may be taken, after which they're supposed to be returned to the ocean. However, it's likely many of them never make it back, instead turned into fish bait and sold by the same fishermen who caught them in the first place.

Apart from the fact that this is a horrific thing to put any animal through, the attrition due to fatalities has put a serious dent in horseshoe crab numbers. This is compounded by massive habitat loss, pollution, and the capture of horseshoe crabs as food, particularly as the females of one species are considered a delicacy. And other animals that rely on horseshoe crabs are suffering, too. The American rufa subspecies of the red knot, a medium-sized shorebird, is critically endangered as the horseshoe crab eggs it must have in order to successfully complete migration have become increasingly scarce, and it is likely the bird will become extinct if trends continue.

While there are guidelines for medical horseshoe crab harvest, they're considered optional. The few laws that exist are poorly enforced. Short of a complete ban on horseshoe crab blood in favor of the synthetic alternative, these animals are in very real danger of going extinct after a history spanning over 400 million years on this planet.

Thankfully, this article is not the first to bring forth the issues surrounding horseshoe crab harvest. Here are a few resources for further information and action (US based, though horseshoe crabs are threatened throughout their entire range):

Horseshoe Crab Conservation Network - https://horseshoecrab.org/conservation/

Wetlands Institute - https://wetlandsinstitute.org/conservation/horseshoe-crab-conservation/

Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition - https://hscrabrecovery.org/

Moth Of The Day #212

Lily Moth / Indian Lily Moth

Polytela gloriosae

From the noctuidae family. They have a wingspan of about 29 mm. They are found in Sri Lanka and possibly Indonesia.

Image sources: [1] [2]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

Ohhhh what's three times the size of an elephant, over 500 years old, and lives under the sea? Big Momma! She is a massive protites coral that's 6.4 m (21 ft) high and 41.8 m (135 ft) around at the base; her age was estimated based on samples of her skeletal core and the fact that porites corals only grow about 1 cm (0.39 in) per year.

(Image: 'Big Momma', a Porites species of coral (left) and a diver (right) by Wendy Cover via NOAA)

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