Hello there!
Welcome to the thread for everything that creeps, crawls, or slithers!
It's certainly the season for insects, spiders and snakes, but we can appreciate them year round too!
Even though they might be frightening to some, creatures like these can be stunningly beautiful, and really quite fascinating.
Let's take a look at some creepy-crawlies that might just change someone's mind on whether they're creepy after all!
That little fellow up there is a
Bold Jumper, a beautiful little fellow with metallic blue mouthparts. Don't be afraid of him, because he isn't afraid of you! The bold jumper is an inquisitive little spider, and will happily jump up to a waiting hand to see what's going on. Like the vast majority of spiders, they're completely harmless and very charming! The Bold Jumper is a common species, so try taking a look for one sometime! You'll be glad you did.
This is a personal favorite of mine:the
Labyrinth Orbweaver
The Labyrinth Orbweaver gets its name from the unique web it builds. Like a tiny camper in the woods, this forest dwelling species builds itself a little tent out of a leaf, which it integrates into a tangled web, hence the labyrinth name. They hide inside the tent as they wait for prey to come flying by, emerging to drag captured bugs back or to make additions to the web. I've been lucky enough to find one of these lovely spiders nearby, and I've been visiting her often. She laid eggs recently, and although this unfortunately means she doesn't have long left to live, I'm excited to see her offspring hatch and balloon away on little silk strands to find their own spot for a web.
Spiders are pretty cool, no?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgAbyYDFeg
As resident bugboy, I'd be remiss not to include some six-legged friends too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5l6pXSTMzQ
the fine specimen seen in this video is a
dobsonfly, a nocturnal insect attracted to bright lights as so many bugs are. He's brandishing some incredible mouthparts, which look quite dangerous. However, you have nothing to fear from him-they're far too unwieldy to bite down on human skin! Instead, he uses them to grasp a female during mating. Speaking of females-they
can bite with their smaller mouthparts, so don't bother them too much! (It's almost a universal rule of the invertebrates that the female is bigger and more dangerous, so do as the males bugs do and appease them with little gifts of food. You might avoid having your head bitten off post coitus!)
It's a personal life goal of mine to encounter one of these, but I haven't managed it just yet. My closest encounter was with a
fishfly, a close relative. If you live near water, keep an eye out for me! The larvae are aquatic and the adults don't stray far from a lake or pond. You might also find them if you like fishing, as the larvae, called hellgrammites, are often sold as bait!
Speaking of bugs with impressive appendages, check this guy out!
This one, again a male, is a scorpionfly! You can see why he has that name, with that impressive stinger and all. But trust me, he's harmless and definitely not interested in stinging you. He can't-even though it happens to resemble a scorpion's tail, it's actually his genitals! That's right, scorpionflies let it hang out and they don't even care. The lady scorpionflies are presumably very impressed. What's really cool-and I didn't even know this until I started putting this OP together-is that the scorpionflies are closely related to fleas! Talk about diversity of form!
there's so much to talk about when it comes to invertebrates! After all, they outnumber us mammals far both in number of species and biomass! We could probably fill a thread just talking about beetles, if we wanted to. There are a
lot of beetles.
I'll finish up by linking to some cool things, in case you've been inspired to learn more!
If you're interested in identifying a bug, or just looking at some great pictures, my favorite resources are
whatsthatbug.com/ and
bugguide.net. They're both great ways to figure out what species you've just seen in your yard. And then, if you're like me, it's also a good way to get consumed entirely for an afternoon.
Everyone loves cordyceps, the fungus that literally turns ants and other insects into brainwashed zombies. This video gets linked a lot, but I'd figured I'd put it in anyway in case you haven't seen it yet. Insect parasites are really fascinating-crickets in particular are hosts to another mind-controlling parasite that forces them to commit suicide by jumping into water, at which point the parasite emerges as a very, very long worm and reproduces. I'll spare you videos of that, but they're all over youtube, if you're interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8
Finally, everyone should read
this. It's a thrilling tale involving a species of giant stick insects that once were thought to be extinct, but had one remaining tiny population on what once was a volcano in the middle of the ocean. Surrounded by sharks. I'm not making this up.
So come into the parlor, as the spider said to the fly, pull up a seat, and talk about your favorite creepy-crawlies, whether they be spider, insect, snake, or something else entirely!
Posts
now we can all share in the joy of many/no legged creatures
here is a carpet python i found on my back verandah last year
we used to see these around a fair bit when i lived in the suburbs. this one i think came up to live on our roof for a while after the floods
right?
but someone will inevitably post a cockroach picture
can't fucking stand roaches. closest thing I have to legitimate phobia
That aside, spiders and beetles and most non-roach insects are awesome
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/10/08/brainless-creature-solves-problems-with-memories-of-slime/
My name is Mervin and I am a fungus.
Hello.
It says something about how terrified they were when even Vikings were telling each other stories about these creatures, and that's the same culture who turned going naked and biting your shield into a means of fighting.
So to begin with, snails, slugs, clams and a whole bunch of other creatures not normally thought of as intelligent are related to cephalopods, much like the common Juggalo is related to everyone else. Unlike their relatives, however, cephalopods are quite intelligent and can communicate with each other, solve complex problems and are even thought to be capable of tool use (though the extent is debated).
Early forms were much like these Nautiloids. In fact, the ones left are known as living fossils. Odds are they'll all be dead in a hundred years or less due to ocean acidity, overfishing and global temperature changes, but they had a pretty good run.
Among modern cephalopods, one of the most well known is the Giant Squid, probably because it resembles those old tales of the Kraken and some people have a crazy unnatural fear of bus sized animals. Paris has one that has been plastified with a length around 9 meters.
They also make up a substantial portion of the diet of sperm whales, who make up pretty much their only predator. They put up a good fight against the whales before going down, though, and there are even reports of possible attacks by squids against whales themselves where the whales are killed. Colossal Squids are less well known but may be the source of a portion of these attacks since they're larger and even better equipped for hunting.
Another squid that has a fierce reputation is the Humboldt Squid, or red devil as the fishermen of the area call them. Large, voracious hunters who are thought to exhibit pack behaviors, they are definitely dangerous, but are not the monsters they are made out to be. The problem that all cephalopods have is probably one of the reasons why they are so aggressive. Their lifespan is measured in a handful of years, and their growth rate is incredible, so they need food to supply that growth.
One of the best variety of cephalopods in my opinion is the Cuttlefish, a shy, highly intelligent animal who is also the source for cuttlebones that bird owners use as calcium supplements.
Some people call them the cuddlefish because when they're not stressed out, they can be pretty friendly.
As well as needy. This one's asking for food by moving its tentacles to show what it wants.
http://youtu.be/pnCqME_4gXE
And they can be inquisitive too. But they don't take shit from nobody even though they are shy.
http://youtu.be/k-DusaSVHmM
Though this one's white in the picture, all cephalopods to a lesser or greater degree have specialized pigment cells, which allow them the change their color according to mood or for use as camoflauge. They can also be used in a form of communication by rippling patterns along their body, but it's still pretty much a mystery as to whether they can transmit substantially more complex information to each other.
http://youtu.be/W7VAfuVQZpk
Their relatives, the Octopusses, are also known for a variety of interesting and unique behaviors.
Out of all the cephalopods they are the only ones to master bipedal locomotion.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/03/24_octopus.shtml
And they are simply the best at petty theft.
http://youtu.be/x5DyBkYKqnM
As well as opening locks. Basically, if cephalopods formed an adventuring group, Octopusses would be rogues.
http://youtu.be/ocWF6d0nelY
2: mollusks are the best sea creatures lol if you disagree
This is the best video of all time
I can't resist commentating whenever I see it
Females are found near the top, and trees in this part of the world are very tall
"I feel you buddy"
And here she is at last... but she doesn't seem to be in the mood
"Tell me about it!"
And the finale!
"Wooooo!"
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-tXJmXQ6Is
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
I hope you never run into a cuttlefish in the wild :P
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
why are bugs attracted to light?
during sex, the male will snap his dick off in the lady's lady bit, and then somersault into her mouth
this feeds her (giving her more energy) and also prevents her from having sex with other males (because of the dick lodged in her hoo-ha)
this vid doesn't mention the snapping of parts or the somersaults that my professor emphasized
the genital snapping technique I've heard of before in invertebrates
but I've never heard of anything actually volunteering to be cannibalized
light is a good way of telling where you are, if you are a bug, so they naturally gravitate towards it
human lights are big and flashy and confuse nocturnal insects
and then their insect brains tell them to check it out so they do
this works really well for collecting bugs
I found that fishfly because it was drawn to my porch
it's related to the famed black widow
which is related to the slightly less famed brown widow
I found a brown widow egg sac recently
waiting on that to hatch and release a few hundred venomous spiders onto the path I walk every day
I am excited
There was a really interesting study done in the 80's about spiders and psychoactive drugs effects:
http://youtu.be/sHzdsFiBbFc
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
I watch it almost every time it gets posted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt16iFRxnqY
A) They sometimes live in human beds and drink your blood while you sleep
and (more interestingly)
They practice traumatic insemination, which means that the male inseminates the female by stabbing his penis through her like it was a weapon and leaving a nasty wound. Female bed bugs have bug-ginas, the males just choose not to use them.
usually someone dies
And sometimes it's someone from another species.
The Emerald Cockroach Wasp, a beautiful wasp that mind rapes it's victims and uses them as living incubators.
When the wasp finds an appropriate victim, she uses her stinger like a surgeon to penetrate the head and destroy part of the hapless roaches brain. Once this is done, it bites part of each antenna off the roach and uses what's left to steer the now enslaved roach back home.
The wasp lays an egg on the roach and seals up the burrow. A few days later it hatches, and a larva burrows into the roach where it begins to eat the insides. But it makes sure the roach stays alive as long as possible by going for non vital organs and tissues first. The roach, with part of it's brain destroyed, can only silently scream as the larva slowly chews through it.
And because the larva is careful to keep it's meal from dying, the victim is even denied the sweet release of death until the very end.
Are there others that do it too?
Did you know that Charles Darwin though the very existence of the Ichneumonidae was a strong argument against that of a loving God?
He was right.
Oh definitely, like the tarantula hawks.
But are there any other species that use that particular method of incredibly precise brain damage and then riding their crippled victim back to the burrow?
the spider wasps are some of my favorite bugs
I encountered an organ pipe mud dauber back in August, but it flew away after I spotted it
not a spider wasp, technically, but it also collects spiders to feed larvae
when those brown widows hatch they'll have to be careful about that
Again, varies by species. But my point is that the general idea of a parasite driving the behavior of a host through either chemical means or physically attacking particular parts of the nervous system isn't unique to this particular species of wasp.
I've found a lot of nice things
unfortunately there have also been some failures
like that time someone punted a cool bug away before I could ID it
or that time I spotted a carrion beetle on a glass panel way above my head
and I couldn't get up to it
alas