Mustelidite

cats gathering around a space heater まだまだヒーターはしまえません。

Photos by tonyrebelo

Bad tippers. Source.

Dactylotum bicolor, the rainbow grasshopper. Southern Arizona, June 2018

He looks like...a moving mochi?

It's yamabushi-take in Japanese!

Bowl with Fish, Iran, probably Kashan (late 13th–mid-14th century).

A return to Montezuma Castle in central Arizona, one of the most well-preserved ancient sites in the southwest. It was built by the Sinagua, a provincial pueblo-building people several generations after the ruinous dispersal of the Ancestral Puebloan/Anasazi. Despite the seemingly more remote and agrarian setting, however, it too eventually succumbed to fire and desolation. Now it is empty, echoing with birdsong, the sound of precious water, and the babble of visitors peering up through the trees. I have come here since childhood and even still it holds so much mystery and attraction for me, forever unapproachable in its cliff face, waiting for its owners to come home.

Be careful when handling the Japanese Otton frog [Babina subaspera]. They may be cute, but they’re carrying hidden weapons. These frogs have evolved spiked pseudothumbs which are hidden under two flaps of skin. Although both sexes possess these pseudothumbs, only the males have been observed using them, mainly for battling one another for access to females. This adaptation has earned them the nickname “Wolverine frogs”. Images by N. Iwai.

オガサワラカギバ、Microblepsis acuminata、6月10日、愛知県

iNaturalist is so awesome. Push that little beast over.

Frogs, snails, grasshoppers, beetles, wasps, and dragonflies (woodblock print by unknown artist, ca. 1800).

2012-10-06