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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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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The Spiny Flower Mantis-
This species of flower mantis is white with green stripes on the legs. The eyes are purple, depending on the light conditions this can vary from lilac to deep purple. As nymphs these mantids have an orange spot on the upside of the abdomen which scares away predators by mimicking an eye. As adults they have wings with a black and yellow ‘swirl’ on them, also mimicking an eye. If you threaten a spiny flower mantis, it will put its wings upwards to show the two eyes. The thinner wings that are under the top wings are bright yellow. The spiny flower mantis is very beautiful and spectacular.
This species is cannibalistic, like most species of praying mantis. It will eat anything that moves and is the correct size, also members of its own species or family members.
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Alipes grandidieri, most commonly known as the feather-tail centipede, is a species of centipede. It is a member of the genus Alipes and the family Scolopendridae. The genus, Alipes, means "wing-leg". It was first described from Zanzibar, as Eucorybas Grandidieri [sic] by Hippolyte Lucas in 1864.
It has distinctive, elongated ultimate legs with laterally-flattened pads on the distal portions, resembling feathers. When threatened they will shake these legs and make a hissing sound. The body is 10–15 cm long.
If you are bitten by a Feather-Tail Centipede, prepare for the following consequences (we warn you, they are not deadly). Stings can be extremely painful and take a long time (1-2 days) to heal. The main symptoms that can be revealed right after the sting are a sharp and persistent pain; it can be insignificant or be a 10 on a scale of the pain of 1 to 10.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The Brazilian Wandering Spider (Phoneutria fera) is an aggressive and highly venomous spider. It was first discovered in Brazil hence its name. However, this genus is known to exist elsewhere in South and Central America.
The Brazilian wandering spider can grow to have a leg span of up to 4 – 5 inches. They are large hairy spindly-looking spiders who have eight eyes, two of which are large. Brazilian wandering spiders are fast-moving spiders, their legs are strong and spiny and they have distinctive red jaws which they display when angered.
The Brazilian Wandering spider is so-called because it wanders the jungle floor, rather than residing in a lair or maintaining a web. This is another reason it is considered so dangerous. In densely populated areas, the Brazilian Wandering spider will usually search for cover and dark places to hide during daytime, leading it to hide within houses, clothes, cars, boots, boxes and log piles. This usually causes accidents when people disturb them.
The Brazilian Wandering spider is also called the ‘banana spider’ as it is occasionally found within shipments of bananas. As a result, any large spider appearing in a bunch of bananas should be treated with due care.
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Paper wasps manufacture paper for their nests from tiny fibers exfoliated from exposed, weathered wood. Paper wasps use their mandibles to compress wood fibers into thin sheets, which they use as nest and covering cells. except for the paper wasp, where the cells are not enclosed. Nests built this way are structurally resilient and relatively weather resistant. Inside the nest, the cells along the perimeter are roughly circular, while the inner cells are more hexagonal. The number of cells within a nest depends on the colony size. Nests are usually arranged with the opening facing the bottom or bottom. Paper wasp and Polyvia nests typically contain only one layer of cells.
Once a dominance hierarchy is established within a new colony, the queen bee is responsible for most of the egg laying and subordinates are responsible for caring for the offspring. Worker bees take care of the chicks and are also responsible for growing the nest. The difference between workers and females is that females are produced only in the late stages and workers emerge throughout the reproductive period. In addition, hens are inactive in the nest. Ginkgoes mate before overwintering and, if successful, become spawners for the following season.
Most of the Polistes workers remain in their natal nests and work as helpers. In all but a few species of paper wasps, the female emerges mid-season and acts as a helper until the queen is gone. Significant differences in aid are found among casters of various species of paper wasps. Within Nest, we can see that co-founders are more than 50% related. The degree of relationship between the co-founders may explain the advantage of joining the Nest as a subordinate rather than developing another Nest that is less likely to succeed. Minions provide labor to care for the dominant Founder's descendants, reducing the Founder's mortality rate by taking over the more dangerous gathering work.
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According to Atlas Obscura, gooseneck barnacles got their name centuries ago when medieval naturalists stumbled upon these claw-like sea creatures and thought they were goose eggs. They witnessed the crustaceans fall into the water and believed baby geese emerged fully formed from the dislodged barnacles.
Barnacles are classified with shrimps, crabs, isopods and amphipods in the subphylum Crustacea. They are included in the class Maxillopoda, though this class does not appear to be a monophyletic grouping.[3] They are included in the infraclass Cirripedia, the barnacles, members of which are sessile suspension feeders with two active swimming larval stages, the nauplius and the cyprid. The order Pedunculata includes barnacles attached to the substrate by stalks, the goose barnacles. The attachment is made by the cementing of the antennules of the cyprid larvae to the substrate and the elongation of that region into a stalk. Pedunculata is not itself a single monophyletic group but forms a transitional series of lineages moving towards the sessile acorn barnacles.
This seafood is among the most expensive in the world and can go for as much as $125 a pound. Toronto Life reports that in Europe, a kilogram of gooseneck barnacles could yield $500. Their price is related to a limited supply and the risk a fisherman must face to obtain this delicacy.
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Duff millipedes are only rarely observed in natural settings because of their minute size and coloration that blends well with their background. However, periodically duff millipedes will migrate into buildings where they may attract considerable attention. Large numbers of them may show up, sometimes abruptly. Largest invasions of duff millipedes tend to occur most often during hot, dry periods of summer. However, they may be present in homes from the middle of spring into autumn.
They feed on algae, fungi and decaying organic matter. Tree bark is the most common location for most duff millipedes (Figure 3) but they also may occur among fallen leaves and needles and even have been associated with debris within ant nests. Egg fertilization is indirect with the male spinning a small silken mat upon which sperm is deposited. Silk strands guide females which then gather the sperm into their genital opening. The females then lay eggs in the form of a sticky mass that are covered with protective hairs of the body.
Unlike most millipedes the body of duff millipedes is not hardened (calcified) and they lack chemical defenses. Instead they protect themselves by means of the hairs that protrude from the tip of the abdomen. These are hooked and can readily detach when the duff millipede is attacked by an ant, pseudoscorpion or other predator. Attempts to remove the hairs only further entangle the predator and ants may die from an encounter with the hairs of the duff millipede. The hairs are replaced at the next molt and their loss may accelerate the onset of molting.
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Common scorpionflies (Panorpidae) is the largest family of scorpionflies, and it is only this family that has the upturned scorpion-like genitalia or 'tail' that gives the order its name. They are brownish yellow and black insects with mottled wings and are found among shaded vegetation and in hedgerows.
They feed on dead or dying insects (including any they might spot in a spider's web) and are also partial to ripe fruit and, when it's available, human sweat.
The adults look somewhat scary but are in fact quite harmless. Common scorpionfly larvae mostly live in soil and look like caterpillars, having eight pairs of feet and sometimes spines.
Panorpid males attract females by vibrating their wings, and may let them feed on their saliva while mating.
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