Taskline Dump Plus Ewwwwww

Researchers have discovered a new species of rove beetle that grows a termite puppet on its back to fool real termites into feeding it. The replica is so precise, it even mirrors the termites’ distinct body segments and has three pairs of pseudo-appendages that resemble antennae and legs.

The new beetle species (Austrospirachtha carrijoi)—found beneath the soil in Australia’s Northern Territory—emulates a termite by enlarging its abdomen, a phenomenon known as physogastry. Evolution has reshaped this body part into a highly realistic replica of a termite (as seen above), head and all, which rides on top of the rest of the beetle’s body. The beetle’s real, much smaller head peeks out from beneath its termite disguise, the authors report this month in the journal Zootaxa. The termite “puppet” may help the beetle evade detection—though termites are blind, they sense one another through touch.

Because A. carrijoi’s mouth parts are tiny, the authors think it begs food from its hosts rather than eating eggs or larvae. Worker termites feed other castes digested food in a process called trophallaxis. This adaptation has obvious advantages to the beetle. Once it is inside the nest, it can relax and spend the rest of its life living off of termite room service.

Words by Richard Pallady

Spruce Campbell... as a spruce budworm.....

This is based off a ramble I made about Spruce being a spruce budworm. Even though I reblogged underneath that post with the artwork above, I wanted to make a seperate post so that people don't have to go through a literal wall of text of me being an undiagnosed ND over my idea-

Although... it would be nice if you... uuuuuh- could check it out for yourself cuz I think I really cooked in that post.

im on ARTFIGHT with FRESH new cog ocs watch your backs

hope everyone had a very pleasant BEAT HIM TO DEATH day

after 2 years working outdoors all day i finally got stung by an onion for the first time yesterday and i wasnt even doing anything there wasnt even a nest nearby

I think one of my favourite jumping spiders is Opisthoncus necator just because its common name is just “The Murderer” for some reason, so if I ever go to look at it on iNat, I am greeted with this very accusatory title and what is essentially its mug shot

Arcyria oerstedii by Gim Siew Tan

this drawing is 2 years old but who give a damn i like the colors

Piglet bug, Bruchomorpha oculata, Caliscelidae

Found in the eastern United States

Photo 1 by tmurray74, 2 by robvanepps, 3 by tworm,

after that i started a group and he got obliterated first turn