X @xxiiiageparanoid - Tumblr Blog

A tragic scene:

My turtle notices the blueberry I put out for him but in his excitement he drops it into his pond. He considers a recovery mission on his own, then turns to me for assistance instead.

Fear not- the berry was retrieved and the turtle was able to enjoy it as intended

ciircuitdragon

“Hey, that’s me!”

limitedmedicine

【Rippi/リッピ】

fuzzy bugs series

w140×h130xd90mm

@shiba0607

collemblogging

a truly stunning Black Horsefly, Tabanus atratus. she was very polite and posed well for photos.

herpsandbirds

Blood Pheasant (Ithaginis cruentus), males, family Phasianidae, order Galliformes, Laojun Mountain, Lijiang, China

photograph by Wild Safari Saga

great-and-small

Don’t mind me just thinking about the hole in the middle of the United States where Chipping sparrows refuse to fuck

great-and-small

forevergoodnight

predaceous diving beetle?

more like... PRECIOUS diving beetle. aww

spiny-ant

Who dropped these here

herpsandbirds

great-and-small

One of the things I really like about Tumblr is there seems to be a healthy appreciation for invertebrate biology here, which I don’t always see as much on other social media websites. Tumblr users overall seem to love bugs, and it’s important to me that every person who loves bugs knows the name Charles Henry Turner. If you’re not yet familiar with this man, I’m delighted to introduce you to one of the most remarkable minds ever born of this earth, and a true pioneer in the field of entomology and animal behavior.

Charles Turner was born in the United States just a few years after the end of the civil war. His brilliance was evident from the start, and after graduating valedictorian of his high school class he quickly went on to earn his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in short order. While in school, Turner’s relentless curiosity became his greatest advantage. He was drawn to and fascinated by topics that were largely ignored by modern science at the time, namely the cognitive behaviors of insects and other invertebrates. While many of his colleagues believed insects to be mindless automata acting on instinct alone, Turner felt deeply that the brains of these oft overlooked animals were far more complex than the scientific community suspected. He performed extensive experiments to test his theories and found overwhelming evidence of problem solving and individualism among organisms as small as ants and spiders.

By the time Turner earned his zoology pHD in 1907 he had published dozens of papers in highly esteemed journals and had even co-authored a book. It is likely that Turner was the first African American to earn a pHD from the University of Chicago. With such a sparkling academic reputation and enormous body of research, one would expect this candidate to have no issues obtaining a professorship at a prestigious school. Though by every right Turner should have been head of science department at a top university, the systemic racism that permeated academia meant that doors a white man would have walked through were locked and bolted shut for Charles Henry Turner.

Turner did not allow this prejudice to dim in any way his blindingly bright passion for knowledge. He took a job as a high school teacher, and continued to perform and publish research on his own all while he instilled his students with a love for zoology. He published more than 70 papers in extremely respected journals and he remained passionately curious for the entirety of his life. If I tried to list here all of the incredible discoveries Turner made in his lifetime it would take me days to sufficiently express the impact he had on the field of invertebrate behavior. His experiments were so ahead of their time that entomologists today marvel at his research and wonder how much more we would know if Turner’s work had been given the attention and respect of other scientists working at the time. Turner’s mind was about a century ahead of those entomological contemporaries who had no interest in giving him a seat at the table. His tombstone simply reads “scientist”

Like many people of color throughout history, Turner’s exceptional contributions to our world have been unfairly overlooked by many. His name has historically been left out of entomology textbooks and courses, despite laying down groundwork that is still used today. I really recommend that anyone interested in entomology or even biology in general read up on Charles Henry Turner and his works. This is an excellent article that discusses his many challenges and triumphs in the field.

herpsandbirds

Streaked Spiderhunter (Arachnothera magna), Nectariniidae, order Passeriformes, India

photograph by Vipin Rajora

onenicebugperday

Male tufted social velvet spider, Stegodyphus tibialis, Eresidae

Photographed in India by vipinbaliga

Legally I can’t share this photo without asking the photographer first, so please visit this link to see a male and female snuggled up in their nest :)

negativ00

great-and-small

herpsandbirds

My friend introduced me to ani birds and they're so cool! Dinosaur-lookin birds! Do you know any cool ani bird facts?

Anis (genus Crotophaga), family Cuculidae, order Cuculiformes

Found in the neo-tropics (The Americas)

Although they are cuckoos, they are not brood parasites (Laying eggs in other bird's nest for them to raise), like other cuckoos.

They nest communally.

They are comfortable on the ground, often running short distances instead of flying.

Usually found in groups.

They feed mainly on invertebrates and small vertebrates.

It is popularly believed in some places that they remove parasites from large animals, but there is no evidence that they actually do this.

They are known to follow grazing animals to feed on small animals flushed from tall grass.

Greater Ani (Crotophaga major), family Cuculidae, order Cuculiformes, Ecuador

photograph by Xavier Topakian

Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani), family Cuculidae, Grand Cayman

photograph by Charles J. Sharp

Groove-billed Ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris), family Cuculidae, South TX, USA

photograph by Doug Haass

amnhnyc

Which insect can grow larger than a mouse and has mandibles strong enough to snap a pencil in half? That would be the titan beetle (Titanus giganteus)! Growing up to 6.5 in (16.5 cm) long, this enormous insect can be found in tropical rainforests in parts of South America. Experts think this critter is about as big as a beetle can get. Why? In insects, the oxygen to keep cells alive isn’t forcefully delivered by lungs and heart. Instead, it seeps through the body largely by diffusion. That passive method means not enough oxygen could get to the inside of a truly gigantic beetle.

Photo: andre_ambrozio, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

onenicebugperday

For scale: