All Things Luna

I’ll tell you a secret: most arthropod eyes are incredibly shitty.

they may have a near-360-degrees of view, but most insects eyes simply aren’t on the same level as yours, and it’s because of physics!

see, each of those individual bumps on those eyes up there is a convex lens, which focuses light onto a retina to form a picture of their surroundings. 

however, the power of a lens dramatically decreases the smaller it is, because small lenses capture less light to make into an image! 

to these animals, the world is a brightly colored blur that extends out for a few feet around them, and ends there. so no, they CANNOT see the moon. weep for them.

to insects, humans have god-level foresight and prescience! HOW DID YOU KNOW THERE WAS FOOD OVER THERE, HUMAN. TELL ME HOW.

but some spiders are different.

see that? those eyes are completely smooth! jumping spiders in particular have developed eyes with a single massive (for a bug) lens on the outside, and a second focusing lens on the inside, giving them single-image vision much like your own. 

the diagram of their eyes looks like a pair of binoculars, and their focusing power is completely nuts, enough so to make up for that underpowered lens! 

so yes, some spiders CAN see the moon! take solace in this fact.

This pad is called a pedestal and it's literally a part of their skeleton

First class rendition of Baba Yaga’s house for Lisa’s chickens. (Look at the bronze chicken feet!)

Creature of the Night: 

“Feathered Dinosaurs aren’t scary,” is false, it’s about how it is presented and nothing is more terrifying than a bitter truth. 

Kittens can’t regulate their own body temperature. That’s why they pile up.

Cats see us as colony members.

Masha saw a kitten that was on its own, no mommy, no other kittens to cuddle with. She instinctively knew that was a cold kitten. She knew that a kitten alone on a cold night was very likely to die. Because a kitten would have died too.

So, all she was doing was what any good colony member does - protecting the abandoned kitten. Then when the abandoned kitten’s mommy didn’t come back, she called the rest of the colony for help.

People have this bizarre idea that housecats don’t have a social sense. They do, and it saved this kid’s life. And possibly Masha’s too, as life on the streets is dangerous for a kitty.

Oh yes, they are great! They do look like a Guinea pig that couldn’t decide whether to become an ungulate or a hare.

-it’s the fastest rodent in the world

-due to convergent evolution it basically evolved to have antelope legs

-like the pronghorn antelope who is still built to outrun long-extinct cheetahs, it’s so much faster than its current predators, the fox and puma, who catch it by ambush rather than at a sprint (and not often!)

-this is because when north america bonked into south america, placental mammals and especially rodents swarmed down into the new continent and diversified, outcompeting the marsupials in just about every ecological niche

-we’re not sure WHAT used to hunt it to the point that it got so darn fast but we think it might have been gigantic terror birds and metatherians, a sort of predatory wolf-ish progenitor of modern marsupials

I'm terribly arachnophobic. horribly. I get it, the irrational fear you can't fully erase. Yes I'm an entomologist and yes everyone at work thinks it's very funny.

But the more you pick away bit by bit at that general massive ball of fear, the more you can understand it and turn fear to wonder. I started small, just learning some facts about spiders but still unable to stomache looking at pictures.

And then I realized I could look at jumping spiders fine and made an effort to try to appreciate what I could about them. From there I could realized I could look at and Touch harvestmen and that there was a whole world to them to learn and love too. And by turning that Ambiguous Ball of Fear into curiosity and respect I've gotten to a place I can live side by side with my arachnophobia and approach spiders with appreciation, even if I will cry if forced to touch one.

Bupkis and Beeftongue.

Bupkis and Beeftongue.

this is the container just having been opened. Bupkis wrinkles a little when disturbed by light, but in this picture it is quite smooth and calm, napping moistly on its faithful friend and pillow Beeftongue.

I do think they’re buddies, as much as slugs can be. I often find them huddled up together despite them being different species.