Lettuce That’s Spicy

[buggirl]

Heavy metal tortoise beetle I found in the cloud forests of Ecuador

[bogleech]

I wonder what's even the advantage of having big holes in its elytra. They don't get caught on things?? Maybe it's more camouflaging.

[a-book-of-creatures]

Those holes weren’t originally there, they are, well… holes! Acromis beetles use their spiky elytrae to fight each other, and most males have perforated elytrae from those battles.

The cool thing is that it’s actually beneficial to have holes punched in your elytra, and it’s not about camouflaging and all about getting things caught on them! Beetles with holes in their shells can use them to catch their opponents and sweep them off their feet. The male can then go on to reproduce with a female while his rival is still stuck there.

Image from Windsor (1987)

References

Windsor, D. M. (1987) Natural History of a Subsocial Tortoise Beetle, Acromis sparsa Boheman (Chrysomelidae, Cassidinae) in Panama. Psyche, 94(1–2), pp. 127–150.

[bogleech]

Omg they're battle scars

[revretch]

Being stuck in your opponent's armor while he makes love to the woman you were fighting over, though...

[wizardnuke]

"skibidi toilet is ruining gen alpha" do none of you people remember asdf. i remember asdf.

[wizardnuke]

the kids are gonna be fine. they just happen to be incredibly annoying like every kid before them

[wizardnuke]

what does the fox say. i like trains. LEEEROY JENKINSSSSS. etc. we were all kids once. they are carrying on the tried and true god-given tradition of baffling and irritating adults. power to the children

[woolandflax]

[aropride]

ok fine maybe community notes was a good idea

[mousegirlheart]

fondly remembering that time I was working as a cashier when I was 19-20 and my former bus driver and his wife came through. He says to me "Hey, you look familiar" and I reply "Yes, I was one of the bus kids you drove, specifically the one you screamed at and threatened to ban from the bus and make walk home because I was crying out in pain while the other kids were ripping huge chunks of hair out of my head but you did nothing about them." and his wife slowly looked at him like this

[teabree-shark]

[catchymemes]

[catchymemes]

[needleslace]

It was here.

[zegalba]

Naoki Ito: Urban Nature (2009)

[only-cat-memes]

[theorangedead]

[woo-sustainability]

this is here bc i thought it was a shitpost before i realized tumblr was telling me “hey, you follow the sustainability tag, how’s this?”

[thelandofmemes]

[bringcal]

i miss vhs tapes and cds i miss feeding my computers and tvs yummy treats. now theyre eating nothing. theyre being born without mouths

[edgar-allan-possum]

[anxietyproblem]

[libraford]

[foone]

I did training on how to deal with classified information back in 2007 and this joke was in the official federal government training course.

[animentality]

[daily-spooky]