Cicada Grimace

Cicadas are no stranger to Ugly Overload, but I love this angle. You can see the split back of the juvenile's exoskeleton, and the remnants of its grimace as its adult form tries to pull itself loose of its former shell. The night is about to become alive with its incessant trilling.

Thanks for the cicada, Kitty.

Photo source: Huffington Post

Bundled Baby Bats

This isn't my first post on a row of bundled baby bats, and it won't be my last (provided I can find more).

This could have been one of the most adorable photos taken. But then you see that knobby, membranous wrist jutting out from the top of the wrap. And then you look to the bottom of the photo and see that groping talon. What had been an endearing scene is suddenly made sinister.

I almost wish that fruit bats really did feed on humans, because over-sized, canine-headed, and demon-winged flying humanivores would make for a good monster. But it's hard to be afraid of frugivores (though I still manage it).

Spider Eats Raw Acacia

Here's a video of a vegetarian spider. That's right -- the first ever known spider (Bagheera kiplingi) that actively and willfully hunts plants almost exclusively.

Two notes about this video: 1) there is no sound, and 2) it's footage of a spider hunting plants, and that turns out not to be a very exciting activity. The plants don't try to flee and there aren't any death throes.

One nice thing, though, is that these spiders seem to be able to eat like civilized creatures. Meaning, they can eat the food raw and digest it internally, rather than having to inject their meal with enzymes to reduce it to slurpable sludge before ingesting it.

Thanks for the spider, Amber and Clair.

Bed bugs are on the rise, and people are worried. Check out this Google search volume over the past few years:













For those of you who haven't been afflicted with them (like me), here's what they look like. Though they can get to be the size of an apple seed, below is a young nymph out exploring the new world of the photographer's skin. So much to look forward to, little parasite. So many uncharted patches of human flesh to explore and feed off of.

Thanks for the link, Moneca.

Photo source: Alexander Wild

Grandfather Graybeard

Photo source: Michael Salvato
Why is this webless, venomless, mite-relative called a harvestman? They harvest nothing! Nothing!

It's because of the time of year they're most frequently spotted: late summer and fall. In fact, their names in French (faucheux: haymaker, and faucheurs: reaper) and in German (Afterspinnen: pseudo-spiders, and Zimmermaenner: carpenters) mean similar things.

They're also called daddy-long-legs or harvest-spiders, shepherd-spiders, grandfather-graybeards (which is what I want to be called when I'm an old man).

This has always been confusing, because where I grow up, daddy-long-legs do spin webs, very messy ones, and they're all over the place at all times. For those of you who are similarly confused, here's your answer: what we've been calling daddy-long-legs are also called cellar spiders, and they are true spiders, unlike the harvestman.

Your Master, Atherix Ibis

Photo source: Fabrice Parais via Popular Science
Behold your new master. Behold his face and be afraid, behold his arms, outstretched to welcome his new subjects.

Or, look at the hind end of a watersnipe fly larvae (Atherix ibis). The presence of these tiny freshwater creatures are actually good indicators of overall water quality. They have nothing to do with world dominance -- yet.

Thanks for the photo, Ida.

Giving Up Gluttony

Sometimes caterpillars come with such amazing shapes and colors and spines and fur and toxins and appetites that I wonder why they even bother becoming butterflies. Why give up a life of carefree gluttony for flight and nectar and mating?

I think that is a question best answered by the poets among us. It's an answer a lot of our refuse-to-leave-the-nest youth (and not so young) don't want to hear.

Active Self Defense

The New Guinea Bush Frog (Asterophrys turpicola) is a frog after my own heart. Native to Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, this frog isn't a pushover.

If it's threatened, it will inflate itself and gape its mouth--all the better to expose its blue tongue. If that doesn't drive off the predator, then the frog attacks. It'll leap at its foe and latch on with its mouth, often not letting go for several minutes.

My eleven-month-old son has similar defensive abilities, though he adds a screech and the occasional spray of spit-up to his arsenal. His sisters have learned to catch him unawares by approaching from behind, downwind, while one of them distracts him by waving one of his favorite toys at him. Then they pounce and get in a quick hug and snuggle, before he resorts to pulling hair and going after their fingers with his new-found teeth.

Photo source: vespadelus