Goblin-in-the-rain - Meta

citheronia sepulcralis

pine-devil moth

location: north america

I’ve heard people calling those grey calico/tortoiseshell cats “dilute calico” but I haven’t seen that anywhere that goes in-depth on phenotype. Is it usually called something else? Or is there another thing I’m missing?

Thank you for your time and all the information you make available! It’s really neat :)

Dilute tortoiseshell is a common way to refer to blue tortoiseshell cats, which may also be called blue and cream.

Blue is the dilute of black and thus blue tortoiseshell is the dilute of black tortoiseshell - which is the traditional black and red tortoiseshell that probably comes to mind when you hear the word.

Gray isn’t a genetic term or used in the cat fancy but is a colloquial way for the layperson to refer to the color more accurately called blue.

Lilac is dilute of chocolate and fawn is dilute of cinnamon so these may be called “dilute tortoiseshell” as well in their tortoiseshell varieties but I don’t see this as often likely because nearly all cats with those colors are purebred and will be referred to using the proper terminology.

Calico is another colloquial term used to refer to tortoiseshell’s with a notable amount of white.

So gray tortoiseshell/calico and dilute tortoiseshell/calico are often used interchangeably.

big stretch

it’s crazy how much diversity there can be in one species…these are all pictures of the same bird species (red-tailed hawk)

Thin-Spined Jumping Spider (Tutelina elegans), female, family Salticidae, Illinois, USA

photograph by KJ Bluma

Viking dresses by Savelyeva Ekaterina

Dome lace bug, Oecharis sp., Tingidae

Found in Queensland, Australia

Photos 1-5 by bridgetteaussiemacro, 6 by deemc, 7-8 by tjeales, and 9-10 (for scale) by cynthia_c

Ngl every time someone follows this blog I automatically assume they’re a bot lol

please please please help me find more cats smelling a smelly smell