American Dipper (Cinclus Mexicanus)

Moths. Feathers. Moths with feathers*!!

*These feathers are brought to you by CONVERGENT EVOLUTION!

So, here's the Alucitidae Family!! Commonly known as the many-plumed moths!! (Note, there’s also just plume moths, in the Pterophoridae family, but I wanted to talk about these ones today)

Their wings are really something else! Each wing is made up of about 6 flexible spines from which bristles (similar to the barbs of bird feathers) project laterally forming feathers! There are about 200 species known, they are pretty small, the wingspan of adults ranging from 7-28mm. They are distributed in temperate and subtropical regions worldwide and, not surprisingly, are mostly nocturnal and some crepuscular. Their larvae tunnel through the leaves and buds of various shrubs, the larvae of the type species for example, Alucita hexadactyla (pictured above as adult, as larva below), feeds on honeysuckle!

Also as a little fun fact, until 2004 there was only one species of many-plumed moth known to live in North America, A. montana (lowest photo) which was by the way mistaken to be the same as the European type species I talked above, since then however, two more species have been discovered by Bernard and Jean-François Landry, A. adriendenisi (left) and A. lalannei (right)!

Mothman's fashionable brother.

rainbow

The World of Interiors, May 2021. Photo - Joanna Maclennan

a couple extremely handsome carpet beeltes, Anthrenus lepidus and Anthrenus scrophulariae

Red Foxes, the animal that imo appears the most and is given the most misleading size descriptions and depictions in the books. They’re cat size. They’re literally cat sized. Please, Erins, they are cat sized. The fox kits Lion Jay and Holly find and are chased by? Might have actually been smaller than them if the books were accurate. I can’t really blame most the animation community for depicting them so large, because they’re described as being huge canonically, to the point you’d think they were coyotes or wolves with how much damage they can do sometimes. But really though, they’re not that big. They’re smaller than geese, weigh less than badgers, are definitely smaller than large dog breeds, and often only taller than cats because their necks and legs are longer, but their mass? just about the same as a cat’s.

Interesting thing about foxes, though they’re generally solitary hunters they don’t mind sharing opportunistic meals with competing species. Would they fight with the clans? yeah sure, but I think it would be possible for the clans to have some stories of foxes doing things that are playful or collaborative and be really confused about it.

i love feral baby zoomies so much

Large banded hawkmoth, Elibia dolichus, Sphingidae

Found in Southeast Asia

Photos 1-4 by smithore, 5 by gawenbl, 6 by hanchongchong, 7-8 by ganjarcahyadi, 9 by naomikim, and 10 by davehb

Computer wiring tunnel inside an abandoned coal power plant.

Photo by Bryan Buckley

please dear god everyone look at this przewalski's horse i found on inaturalist

Dialogue tips that actually work:

You are not writing a movie (ignore this if you are). The reader doesn't need to know every word the characters say for the duration of the story. Less is more.

Dialogue can happen within the prose. "And they awkwardky discussed the weather for five minutes" is way better than actually writing five pages of dialogue about the weather.

Balance your dialogues. Surprise yourself with a monosyllabic answe to a dialogue that's ten sentences long. Don't be afraid of letting your character use half a page for a reply or nothing at all!

Don't write accents phonetically, use slang and colloquialisms if needed.

Comma before "said" and no caps after "!?" unless it's an action tag. Study dialogue punctuation.

Learn the difference between action tags and dialogue tags. Then, use them interchangeably (or none at all).

Don't be afraid to use said. Use said if characters are just saying things, use another word if not. Simple. There's no need to use fancy synonyms unless absolutely necessary.

Not everyone talks the same way so it makes sense for your characters to use certain words more often than others. Think of someone who says "like" to start every sentence or someone who talks really slow. Be creative.

Use prose to slow down the pace during a conversation.

Skip prose to speed up the pace during a conversation.