The Durian Emporium

Enjoyer of Creatures, fun facts, and fun facts about creatures.

[waspdaily]

Today's wasp of the day is the holly blue Darwin wasp (Listrodromus nycthemerus)!

Credits: photo 1, photo 2

As parasitoids of the holly blue butterfly (Celastrina argiolus), it's easy to keep track of both insect's populations. Every 6-7 years the wasp's population reaches it's peak, which means the butterflies are at their lowest with nearly 99% of them getting wasped. With not enough hosts to around, the wasp's population sharply falls as well, giving the butterfly a chance climb back up in numbers. It's like a roller coaster.

[waspdaily]

Weee!

[durianemporium]

This is so cool (and the art is VERY cute)!

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

The black-spined iguana truly has a stomach of steel! They're the only known species capable of consuming the manchineel's extremely poisonous fruits; they're also able to sleep in the branches, despite the sap present in the bark which causes painful blistering for other animals- although it is unclear exactly how the iguanas are so resistant to the tree's toxins.

(Image: A female black-spined iguana (Ctenosaura similis) by Ken Thomas)

[vintagewildlife]

"I can't believe humans would hunt the thylacine to extinction, humans are fundamentally evil" Hey, did you know that extinction was long thought to be impossible, and within 50 years of humans realizing that extinction via overhunting was a possibility it practically stopped happening? Did you know that humans are so desperate to prevent more losses that they're funneling millions of collective hours and billions of euros into helping other species? Hours and euros that could be spent on humans, and species on whom humanity's own survival does not depend? Did you know that due to an accidental introduction of rats, the Lord Howe Island stick insect population was brought down to 24 individuals and now there are tens of thousands of them?

This bug. This bug that, to most humans, is utterly useless, relatively gross, and completely foreign. Humans saved it because humans do not want to cause another extinction ever again if they can avoid it.

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

Cicadas are famous for their long dormancy periods, but they're not the only ones to take their time growing! Common cockchafers, or maybeetles, operate on a similar cycle; larvae take 3-5 years to become fully mature, so populations in different regions will emerge in different years. The species also has a longer boom and bust cycle, so once every 30 years or so their numbers explode; in some places there can be almost 1,000,000 adults per square kilometer!

(Image: A male common cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha) by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust)

[mammalianmammals]

Red-and-white Giant Flying Squirrel (Petaurista alborufus), family Sciuridae, China

photograph by Burrard-Lucas

[bogleech]

"uh ohhhhhh!!!!" - a oyster when this happens ill bet

[bogleech]

It's just that theyll grow on anything solid and they have flotation bladders to keep them upright, like a lot of seaweed, so when they get big enough they can float away with whatever they're growing on, like small rocks or broken coral. But they got called oyster thiefs because you notice this phenomenon most if your livelihood depends on farming creatures that are also roughly similar to small rocks.

[jameses-the-nameses]

A mini-comic I made based on some poetry of mine. I've been thinking about her cause of the wildfires lately.

[bogleech]

Why are there just blobs of fake rubber meat that a bunch of unrelated microbes can build in the dirt but they've only ever been found in china and can't be classified any further than "biological objects"

[amnhnyc]

Get to know the sangay shrew opossum (Caenolestes sangay)! This species—which inhabits parts of Sangay National Park, located on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador—wasn’t scientifically described until 2013. Like other South American shrew opossums, it is a pouchless marsupial. It’s primarily nocturnal, and feeds on a diet that consists mostly of insects. However, as a newly described species, there is still much to learn about this critter. 

Photo: jorgebrito, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

[amnhnyc]

Behold the giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis). Of the 14 living otter species known to science, this one is the biggest. Growing up to 5.6 ft (1.7 m) long, this mustelid can reach weights of 70 lbs (32 kg)! It inhabits parts of South America's Orinoco, Amazon, and La Plata river systems, where it lives in groups of up to 20 members. It feeds on fish, crustaceans, and even caiman.

Photo: Charlesjsharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

[tiktoksthataregood-ish]

[1lluminae-files]

UNMUTE!!

[teaboot]

POV u are delicious

[alex-fictus]

The Paleo Party Guest of the day is Nuralagus!

Growing up to a half a meter high and a weight of between 20-25 lbs, this is the largest rabbit of all time on record! Even the average Flemish Giant Rabbit is half that size. They lived on the island of Menorca and are likely an example of island gigantism! They were likely relatively unopposed until falling sea levels allowed the goat-like Myotragus and other megafauna to migrate over from neighboring Mallorca in the repetitions of regressions (falling sea levels) that dried up most of the western Mediterranean in the late Pliocene.

Age: 5 to 2.5 mya

Location: Menorca in the Western Mediterranean

This sticker can be found in my Pliocene listing!

Stickers || Phone Wallpapers Masterlist

[victorchagniot]

[mihai-florescu]

Languages tend to peak at their word for butterfly. Never seen 2 that are the same, either. Papillon. Mariposa. Borboleta. Fluture. Vlinder. Schmetterling. Pillangó. Babochka. Farfalla. Sommerfugl. Perhonen. Farasha. Titali. Chōchō. Nabi. Húdié. Buom buom. Great job guys, i really mean it.

[bogleech]

"uh ohhhhhh!!!!" - a oyster when this happens ill bet

[amnhnyc]

Meet the world’s largest monkey, the mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx)! This primate inhabits rainforests in parts of Africa including Cameroon, Congo, and Gabon. Males’ faces and rear ends are painted in vivid colors, and when a mandrill gets excited, its striking buttocks becomes an even more intense shade of blue! These rainbow markings help mandrills attract mates. Scientists also think they assist mandrills in keeping an eye on each other while traveling through dark jungles.

Photo: Gleb_Ivanov, iStock

[polychaete-of-the-day]

Today's worm is this weirdly beautiful and rainbow Axiothella rubrocincta. You can really see why the family is called bamboo worms!

Photo by André Giraldi