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1. kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Saturday, 02-Sep-2023 04:01:29 JST kho

   • 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 Sunday, 03-Sep-2023 00:42:24 JST kho

     in reply to
     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 Thursday, 07-Sep-2023 02:48:58 JST kho

     in reply to
     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.
   • kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 07-Sep-2023 02:48:58 JST kho

     in reply to
     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.