Skin-piercing blood-sucking moths V: Attacks on man by 5 Calyptra spp. (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) in S and SE Asia
In a chronology of 11 cases, male adults of scarce C. bicolor, C. fasciata, C. ophideroides, C. parva and C. pseudobicolor are proved for the first time to attack man (the author) and pierce the skin to suck blood under natural conditions in the field. [ā¦]
H. BƤnziger,Ā Mitt. Schweiz. Entomol. Ges.Ā 62Ā (3ā4),Ā 215ā233 (1989)
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are you still doing common name requests, if you are could you do the Sewaddle line? (sorry if you have it written down somewhere that phone tumblr doesnt show)
Sewaddle, Swadloon, and Leavanny? Donāt be silly, those are just a
I've always seen people saying the Leavanny line are leaf insects but I feel like they are much more based on leafcutter ants, leafcutter bees, and in particular weaver ants
do not particularly resemble leaves
themed around sewing together leaves to protect their young
Leavanny has apocritan-like proportions (the "wasp waist")
possesses larval and pupal stages; while Pokemon has omitted the pupal stage from various lines based on holometabolous insects, I don't believe they've ever given a pupal stage to a bug line that doesn't have one IRL (whirlipede doesn't count it's just curled up ;P)
(of course pokemon can be inspired by multiple types of animals [glances at Tynamo] but idk I genuinely don't really see leaf insect for them ^^)
Anatomy: completely fused cephalothorax and abdomen give an ovoid/pear-shaped appearance; body becomes engorged with blood when they feed; hard ticks have a beak-like structure at the front containing the mouthparts, whereas soft ticks have their mouthparts on the underside of their bodies
Diet: vertebrate blood
Habitat: terrestrial habitats worldwide, especially in warm, humid climates
Evolved in: Early Cretaceous
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One or more of my favorite animals is in Ixodida
I love at least one or more of these animals
I like at least one or more of these animals
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Voting ended onSep 20, 2025
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All three tick families ticks have four life cycle stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult.
Depending on the species, Ixodids can either possess a one-host life cycle, two-host life cycle, or three-host life cycle, meaning they will only feed 1-3 times in their life. In one-host ticks the tick remains on the host through the larval, nymphal, and adult stages, only to leave the host to lay eggs. The life cycle of a two-host tick often spans two years, with newly hatched larvae attaching to a host in order to obtain their first blood meal. They remain on their host, then develop into nymphs. Nymphs drop off the host, and molt into adults, usually over the winter. Both male and female adults seek out a host on which to attach, and they will feed and mate once attached. Most ixodid ticks require three hosts, and three-host ticks typically live for three years. Larvae hatch in the winter and emerge in the spring, typically to attach and feed primarily on small mammals and birds. During the summer the larvae become engorged and, in the fall, drop off the first host to molt and become nymphs. The following spring the nymphs emerge and seek out another host, often a small rodent. The nymphs become engorged and drop off the host in the fall to molt and become adults. The following spring the adult ticks emerge and seek out a larger host, often a large mammal such as cattle or even humans. Females will mate on their third host. Female adults then engorge on blood and prepare to drop off to lay her eggs on the ground, while males feed very little and remain on the host in order to continue mating with other females.
Argasid ticks, unlike ixodid ticks, may go through up to 7 nymphal stages (instars), requiring a meal of blood each time. Often, egg laying and mating occurs detached from the host in a safe environment. As adults these ticks feed rapidly and periodically their entire life cycle. In some species an adult female may lay eggs after each feeding. Their life cycles range from months to years. The adult female argasid tick can lay a few hundred to over a thousand eggs over the course of her lifetime.
Ticks are extremely resilient animals. They can survive in a near vacuum for as long as half an hour. Their slow metabolism during their dormant periods enables them to go for prolonged durations between meals. Even after 18 weeks of starvation, they can endure repeated two-day bouts of dehydration followed by rehydration, but their survivability against dehydration drops rapidly after 36 weeks of starvation. They can withstand temperatures just above ā18 °C (0 °F) for more than two hours and can survive temperatures between ā7 and ā2 °C (20 and 29 °F) for at least two weeks. Ticks have even been found in Antarctica, where they feed on penguins. Though they can fast for long periods of time, they will eventually die if unable to find a host.
Many tick species, particularly Ixodids, lie in wait in a position known as "questing" (see image 1 and gif above). While questing, ticks cling to leaves and grasses by their third and fourth pairs of legs. They hold the first pair of legs outstretched, waiting to grasp and climb on to any passing host. Tick questing heights tend to be correlated with the size of the desired host; nymphs and small species tend to quest close to the ground, where they may encounter small mammalian or bird hosts; adults climb higher into the vegetation, where larger hosts may be encountered.
After biting onto a host, the tick will remain in place until it is completely engorged. Their weight may increase by 200 to 600 times compared to their original weight, with cell division taking place to facilitate enlargement of their exoskeleton.
Nuttalliella namaqua (image 2), from southern Africa, is the only living member of the family Nuttalliellidae, and considered the most basal lineage of living ticks. They are known from Burmese amber in Myanmar, dating to the mid-Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago. Living specimens seem to be generalists, having been collected from mammals, lizards, and birds, but thus far have not seemed to develop a taste for human blood. Their tastes are too old, too ancient, too refined for that new shit.
Speaking of ticks found in amber, most of the oldest discovered tick fossils are an argasid bird tick from Late Cretaceous (94ā90 million years ago) aged New Jersey amber, and various ticks found in Burmese amber, including Khimaira (which does not belong to any living family of tick), and the possible nuttalliellid genera Deinocroton and Legionaris, as well as the members of the living ixodid genera Amblyomma, Ixodes, Haemaphysalis, Bothriocroton, and Archaeocroton, dating to the earliest stage of the Late Cretaceous, around 99Ā million years ago. All that being said, no, you canāt get DNA from a mosquito fossilized in amber, DNA degrades too much over time, but we DO have dinosaur blood in ticks trapped in amber and Jurassic Park could have used their wishy-washy sci-fi logic to have a perfectly lovely functioning prehistoric aviary full of Cretaceous birds if Hammond had actually put his unspared expenses into making a functioning zoo with actual zookeepers and animal welfare experts instead of a kaiju monster theme park. (But then of course we wouldnāt have a movie, or a generation of tech bros and a sequel franchise that comically missed the point.) But I digress.
Tick saliva contains about 1,500 to 3,000 proteins, depending on the tick species. These proteins contain anti-inflammatory properties, called evasins, which allow ticks to feed for eight to ten days without being perceived by the host animal. The saliva of ticks also contains anticoagulant and antiplatelet proteins (integrin inhibitors), to stop the blood from coagulating while they suck. Researchers are studying these evasins with the goal of developing drugs to neutralise the chemokines that cause myocarditis, heart attack, and stroke.
Climate change is causing ticks to spread into new areas and to not go dormant over the winter in areas where they used to :-)
Mites and nematodes feed on ticks, which are also a minor nutritional resource for birds. More importantly, ticks act as a disease vector and behave as the primary hosts of many different pathogens such as spirochaetes. Ticks carry various debilitating diseases and, therefore, ticks may assist in controlling animal populations and preventing overgrazing. Many tick species have extended their ranges as a result of the movements of humans, domesticated pets, and livestock.
Tick bites often do not lead to infection, especially if the ticks are removed within 36 hours of latching on. Adult ticks can be removed by grabbing them at the head with fine-tipped tweezers and yanking them straight away from the host body, then disinfecting the wound. Tick-removal methods such as crushing, using petroleum jelly, fire, or alcohol, will cause the tick to regurgitate its stomach contents into the wound, putting one at further risk of tick-borne illness. It is important to always check oneself for ticks after having been in a grassy or woodsy area, and use proper tick removal technique.
In 2020, the world's first tiny monument to a tick was erected in the Russian city of Ufa on a small stone base from the Ural Mountains with the inscription: "Same as you I also want to live".
There's this post you might have seen on tumblr about scientists grasping for reasons why people should give a shit about obscure endangered species no one else knows or cares about. One of example of this that has really stuck with me is this paper from 1996 by Durden and Keirans, "HostāParasite Coextinction and the Plight of Tick Conservation" in which they list almost 30 species of rare ticks who are potentially coendangered along with their hosts. This is what they had to say about the value of ticks:
Negative human perception of parasites, in addition to the typically small size of the latter, has hindered the conservation of rare parasites and actually has decreased the abundance of certain species. Few, if any, parasites rank lower on the human acceptance scale than ticks.
The common practice of intentional parasite removal, either directly or by the administration of parasiticides, often seems justified if the survival of a host species is at stake. This impinges on the frequently posed question, "Of what use are ticks?" Given their blood-feeding habit and the numerous pathogens they transmit, most people would instinctively answer "none." However, ticks (and other parasites) are an integral component of healthy ecosystems and have important roles in nature, some of which may still be incompletely understood....
Ticks also are proving to be storehouses of useful biochemicals. Medicinal uses of purified tick anticoagulants have been demonstrated recently. In fact, a plethora of pharmaceutically active compounds are currently being isolated from ticks, thereby providing an incentive for drug companies and researchers to initiate further investigations. [...] These and related tick-derived compounds currently under investigation suggest that beneficial uses of such products in veterinary and health care fields are on the horizon.
On the lighter side, ticks or analogies of them have entertained some of us by starring in feature films such as Ticks and in the cartoon The Tick. Moreover, the colors and patterns of some ticks are aesthetically pleasing; these are unusual and incompletely understood traits for ectoparasites.
idk just the last paragraph, the last reason they could come up with to convey to people why they should find value in some of the world's most hated animals...
Since gastrin-4 (identical with CCK-4) is a potent hormone releaser, since we had plenty of the tetrapeptide from LEO Pharma, and since we had observed CCK-neurons in the hypothalamus innervating the pituitary, we also wished to examine the effect of the tetrapeptide of growth hormone secretion. In a pilot experiment, I consequently injected a bolus of gastrin-/CCK-4 intravenously into myself and a colleague (Dr. Thue W. Schwartz). The effect on growth hormone secretion was small, but the āsideā effect was dramatic.
Half a minute after the injection of CCK-4, we experienced the beginning of what was to be a full-blown panic attack. The symptoms were intense anxiety, with a fear of dying, and a strange sense of the world sliding away, accompanied by palpitations, sweating, and faintness. The attack peaked after 5ā8 min, and then gradually disappeared during the following 15ā20 min. None of us had experienced such an attack before. Of course, we wanted to follow it up. However, shortly after, my colleague moved to Chicago, and I got a busy chair in Copenhagen. In July 1984, however, Vanderhaeghen and Crawley organized an international conference on āNeuronal Cholecystokininā in Brussels. The last session of the conference was entitled āClinical significance of neuronal cholecystokininā. The chairman asked in the general discussion whether anyone in the audience beyond the session-speakers had observations of clinical interest. I therefore described the experienced panic attacks provoked by CCK-4.Ā [ā¦]Ā Since then, the volume of clinical and experimental publications about CCK-4 and panic disorder has grown overwhelmingly, as also reflected in later reviews.
J.F. Rehfeld,Ā Cholecystokinin and Panic Disorder: Reflections on the History and Some Unsolved Questions.Ā MoleculesĀ 26, 5657 (2021).Ā 10.3390/molecules26185657
Common Name: no common name for the whole order, other than āamphipodsā, though freshwater species are often called āfreshwater shrimpā, āscudsā, or āsideswimmersā
*(I am not listing families as, as you can see above, it would take up too much space)
Anatomy: no carapace; one pair of sessile (stalk-less) compound eyes; two pairs of antennae; gills on the coxae (base of the leg); generally laterally compressed body divided into 13 segments; head is fused to the thorax; gnathopods (uniquely modified feeding legs)
Diet: mostly detritivores or scavengers; some are grazers of algae, omnivores, or predators of small insects and other crustaceans
Habitat: found in almost all aquatic environments, from fresh water to water with twice the salinity of sea water, from the tideline to the deepest known point of the ocean; some species of the family Talitridae are terrestrial
Evolved in: Lower Carboniferous
Do you have a favorite in Amphipoda?
One or more of my favorite animals is in Amphipoda
I love at least one or more of these animals
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Voting ended onAug 21, 2025
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The largest amphipod species is the Supergiant Amphipod (Alicella gigantea) (image 2), a deep sea amphipod which can reach up to 34Ā cm (13Ā in) in length. This may not seem āsupergiantā, but it is actually quite massive for an amphipod, most of which are typically less than 10 millimetres (0.4Ā in) long!
Terrestrial species of the family Talitridae are commonly called ālandhoppersā, and those that live on beaches are often referred to as āsandhoppersā or āsand fleasā (though they do not bite people as true fleas do). The sandhopper Talitrus saltator (image 3) has been the subject of a great deal of scientific research, to determine the environmental cues which it uses to control its behavior. The species feeds on rotting seaweed which accumulates on the strandline, and thus adjusts its schedule to the tides. It spends its day buried 10ā30Ā cm (3.9ā11.8Ā in) deep in the sand, above the strandline, emerging at night when the tide has fallen. The sandhopper is capable of determining where the sea is, using multiple indicators: including the angle of the sun, moon, or even by detecting the blue wavelengths of light from the sea and the red-brown colors of land.
There are over 350 species of amphipod native to Russiaās ancient Lake Baikal.
Compared to other crustacean groups, such as the Isopoda, Rhizocephala, or Copepoda, relatively few amphipod species are parasitic to other animals.
In populations found in benthic ecosystems, amphipods play an essential role in controlling brown algae growth.
Amphipods are bioindicators, meaning that they are often used by ecologists to determine the health of an ecosystem.
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Starting a new conspiracy theory that aliens did visit Earth but it was like 2 billion years ago in the middle of the Proterozoic. They were like "holy shit look at all this ALGAE" and made a little research base and then after a few decades they ran out of funding and left. Everything they built was destroyed by billions of years of geological activity; they didn't seed Earth or anything cuz our microbial ecosystems were already established and everything; they left no detectable trace and we'll never know they existed (except for me cuz I'm built different š)
I learned recently about bee lice, who despite their name and appearance are actually a type of wingless fly (!) who cling to and kleptoparasitize honeybees and THEY ARE SO SHAPED š
(image credit: NSW DPI, Albertus Horn, Miles Zhang)
Their morphology is so obviously highly specialized that their taxonomic position has been a matter of uncertainty basically since they were first discovered; it's only from molecular phylogenetic studies in the past decade that they've been uncovered as being nested within the family Drosophilidae, nearby relatives of laboratory icon Drosophila melanogaster! Other cool research I saw about them was this one study looking into the anatomy of their claws and how they attach to beesā if I'm interpreting this paper right they can apparently cling to a bee with a force over 1000 times their own body weight š„ŗ (sources: 1, 2)
this doesn't seem to be widespread knowledge around here yet but there's a big trend among dogshit content scraper accounts to grab a real photo (usually of āØAesthetic Natureā¢āØ or something similar, which is why it's relevant to me) somewhere, and recreate it using AI to avoid crediting the photographer. this can even trick people who are somewhat familiar with the subject matter if they're not paying attention but looks incredibly wrong upon closer inspection
here is some complete garbage as an example. because these "photos" are not completely made up by AI, people into spiders know the species and will recognize their features without looking closely, getting tricked in the process. if you know spider anatomy and look closely though, both of those look like utter abominations. the original photos these two were based on are here and here, by the way
these just so happen to be things i'm familiar with and i would probably get easily fooled by AI recreations of plants or fish or whatever. my point is that if you're not an expert on everything that exists you're not immune to these, so i would probably recommend caring about photo sources unless you actively want to look at this repulsive trash
i was going to add the gil wizen one too, his post about it was actually the first time i heard about this a few months back
for what it's worth i don't know if the person or people behind the blog made the AI images themselves, but content scraping is like a game of telephone. photos get re-re-re-reposted by stupid ass pages on instagram called "nature.incredible.of.wonder" and the original source erodes away
that last point is the important part though, if these pages get backlash for not crediting the source they will often simply start adding "photo by splingo blorgo" without an actual link to splingo blorgo's page or any proof that splingo blorgo even exists. you gotta have a link
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Everyone in the reblogs saying āthese are predators that can kill you btwā NO!!!!! You are thinking of CONE SNAILS. which are equally ridiculous looking but in a very different way!
CONE SNAIL has:
Leetle eyes
Long sniffer
Toingue
CONCHS are mostly vegetarian and their only defense is to look you in the eye and make you feel bad for them
Conch snails actually do have some of their own tricks up their shellsā their foot bears a sharpened operculum that they use to push themselves around much faster than a lot of slow predators (including cone snails) can move, or even to fight back. It's believed that their high-resolution vision, which is some of the best among all known gastropods, allows them to detect and react to predators in advance (source 1, 2)
I want to play "let's ___ with mama" with the shrimp I study, but they generally do not meet their offspring because of how their life cycle works. The shrimp put their eggs in the mud and then the young may not hatch for years, until some obscure shrimpy conditions are met. They live with a mixed group of strangers and relatives, some of which may be literal decades older, but not mama.
Leeches, on the other hand, carry their young on their underside. Let's remain safely attached to mama
Submitted comment: āI wanted to submit this paper from 2021 which is like. one of the single most aggressive academic papers I have ever seen; for context there are as I understand currently two main strains of thought as to where life first evolvedā in submarine alkaline hydrothermal vents, or in above-water volcanic hot springs. The author here I believe is one of the original proponents of the hydrothermal vents hypothesis, defending it against some recent publications from the hot springs camp criticizing it for lacking evidence, and it gets. heated. The whole thing is kinda nuts but this paragraph in particular actually had my jaw actually drop reading itā
Here we counterface all the arguments made in recent papers from the very well-funded and promoted groups militantly opposed to AVT. One of these papers offers the advice āDonāt try to prove an idea is right. Instead, try to falsify itā. Fully cognizant of Popperās āReason and Refutationā, this has long been our own mantra, though notably unshared across the community. As an example of good faith, Branscomb and colleagues wrote, āarguably the key virtue of the alkaline hydrothermal vent (AHV) model as a scientific hypothesis regarding the initial steps in the emergence of life is its essentially unique vulnerability to disproof. It places all of its chips on the claim that certain naturally arising, but experimentally reproducible, geochemical circumstances do produce castles of mineral ācellsā in which three key, undeniably life-like chemical disequilibria are āabioticallyā generated and maintained. If it proves not to be possible to experimentally substantiate these conjectures, then we may expect interest in the theory to wane.ā Furthermore, falsifiable predictions of AVT were listed in Russell that would, if demonstrated, āreveal embarrassing missing links, or even leave the AVT as just one more casualty of the general theory of natural rejection.ā We look forward to similar commitment and clarity from the wet-dry polymerizing pond people. However, we do admit to being impressed over the one prediction made by this groupāviz., Dimitar Sassalovās promise that Harvard University āwill soon have the equivalent of a living thing in the lab at the chemical levelā. We will be particularly interested to hear what bearing such an artifact might have on the putative āfirst universal ancestorā, its evolving progeny and the geochemical/geophysical disequilibria responsible for its emergence?
The āWater Problemā(sic), the Illusory Pond and Lifeās Submarine EmergenceāA Review (Russell, 2021)
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Well I certainly didnāt expect to illicit so many questions when I reblogged this post and added some tags about jumping spider content online.
Firstly, let me say thereās nothing wrong with keeping jumping spiders as pets. I have one myself. Sheās a captive bred regal jumping spider. Sheās currently a bit over two years old. Iāve had other jumping spiders as well, but they passed of old age and in one instance, a failed molt, which is fairly common.
Before and after getting pet jumpers, I joined some jumper groups, read a lot of care guides, and watched a slew of videos about keeping them.
It became obvious pretty quickly that apparently due to their cute fuzzy appearance, large round eyes, and intelligent behavior, people (owners, admirers, and popular content creators) assign human and mammal emotions and behaviors to them, often to their detriment.
I personally believe bugs are complex creatures that can be intelligent and have emotions, but that those emotions and behaviors are NOT analogous to human or mammal behavior and ignoring their natural needs and behaviors means youāre likely not providing proper care for them.
This is mainly about handling. Bugs donāt want to be handled. They get nothing positive out of it emotionally. They donāt want to be pet or cuddle with you. They donāt want to hang out with you. Youāre a big scary predator, and it likely wants to get away from you. Forcing handling can stress, injure, or kill them. Thatās why I tagged the post (linked above) āyour spider is not a cat.ā It doesnāt seek affection from you.
I canāt tell you how many posts or videos I saw where people were super upset because they let their jumper out of its enclosure to handle it and it either escaped and got lost or they somehow crushed it and killed or injured it badly. Iāve also seen people chasing their jumper around its enclosure trying to grab it or get it to jump onto their hand when itās clearly just trying to hide.
As an example, a very common thing Iāve seen in videos about jumpers is people saying when they lift their front legs at you and jump or climb onto you/your hands itās because they āwant uppiesā and want to be pet and be close to you. This is a wild misreading of behavior. Sometimes raising the front legs is a defensive display, trying to make itself look larger to scare away a threat. Other times, theyāre waving their legs around to sense and feel their environment, or preparing to jump onto something. They are arboreal, and their natural behavior is to find a high vantage point, so climbing onto the big thing (you) nearby is normal. Itās not because it seeks your affection.
Certainly if you DO handle them frequently they can get used to it, and it becomes less stressful for them. But in my opinion the dangers outweigh any positives, and I donāt handle mine. These are wild animals that have not been domesticated, even when captive bred. If you want to give them enrichment, and you should, offer them prey to chase or interesting things to explore in a larger enclosure. For those that do still handle them, Iād encourage you to watch their behavior closely and read the spidery cues theyāre giving you rather than assuming theyāre feeling what a cute little mammal might be feeling in the same scenario.
I could go on with specifics about certain videos, but I wasnāt planning on writing a huge post and this is already long. Also Iām sure many people would disagree with me about some things Iāve said, and Iām not going to argue about anything. This is just how I feel based on what Iāve seen of online jumping spider content, and itās why I no longer interact with most of it.
Even if a species of bug exhibits some kind of social touch among themselves (which I believe some are known to, though for the large majority of species I doubt there's any data on it), it's not going to be welcome from a towering colossus that they literally may not even be able to fit inside their whole field of vision. I feel like a lot of people forget just how big we are compared to most bugs
you know that one popular tumblr post that goes like "humans will pet anything" "well how wonderful that we live on a planet full of things that like to be petted!", or various other posts you see around the internet saying stuff like "humans evolved hands so we could pet all the animals š". sometimes I wonder how much those posts might have left actual lasting damage on public perception of animal behavior, like I'm sure they didn't intend to but like... did they