funky-creature-of-the-day

[funky-creature-of-the-day]

Funky creature of the day! #2,

Umbonia crassicornis

Umbonia crassicornis, or its more well known name; Thorn bug is a tropical or subtropical insect which lives in Mexico and Florida! It is a thorn-shaped bug which spends most of its life in trees, houseplants or bushes!(although, it's more common to see them on houseplants which tends to make them be viewed as a common pest)

The most common houseplant(or plant in general) to see these critters on are hibiscus and woman's tongue trees!(which tend to get damaged when they infest said plants as their only source of food is the saps the plant makes) 

Moving from that though, thorn bugs actually come in a few interesting shapes!(shown above are a few variations!) typically though, you will see most with the sharp tip as it tends to be better suited for the more common plants they live on!

Now now more about their diet! 

These buggers typically burrow through the plant's stems with a beak-like jaw where it will slurp up its sap! Sadly, there are no up close picture otherwise i’d show it :’)

Now! Some cool facts!

Thornbugs actually mate for life! And once they do, they typically stick to living around one plant(although they don’t always stay on the plant) where they will lay their eggs! 

Usually, the mother will be near their young at all times (like the image above)!

And, typically, thorn bugs, when in groups like this, will typically communicate through chemical induced vibrations(usually used for threats/predators)! Although, the mother will only respond if all of her brood is signaling! To which the mother will usually first see if they can identify where the threat is(and if they cannot, they will first signal, basically asking for help finding the threat) before they deal with the threat! And once the threat is gone, the mother can let out a signal basically telling her brood that they are safe! 

Annnd that’s all!! I'm sorry about this being late ^^’

#COTD #bug #god tumblr compressed the hell outta these pics

[funky-creature-of-the-day]

creature of the day #1!

today's favorite funky friend is the bleeding heart pigeon! or, Luzon bleeding-heart~

their scientific name is Gallicolumba luzonica and they are apart of the family Columbidae(which is a family which consists of doves and pigeons!)

these funky fellahs are a near threatened species which usually only lay a single egg during june. sadly, because they are endangered there isn't too many to study, but! there has recently been a push to create a breeding project to keep their numbers healthy!(link)

hower, pushing past that-- these are grey birds with iridescent feathers which give it a green-blue appearance in the correct light! in fact, you can see it in the little fellah above! another fun quirk is their red splotch on their chest, something which was the inspiration for their name!

here's a better look at it if anyone was curious!

currently, these guys are almost all in captivity but, they used to live in the Philippine Islands of Samar(link), Leyte(link), Basilan(link), Mindanao(link), Bohol(link), and Dinagat(link)!

these critters are shy creatures who tend to run from anything it deems dangerous! they tend to prefer being on the ground, only flying to branches when nesting or escaping from danger!

they primarily forage on the forest floor eating berries, seeds, worms and insects! although, in captivity, they tend to be fed grains, parakeet feed and greens!

also, the babies look so dumb

however sadly, that's all the info we know on these happy guys :)

#dove #pigeon #bird #COTD #im glad i finally got energy to post this;; i missed doing these