With about 100 species, the spiny ants of the genus Polyrhachis form the most diverse group of ants on Borneo. Here are two beautiful examples, the golden P. bihamata (look at those fishing hooks!) and the especially armed P. armata. Danum Valley, Sabah.
A funky Pholcid from Mexico. I had no idea that there were Cellar spiders with weird heads. Weird heads are one of my favourite features a spider can have. Modisimus sp.
#Pholcidae #CellarSpider #iNaturalist
NO NO NO YOU DON’T
GUYS LET ME PLEASE SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF FREE TAX USA
federal is free, state is $16, handles even my chaotic freelancer taxes just fine, same step-by-step “designed for normies” kind of interface as TurboTax but NOT EVIL
tell everyone you know
www.freetaxusa.com
another technicolor not-silhouette, this time a more wolf like canine in front of a dark and achromatic gritty-textured city. this shape is full of plants and trees and emanates colorful ripples into the darkness around it. a white sun glows in the technicolor sky where its third eye sits. its head is tilted up as if in bliss despite the dark surroundings. #furryartist #transmascartist #furry #art
resonance
Sorry I'm not more open-minded about LLMs, it's just some fucking maniacs shoveled out a bunch of useless bloatware featuring that technology, did not give me any chance to opt out, reorganized the entire economy around it, zeroed out gains made by green energy, and made it impossible to buy RAM
While photographing the zombie ants at Danum Valley, I noticed this funky larva chomping on and ultimately devouring the entire fungus stalk growing out of the ant’s head. I knew that Ophiocordyceps fungi have been used in traditional medicine for centuries. Turns out other animals consume them too.
Pycnogonida, species Colossendeis robusta, sea spider collected on NBP20-10 research cruise.
Staring down this day like a boss....Colossendeis robusta, a sea spider collected on our research cruise in 2020 in the Weddell/Western Antarctic Peninsula. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧🌊
Thanks to micro-CT and www.antscan.info, you can now explore high resolution, 3D ant images from anywhere in the world. Fantastic work from Julian Katzke, Francisco Hita Garcia, @economo.bsky.social, Thomas van de Kamp and colleagues just dropped: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ophiocordyceps zombie fungi infect ants and manipulate their behavior. The ants climb up vegetation, anchor themselves by biting into a leaf, and die. Out of their head then grows a fungus stalk that releases spores into the environment. And so the cycle continues. Danum Valley, Sabah.
Ophiocordyceps infections result in local “graveyards” of zombified ants, often on the underside of leaves in the low vegetation. The ant I posted yesterday actually shared its leaf with another zombie. Here’s the full scene.
Another picture of Diacamma, this time a worker at the nest entrance. Somehow this species seemed to construct unreasonably large entrance funnels (see how small the ant is in comparison). Danum Valley, Sabah.
I know that I sound like a broken record but I think once this society was ok with accepting mass covid deaths just to be able to eat at Applebees then all bets were off.
A Diacamma ant foraging on a leaf in Danum Valley, Sabah. These ponerines are sometimes called fingerprint ants. You’ll see why if you zoom in and look at the cuticular sculpturing on the thorax and gaster.
This is exceptionally thoughtful and well said.
dysphoria
2019
cone 1 terra cotta, glaze
color drawing of a scruffy ape/goblin creature, writing declares it's "opinionated, cantankerous, not very smart"
color drawing of an ant-like creature, writing declares its "mirthful, passionate, taciturn"
the fursonae
Portrait of a giant forest ant (Dinomyrmex gigas). What an absolute puppy! 🐜 🐶 🐜 Danum Valley, Sabah.
Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist
Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.
The workers of the giant forest ant (Dinomyrmex gigas) are polymorphic, i.e., they come in two sizes and shapes: The minors (first two pictures) and the majors (last two pictures). Both are huge though - minors just over two centimeters and majors up to three centimeters in body length.
Stictoponera menadensis are not particularly small ants. However, they are completely dwarfed by their neighbors, the giant forest ants (Dinomyrmex gigas), whose large workers measure almost 3 cm in body size. Here, the two are foraging next to each other on a buttress root in Danum Valley, Sabah.
Also the model for chalcidoid wasp taxonomy
bothering the cleidogonas
A Stictoponera menadensis (subfamily Ectatomminae) worker foraging in the leaf litter at Danum Valley, Sabah, plus another specimen on white background.
Colonies of this species often lack queens. Instead, unlike in most ants, workers can mate and take over egg laying as so-called “gamergates”.
Unknown isopod collected in Antarctica in 2013 along the western Antarctic Peninsula. LMG 13-12 cruise. Scaphodactylus sp?
Seems like everyone wants weird arthropods from #Antarctica these days....here's one I haven't posted before. I THINK its a Scaphodactylus sp. but ??? 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🌊
Portraits of the Dolichoderus colony members inhabiting the epiphytic myrmecophyte (ant plant) in Danum Valley, Borneo:
A queen, a worker, and a male.
Macro photo of a shiny, light orange ant with a large head and black eyes, standing on a green leaf in side view.
The beautiful Camponotus kaura is a night-active ant endemic to the eastern Caribbean. El Yunque, Puerto Rico.
Six stout dark-colored ants stand facing in random directions on an orange-red substrate, in top view. The ants’ butts are shaped like pointy hearts.
A few tropical acrobat ants taking nectar from a Heliconia flower. Minca, Colombia.
