[dykecinema]

[sharkfiinn]

[mellifexfarm]

behold my ugly

[waywardwarren]

I painted your ugly

[peachfromcmbyn]

People on Tumblr love sharing information about themselves no matter how asinine it is. And I'm the same way. Everybody tell me what the last thing you drank was.

[mellifexfarm]

eat my ugly

[sarahmackattack]

Getting licked by a bee is strange and adorable

[shiverandqueeef]

how measurements work in canada (ie/ badly)

[your-dads-filing-cabinet]

@/teaboot

[teaboot]

This isn't even a joke it's just what we do

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Mirror-Ball Spiders: these spiders are covered in shimmering, mirror-like panels that shift and expand as the muscles of the abdomen contract

Spiders of the genus Thwaitesia are often described as mirror-ball spiders, because their bodies are lined with reflective panels that make them look like tiny disco-balls. These arachnids are also known as dewdrop spiders or sequined spiders.

Above: two different species of mirror-ball spider

The shimmering panels on the abdomen are produced by a digestive secretion known as guanine, which seeps out through the lining of the spider's gut and forms a mosaic of crystalline cells just beneath the surface of the abdomen.

Above: Thwaitesia argentiopunctata and Thwaitesia margaritifera

The crystals shrink and expand as the muscles in the spider's abdomen contract; they often shrink when the spider is agitated, and they expand as it begins to relax.

Above: the panels expanding and contracting

The adaptive purpose of the shimmering effect is unclear, but researchers believe that it mimics the glistening appearance of raindrops or beads of dew, which could allow the spiders to blend in with their environment.

Above: another view of the guanine crystals shifting just below a thin layer of cuticle

The reflective panels may also help to confuse predators, as this article explains:

The spider’s decorative patterning may seem like a dead give-away to predators, but for those looking to feast on this arachnid, the hunt might result in confusion and failure.

“Like a disco ball with lots of different mirrors, the reflective splotches on the spider’s abdomen probably scatter light and make it difficult for predators to see it,” says Robert Whyte, an honorary researcher in arachnology at the Queensland Museum.

Above: Thwaitesia affinis

There are at least 22 known species of mirror-ball spider, and their physical features can vary significantly. In some cases, the silver panels on the abdomen are accompanied by colorful, iridescent spots and scales, and the abdomen itself may have a red, orange, green, yellow, or beige appearance.

Above: spiders of the genus Thwaitesia

These spiders are widely distributed throughout the southern hemisphere. They can be found in the tropical and neotropical rainforests of South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, China, Singapore, and Madagascar.

Above: Thwaitesia nigronodosa

Mirror-ball spiders are not aggressive toward humans, and there are virtually no recorded cases of humans being bitten by the spiders of this genus. They're also tiny, with most individuals measuring just 2-4mm long (roughly 1/10th of an inch), which means that their fangs are often too small to penetrate human skin.

Above: Thwaitesia margaritifera

Sources & More Info:

iNaturalist: Mirror-Ball Spiders

Australian Geographic: This Sequined Spider Glistens in the Light

My Modern Met: The "Mirror Spider" and its Changing Mosaic of Reflective Panels

A Field Guide to the Spiders of Australia: Tiny Forest Jewels: Spectacular Thwaitesia Spiders

Science Friday: How is a Spider Like a Disco Ball?

Land for Wildlife: Spider Sampling Points to a Potential Indicator Genus (PDF)

Royal Society Publishing: The Spider Cuticle

BBC Science Focus: Mobile Disco

[amnhnyc]

Bow before Z. rex! 🦐 Better known as the emperor shrimp (Zenopontonia rex), this tiny crustacean can be found throughout tropical waters in the Indo-Pacific. Notice its colorful “throne?” This species is a hitchhiker that can most often be found riding on the backs of marine organisms like sea cucumbers and nudibranchs! Thanks to this living arrangement, the shrimp is able to move from location to location with ease and can more effectively avoid predators. What’s in it for the nudibranchs and sea cucumbers? Scientists think the emperor shrimp might “clean” its hosts by removing harmful parasites, but this has yet to be determined.

Photo: Julian Hsu, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

[asneakyfox]

one of my favorite bits in lord of the rings is something the movies didn't really try to do because it's entirely internal, but sam's carrying the ring and it starts trying to do its work on him, so he's having these intrusive visions of himself marching at the head of a vast and terrible army, and he just starts laughing because, me? samwise gamgee? sam gamgee the general sam gamgee the dark lord are you for real? man i just want to go home and do some gardening. and the ring gets frustrated and it starts trying to figure out other stuff that would actually tempt sam and it's finally like, okay, but hear me out: imagine if you could have...A REALLY REALLY BIG GARDEN

[triangleguy]

does this happen to anyone else

[wordfather]

doctor sleepy just prescribed me with 5 more minutes

[alexmey-does-an-arts]

so the game picks a random item for the baby montage

[emmaklee]

Nishimoto Ryota

a piece of wood carved to fit perfectly into a zippered plastic bag

[queen-zigzag]

[ccorinthian]

I’m experiencing brief moments on what I can only describe as existing in the Moment and it causes such a shock to my entire nervous system that I feel like I’ve touched an electric fence

[fool-counter]

I’m experiencing brief moments on what I can only describe as existing in the Moment and it causes such a shock to my entire nervous system that I feel like I’ve touched an electric fence

fool count: 1

[mumblesplash]

last year i started taking little walks around my neighborhood for enrichment and whatnot, see, and i’ve been more or less keeping up with them barring those 3 months i couldn’t walk. and there’s some pretty big hills around, so there’s some stairs on this route i like to take. and even though i know stairs are a bit of a workout, deep down it was a little embarrassing to me at first, realizing i’d let my cardio fitness slip so badly that i needed multiple breaks to catch my breath on a single staircase. it got better as i kept at it, of course, but i would still internally wince a little at the fact that i’d get so winded on those stupid stairs. they’re just some rickety old hillside stairs by my house, i thought, they shouldn’t take it out of me THIS badly

it was only within the past few months that i got to a point where i was like okay, this is reasonable. they’re not EASY, but if i pace myself i can take the stairs all at once without gasping for air. that’s not too bad. there’s room for improvement and i still get a little winded but that’s a reasonable amount of tired to be, i reckoned, it’s one staircase but it’s kind of a long staircase. i’d always known it was kinda long.

except i recently found out i was underselling it a bit, there. turns out it’s a VERY long staircase. it’s ‘appears in tour guides and news articles’ long, actually. it’s ’annual citywide step challenge event’ long. it’s ’i can’t tell you the number of steps without doxxing myself’ long. and for almost a year i had no idea, because it’s nearby and not very fancy looking and i thought it was just Some Stairs and i was really badly out of shape. but no, i’ve accidentally been doing insane superhell cardio this whole time. i’m pretty sure i’m currently in better shape than i was running cross country in high school. the big hill by my parents’ house feels like flat ground to me now.

i don’t even know where i’m going with this. i guess the point is sometimes you are not uniquely ill-equipped for a thing, sometimes that thing is actually just really difficult. and sometimes you don’t realize this and end up holding yourself to insane standards for no reason. but also this can end up benefiting you in the end? idk. maybe i should participate in that step challenge this year or something