life

weird NSFW accounts please DNI

[frugblug]

Butterfly on a thistle

[forestnymphingaround]

[forestnymphingaround]

[forestnymphingaround]

frogspawn - Rana Temporaria

[forestnymphingaround]

By South coast hummingbird on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/people/southcoasthummingbird/

[cottageaesthetic]

[seabeck]

Long toed salamander

[herpsandbirds]

Pied Falconets (Microhierax melanoleucos), family Falconidae, order Falconiformes, China

photograph by Lin hillside

[tokumei1ka]

Wild Daisies

[jeanne-davenport]

roses

[herpsandbirds]

Scientists Caught Blind Cave Salamanders Sneaking to Earth’s Surface

New research reveals the rare and surprising behavior of blind olms venturing from darkness into aboveground springs.

March 2024

Cave-dwelling creatures often bear the characteristics of animals unaccustomed to light. Their skin, or scales, are blanched, and their eyes range from “of little use” to purely ornamental. But that doesn’t stop the serpentine cave salamanders of southeastern Europe from sneaking up to the surface now and again. The odd-looking animal is an Olm (Proteus anguinus), or proteus, an obscure salamander once thought to be the offspring of dragons. In research published last month in Ecology, a team of researchers described a surprising behavior of the amphibians: they sometimes leave the relative safety of their underwater caverns for the surface...

Read more: Scientists Caught Blind Cave Salamanders Sneaking to Earth’s Surface

[jeanne-davenport]

jaśmin

[most-splendidly]

Bumblebee on Lenten rose flower, Helleborus

[oneleggedflamingo]

[michaelnordeman]

I spent a good part of last Sunday in my favourite forest. Värmland, Sweden (February 9, 2025).

[sundewsea-deactivated20250207]

[wild-e-eep]

Pugnaciously green! I like it.

I think this new-to-me lichen is Peltigera leucophlebia. The dark speckles are cephalodia - where it keeps its cyanobacteria.