words words words

any pronouns will talk to you anytime about insects fishies or any silly critters in general.. I am quite the fan ❤

[identitycroissant-tm]

I headcanon that the Sherlock & Co. trio all regularly wear sunglasses.

Sherlock wears them because he likes the lack of light based sensory stimuli. (Secretly he likes that he looks like a spy)

Mariana wears them because she thinks it's practical for all the snooping they do.

John wears them because he thinks he looks like James Bond.

[barbie-dream-dungeon]

Giant lepidopteran tutorial

Materials, steps, and tips under cut:

Materials:

Large sheet of cardboard

Scissors

Metal wire

Foam clay, paper mache, or air dry clay

A dark permanent marker

Acrylic paints

Hot glue

Fur (optional)

Mod podge or other finish

Hanging bracket

1.

Start with a large sheet of cardboard. Stores like home depot have large moving boxes that come flat like this, perfect for this project.

I use a projector to trace my butterfly, but you can also put tracing paper up to a screen and glue it to your cardboard, or ask your library to let you use their projector.

Make sure to trace not just the outside, but also all of the markings and patterns. Doing the antennae as well and keeping the scrap cardboard will allow you to measure out the right length.

2.

Cut around the outside of your lepidopteran and crease where the wings meet each other and the body. I use my hands, but a ruler can help. After bending your wings into a natural position, make the body and head with your clay of choice, mine is foam clay which is cheap and easy to use.

Blend the sides of the body into the wings just enough to stick, this will hold the pose you've chosen.

Prop up the wings with whatever is around and keep in a safe spot to dry. Mine dries overnight at this size. You can see I've used bottles for mine

3.

Once dry and solidified, the clay holds the wings in place in the way you left them.

Measure your antennae wire a little longer than needed and poke it into the clay. If it doesn't stay, add a little dot of super or hot glue at the base.

Glue a mounting bracket on the back. You can angle this however you like to have your lepidopteran upright, sideways, or even upside down

4.

Paint your sections individually so you don't lose your trace lines. I go in with white first to cover up the print on the cardboard, then put the correct colors over that.

If making a high contrast lep like this, go in with black at the end to clean up your edges.

If adding any fur to the body, get a piece larger than you need and hot glue it on, then trim the backing underneath the fibers with tiny snips, as not to cut the fur itself, and carefully glue the edges of the backing to the body as well

5.

Brush a matte finish like mod podge over your final product. Hold your lep up to where you want it to hang, then mount with a nail

[catachreature]

drew a cool looking moth ( Ourapteryx clara ) - wanted to mess around with colors because my brain does not let me get away with drawing something that's mostly neutral tones blarg

[psalidodont]

some bullshit at the ocean

[gwiezdnafuri]

Scorpionflies are cool i like scorpionflies what more can i say uhh.. yeah.

[catachreature]

hello I drew a buff tip moth [ Phalera bucephala ] !! These guys are incredible they really just said. stick. funkiest fellows of all time I can't even begin to comprehend their divine figures..

[plaguedocboi]

My article, for those who wanted to read it (I believe @bunnybloggereshi and @sarcasm-n-insomnia asked about it)

[catachreature]

cannot emphasize enough the importance of this message- all the little guys around us most certainly do not only exist for our convenience!! people are totally allowed to dislike creatures at their own discretion, but that most certainly does not mean that thousands of 'inconvenient' species should just disappear off the face of the earth. very awesome read, very cool of OP to write / post this

[thelordofologies]

Caddisflies - Trichoptera

@transpotato5 thank you for reminding me of this species ! ! And, @jettfisch, you might like these, considering you like bone collector caterpillars.

A/N: It is a bit of a short and chaotic post, this one, but yeah, I hope you will enjoy it :DD

Introduction

Caddisflies, or Trichoptera, are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults.

Integripalpian larvae of caddisflies construct a portable casing to protect themselves as they move around looking for food, while annulipalpian larvae make themselves a fixed retreat in which they remain, waiting for food to come to them.

In this post, I will mostly highlight the suborder Integripalpia.

Examples of Case Building Caddisflies

Below you can see two members of the genus Neophylax, these are caddisflies who specifically belong to the family Uenoidae, who are more commonly called stonecase caddisflies.

On the left: Uenoid caddisfly larva, Neophylax mitchelli. On the right: Uenoid caddisfly larva, Neophylax consimilis.

However, I think they (caddisflies larvae) might be better known for aiding in creating the art of Hupert Duprat, a French artist. The casings made by these larvae are just gorgeous, at least in my opinion.

Duprat’s aquatic caddis fly larvae, with cases incorporating gold, pearls, and turquoise, among other materials.

Examples of Caseless Caddisflies

As gorgeous as case-building caddisfly larvae are, the caseless ones are rather gorgeous too. Take, for example, Rhyacophila fuscula, or green sedge caddisfly larvae, which have a gorgeous bright green colour.

Rhyacophila fuscula, or green sedge larvae.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: in making this post some of my image sources are also my sources of information, so I merged these categories into one list of references.

Caddisflies in general

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caddisfly

Neophylax mitchelli

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aquaticinsects_of_central_virginia/8474949856/in/album-72157626065918557

Neophylax consimilis

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aquaticinsects_of_central_virginia/8353844437/in/album-72157626065918557

Art by Hupert Duprat (but, actually by the caddisflies)

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/07/hubert-duprat-caddisflies

https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/25/duprat.php

Green Sedge - Rhyacophila fuscula

https://www.troutnut.com/specimen/662

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyacophila_fuscula#/media/File:Freeliving_caddisfly_larva,Rhyacophila_fuscula(27703171262).jpg

[catachreature]

fish creature I designed!! just a guy. doing normal fish things.

( uploaded them to my artfight!! team fossils ftw )

[catachreature]

gah first time posting on this website.. I drew a bug :)

they're a pachylis nervosus, which is a type of leaf-footed bug in the true bug family!!