#arthopods

[gwiezdnafuri]

Scorpionflies are cool i like scorpionflies what more can i say uhh.. yeah.

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Wheel Out the Wheel Bug

The wheel bug, also known as Arilus cristatus, is a member of the assassin bug family found throughout eastern North and Central America. They thrive in a variety of environments including grasslands, deciduous and tropical forests, and gardens; anywhere where flowers are abundant.

The wheel bug is so named for the distinctive, spiny wheel-shaped hump along its thorax and abdomen. The body is otherwise elongated and dark grey with white spotting. As an assassin bug, the species also sports an enlarged proboscis for deeding. This species is also noted for being one of the largest true bugs endemic to North America, at a whopping 3.8 cm (1.5 in) long.

As an assassin bug, A. cristatus is a voracious predator within its natural habitat. Individuals catch caterpillars, beetles, sawfly larvae, aphids, and stink bugs with their long forelimbs and then inject their target with a potent paralytic, dissolving its insides and slurping up the resulting soup. Due to their spiky bodies and painful bite, the wheel bug has few natural predators. However, eggs are often prey to parasitic wasps.

Wheel bugs begin mating in September and continues throughout the fall. After mating, the female lays anywhere from 40 to 200 eggs on a leaf, in a cluster resembling a cylindrical honeycomb. The eggs incubate over the winter and juveniles emerge the following spring. They mature throughout the summer and become full adults the following fall, where they mate and then die.

Conservation status: The wheel bug has not been evaluated by the IUCN, but populations are widely dispersed throughout its range and the species is generally ecologically stable. In many areas, it is one of the only predators of other invasive or pest insect species.

Photos

Rick Kelly

Seth Ausubel

Richard Orr

[mckitterick]

Look at this cute Cambrian critter!

Balhuticaris belongs to a group of 500 million-year-old carapace-bearing arthropods known as hymenocarines. hymenocarines are probably early mandibulates, the group that contains crustaceans, myriapods, and insects. its eyes are bilobate, allowing Balhuticaris to calculate distances better than its kin

scale:

they even think it swam upside-down:

source tweet thread with link to published article:

[intrinsically-disordered-proxein]

a little known fact is that some millipedes have :3 face and i think that’s beautiful (my pic)

[blueyinthebush]

deep dive - the beach

requested by anonymous

"the beach" is the 26th episode of season one, and introduces a lovely new location for the heelers to explore. it's never specified where along the gold coast this beach is, but probably somewhere like warana beach, which is about an hour's drive from brisbane and the perfect distance for a day trip. this one is a bit long, so i'll put the rest of the post underneath a read more.

a couple years ago a coastal pathway project began, in order to promote walking and biking through the scrub and wetlands along the beach. the project also addresses the prevalence of invasive species and aims to restore native vegetation. but enough about that, let's get into the bush!

an establishing shot gives a nice overview of the beach, which sits between a residential wooded area and the edge of the coral sea. what looks like a tuckeroo is visible in the foreground, a native australian tree that doesn't mind coastal conditions.

after the heelers spend some time enjoying the sand, we get a shot of an osprey, a common sight anywhere by water in australia and across the americas. these raptors are incredible anglers, with a recorded success rate of 70 percent! there are four subspecies of osprey, and the eastern osprey, the only one found in australia, is the smallest.

on the beach, bluey finds the shell of a tiger cowrie, a beautiful variety of marine snail that is prevalent across the indo-pacific region. the striking appearance of their shells has made them popular among shell collectors, although their numbers have suffered as a result.

bluey also encounters a flock of silver gulls. like other sea gulls, these birds are very successful scavengers, and often have no issues going up to humans for handouts. you can find these guys pretty much anywhere near water in australia and new zealand.

here's an interesting one! this is a pipi, a type of saltwater clam. they've been a source of protein by the native ngarriindjeri people for thousands of years, but are mostly used as bait for commercial fishing. they use their strong "foot" muscle to burrow into the sand. as filter feeders, they take in large amounts of water to suck up plankton. afterwards, the water needs to expelled, like the one bluey found is doing.

bluey also runs away from a consortium of light-blue solider crabs. unlike how they're animated in the show, this species is one of the few crabs that has evolved to walk forwards, not sideways. the males form large "armies" during low tide, similar to the group in the episode.

next, bluey encounters a moon jelly, a type of jellyfish identifiable by its large translucent bell and short tentacles. these jellies do have a sting (bluey does the right thing by approaching it with caution, as you should with any wild animal!), but it only causes very mild irritation in humans. moon jellies are the favorite food of many turtle species. since they look similar, moon jelly-loving turtles will often swallow plastic bags.

last but not least, a bird that's even bigger than bluey! this is an australian pelican, which hold the record for the longest bill of any bird. they use their beaks to scoop up fish and other animals like a fishing net. you can find them in every state of australia.

that's it! hope you enjoyed this first foray going into a whole episode. many thanks to the bluey wiki for this one, who have catalogued quite a lot of the animals in the show already.

[eddieintheocean]

i had a 2hr 15 lecture on arthropods

conclusion: bug :thuimbsup:

[cutiepieautistic]

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[jpanimador]

This is gonna be my most controversial post