Fossils Look Best In Bi Lighting.

Fawkes the Phoenix was based on a harpy eagle, howmcute would a kestrel phoenix be with a peacock tail and train?

this is a Good Opportunity considering i was never a big fan of fawkes’ movie design how about

Bilateral gynandromorph carpenter bee [x]

pink mushrooms

Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), family Hyaenidae (hyenas)

The largest extant species of hyena, and the most social carnivoran.

Young hyenas are born with a black coat, but begin to develop a lighter spotted coat around 2-3 months old. Their spots are better defined than adults, and fade with age.

Safaripark Beekse Bergen, taken July 2024

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

photograph by KJ Bluma

Image ID: a photograph of a path through a foggy forest. All of the trees are covered in moss and the only places there isn’t greenery is the trail and the sky. The underbrush seems to consist of grass and other leafy plants, but it’s hard to tell. The trees have these beautiful, winding branches that cover up the top half of the photo. It’s very shaded and slightly blue-hued in the foreground, but further down the trail it’s yellow-hued, indicating the sun is shining through the fog there. /End ID

All rights reserved  by Michael Carl

Trick or treat! < shaking with both excitement and terror

Your roommate for the entire year is a Creeper from Minecraft! Don't let it sneak up on you🥲

August 22, 2020 2:20 AM

Eyed Elaters (Alaus)

eyed elater click beetles, like this Alaus oculatus from Florida, are the biggest click beetles (Elateridae) found in temperate North America.

Click beetles are best known for their eponymous clicking ability- a sort of elastic locking mechanism on their thorax can snap open with a loud clicking sound, which helps them startle or escape the grasp of predators and allows them to launch themselves into the air when overturned (you can see that in slow motion at the end of the video)

(more elating click beetle trivia below!)

They live around decaying trees and logs, the adults feeding on sap flows and other sugary liquids while the predatory grubs use their powerful jaws to tunnel in search of other wood-dwelling insect larvae to devour (by contrast many smaller click beetle larvae, often called wireworms, feed on rotting wood itself or other plant matter). To rear these beetles in captivity it’s necessary to keep the larvae in containers made of a hard material like glass, as they’ll chew through plastic and escape (I learned this the hard way the first time I found and attempted to raise a grub).

There are 6 Alaus species in the US, the largest of which can be over 5 cm long. Two are found in forests along the east coast- A. oculatus, the eastern eyed elater (below, left) and its smaller relative A. myops, the blind elater (right).

Even though the larvae don't feed directly on decaying wood, different Alaus species prefer different trees- oculatus breeds in dead oaks and other hardwoods, while myops found in the same habitats only use well-rotted pines.