Notices by kho (kho@shitposter.club), page 4
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kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:43 JST 
kho
The panda ant (Pachycondyla chinensis) is a species of ant native to China. They live in forests and feed mainly on bamboo shoots. This ant has become famous because of its ability to survive without water for long periods of time.
Pandas ants are black with white stripes along their bodies. Their heads are yellowish-white and they have large mandibles that help them break down food.
Pandas ants are social animals and they form colonies. When they’re ready to breed, they’ll send out scouts who search for potential mates. If they find one, the pair will start building a nest together. Once the nest is complete, the queen will lay eggs and the male will fertilise them.
When the larvae hatch, they’ll leave the nest and start searching for food. After a few days, they’ll return to the colony and begin eating again. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:42 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
With widespread Southeastern US distribution, Grizzled Mantids (Gonatista grisea) have a unique appearance.
It takes on a mottled green color that resembles tree lichen. Its camouflaging colors make it look distinct from most Praying Mantids which have uniform green coloring.
Grizzled Mantises are also some of the smallest types of Praying Mantis in the United States.
Only the largest bugs of the species measure up to 1.5 inches, while others measure around 1.2 inches.
This species is commonly seen in the Southeastern US areas with scrub hickory. The green and gray molted colors of the species help it camouflage itself on the bark. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:41 JST
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Curculio Occidentis, sometimes known as the filbert weevil, is a kind of weevil in the genus Curculio. Because of the harm they inflict to acorns, weevils are considered a pest by many kinds of oak trees. He’s barely 1/4 inch long and 1/8 inch wide when he’s dressed in “fur,” with huge black eyes, a long narrow nose, and elbowed antennae.
Curculio Occidentis is indigenous to western North America. It is found in British Columbia, Canada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah in the United States, as well as Mexico.
In a growing acorn, the female Curculio Occidentis lays little batches of two to four eggs. The larvae that form feed on the kernel and, when fully formed, tunnel out of the nut, fall to the ground, and excavate a little chamber for themselves. They may not pupate for one or two years.
The filbert weevil is a common pest of oak acorns. The larvae of these insects live and feed in the acorn and can cause significant losses. There are currently no effective methods for control of these pests. Insect damaged acorns may also get secondary bacterial infections that cause drippy oak disease. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:41 JST
kho
The Pale Green Weevil is also known as the Leaf Weevil, a name more descriptive of its diet than its appearance. Pale Green Weevils are a bright green color with linear ridges on the elytra (wing coverings). Their green heads are marked with large black eyes and a small black line by the base of each bent antennae. The face is slightly flattened and long. They take flight when approached.
This species is not native to North America and was transported from Europe in the early 1900's. The first documented sighting of them on this continent was in New York in 1906. The adults chew on the leaves of birch, maple, willow, and poplar trees as well as orchard trees like apple, pear, cherry, peach, and plum. Feeding only lasts a few weeks in the spring and early summer, so their impact on tree health is usually insignificant. They leave jagged edges on the leaves they have chewed, and are only a threat to the health of very young trees that do not have an abundance of branches and leaves yet. Orchards might have an annual inspection for this weevil in areas where new saplings are growing. Mature trees recover from any leaf loss by simply generating more leaves.
Pale Green Weevils are found in the soil at the base of host trees where they chew at the small roots emerging from the trunk at the soil line. Their feeding activity there is also considered insignificant unless the tree is young. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:39 JST
kho
Gooty sapphires are an Old World tarantula species, famous for their dramatic yellow and blue coloring. Broadly, Old World means ‘not native to North or South America’. In fact, their name holds the details of this tarantula’s origins. The first individual described was caught in the Indian town of Gooty in the early 20th century. But this is only half the story. It is now thought that one Gooty had arrived in town by train, because they have only been discovered in a small region of forest 60 miles east of there since.
Gooty tarantulas are famous for their exotic coloring. Their main body color is blue, not because of blue pigment, but due to special lamellated hairs on their exoskeleton. Lamellated means ‘scaly’. The scaliness of those hairs disrupts how light is reflected from their surface, so that blue wavelengths dominate. In fact, the hairs themselves are not blue at all! Because of this, how intensely blue a gooty sapphire looks will depend partly on how the light is hitting them. Beside their blue areas they also have a white fractal pattern running down the center of their back, and vivid yellow patches at some of the joints on their legs (which are the result of yellow pigment).
Gooty sapphires are venomous, and very much so -unlike tarantula species which rely on a venomous bite and flicking tiny irritating hairs from the sides of their abdomen to repel threats, gooties rely solely on their venomous bite as their only form of defense. To make it as effective as possible, they have adapted to produce a very powerful venom. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:38 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The comet moth belongs to the family Saturniidae, which encompasses a diverse group of silk moths. Discovered by Jean Baptiste Boisduval in 1847, it was named after Algernon Graves, a British collector, who named it comet moth due to its long and trailing hindwing tails that resemble a comet.
The comet moth boasts remarkable physical features that contribute to its allure. With a wingspan of up to 20 centimeters, it is one of the world’s largest silk moths. The males possess elongated hindwing tails, reaching lengths of up to 15 centimeters, while the females have shorter and broader tails. These tails serve a purpose beyond aesthetics, as they play a role in mating rituals and defense against predators.
Both males and females showcase vibrant colors on their wings, adorned with shades of golden yellow, brown, and maroon. Intricate patterns resembling eyespots and decorative lines help them blend into their natural surroundings, providing camouflage and protection from potential threats.
The lifespan of the comet moth is relatively short, typically lasting only 10 to 12 days. This brief timeframe is due to their lack of functioning mouthparts. Consequently, adult comet moths do not feed at all, relying solely on the energy reserves accumulated during the larval stage.
The comet moth’s silk cocoons are highly prized for their strength and durability. Local communities in Madagascar collect the cocoons and use the silk fibers to create various products, including textiles and fine art. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:37 JST
kho
The Japanese spider crab is a giant crustacean that can grow up to 12.5 feet that is most commonly found on the Pacific side of Japan.
At first glance, they look like ancient monsters that have crawled straight out of a sci-fi movie. However, in the marine community, they are known to be gentle giants.
As a species of marine crab, these crabs are often found inhabiting holes and pits on the ocean floor between 160 – 2,000 feet in depth.
Living at such deep depths and covered in a thorny protective exoskeleton, with 10 giant legs – these animals have few natural predators.
They are omnivorous, and they diet on dead and decaying animals and plant matter on the sea bed. They may at times also eat live fish that come there way. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:36 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Deinopis spinosa, commonly known as an ogre-faced spider or gladiator spider, is in the net-casting spider family (Family: Deinopidae) found in the southeastern United States, the Caribbean, and South America. Deinopis spinosa is strictly nocturnal, mimicking a dead twig during the daylight hours. After sunset, Deinopis spinosa uses a unique ‘net-casting’ foraging strategy to capture prey.
The ogre-faced spider is a medium-sized spider (total body length of approximately 10-17mm) that gets its common name from its remarkably large forward-facing posterior median eyes. These eyes are the largest eyes of any spider, with huge photoreceptors (the parts of the eye that capture light) that provide exceptional sensitivity to help them hunt at night. The posterior median eyes of Deinopis spiders absorb about 2000 times more light than Phidippus jumping spiders, who are also known for their unusually large eyes but hunt during the day.
At nightfall, Deinopis spiders abandon their sticklike camouflage to construct a non-sticky frame of silk from which they hang upside down. With their front three pairs of legs, they hold a rectangular capture web made from cribellate (woolly) silk. They actively manipulate this web and use it like a net to capture both walking and flying prey, which is successful about 50% of the time. Deinopis spinosa visually recognizes walking insects and subsequently captures them by propelling the capture net downward to entangle the prey. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:36 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Tachinids are the most important of the parasitic flies that provide biological control. Adults range from 1/12 to 4/5 inch (2–20 mm) long, and most are 1/8 to 1/2 inch (3–12 mm) long, varying by species.
Tachinid flies fall squarely into the category of beneficial insects when it comes to the role they play in our gardens. But it isn’t the adult fly that’s the harbinger of death. Instead, it’s the larval fly.
Larvae are pale maggots that occur inside hosts. Because mature larvae of many species exit their host to pupate, the oblong blackish to dark reddish puparium (covering of the pupae) of tachinids can sometimes be observed, such as near a host pupa that was killed and has a distinct emergence hole of the parasitoid. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:35 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Sally Lightfoot crabs are brightly-coloured coastal scavengers, found in the Galapagos Islands and across the western coast of South and Central America. They have an extremely generalist diet, feeding on anything from sea lion placenta to other crabs. This makes them an important part of the ecosystem, as they provide services such as keeping the shore clean of any organic debris and eating ticks off marine iguanas. They are rumoured to have been named after a Caribbean dancer, due to their agility in jumping from rock to rock, their ability to run in four directions and their capacity to climb up vertical slopes. This extreme agility makes them very difficult to catch. Adult crabs show characteristic intense blue and red colouring on their shells, with a white or pale blue underbelly. Younger crabs have darker colouration with red spots, providing a higher degree of camouflage. Every time the crabs moult their shell, the spots become gradually larger, until they obtain the adult colouring.
Female Sally Lightfoot crabs carry their eggs around with them on their stomachs until they hatch into the water. The larvae then swim out to deeper waters, where they consume phytoplankton and undergo a rapid series of moults. Eventually they undergo metamorphosis to become juvenile crabs and swim to shore, where they start to scavenge, becoming bigger and more colourful with each moult. These juveniles tend to travel in large groups until they reach maturity, after which they become largely solitary when not mating. When they are not mating or feeding, the crabs spend their time hiding in cracks in rocks. If they are disturbed, they may spray water or shed one of their legs as a defence mechanism. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:34 JST
kho
Lysiosquillina maculata, the zebra mantis shrimp, striped mantis shrimp or razor mantis, is a species of mantis shrimp found across the Indo-Pacific region from East Africa to the Galápagos and Hawaiian Islands. At a length up to 40 cm, L. maculata is the largest mantis shrimp in the world. L. maculata may be distinguished from its congener L. sulcata by the greater number of teeth on the last segment of its raptorial claw, and by the colouration of the uropodal endopod, the distal half of which is dark in L. maculata but not in L. sulcata. A small artisanal fishery exists for this species.
Lysiosquillina maculata display social monogamy with maternal egg care, meaning the females are the ones taking care of the eggs. Social monogamy is usually attributed to the large and costly to construct burrows of these species. These burrows are used for protection, and as a place to hide and wait for prey. In addition, there is a large risk associated with finding mates. Lysiosquillina maculata also displays sexual dimorphism, with males having larger raptorial appendages, although males and females have similar overall body sizes.
The zebra mantis shrimp is an example of a "spearing" mantis shrimp. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:33 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Braconid wasps are Mother Nature's way of keeping pests like hornworms under control. These parasitic wasps disrupt their host insect's development, effectively stopping the pest in its tracks. Braconid wasps are parasitoids, meaning they eventually kill their hosts.
Although we're probably most familiar with the larger braconid wasps that live on hornworms, there are actually thousands of braconid wasp species throughout the world, each infecting and killing certain types of host insects. There are braconids that kill aphids, braconids that kill beetles, braconids that kill flies, and of course, braconids that kill moths and butterflies.
Braconid wasps use a remarkable weapon to disable the defenses of their host insects – a virus. These parasitic wasps coevolved with polydnaviruses, which they carry and inject into the host insects along with their eggs. The polydnaviruses have no negative affects on the braconid wasps, and reside within cells in the wasp ovary.
When the braconid wasp deposits eggs in a host insect, she also injects the polydnavirus. The virus is activated in the host insect, and immediately goes to work disabling the host's defenses against intruders (the intruders being the braconid wasp eggs). Without the virus running interference, the wasp eggs would quickly be destroyed by the host insect's immune response. The polydnavirus allows the wasp eggs to survive, and the wasp larvae to hatch and begin feeding inside the host insect. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:33 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Triops longicaudatus is commonly known as a tadpole shrimp, because the body superficially resembles a frog larva. Triops longicaudatus is a fairly large tadpole shrimp, with a length of 10 to 40 mm long, a width of 3 to 8 mm, and a mass of 2 to 2.5 g. The body of T. longicaudatus tends to be a brown or grayish-yellow color, and is segmented into a head, thorax, and abdomen.
Triops longicaudatus can exhibit several different reproductive methods. While T. longicaudatus may reproduce sexually, it is very rare, and the majority of populations are female-dominated. As such, parthenogenesis is the most common method of reproduction. A third reproductive strategy is selfing (self-fertilization), which can exist in a population that is largely composed of hermaphrodites. In all cases, fertilization is external.
Triops longicaudatus has three eyes that are most likely used to identify food and potential partners (if reproduction for the population is sexual). Posterior to the eyes is a dorsal, nuchal organ that is most likely used for chemoreception.
These small crustaceans use appendages called phyllopods to push themselves forward in the water. They are constantly moving during the day and are found swimming in the water column. These crustaceans possess exopods which allow them to dig in the mud in search for food. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:31 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The male and female Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) look very different from one another. The adult female has short wings and is big and heavy. The male has long wings and is small, light and active. The male is able to fly and will do so readily, but the female is unable to fly.
In an 1886 observation from the journal "Science," entomologist Leland Ossian Howard noted that on placing a male mantis with a female, the female systematically proceeded to eat the male's left leg, left eye and right leg, and then decapitate and eat his head. The male, keep in mind, was attempting to mate with her the whole time -- which she eventually acquiesced to, with her headless and mostly legless partner. While Howard stressed that he'd never seen it before, he also rather breathlessly stated, "It seems to be only by accident that a male ever escapes alive from the embraces of his partner" -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:31 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Nephrops norvegicus, known variously as the Norway lobster, Dublin Bay prawn, shlobster (shrimp-lobster), langoustine (compare langostino) or scampi, is a slim, coral colored lobster that grows up to 25 cm (10 in) long, and is "the most important commercial crustacean in Europe". It is now the only extant species in the genus Nephrops, after several other species were moved to the closely related genus Metanephrops. It lives in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean, and parts of the Mediterranean Sea, but is absent from the Baltic Sea and Black Sea. Adults emerge from their burrows at night to feed on worms and fish.
A carapace covers the animal's cephalothorax, while the abdomen is long and segmented, ending in a broad tail fan. The first three pairs of legs bear claws, of which the first are greatly elongated and bear ridges of spines. Of the two pairs of antennae, the second is the longer and thinner. There is a long, spinous rostrum, and the compound eyes are kidney-shaped, providing the name of the genus, from the Greek roots νεφρός (nephros, "kidney") and ὄψ ("eye").
Their shells are a light shade of orange and, unlike lobsters’ shells, they don’t change color when they are cooked. The smaller langoustines caught are particularly prized for the sweet meat found in their tails, which you might see being advertised as “scampi” on restaurant menus. The larger specimens might not be quite as tasty, but they do offer up more meat from the body and claws.
You might also see langoustines being sold as Dublin Bay prawns or Norway lobster.
The langoustine has become hugely important to the Scottish fishing industry, which was decimated by a ban on herring fishing in the 1970s, and Scotland now provides more than half of the amount of langoustines eaten around the world. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:30 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The Common Buckeye butterfly (Junonia coenia) is brown above. The forewing features two orange bars and two large black eyespots outlined in orange. The hindwing has two eyespots, with the upper one being the largest and containing a magenta crescent.
Their name is because the eyespots on these butterflies resemble the shoots of the buckeye (also known as horse chestnut), a type of tree that mostly thrives in North America and Eurasia.
It cannot live in freezing temperatures, but moves quickly northward in the spring to most of the United States and south Canada. The population swells in the fall during the southward migration.
The Common buckeye caterpillar has a predominantly black thorax. It has light-colored spots that pepper the entirety of the black surface. As the caterpillar grows, the spines become less pronounced.
Adults feed mainly on nectar, and occasionally on mud from the edge of puddles (probably for salts and other minerals).
These creatures feed on plant matter rich in a bitter-tasting chemical compound called ‘iridoid glycoside’, since predators including wasps, birds, ants, and other small animals prefer consuming caterpillars poor in this compound over those that have a rich concentration of it in their bodies. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:29 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The samurai wasp is native to northeast Asia where brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) comes from. It was not intentionally released in North America, but got introduced accidentally, likely the same way as BMSB by being stowed away in shipping containers, planes or any other means of transportation.
The samurai wasp is adapted to parasitize stink bugs only. It cannot attack any other species.
These wasps are tiny, only 1/8 of an inch, about the size of a sesame seed. They cannot sting people and most people will never see them in nature. They track BMSB eggs flying around in tree canopies, hiding among leaves of crops or taking shelter under barks of trees. They are hard to find and see with the naked eye. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:29 JST
kho
The lovebug (Plecia nearctica) is a species of march fly found in parts of Central America and the southeastern United States, especially along the Gulf Coast. It is also known as the honeymoon fly or double-headed bug.
As for lovebugs looking strange when flying together attached, they are actually mating. During the mating process, the male lovebug attaches to the female lovebug and only disengages during the daytime while resting on vegetation never during flight or at night, Fasulo said. Successful mating takes as much as 12 hours, and the female lovebug dies within 86 hours of laying eggs.
Lovebugs' larvae feed on partially decayed vegetation in the landscape and, in this respect, are beneficial to humans. Adults primarily feed on nectar from various plants, particularly sweet clover, goldenrod, and Brazilian pepper. The lovebug is considered a nuisance by many motorists, especially in Florida, due to its swarming behavior during the species' mating season.
Love bug swarms can become so dense that they can reduce visibility for drivers on the road. It’s important that you take particular care when driving in May and September, which are their main breeding months. Some areas may have signs warning you that bug swarms are possible. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:27 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The cuckoo wasp is a beautiful insect that is very complex. Its colors include beautiful blues and greens, and they are often spotted when trying to become parasites to other insects. However, they have a tough exterior body structure that makes it difficult for other insects to sting and paralyze them.
To lay their eggs, they have the ability to change their smell, so other insects don’t always know what they’re doing. They also can curl their body into a ball, which is unlike other varieties of wasps. They can complete this maneuver when they are being threatened by a host of other insects.
The cuckoo wasp is also known as the emerald wasp from the family Chrysididae. There are more than 3,000 different species of Cuckoo wasp, and they are unique because of their very brightly colored body and wings.
Cuckoo wasps are solitary in nature, so they don’t build large nests with other wasps of their kind. The females hide in various spots nearby where they’re able to watch their eggs/larvae. They know when the host wasp has come and gone from the nest, and they will wait until the coast is clear. -
kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Monday, 12-Feb-2024 13:21:26 JST
kho
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The Australian tiger beetle, Cicindela hudsoni, was clocked running at a remarkable 2.5 meters per second. That's the equivalent of 5.6 miles per hour and makes it the fastest running insect in the world. Running a close second is another Australian species, Cicindela eburneola, which ran an impressive 4.2 miles per hour.
On its lower back, the larva has a pair of large, forward facing hooks, used to anchor the organism to the substrate. Further, it has mandibles for prey capture which originate below its eyes.
The beetle's forewings are hardened to form a protective layer known as the elytra and are fused to the hindwings. The species has two large eyes that together make the head wider than the thorax, underneath which a pair of filiform antennae are attached. Surrounding the mouth is the labrum, onto which sharp projections and maxillae are attached next to a pair of sickle-like mandibles with both compound and simple teeth arranged along its length.
It has been observed that at high speeds, tiger beetles experience temporary blindness when chasing prey. This is because the beetle cannot gather enough photons that reflect its prey to form an image of it, resulting in a stop-start mode of hunting made affordable by its high speeds. As a predator living in dry, saline environments, the C. hudsoni eats almost anything it can capture such as other beetles, caterpillars and ants while also taking advantage of other, larger meals as scavengers.
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