A Paracarnivorous Epiphyte

Born in 1985. Every year past 30 fills me with dread.

[clingynepenthes]

My greatest concept: Nepenthes pitcher-plant inside the pitcher of a bigger Nepenthes that is also a living aquarium.

[clingynepenthes]

Am I Kawaii UUGGUU

[qadmonster]

Shermit

[qadmonster]

Snozscoop

[clingynepenthes]

Pterotrachea, the sea elephant!

[aviculor]

Leaked beta Mothim was S-tier design. I only recognized it as Mothim because I realized the body shape is almost identical to Plant Cloak Wormadam with wings instead of "arms". Presumably it was scrapped because it involved using a hummingbird moth as the imago of an otherwise zoologically accurate bagworm line. But HOLY FUCKING SHIT. This had potential to have been my #1 until gen 6. Do you know how starved I was in BDSP and PLA since everything in the Sinnoh dex is so mid to me? Toxicroak, Skuntank, and Drapion are okay, but this would have scratched the itch I didn't even know I had until Gen 6.

The second one cut off to the left is missing the antennae and there's a very subtle difference in the head region's shape, so what if that one is an actual hummingbird? Could we have had convergent species as far back as gen 4???

[clingynepenthes]

Hmm, I don't think it's proto-Mothim, in the sense that it was concepted and designed as the male counterpart to Wormadam.

It seems more like it was the precursor to the whole Mothim/Wormadam family, with this design becoming Grass Cloak Wormadam and then Mothim added on later.

Still a great design, and I too am sad that it didn't make it.

[clingynepenthes]

Schmidt Ocean (@SchmidtOcean) on X

Black swallower fish — swell dining in the deep! During a recent ROV dive near Trinidad & Tobago, the #DeepWonders science team collect

[clingynepenthes]

Sometimes I find a gem on Twitter. This is Synodontis multipunctatus, also known as the cuckoo catfish. It parasitizes mouthbrooding cichlids by spawning alongside them and having its own eggs get picked up by the mouthbrooders. Inside the cichlid's mouth, the catfish eggs develop faster and hatch earlier, and predate on the cichlid's own eggs.

[mossworm]

"what about railroad worm" got it right here, railroad worm and boyfriend

[clingynepenthes]

Boyfriend also has lights in this genus and glows! Most male phengodids don't glow, but there are a few exceptions. Males of the subtribe Mastinocerini actually retain the larval light organs on the abdominal segments, and the most famous of these is the genus Phrixothrix, the railroad worm, named for the paired light-organs on each segment of the larvae and adult female. Like the rest of the Mastinocerini, the male also has these lateral abdominal lights while lacking the cephalic light organs, the "headlights" of the train. Sadly, I've never found pictures of a male Phrixothrix glowing.

[clingynepenthes]

For years I have searched and now I have finally found photos of living male railroad worms that proves they DO glow!

These aren't male Phrixothrix, but they're from the same subfamily Mastinocerinae, of the phengodid beetles (Phengodidae). The males of the Mastinocerinae retain the larval lanterns, just like the females!

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374445030_Inventory_and_ecological_aspects_of_bioluminescent_beetles_in_the_Cerrado_ecosystem_and_its_decline_around_Emas_National_Park_Brazil

[greseadraws]

dungeon meshi but they end up in the back rooms, a cursed idea that was eating away at my brain

[nitewrighter]

Peer-reviewing @monikoishi's tags because they're banger.

[clingynepenthes]

This looks much more healthy than the previous footage I've seen.

[clingynepenthes]

Watched the latest episode of Rick and Morty, "Mortgully: the Last Rickforest", just because of the title.

Somewhat misleading title, as it's Morty alone who turns into a fruit tree, then a whole rainforest, then a liana that climbs a massive world-spanning tree, then eventually a whole self-contained biome.

One of the more enjoyable sci-fi concepts recently, and an episode that doesn't end on a downer.

[clingynepenthes]

Ah, it's trying to be a Remoraid again.

[bogleech]

Mortasheen ttrpg BUDGET RULEBOOK (core rulebook with smaller bestiary!) - Jonathan Wojcik's Ko-fi Shop

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD VERSION!!! A physical version will also be available for preorder! This book contains only 41 monsters as a "preview" best

196 PAGE DIGITAL PDF, PHYSICAL VERSION TO COME! This is identical to the Mortasheen core rulebook EXCEPT it cuts the monster bestiary down from 170+ monsters to just 41, and it's exactly half the price.

If you get this and then decide you want all the monsters, you can get all of them in Bestiary Zero, digital version buyable here. Together the two books equal both the content and cost of the core book! I just split it into two! Reblogs and boosts of this also help me a lot, whether or not you're getting a copy or already did.

If you don't know what Mortasheen is but your interest is piqued:

Mortasheen is a "monster catching" pulpy sci-fi horror setting I've expanded for over 20 years, having designed and drawn over a thousand monsters for it and counting.

This book contains a complete original gameplay system developed for over 10 years by Morgan Mullins, tons of additional and refined mechanics by @gutsygills, loads of my own artwork plus guest art, player character biotypes, NPC characters, environments, story, worldbuilding, a villain faction and more stuff that might also be cool and fun for some people whether or not they'll ever play the game or play tabletop games at all. I spent 5 years just putting the book itself together, stuffing it with every detail I possibly could.

A few of the monsters that ARE included in this "budget" version:

It's painful to cut any of them, let alone most of them, but I carefully considered which 41 to keep for a diverse enough preview sample that can still populate a campaign without spoiling the biggest surprises of the full selection. At least one monster is included for all but two of the 15 current monster classes, and all members of the Demishade class are featured, since they're all viable as player "starters!"

[aviculor]

Austrospirachtha carrijoi, a rove beetle that mimics a termite using its enlarged abodmen in order to steal their food

[clingynepenthes]

I remember when I used to go to my university's library, and read the books in the biology section, and there was a book on insect symbioses that catalogued a lot of obscure ones (like the moth Cyclotorna that starts as an ectoparasite of a leafhopper but is then picked up as an ant and then completes its life cycle in an ants' nest as a brood parasite).

I remember seeing beautiful illustrations of rove beetles with this remarkable adaption (not the exact species depicted, but similar ones) and lamented that I would only ever see them as drawings in dusty books in libraries. Now, I'm blessed that I got see these and many more remarkable organisms I've only ever read about. I've seen things many naturalists and biologists back in the day never got to see. I'm glad I got to experience the internet before the AI boom.

[herpsandbirds]

Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot (Loriculus beryllinus), family Psittaculidae, order Psittaciformes, endemic to Sri Lanka

photograph by Fayaz Faleel

[cosmopoliturtle]

Shroom Bloom

[wintercorrybriea2]

juvenile springtail

[clingynepenthes]

Grape flavor