If you want the city to stop spraying pesticides that hurt native insect populations, sometimes it's easier to convince suburbanites to "oppose toxic chemicals in the parks where their children play" than to convince them of the importance of native beetles. It still helps the beetles, and you can probably get it to happen faster.
The players are on a quest to slay the ancient god whom, every spring since time immemorial, comes to steal away most of the town’s children. The party eventually learns that the god is sacrificing their children to monsters.
The players are Darkling Beetles, and the ancient god is an old lady raising mealworms to feed to the bluebirds that nest in her backyard.
hey guys I saw a rlly interesting bug & I want help identifying it. tried to get a picture but it scurried away from me and by the time I had my camera out & zoomed it was gone :(
it was probably an isopod of some sort judging by what I saw of the scales + legs. it kinda looked like a trilobite in shape. im really hoping it's an isopod because they live a bit longer than your average bear bug & I realllllly wanna see it again.
it was also, and this is the interesting part, completely white. I don't know if this was just a specific little guy with leucism/albinism or a species that is lacking in pigment, but I do want to find out!
Oh, that might be a kind of burrowing cockroach. There's a variety for most corners of the world.
The white one is freshly moulted, they darken as the exoskeleton hardens. Being fossorial and feeding on decaying leaf litter, they're actually very clean as far as risk of diseases go, cleaner than most people really.
that looks closer, although I don't think burrowing cockroaches specifically live around here. ive found a couple potential culprits on my own, but they're all plant parasites, and I found my guy in some leaf litter. so a small cockroach species seems like a good guess!
Thinking about how we found all of these beautiful arthropods from the descriptor "trilobite". Trilobites being pretty much the original arthropod. I love trilobites. They survived so many mass extinctions it's almost shocking that we don't still have them.
[image description: a comic starring a rhino beetle anthro character. the rhino beetle knocks on the door, and a stag beetle anthro answers.
rhino beetle: sorry i'm late!
stag beetle: you're not late at all! i'm so happy you could make it! everyone else was delayed too, so you're the first person here.
rhino: seriously?
rhino, holding up a grocery bag: oh! brought something for the potluck!
stag, looking through the bag, pulls out what looks like a huge jello cup: oh thats really nice of- is this the limited stock gourmet beetle jelly i was eyeing last week that was sold out instantly?!
they hug each other. stag beetle says, excited: Ah, you shouldn't have! that's so thoughtful! it's more fitting for dessert but... should we crack it open now?
rhino: it's your party
stag: it is... let's do it! the others better get here soon if they want a bite!
they both move to the kitchen. stag beetle: can you grab me a cutting board?
rhino: got it! (thinking: so they're going to cut it so we all get a piece? how sweet of them)
stag: thank you!
stag holds the knife over the beetle jelly container, placed on the cutting board.
rhino, thinking: a knife's a little overkill for the lid, isn't it?
stag cleaves the beetle jelly in half with one slice.
rhino stands there shocked as stag hands them one half of the container.
stag, walking away while rhino remains shocked: oh, let me get you a spoon!
there's an extra shot of them eating the jelly. rhino thinks: it is easier to get the last bits of jelly out like this... End ID]
imagining debates among anthro beetle jelly enjoyers over beetle jelly serving preferences
Scientists have developed a breakthrough “superfood” for honeybees by engineering yeast to produce the essential nutrients normally found in
TLDR- Modern agriculture pollen is low in nutrients, and there aren’t enough wildflowers. Science has to develop vitamins to supplement the diets of agricultural bees. So plant some wildflowers for the wild bees near you.
Wake up in enormous underground cyberpunk metropolis
Venture outside with your ant buddies to forage scraps from an incomprehensible civilization of alien gods (each one several times larger than the city you've spent most of your life inside) for the glory of your GodMomEmpress
Get attacked by a platoon of soldiers from a rival megacity, they're an offshoot of your species except like twice as big (basically orks) and like 10% of them are genetically modified supersoldiers with wings
Luckily, you've been engineered from birth to spit acid so you and your antfriends successfully defeat the rival ants and their winged miniboss
ok spider megacity is actually driving me a bit crazy. 2 dominant species live in thr spider city and one wpuld usually predate the otherbut bc its so dark in there they cant tell... so they livein peace and eat midges. thousands of spiders living in peace on one bigbigbig web eating midges in the dark together forever. one bigbig web spans across boarder of two countries spiders live on there peaceful in the colddark. eating midges
[ID: two sketches of a fuzzy little spider. The first sketch is standing still. The second sketch is identical but has the pedipalps (little spider face thingies) turned in to touch each other + two hand emojis doing the shy finger touch underneath it. End ID.]
I have assembled for you all a collection of cutiepie jumping spiders holding their pedipalps together. All images from iNaturalist (not AI !!).
A cheeto-orange spider with medium-length hairs and brown eyes. it has shiny green chelicherae. It is perched on a person's finger. [Florida, USA.]
A brown spider crouching close to the ground. Its eyes are dark brown and its pedipalps are extra fluffy. [Netanya, Israel.]
A spider with bold patterning standing on the ground. Its head is black with a wide white stripe wrapped around under the eyes. Its legs are black with a sprinkling of orange hairs. Its pedipalps are white with black tips. Its eyes are iridescent mauve-black. [Koura, Lebanon.]
(more below, it's a long post)
A pale tan spider among beach debris. It is densely hairy with emerald-green eyes. [Haifa, Israel.]
A golden-brown spider perches on the heads of a couple dry flowerheads. Its eyes are brown; its lower face and chelicerae are cream. Its fluff is short. [Bloemfontein, South Africa.]
A brown spider on a pebble. Its legs have black stripes, and it has a white ring around each brown eye. Its pedipalps have rows of long white hairs. [Yiz'rael, Israel]
A spider perched on a narrow stem. Its head is blocky and orange, reminiscent of a loaf of bread. Its eyes are black. Its legs and pedipalps are tan with dark markings. [Be'er Sheva, Israel]
A spider on a flat surface. It is patterned black and white. Its eyes are iridescent black. There is a large patch of red fur under its eyes. the ends of its pedipalps are grey floofs. [Florida, USA.]
A yellow-brown spider on fabric. Its eyes are dark brown. It has a mix of short and long hair. Its chelicerae are smooth chestnut brown. Its pedipalps have long blond hair. [B'nei Brak, Israel.]
A spider on fabric. It has dark brown eyes. Its legs have brown and blond stripes. Its hairs are moderately long. Its chelicerae are blond with rows of extra-long hairs. [Texas, USA.]
A cream-colored spider on a leaf. It has dark brown eyes and is densely hairy. It has some brown stripes on its legs and pedipalps. [Queenstown, South Africa.]
A spider perched on the edge of something. It is covered with long white fur, apart from the top of its head which has short orange hairs. Its eyes are metallic green. [Melbourne, Australia.]