Invertebrate - Tumblr Posts

The rather large (by mosquito standards) elephant mosquito, Toxorhynchites rutilus, with jack-in-the-pulpit plants. Designed for a fellow lab member that works with mosquitoes. Though you may not be a mosquito fan, you might like this one - as larvae, they eat other mosquito larvae. As adults, they don't bite but instead both males and females feed on sugary substances.

References:

Dunlop, J. A., Anderson, L. I., Kerp, H., & Hass, H. (2003). Preserved organs of Devonian harvestmen. Nature, 425(6961), 916–916. https://doi.org/10.1038/425916a  

Machado, G., & Raimundo, R. L. G. (2001). Parental investment and the evolution of subsocial behaviour in harvestmen (Arachnida Opiliones). Ethology Ecology & Evolution, 13(2), 133–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927014.2001.9522780

Martens, J. (1993). Further cases of paternal care in Opiliones (Arachnida). Tropical Zoology, 6(1), 97–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/03946975.1993.10539212

Mora, G. (1990). Paternal care in a neotropical harvestman, Zygopachylus albomarginis (Arachnida, Opiliones: Gonyleptidae). Animal Behaviour, 39, 582-593.

Nazareth, T. M., & Machado, G. (2009). Reproductive behavior of Chavesincola inexpectabilis (Opiliones, Gonyleptidae) with description of a new and independently evolved case of paternal care in harvestmen. Journal of Arachnology, 37(2), 127–134. https://doi.org/10.1636/ST08-32.1

Shear, W. (2009). Harvestmen: Opiliones—Which include daddy-long-legs—Are as exotic as they are familiar. American Scientist, 97(6), 468-475.

A couple of tags on my previous comic about Opiliones were talking about other daddy longlegs - that’s the trouble with common names!

(Deleting and reposting because I realized I uploaded it wrong - sorry to anyone who commented, I’m still getting used to Tumblr again and very much enjoying it!)

A little guy flies by to say hello.

Massive new animal species discovered in half-billion-year-old Burgess Shale

Like all radiodonts, Titanokorys had multifaceted eyes, a pineapple slice-shaped, tooth-lined mouth, a pair of spiny claws below its head to capture prey and a body with a series of flaps for swimming.

Palaeontologists at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have uncovered the remains of a huge new fossil species belonging to an extinct animal group in half-a-billion-year-old Cambrian rocks from Kootenay National Park in the Canadian Rockies. The findings were announced on September 8, 2021, in a study published in Royal Society Open Science.

Named Titanokorys gainesi, this new species is remarkable for its size. With an estimated total length of half a meter, Titanokorys was a giant compared to most animals that lived in the seas at that time, most of which barely reached the size of a pinky finger.

“The sheer size of this animal is absolutely mind-boggling, this is one of the biggest animals from the Cambrian period ever found,” says Jean-Bernard Caron, ROM’s Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology.

Continue Reading.

Massive new animal species discovered in half-billion-year-old Burgess Shale

Like all radiodonts, Titanokorys had multifaceted eyes, a pineapple slice-shaped, tooth-lined mouth, a pair of spiny claws below its head to capture prey and a body with a series of flaps for swimming.

Palaeontologists at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have uncovered the remains of a huge new fossil species belonging to an extinct animal group in half-a-billion-year-old Cambrian rocks from Kootenay National Park in the Canadian Rockies. The findings were announced on September 8, 2021, in a study published in Royal Society Open Science.

Named Titanokorys gainesi, this new species is remarkable for its size. With an estimated total length of half a meter, Titanokorys was a giant compared to most animals that lived in the seas at that time, most of which barely reached the size of a pinky finger.

“The sheer size of this animal is absolutely mind-boggling, this is one of the biggest animals from the Cambrian period ever found,” says Jean-Bernard Caron, ROM’s Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology.

Continue Reading.

what would you guys do if i was a roach

look at my guy everyone

Hi

Ay! New here, very much not used to how this shit works but I'll figure it out with time. Glad to be here though!

2014 art, made on a 3ds

Scorpion, study of a photo in a book I have

Camel cricket! I think this one was modeled after greenhouse camel crickets

"What if, instead of riding dragons, some fantasy peoples rode giant bugs instead"

Need a giant yellowjacket friend

Devil's coach horse beetle except it's literally a coach horse

Made because, when looking at a list of names for isopods, I saw one that was "boatbuilder"

Leggy baby who oscillates when disturbed

Random mantis I made up. Banded mantis

Old spider I've always really liked

PRECIOUS BABY

Two mantis chars I made but never did anything with, or even named. Always thought of them as being chars for Sunday paper type comics