Notices by kho (kho@shitposter.club), page 10
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:50 JST 
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The ghost crab is aptly named due to its nocturnal activity and sandy colouration, making the crab perfectly camouflaged into the beach backdrop. These crabs are found on sandy beaches and live in burrows. The narrower and shorter the burrow the smaller the crab. Their burrows serve a number of purposes: protection from predation, storage of their food, protection from drying out and other extreme weather conditions as well as a place to mate (although not all ghost crabs mate in burrows).
Young crabs and female crabs create burrows with sand scattered everywhere, with young crabs preferring to create burrows nearer to the water, whilst male crabs have burrows with a neat mound of sand outside – the larger the crab the larger the mound. Males produce mating sounds, squeaking noises, in a variety of ways; by rubbing their right claw on their leg, by rubbing their legs together, or by using their gill chambers, which they keep moist with saltwater.
After mating the females store thousands of eggs inside an abdominal flap. She will then venture into the sea when the eggs are ready to hatch. Since ghost crabs cannot swim the female will float upside down in the water allowing the eggs in her abdomen to breathe. Upon contact with saltwater the larvae are released and after two months return to land.
The exoskeleton of a ghost crab is water tight, which prevents the crab from drying out in the arid and salty conditions on the beach. All ghost crabs have eye stalks with the males additionally having horns. These eyestalks enable the crab to see in any direction and can be stored in groves on their shells. The ghost crab’s eye sight is so good that they are able to catch insects’ mid-flight. They also have a well-developed sense of smell. They are very agile, capable of moving at 10mph, which makes them the fastest of all crustaceans. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:49 JST
kho
With its iconic orange and black markings, the monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable species in North America. Monarchs are particularly remarkable because they migrate each year, flying from as far as Canada and across the United States to congregate at a few forested overwintering sites in the mountains of central Mexico and coastal California. These sites are an amazing phenomenon: thousands of monarchs cluster in the trees in California, and millions of monarchs drape large swathes of forest in Mexico.
This butterfly is notorious for the beauty of its orange, white and black wings, its long migration, and its toxicity. The butterfly lays its eggs almost exclusively on milkweed plants, which are poisonous. As the caterpillar eats the leaves of the plant, it collects toxins called cardiac glycosides which persist mostly in the wings and the abdomen of the adult. Some clever predators seem to know this and avoid those parts of the butterfly. A monarch butterfly that feeds from butterfly weed, which is a popular plant people put in their gardens to attract butterflies also collects toxins. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:49 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. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:48 JST
kho
Epimeria rubrieques sp. n., belonging to the cold water family Paramphithoidae, occurred relatively often in Agassiz and bottom trawls taken during several German Antarctic Expeditions into the eastern Weddell Sea since 1983. Although this species is very conspicuous because of its long mid-dorsal teeth, bright pink-red colour and large size (up to 70 mm), it has only been recorded in the Weddell Sea. The new species is compared to its closest relatives Epimeria macrodonta and E. similis, and an updated key to the 14 species of Antarctic Epimeria is provided. Observations on the general and feeding behaviour of living specimens of Epimeria rubrieques sp. n. in aquaria showed the species to be an ambush predator and a weakly motile epibenthic walker, which swims only rarely. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:47 JST
kho
and the arthropod of today:
Dermatobia hominis, commonly known as the human botfly, is a species of fly found in Central and South America. The genus name, Dermatobia, is derived from the Greek words derma, meaning "skin," and bios, meaning "life," referring to the fly's habit of laying its eggs on the skin of its host. The species name, hominis, is Latin for "human," referring to the fly's primary host species.
It is a large fly, measuring up to 8 mm in length, with a yellowish-brown body and a black head. It is distinguished by its long, curved proboscis and its two pairs of wings. It is a parasite, laying its eggs on the skin of mammals, such as cattle, horses, and humans. The eggs hatch into larvae, which feed on the host's tissue. The larvae can live up to two months before dropping off the host and pupating in the soil. The adult fly lives for up to two weeks. The current population of Dermatobia hominis is unknown, but it is believed to be widespread in its range.
After the eggs are laid by the female botfly, the larvae hatch after about six days, and rapidly penetrate the skin, even when the skin is intact and healthy. They can cause some symptoms such as:
Formation of wounds on the skin, with redness and slight swelling on the region;
Release of a yellowish or bloody fluid from the sores on the skin;
Sensation of something stirring under the skin;
Pain or intense itching at the wound site.
https://youtu.be/NzwV7wvJVrc?t=52 -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:47 JST
kho
Forgot to post it here again, but here is the arthropod of yesterday:
The robber fly is a predator of almost all flying insects. It injects a fluid into its victims that breaks down the muscle tissue. A few species of the genus Promachus are serious pests of apiaries because they feed on bees. Each species has a characteristic habitat—e.g., tree trunk, foliage, grass, low plant, dead twig, gravel, or beach sand.
Adults lay eggs in the soil or in plants. Eggs hatch into slender, shiny, white, legless larvae that develop through several stages before pupating. The life cycle usually requires more than one year to complete.
Adults have piercing-sucking mouthparts. Adult robber flies perch on stems of low plants or other objects and attack prey in the air. They feed on bees, beetles, dragonflies, other flies, grasshoppers, leafhoppers, wasps, and other insects. Larvae live in the soil, in wood and other habitats, feeding on organic matter, other arthropods such as white grubs, beetle pupae and grasshopper egg masses, and they may be carnivorous. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:45 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Railroad worms – A species of glowworm beetle, the railroad beetle gets its name from the bioluminescence “windows” it has on its body. Female railroad worms have sections of their bodies, when they light up, are similar to train windows. Often the males of these species won’t be in larvae form, instead are adult beetles. The males have very elaborate, antennae, which they use to detect and follow the pheromones produced by the female.
Ironically, the insect they are mistaken for is the same insect they prefer to eat, the millipede. To no surprise, these insects are welcomed into gardens because they help eat all of the garden pests. It is believed, their luminescence is used to deter nocturnal predators from eating them. A sign that they are unpalatable. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:44 JST
kho
Today's arthropod:
The giant isopod is one of the largest isopods in the world, and it can be any one of the 20 species of big isopods. These creatures are in the cold and deep waters in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans. Giant isopods are closely related to decapods such as crabs and shrimps, which are found in the Bathynomus genus.
It is the largest crustaceans and members of the isopod family. They are terrestrial crustaceans, much like the pill bugs. The resemblance is uncanny. These isopods are the ocean’s clean-up crew, and their large size is the result of the sea gigantism phenomenon.
Giant isopods are different than your typical isopod because they grow quite large. Their size is the result of abyssal gigantism which makes them grow between 6.7 to 19.7 inches in size for super-giant isopods, and the giant isopods reach 6 inches in size. The Bathynomus giganteus is the largest of the species, reaching nearly 30 inches in size. The morphology resembles the woodlouse and pill bug. They have calcareous exoskeletons made of overlapping segments.
They have large compound eyes that contain 4,000 facets and is separated on their head. The giant isopod has two pairs of antennae, and their first shell segments are fused to the head, which allows them to curl up into a ball that leaves their shell exposed as a form of protection against predators. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Aug-2023 03:16:42 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. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 07:20:08 JST
kho
@coolboymew the bunny ear ones live in Equador in rainforests :nttwomanbunnyears: -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 07:05:13 JST
kho
2 arthropods today due to missing yesterday - so it is the fire and ice bugs:
Fire bugs, or fire beetles, appear in droves. And they are quite a nuisance. However, European fire bugs are not really harmful, in contrast to the thick-mouthed weevil, aphids, cherry vinegar flies, plum moths or slugs. Experts agree that fire bugs do not destroy plants. Therefore, it is not necessary to control them.
Fire bugs do not have biting tools and therefore cannot gnaw plant parts. Instead, they use a type of proboscis to suck out fallen seeds and other plant debris.
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Grylloblattidae, commonly known as the icebugs, or ice crawlers, is a family of extremophile (psychrophile) and wingless insects that live in the cold on top of mountains and the edges of glaciers. They belong, along with Mantophasmatidae (rock crawlers), to the order Notoptera. Grylloblattids are wingless insects mostly less than 3 cm long, with a head resembling that of a cockroach, with long antennae and having elongated cerci arising from the tip of their abdomen. They cannot tolerate warmth (most species will die at 10 °C) and many species have small distribution ranges. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 07:05:06 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Also known as “Calling crabs” occasionally, Fiddler Crabs are small arthropods belonging to the family of crabs.
The term “fiddler” is used to refer to someone who plays the violin. One of the claws of the male Fiddler Crabs is much larger than the other one, held in front of their body just a fiddler holds his violin. This is why they have been named “fiddler”.
Fiddler Crabs are known for walking sideways.
Fiddler Crabs are among one of the smaller crab species, and live up to 2 years in captivity when they are taken good care of. However, in the wild, they can live up to the age of 7 years.
The natural habitat of the Fiddler Crabs is the coastal region, which is why these little creatures can be found on all continents, except Antarctica. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 07:05:06 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY🚨
Also known as lightning bugs, fireflies are beetles. Most fireflies are winged. That’s different from other light-producing insects of the same family, called glowworms. (Animals that produce light are called luminescent.)
Fireflies mostly use their light to “talk” to other fireflies and find a mate. They have special organs under their abdomens that take in oxygen. Inside special cells, they combine the oxygen with a substance called luciferin to make light with almost no heat. They use this light, called bioluminescence, to light up the ends of their abdomen.
Each firefly species has its own unique flashing pattern. When a male firefly wants to communicate with a female firefly, he flies near the ground while he flashes his light every six seconds. Once he’s near the ground, a female can more easily tell if he’s from the same species as she is. (Most female fireflies can’t fly.) She answers his flashes by turning on her lights. Then the male finds her. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 07:05:05 JST
kho
Woops this was arthropod of the day yesterday I forgot to post it here
The Indian red scorpion has been said to be the most lethal in the world. This tiny scorpion packs a huge punch. When stung, victims typically experience nausea, heart problems, discoloration of the skin, and, in more severe cases, pulmonary edema, an accumulation of fluid in the lungs.
Pulmonary edema causes shortness of breath and could lead to death. The severity of these symptoms depends on the amount of venom received and the susceptibility of the victim. According to clinical studies, however, prazosin, a drug for hypertension that is often given in the event of scorpion stings, reduces the risk of mortality to 4%. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 07:05:05 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillar can be solid black with two rows of yellow dots or bright red and have sting- or spine-like growths all over the body. They live on plants species belonging to the genus Aristolochia. As a defensive adaptation, they draw aristolochic acid from the food plants they consume in order to protect themselves from predators by being poisonous when consumed by the latter. This stage lasts for 3 to 4 weeks.
The Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly is a species of iridescent blue butterflies found in several parts of the Americas. They are mostly seen during the spring and the summer months in sunlit meadows and fields. Some species use the pipevine swallowtail as a template for mimicry.
When the wings are open, the dorsal surface of the hindwings display an iridescent blue or blue-green hue, which is more prominent in males than in females. There is also a row of white spots parallel to the border of the tailed hindwings. When the wings are closed, the ventral side of the hindwings shows a submarginal row of seven circular orange spots in an iridescent blue field highlighted with white. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 07:05:04 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
"Murder hornets"
V. mandarinia is the largest hornet in the world. A female worker may grow to a length of nearly four centimeters (an inch and a half), and the insect has large biting mouthparts that enable it to decapitate its victims. Hornets are usually solitary hunters. But between late summer and fall, V. mandarinia workers may band together to conduct mass attacks on nests of other social insects, notably honeybees. This behavior even has a name: the slaughter and occupation phase. U.S. beekeepers supply billions of honeybees each year to help pollinate at least 90 agricultural crops.
This gigantic, voracious predator has a quarter-inch stinger (6.35mm)! People are usually not the Japanese giant hornet's prey, but those who have felt its sting describe the pain as excruciating and very painful. Masato Ono, an entomologist at Tamagawa University, near Tokyo, said it's "like a hot nail through my leg." -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 07:05:04 JST
kho
Probably the best known bee, the honeybee's honey has been used by humans for thousands of years. In the wild they live in wooded areas in large hives made of wax honeycombs. The queen lays eggs whilst the workers care for the young, almost like a giant bee nursery! Every year a new queen will either take the place of her mother, or she will leave to start a colony of her own.
A single bee hive may contain as many as 50,000 individuals. In winter, the hive goes into survival mode: the drones are expelled, the workers huddle together to keep warm, and the larvae are fed on stores of pollen and honey. In spring, a new generation of bees emerges. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 07:05:03 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
With eight spindly yellow legs holding up what appears to be a big black dog’s head, the bunny harvestman is both terrifying and oddly cute.
Although the bunny harvestman spider has eight legs as any spider would, it actually belongs to a different order of animals known as Opiliones — or as they’re commonly referred to, daddy longlegs.
So while this creature looks like a spider and falls in the same Arachnida family, it is technically not a spider (though it’s widely referred to as such) and is instead a daddy longlegs. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 07:05:03 JST
kho
The Picasso bug measures only 8 millimeters in length. And like everything in nature, the intricate patterns on the tiny insect’s shell are not there by chance, but are a warning to its predators; anyone who ventures to disturb these insects will smell the consequences. When they feel threatened, they emit a noxious odor that helps scare off predators.
The Picasso bug lives mainly in tropical and subtropical Africa, so it can be found in countries such as Nigeria, Sudan, and Ethiopia, to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful insects in the world, revealing how intricate nature can be, regardless of its small size.
This insect also goes by the alternate common name of the Zulu Hud Bug. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Sunday, 23-Jul-2023 02:49:37 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The reason these moths are often dubbed as ‘Vampire Moths’ is because of their distinct proboscis than is used to puncture skin of animals and fruit alike and drain the inner fluid. Moths species of moths are no threat to humans and the same is true of the Vampire Moth’s as they are no believed to carry harmful diseases like other blood sucking insects such as mosquitoes.
Only the males of the species drink blood and compared to a mosquito bite the Vampire Moths bite is more irritating and can be swore for a couple of hours before settling down. The reason the Vampire Moths bites are more ‘severe’ is likely because of the rocking motion that the moth uses to puncture the skin and unlike a mosquito there is no sucking involved, the Vampire Moth uses the animals own blood pressure to force the blood up its proboscis. These moths can even suck tears from the eyelids of cattle.
This is a moth native to Japan, Korea, China as well as Malaysia.
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