xtra space

gross, stick your hands in it

[wrotten]

Schellenberger Eishoehle/Ice Cave Berchtesgaden Alps, Germany

[ortodelmondo]

Jean Dieuzaide - 1968 - Art 1132 La cygogne blessée (reboisement)

[godsyrup]

     Columns are formed by the unions of stalagmites and stalactites. As compound cave formations, they include among their ranks the tallest free-standing speleothems in the world.

[389]

Sulfur, salt, and other minerals color the crater of Dallol volcano, part of the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia. At 157 feet (48 meters) below sea level, Dallol is Earth’s lowest land volcano.

Photograph by Carsten Peter

[expressions-of-nature]

Lake Baikal, Russia by Nadezhda Demkina

[transparentfossil]

2.75" Fossil Eocrinoid (Ascocystites) - El Kaid Rami, Morocco

[powerburial]

[powerburial]

[angelicdewdrop]

[platycryptus]

A giant ichneumon wasp (Megarhyssa macrurus) uses her extremely long ovipositor to drill into a dead maple tree. Megarhyssa includes species with the longest ovipositors of any insect (up to 11 cm in M. macrurus and up to 14 cm in its cousin M. atrata), which also technically gives them the longest total length of any hymenopteran insect. The ovipositor is used to pierce deep into dead or dying trees to lay eggs on the larvae of a large wood-boring sawfly (Tremex columba).

Her ovipositor acts not only as a drill but as a sensory organ, and is highly sensitive to vibrations in the wood made by the sawfly larvae. Note how the translucent membranes of her abdomen stretch as she applies pressure by curling the base of the ovipositor, then retract when she withdraws to search for a different spot.

(Massachusetts, July 2025)

[expressions-of-nature]

Mount Etna, Italy by Bernard M

[formlab]

Town Boundary, Brent Wong

[vividplanet]

fairy glen, scotland

[389]

Sulfur volcano’s in Garut - Indonesia Sulfur Springs

[classicalcanvas]

Moon and Firelight (1828) by Thomas Cole

[echinoderm-of-the-day]

Today’s echinoderm is Astrophyton muricatum, commonly known as the giant basket star.

Image source: https://uk.inaturalist.org/observations/201919048

[xanaxfarts]

A lake inside the crater of a volcano in Lanzarote. [source]