Notices by kho (kho@shitposter.club), page 14
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 07-Sep-2023 02:49:18 JST 
kho
Pea crabs (Pinnotheres ostreum) or oyster crabs (Zaops ostreus) are small soft-bodied crabs that live in bivalves such as oysters and mussels. They are kleptoparasites, which means they steal food from their host to survive. Once they enter an oyster, they live inside the oyster's gills and feed on the food that filters in. Since both crabs behave similarly, we will refer to both generally as "pea crabs."
Pea crabs find their oyster hosts very early on when both are still larvae. The crabs spawn a month after the oysters, which allows them to find oyster spat settled out of the water column. Pea crabs are free-swimming in the early stages to seek out their oyster hosts, but males remain free-swimming for life to find mates from oyster to oyster. Once female larvae find their hosts, they remain there until maturity and lay their eggs inside. That's why you may find more than one pea crab in an oyster. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2023 08:40:34 JST
kho
Pterochroza ocellata, the peacock katydid, is an insect in the family Tettigoniidae from the Amazon rainforest in South America. The species is a leaf-mimic katydid; when it is in repose its camouflage resembles a diseased or dead leaf. The katydid owes both its common name and its specific epithet (ocellata, meaning "marked with little eyes") to its startle display, in which it shows false eye spots on its normally hidden hind wings.
The adult Pterochroza ocellata is about 45mm to 65mm in length. In its protective camouflage it resembles a dried leaf. If in spite of its camouflage it is threatened, the katydid exposes its hind wings, displaying two conspicuous eye spots.
No two individual Pterochroza ocellata are identical in their color pattern or the shape of the wings; this reduces the risk that predators could learn to recognize a fixed visual pattern. As in all katydids, their organs of hearing, or tympana, are on their front legs just below the joint between the femur and the tibia. The antennae are long, even for Tettigoniidae, being two to three times the length of the body.
As in most Tettigoniidae, the male attracts females with a high-pitched call, which it produces by rubbing one fore-wing over a scraper on the other fore-wing. This sound has been suggested to double as interference for the echolocation of bats, one of its many natural predators. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2023 08:40:33 JST
kho
Seeing the dark-edged bee-fly hover in mid-air, some people describe it as a tiny, fluffy, flying narwhale. It has a hairy little body and face, and a very long, straw-like tongue.
At a glance, it's easy to mistake one for a bee. But these small fluffy creatures buzzing around looking for nectar are actually flies. And they have a fascinating lifestyle.
This is the most common bee-fly species in the UK. It is widespread across England, Wales and Scotland, occurring in urban gardens and city parks as well as in woodland and coastal areas.
It is one of the earliest bee-flies to emerge. Having pupated over winter, dark-edged bee-flies usually start to appear in March, but people sometimes report sightings as early as mid-February after unseasonally warm and sunny days - they don't usually fly in temperatures less than 17oC.
When they aren't whizzing from flower to flower, these sunseekers will often sunbathe on bare ground or dead leaves.
While adult bee-flies are adorable, a young bee-fly isn't quite as endearing. The larva is a parasitoid, meaning it is a parasite that will end up killing its host.
When the eggs hatch, the bee-fly larvae are very active. They have false legs that they use to enter the burrow of the bees and they have been known to stuff their faces with all the pollen left for the bee babies. Then they go through a second metamorphosis, called hyper-metamorphosis, which is very rare in the insect world. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2023 08:40:29 JST
kho
The breathtaking Claudina Butterfly is a truly dazzling Lepidoptera. Although best known for its great visual appeal, it also qualifies as impressive for yet another reason. That’s the fact that, along with that beauty, the creature also attains a highly respectable physical size. Total wingspan varies significantly between individuals, as with many related species. In its case, however, that variation has nothing to do with gender. Overall, though, a wingspan for a mature adult varies from about 2.8 – 4.7 in (7 – 12 cm). That’s quite large for a butterfly.
The upperside of the wings of this natural wonder present a magnificent view. More precisely, these typically present as dark black, with brilliant crimson red patches showing on the forewings. The fascinating insect also generally manifests small patches of blue.
The underside of the wings of the Claudina Butterfly, though, are quite different than the upperside. This part of the anatomy of the invertebrate presents a striking combination of colors and patterns. Overall, though, the colors include red, blue, black, and gold. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2023 08:40:28 JST
kho
Agrius convolvuli, the convolvulus hawk-moth, is a large hawk-moth. It is common throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, partly as a migrant.
Its favourite time is around sunset and during the twilight, when it is seen in gardens hovering over the flowers. This moth is very attracted to light, so it is often killed by cars on highways. Its caterpillars eat the leaves of the Convolvulus, hence its Latin name "convolvuli". Other recorded food plants include a wide range of plants in the families Araceae, Convolvulaceae, Leguminosae and Malvaceae. It can be a pest of cultivated Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato or kūmara) in New Zealand and the Pacific. It feeds on the wing and has a very long proboscis (longer than its body) that enables it to feed on long trumpet-like flowers such as Nicotiana sylvestris. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2023 08:40:27 JST
kho
True velvet mites are small, velvety, usually bright red mites often seen creeping around on rocks, planters, tree trunks, or on the ground, especially after a rain. They are harmless to people.
Like most other arachnids, the adults of true velvet mites have eight legs, which readily distinguishes them from insects, which have six legs. However, in their tiny, larval stage, velvet mites have six legs — but you will probably only see them attached to an insect or other arthropod.
Also, true velvet mites, like other mites, have only one obvious body section; the mouthparts look like they’re stuck onto the overall egg-shaped body. In contrast, insects have three body parts (head, thorax, and abdomen) and spiders have two (cephalothorax and abdomen).
True velvet mites and their relatives begin as eggs, which hatch into a form called a prelarva, which molts into successive larval, nymphal (protonymph, deutonymph, tritonymph), and adult forms. Several of these stages are inactive: the egg, the prelarva, the protonymph, and the tritonymph, the latter two being something like the pupae of insects. The stages that are active are the larval stage, where the mite is an external parasite on insects or arachnids, and the deutonymph and adult stages, which are free-living. The adults eat the eggs of insects, or insects. The adults mate and produce eggs for the next generation. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2023 08:40:27 JST
kho
The pea aphid is a pest of legume crops including, peas, clovers, and alfalfa. Heavy populations may develop when insecticides used to kill other alfalfa pests and with little to no activity against aphids kill the predators and parasites of this aphid.
Pea aphid is about 1/6 inch (4 mm) long and ranges in color from light to dark green. Prolonged periods of cool temperatures [50°F to 60°F (10°C to 15.5°C)] and dry conditions are conducive to the development of pea aphid populations.
Up to twenty generations develop during the season. The entire life cycle takes about 12 days. Populations can increase rapidly since each female can produce 50 to 100 nymphs.
You might not think much about pea aphids, but it turns out they've got skills enough to get aerospace engineers excited. A report in the February 4th issue of Current Biology shows that the insects can free fall from the plants they feed on and—within a fraction of a second—land on their feet every time. Oftentimes, the falling aphids manage to cling to a lower part of the plant by their sticky feet on the way down, avoiding the dangerous ground altogether.
That's despite the fact that most aphids in a colony are wingless and have no special body surfaces to turn themselves right-side up. Rather, high-speed video analysis shows that they hold their bodies and limbs in a special posture, which allows them to passively rotate and then stay in a back-up, feet-down position. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Sep-2023 08:40:26 JST
kho
The tongue-eating louse—Cymothoa exigua—is one of the most disgusting parasites known to man. The louse is found in the Gulf of California and enters its host (the spotted rose snapper) through the fins. Several male lice enter the fish at once and then one of these will develop into a female. The female will then travel to the host’s mouth where it attaches to the base of the tongue. The organ’s blood supply is cut off, causing it to die and detach.
Now the parasite acts as the fish’s tongue by binding to the remaining muscle. It feeds off the host’s blood and also algae and mucus that it collects in its mouth. And what about the other lice? Well, they remain in the fish’s gill chamber and may occasionally leave their new home to mate with the female. The host fish is able to live with the parasite for years and apart from the obvious damage to the tongue, it remains relatively unharmed. The tongue-eating louse is the only known parasite that replaces an organ of its host. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 30-Aug-2023 06:48:19 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Camel spiders, which aren’t spiders at all, are creatures swirled in myth, legend, and viral fame. There are over 1,000 different species of camel spiders. These creatures are actually different members of the arachnid family, in the order Solifugae, but are neither spiders or scorpions. They are also known as “solifuges,” “sun spiders,” and “wind scorpions.”
The largest species of solifugae family can reach up to 6 in. long, including legs. They superficially resemble spiders, but appear to have five pairs of legs. In reality, the first “legs” are actually pedipalps, which are small extensions near the mouth that are used to aid in feeding. These creatures have incredibly long mouthparts, called chelicerae. Each chelicera has a crab-like pincer on the end, which is used for tearing hair and feathers from carrion.
Depending on the species, some camel spiders are carnivores and some are omnivores. The vast majority of species prey on termites, beetles, and other insects and arthropods. Larger species will feed on larger prey. As opportunistic feeders they will eat virtually anything they can capture. Some uncommon but recorded prey includes snakes, small rodents, lizards, and more. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 30-Aug-2023 06:48:18 JST
kho
The horseshoe crab, scientifically known as Limulus polyphemus, is a unique marine animal that has been around for more than 450 million years. Despite its ancient origins, the horseshoe crab plays a crucial role in modern biomedical research.
The horseshoe crab has unique blue blood that contains a substance called Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL). LAL is used to test for bacterial contamination in medical equipment, vaccines, and injectable drugs. The horseshoe crab’s blood contains a clotting agent that reacts to the presence of bacterial endotoxins. This reaction is used to determine if a product is contaminated with bacteria, making LAL an essential tool in the fight against bacterial infections.
The horseshoe crab’s blood is also used to study the immune system. The amebocytes, or white blood cells, of the horseshoe crab have been found to have similar properties to the white blood cells of vertebrates. This has led to the study of the horseshoe crab’s immune system as a model for understanding the human immune system.
Despite their name and appearance, horseshoe crabs aren’t crabs. In fact, they aren’t crustaceans at all and are actually arthropods in the subphylum Chelicerata. This means they are more closely related to sea spiders, scorpions, and other arachnids than to the crustaceans whose name they share.
Along with numerous eyes, horseshoe crabs also have several legs numbering 10 in total. Five of the pairs, or pedipalps, are used for locomotion. In the males, the pedipalps change over time and eventually become glove-shaped so as to help them better hold on to females during mating. Like other arthropods, the front two legs, or chelicerae, or smaller and are specially designed to help the crabs move food into the mouth. Although they appear rather clumsy on land, horseshoe crabs can move rather freely in the water. They possess a flap-like structure next to the abdomen known as book gills that allow them to breathe underwater. However, these gills also provide another benefit: the ability to swim upside-down. These underwater acrobatics demonstrate that there’s more to horseshoe crabs than meets the eye.
Also the Pokemon, Kabuto, is based on the horseshoe crab: "Kabuto is said to still exist in the Pokémon world’s present day, suggesting that it's partially inspired by another group of arthropods called the limulids, or horseshoe crabs, which is called kabutogani in Japanese. " -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 28-Aug-2023 05:42:05 JST
kho
Few insects boast a truly gold-colored body. The Golden Tortoise Beetle is even more remarkable because it can actually change its coloring at will thanks to microscopic cavities in its cuticle that house pigmentation. The beetle's metallic sheen can be dulled, and that lovely gold can become brown. Upon death, the metallic glimmer fades. Like a tortoise, the body of the beetle is humped, or rounded, as if the wing coverings were actually a shell. The bottom edges of the beetle's eltyra are transparent, like glass.
Adult tortoise beetles use some unique features to protect themselves from predators. They can cover themselves with their clear pronotum and elytra, which are flanged plate-like structures that extend beyond their oval-shaped bodies. The hardened shell protects them much like a tortoise’s shell, hence the name tortoise beetle. This feature makes it difficult for predators to capture them. They can also evade predators by suddenly dropping off the leaf on which they are sitting. It is an effective “disappearing act.”
Fascinatingly, it also developed a very special relationship with certain flora. That’s because the unique invertebrate evolved to feed only on a specific family of plants, the Connolvulaceae. This family includes several species, including morning glories, bindweeds, and sweet potatoes. In fact, both the larvae and the adults feed on the foliage of these species exclusively. While not unknown, this characteristic remains uncommon enough to garner great interest among researchers. This case, therefore, makes for a rather fascinating example of coevolution.
In the attached video you can see it change color. When a golden tortoise beetle is agitated or under attack from a predator, it contracts the spaces between the layers of cuticle and forces liquid out of the grooves — doing away with the iridescence and usually revealing a brownish-orange color. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 28-Aug-2023 05:42:04 JST
kho
Had limited internet service yesterday, but here was yesterday's arthropod:
Fire ants, aka Solenopsis spp, are dark reddish brown. Their head is lighter than their abdomen, and their size ranges from 1/8-3/8 inch in length. The queen is longer than the workers. They generally possess two segment antennal clubs.
These ants have a painful sting which can cause a raised welt. A white pustule appears, which lasts for 48 hours. Notably, their stings react severely to the people who are allergic to insects.
Fire ants are found in southern parts of the United States. These ants make their nests outdoors and near buildings, making them agricultural and urban pests. They can enter through holes and cracks to invest in the structure. Their nests can usually be found near logs. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 28-Aug-2023 05:42:04 JST
kho
Black Horse Flies are about an inch long, making them highly visible and somewhat intriguing to watch. They are fast fliers despite their hefty size. Females feed on blood, and they are not averse to taking it from anything that has it. Their mouth parts cut open flesh, allowing blood to ooze out. They use a proboscis to sponge up the blood, leaving behind an open wound. These wounds can become infected, which poses a threat to livestock health. They are also very painful bites for humans. Males do not bite and do not drink blood. Males actually drink flower nectar and spend their days looking for females to mate with.
Males and females are both completely black, but males have huge eyes that touch each other at the center of the face; the eyes of females are separated. It's the size of the eyes that strikes curiosity in most people that see them. The color of the eyes may vary depending on the lighting. Facets comprising each eye reflect light, so sometimes their eyes appear black, sometimes silver (see photo gallery) and sometimes shades of their surroundings.
This species is found in the eastern part of the continent. Females lay fertilized eggs on or near water sources. Maggots (larvae) feed on other aquatic insects and worms. Chemicals, home remedies, and special collars exist as methods used to deter the presence of Horse Flies, especially in stables. ©InsectIdentification.org -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 28-Aug-2023 05:42:03 JST
kho
Today's arthropod:
The Cyanide millipede—Harpaphe haydeniana—is the chemist of the arthropod world. This millipede produces hydrogen cyanide (HCN) to hunt prey and to protect itself against any threats. This lethal substance has proved very effective and as a result of this adaptation, the millipede has very few natural predators.
Storing HCN is extremely complex. If it is stored at room temperature, it could harm the millipede. So instead of storing this substance, the cyanide millipede stores two other chemicals, (mandelonitrile and benzoyl cyanide) in various segments of its body. When it needs to release the cyanide, chambers open and the different chemicals mix. The gas is ejected from millions of pores around the body at its prey or in defense against a predator. The millipede produces up to 0.6 milligrams of HCN, which can kill mice, predatory beetles and stun larger predators.
The millipede is found on the west coast of North America from California to British Columbia and grows to five centimeters in length. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 24-Aug-2023 00:01:07 JST
kho
@coolboymew it's a different whip scorpion - vinegaroon -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Aug-2023 23:57:47 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Tailless Whip Scorpions are spiderlike in appearance.. Due in part to their nocturnal lifestyle and bizarre, frightening appearance, very little is known about this arachnid order. An Amblypygid , the Mexican tailless whip-scorpion was featured in the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
The body of the Tailless whip-scorpion is is flat. It has ten legs, and its first legs are very long, thin and whip-like. This Amblyplygid’s pedipalps (pincer-bearing front arms adapted for sensory and predatory use) are spiny and powerful. Whip-scorpions found in the El Yunque National Forest can be quite large (19 to 25 inches/48 to 63 centimeters, including legs) when compared to those found in other tropical areas, possibly because there are no large mammal predators on the island. Adult females are larger than males.
Whip-scorpions are nocturnal, emerging at night to hunt and kill their prey. They eat frogs, small animals, large insects and crustaceans. They capture prey by seizing and holding it with their pedipalps and then killing and eating it with their strong jaws. Although they are Arachnids, they do not have spinnerets (tubular structures used to secrete silk thread) and therefore do not spin webs. Whip-scorpions do not produce venom and are harmless to humans. Whip-scorpions fasten their pedipalps together when they are mating to prevent the female from killing and eating the male when mating is finished. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Aug-2023 23:57:47 JST
kho
Looking at this butterfly it is easy to understand why it is called ‘The Emperor of India’. With its shimmering greens, bright yellows and delicate blacks, this rare butterfly is a visual delight.
This magnificent butterfly is found along the Eastern Himalayas (West Bengal, Meghalaya, Assam, Sikkim and Manipur) in India. In these areas, it occurs at medium and higher elevations from 6000 to 10,000 feet in well-wooded terrain.
It has a strong and fast flight. It usually flies at tree-top level but when there is strong morning sunlight it descends to sit on low vegetation. April to July is the period when it is in flight. Its eggs are laid on the underside of leaves and are pale purplish red in colour and smooth and spherical in shape. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:45 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The daddy longlegs belongs to the order Opiliones. Unlike in spiders, the number of eyes of daddy longlegs, as well as body type, sex organs, and defensive mechanisms, are all different.
In opilionids, the head, thorax, and abdomen are fused into one thoracic cavity. Spiders, of the order Araneae, have a distinct waist between the cephalothorax and the abdomen. Opilionids have just two eyes, compared to the usual eight in spiders.
Daddy longlegs also do not produce silk, unlike spiders. They do not spin webs, and they do not use webs to capture prey. If you find a harvestman in a web, it does not live there. It probably would like to be rescued from the spider that is about to eat it.
Daddy longlegs are not venomous. They do not have fangs, nor venom glands. Most spiders, with only a few exceptions, produce venom.
They will voluntarily shed legs to get away from predators, but sadly a new appendage does not grow back if it is already full grown. There is some hope if it is in the nymph stage that the leg might grow back.
Its legs are not just vital to locomotion, they are also nerve centers. Through its legs, the daddy longlegs may sense vibrations, smells, and tastes. Pull the legs off a harvestman, and you might be limiting its ability to make sense of the world. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:44 JST
kho
Giant water bugs—Kirkaldyia deyrolli—are mostly found in East Asia, Australia and the Americas. These bugs are some of the largest in the world (measuring up to fifteen centimeters long) and hunt small fish and amphibians. They are also known to consume snakes and turtles. They wait at the bottom of freshwater rivers and lakes for their prey. When a potential meal comes by, the giant water bug injects powerful digestive fluid into it so that the insides of the prey turn to liquid for easier ingestion. The bug has one of the most painful bites in the insect world.
The male bugs take a very active role in reproduction. Around seven hundred eggs are laid on the male’s wings and remain there until they are ready to hatch. The giant water bug is used in Asian cuisine and it is a popular snack in Thailand. The pheromones it secretes are used in production of an expensive dipping sauce. -
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Sunday, 20-Aug-2023 17:58:14 JST
kho
Earwigs are generally harmless bugs with a bad reputation. Despite what you may have heard, they are not known to climb into your ears, although there have been cases of earwigs being found in the ear. The name is inaccurate. The bug’s name comes from the Old English words ear wicga, which roughly translates to “ear wiggler” or “ear creature,” which is how the myth began about this type of insect crawling into your ears while you sleep. Even more disturbing, the mistaken belief held that once in the ear, these insects can tunnel into your brain and lay eggs there. This, too, is false. These bugs aren’t even interested in entering the human ear.
The adult earwig is brownish-black and about three-quarters of an inch long. The male’s forceps are curved and the female's are straight. Earwigs have a tiny pair of rear wings that look like fans when they’re open. Even though it has wings, the insect isn’t big on flying.
Looks are deceiving when it comes to earwigs. Their claw-like forceps, called cerci, can seem menacing at first glance. But they use their pincers for protection from other animals and to capture prey, not to pinch or bite people.
All in all, earwigs aren’t dangerous. They don’t usually bite people or spread disease. But you could get pinched by their “claws” if you pick up an earwig. The pinch might hurt, but their pincers don’t have venom. But they can wreak havoc on gardens, fruit, and leaves and stunt the growth of young seedlings.
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