#wiggle worm species

[fawnuh]

I drew Wally as a Wiggle Worm!!!

#welcome home puppet show #welcome home arg #welcome home #welcome home fanart #wally darling #wiggle worm species #wiggle worms #wiggle worm #orginal species #fawnuh #fawnuhuh #glitching

[heartfullofleeches]

...... cursed head anon.

Aliens dick can wiggle like a worm if he's excited enough. But he has to really try to hide it if darling shows shoulders or thighs 😭🙏

God this is so cursed, but fuckin hilarious and honestly kinda hot. I've been contemplating giving them a human dick or a tentacle and it would be better to go with the latter here. Reader's just living their best life chilling on their couch in shorts and Alien is on the opposite end fighting the battle of their life trying to get his dick to calm down for five seconds. I mentioned once that Alien's species doesn't feel sexual attraction without a emotional connection first so just imagine reader being their first crush (which they are) and Alien freaking the fuck out in their bedroom because their dick starts moving outta nowhere when they fantasize about reader again-

-

Reader: Hey, Al - you okay?

Alien: Gimme fifteen minutes alone in your bathroom or a roll of duct tape and I'll be peachy

-

[Alien sobs hysterically as they cling onto Reader]

Alien: Stop being so beautiful! I've already been banned from three grocery stores because I can't stop thinking about you!

#yandere oc #yandere x reader #yandere imagines #yandere #yandere headcanons #yandere x you #yandere scenarios #male yandere #yandere insert #yandere blurb #yandere alien #Alien my oc

[mostlymaudlin]

would you still love me if i was a worm?

ive always wanted to manufacture a situation where andrew gets to ask neil this bc i just think he deserves to be a ridiculous bf who seeks validation in silly, petty ways <3 and i think I’ve finally got something — it’s def silly but that’s the point lmfao

Andrew wakes when Neil gets up to pee.

“Sorry,” Neil whispers, brushing his knuckles against the back of Andrew’s hand as he slips out of their bed.

Andrew doesn’t bother trying to fall back asleep immediately. He’ll just wake up again when Neil returns. Instead, he pulls his phone from under the pillow and scrolls through iFunny, staring blearily at memes that do not live up to the app’s name and fighting sleep.

By the time Neil gets back, Andrew has lost the ability to move his heavy thumb, his eyes drooping as he stares at a pixelated screenshot of a screenshot of a Tweet posted to Facebook. Neil takes the phone out of his lax grip, turning off the screen and shoving it back under the pillows.

“Go to sleep,” Neil whispers. Andrew opens one eye to glare at him. He would still be sleeping if Neil hadn’t chugged a whole can of seltzer water right before bed and damned them both. Unfortunately for Andrew, the act of looking at Neil in his rumpled, tired state only makes his chest go tight in that angry, riotous way that only Neil can inspire in him. He shifts closer to Neil, pushing at his shoulder until Neil gets the message and rolls onto his side. Andrew presses up against Neil’s back, shoving his face into his bedhead and inhaling deeply. One arm wraps tightly around Neil’s waist, the other wiggles underneath the pillow they now share. Andrew throws a knee over Neil’s thigh for good measure. Neil sighs happily, resting his palm over the back of Andrew’s hand where it rests on his chest.

The lure of sleep threatens to pull him back under, but the meme he’d been staring at is still burned into the backs of his eyelids.

“Hey,” Andrew murmurs into Neil’s hair. Neil hums in acknowledgment. “Would you still love me if I was a worm?”

Neil stiffens for a second, and it takes a beat for Andrew to register that they don’t really use that word. They talked about it once, a few years ago. Neither of them have anything against it, but agreed it felt shallow. Andrew thinks the word sometimes, when his brain is too lazy to be specific about what exactly Neil stirs in him. It doesn’t really matter. It’s just a word. He presses a kiss to Neil’s shoulder, and Neil relaxes immediately.

“I don’t know,” Neil says. “Why would you be a worm? How would I even know who you were?”

“You’re supposed to say yes,” Andrew says, squeezing in reprimand. “That your feelings for me transcend species.”

“Okay, well, mine don’t,” Neil says. “Worms are gross.”

In a flash of irritation, Andrew releases Neil and rolls back to his own side of the bed.

“Andrew,” Neil says, sitting up. “You can’t seriously be upset about this.”

“I can do whatever I want,” Andrew says.

“I mean, yeah,” Neil says, interrupted by a yawn. “But you’re not a worm. And I do love you.”

Andrew wrinkles his nose, flopping onto his back. “That’s gross.”

Neil huffs. He reaches a hand toward Andrew, waiting for Andrew to roll his eyes and nod before running his fingers through Andrew’s hair.

“It’s true,” Neil says. “And also based on reality.”

“Whatever,” Andrew says, he catches Neil’s wrist and tugs. “Come here.”

They resume their earlier position. When they finally settle, the slow, steady rhythm of Neil’s chest rising and falling has Andrew’s consciousness slipping. He jolts a bit when Neil speaks again.

“Would you love me if I was a worm?”

“Yes,” Andrew says, even though Neil is so annoying that Andrew should squeeze him until he pops.

“What would that even look like?” Neil asks. “Would you kiss my worm body?”

“I’d put you in a little worm enclosure,” Andrew murmurs, eyes closed. “I’d get you good worm food and toys, and keep you in a room where you could see Exy games on TV.“

“Oh,” Neil says. “That’s really nice, actually.”

“Mmhmmm.”

“I’d do that too,” Neil says, yawning again. “But different. I’ll think about it more tomorrow.”

Andrew doesn’t really care anymore. He’s warm, and he’s human, he’s holding a warm and human Neil. Sleep finally pulls him back under.

#my writing #shdjfjdjfjf I’ve been trying to do something w this for so long y’all have no idea 🤣 #aftg #aftg fic #flash #Andreil

[mbari-blog]

Tiny rattail cuteness stealing our hearts 😍🥰⁠ ⁠ 

Baby rattail fishes, family Macrouridae (500 meters/1,650 meters deep), live up off the bottom, in the open waters of the midnight zone, to avoid being eaten by seafloor predators. Adults are slow-growing and long-lived, reaching up to 70 years old or even older. In some areas of the world, the grenadier fishery is removing adult rattails faster than the remaining population can reproduce.

Rattails use those big blue eyes to glimpse even the faintest flickers of bioluminescence—the “living light” produced by deep-sea animals. Their keen eyesight reveals prey, like fishes and squid, darting in the waters above the seafloor. A rattail relies on other senses, like smell and touch, to find a meal too. It has a nose for rotting carrion, and sensitive barbels on its chin detect small crustaceans or worms wiggling in the mud below.

Humans play a pivotal role in deep-sea food webs too. As fish stocks in the ocean’s sunlit shallows dwindle, fisheries cast their nets to deeper waters. You might see “grenadier” as the catch of the day in restaurants and seafood markets—that’s a deep-sea rattail fish sold under a more palatable market name. Rattails and other deep-sea fishes grow slowly and mature late in life, making them vulnerable to overfishing. Additionally, the gear used to catch these fishes may harm seafloor habitats or unintentionally catch other species too. Thankfully, effective management for rattail fisheries on the West Coast has reduced the risk of overfishing and habitat damage. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide can help you make seafood selections that keep ocean health in mind.

#MBARI #DeepSea #SeaLife #Ocean #Nature #Squeee #CuteFishesOfTumblr

[techs-ass]

Shark Sundays: Epaulette Shark

Hello, hello! Welcome to my Shark Sundays post where every week I let people pick a shark that I then just kind of info dump about on Sundays. This week's shark winner is the Epaulette shark!

Now, please remain seated for the whole ride and try not to throw popcorn at the narrator, they're very sensitive.

Conservation Status: Least Concerned

This adorable little sea pup is the Epaulette shark or Hemiscyllium ocellatum! Their base body color is a creamy or slightly brownish hue and marked with widely spaced dark brown spots. The Epaulette shark gets its name from the very large, white-margined black spot behind each pectoral fin, which kinda looks like decorative military epaulettes. These little guys are one of the smaller species of sharks growing at a maximum of 27 to 35 inches long (70-90 cm) and living for around 20 to 25 years. They can be found in shallow tropical water at around the depth of 131 ft. (40 m) in the western Pacific Ocean usually near New Guinea and Australia.

The Epaulette shark feeds at low tide and is most active during dusk and dawn. They hunt for food by pushing their snout into the sand and shuffling around, once the prey is located they will thrash their body around to catch it. The way they chew their food is actually kinda cute as they'll chew it with little bits sticking out of their mouth. Speaking of prey and eating, these guys eat things that are somehow tinier than they are, mostly feeding on crustaceans, small fish, and polychaete worms. The adults will usually eat shrimp and crabs while the juveniles will mostly eat worms and fish. Though both of them use suction feeding!

Now because these little cuties are usually found in warm, shallow waters they regularly interact with humans. If you happen to see one in the water, don't panic! The most these guys might do is nip at your toes if you wiggle 'em too much but otherwise, they're completely harmless and have no recorded attacks on humans.

Fun Fact: Some Epaulettes are actually kept as pets. They thrive pretty well in smaller environments and are relatively docile besides the occasional little bite to their caretakers.

Now that we've gotten past the basics now I can tell you about the most fascinating thing about Epaulettes. Are you ready? Cause you gotta be ready for this fact. It's a really cool fact. Are you sitting down? Not drinking anything? Ok, ok here it is:

Epaulette sharks can walk on dry land for up to 98 ft. (30 m) and survive hypoxia - a deficiency of oxygen- for two. whole. hours.

Yeah, you read that correctly. The Epaulette SHARK can walk!!! on land!!! Look at this gif and tell me it's not the coolest shit you've ever seen.

Look at him go!! AHH!! *shakes you aggressively* WE ARE LITERALLY WATCHING A MARINE ANIMAL GO THROUGH THE EVOLUTION OF LEARNING TO WALK ON LAND!!! IT COULD POSSIBLY EVOLVE TO BE A FULL LAND ANIMAL WITHIN 30 TO 40 YEARS!!!!

*ahem* Now you may be asking, "But Mal, why are they walking on land?" Well, there are multiple answers to this question. The main one is that they do this to get from tide pool to tide pool allowing them to access new pools to forage for food, or tidepools with better-oxygenated water. They also use this little talent to evade predators! As y'know, other sharks and large fish can't walk on land like this absolute Chad. Scientists believe that with the effects of climate change, this ability will help them to survive drastic changes to their environments.

Speaking of survival, let's talk about the Epaulette's conservation status. Thankfully for these little guys, the IUCN Red List has them as a species under "least concern" This means that there's nothing that really poses any major risk to their species and they're relatively abundant. They do, of course, have natural predators but because it has no value as a commercial food fish and is not considered a sport fish, the Epaulette isn't really targeted by humans except for the aquarium trade. So if you're favorite shark is the Epaulette then you've got pretty much nothing to worry about as the Epaulette's are happy and thriving!

This doesn't mean that humans pose no threat to the Epaulette. Our actions still have a huge impact on their lives! From overfishing to reef destruction, and how toxic the exotic trade can be, we still have to be careful. It's important that we recognize our actions have consequences and not just on us. It's our job to spread awareness and hold each other accountable (especially big corporations who cause most of the damage.)

Aaaand this concludes this week, Shark Sundays! I do hope you enjoyed reading about this cute shark and I hope you learned something new! Thank you so much for stopping by <3 If you want to be put on the tag list for Shark Sundays (including the polls to vote for which shark you want to read about next!) then just let me know in the comments or reblogs!

Tgalist:

#sharks #shark facts #shark conservation #epaulette shark #shark sundays #sea puppies with very sharp teeth #marine life #marine biology #sea life #sharks are just neat little guys #science #conservation

[dailyadventureprompts]

Born from waters tainted by the arcane, the species known as mindleeches are a mostly innocuous pest that mostly trouble the dreams of apprentice wizards. Sometimes however, the psychic energies they feed upon can link the squirming beasts together in a nightmarish mass compelled to devour and terrorize to sustain it's makeshift consciousness.

You can feel it before you see it, a whisper of sensation in the corner of your mind that tells you that something is touching you slowly rises into a wave of discomfort and writhing fear. This is how the Mass hunts, questing out with its wordless telepathy for anything capable of response, something it can track down and feed upon until it is comatose and exsanguinated. Life for the mindleech mass is short and unplesant, like a fire it exists in a state of constant consumption, growing each time it is fed but needing to feed more and more as it grows. The creature is either then destroyed or the limit is hit and it devours its own consciousness, collapsing back into a pile of egoless animals.

In their natural state, mindleeches and their ability to sense and drain magic can be quite helpful, as they're often used to treat arcane maladies much the same way their mundane cousins can treat poor circulation. A jar of the lil buggers can likewise be used as a quick fix for detecting magical auras.

Adventure Hooks:

When sent to the swap to gather some leeches as a favour for the local healer, the party have no way of knowing that a dark artifact has been dropped into the local waters, imbuing the creepy crawlies with a malign sapience. After they defeat the beast, the artifact will come spilling out on a tide of wiggling wormbodies, leaving them to decide what to do with it.

A hazing prank between students at the local magic college went too far and one of the apprentices ended up drowned in the sewers during a storm. Before they died their body ended up swept into a nest of thought leeches, who absorbed the student's fear and resentment and began to swarm. Now the Mass hunts students and faculty through the pipes and drains of the school, leaving the sort of bloodless bodies behind that may have the party thinking they're hunting a vampire.

Though it was once a place of beauty and arcane might, the elven enclave of Xor'Izil is today nothing more than a boggy ruin. None alive today remember its downfall, save for the colony of mindleeches that now dwell in its flooded foundations. Bred for a now forgotten war, the leeches burst free from their containment and in a single day and night devoured the inhabitants of the elven city, granting it a stockpile of psychic energy that has sustained the Mass through centuries. Now in possession of the semi-digested consciousnesses of a coterie of elven warmages, the Mindleech Mass seeks to evolve itself into a sustainable, and even more dangerous form: A Worm-that-walks. In order to do so it'll need a suitable vessel to devour and then possess, say a powerful mage allied to the party.

Mindleech Mass belongs to Magic the gathering,

Art by Kev Walker

Initial stats Stats by the mtgtodnd converter

Formatting thanks to the Griffglyph monster maker

#bestiary #homebrew monster #swamp #swamp encounter #mystery #monster hunt #swamp dungeon #city encounter #taloncliff

[bogleech]

Hey Bog, I spotted my first hammerhead worm here in North-Central Texas! I was so thrilled I just watched it until it wiggled out of view, but now all the sudden my feed is full of "kill them" and "invasive" news articles. Most of them are pretty sensationalist so I'm taking them with a grain of salt (rather than dropping it on the worm) but I am curious, are they a threat to native species or only the also-invasive earthworms?

While they are a threat to North America's few native earthworms or native snails (depending on the species of hammerhead worm) records of them in North America go back 90 years, so they've been an irreversible part of our ecology for a long time now.

They're poisonous, but you'd have to eat a bunch of them to be affected by it. They can also carry some parasites, but again, you'd have to eat them raw for that to matter! Both facts still go around in news articles like "POISONOUS KILLER WORMS WILL GIVE YOU MENINGITIS"

The New Guinea Flatworm is one that was only just introduced, pretty damaging to the ecosystem, not a hammerheaded species, but when I last visited central Florida you could find them under every single object on the ground and that's just the ones that felt like hanging out at the surface rather than deep under the soil, so, I don't think invasive flatworms are something that can actually be stopped by human effort unless someone caught literally the very first one before it spread. :(

[silkwhim]

Twig/whip spider

worm tail spider

much bigger than whip spiders (now around 6-8 inches) with a diet more focused on birds and small reptiles, their abdomen mimics the appearance of a worm for most part of the year, until April to August when it inflates and becomes bright green like a caterpillar. with both morphs, they sit still in webs of strong silk low to the ground and slowly wiggle their abdomen until a bird tries to eat it, getting trapped in the web in the process. if a bird is successful in eating the spider and escaping the web, it will be poisoned anyways - this species is both venomous and poisonous.

#beatha #spec bio #spec evo #speculative biology #speculative evolution #art #speculative zoology #spider #bug #bugs #spiders

[robogirlwomb]

Lying against the wall, staring down at your slowly growing body with half-lidded eyes, panting for breath.

Another mutagenic pillbug, the size of your fist, clambers off of your shoulder and onto your cheek. You don't even hesitate, simply opening your mouth and letting it climb in, where it curls into a ball and slides down your mutating gullet.

The pillbugs had originally tasted quite bad. Bitter, coppery. The first dozen or so had quite literally had to force their way into your mouth and down your throat. But they literally had not stopped force-feeding themselves to you since you found their nest under your floorboards.

It was around the twelfth one, as the mutagens they excreted began to soak into your body, that the taste had gotten... almost bearable.

Then, it was actually pretty good.

Now, with your taste buds registering them as sweet and fruity, like gummy candy, you can't even bring yourself to bother putting up a resistance. They're just so delicious.

Your body was changing. Growing. Getting longer and longer, fatter, rounder. You had long shucked off your clothes, the better to watch your slowly ongoing transformation.

Your spine had elongated, almost twice the length you used to be, now.

Your belly was a massive, soft cushion.

Your arms and legs were growing pudgier, a layer of comfortable fat widening them.

You could see your feet had changed, becoming more like a digitigrade paw. If you wiggled your toes, it resembled more like a fat hand than anything.

Three new pairs of arms, six total, had sprouted from your sides. It hadn't taken long for you to figure out how to control them.

A fine layer of soft, fuzzy fur was growing, spreading along your elongating form.

You recognized just what you resembled.

You were becoming a giant Velvet Worm.

Somehow, you couldn't bring yourself to be as worried as you knew you probably should be.

Maybe it was the mutagens, sinking into your brain, floating you on a soporific haze.

Or maybe it was your cock, a full foot long now, with a pointed tip, waving in a decidedly prehensile fashion, emerging from a long slit in the middle of where your midsection had once been.

It had been growing for a while now. As your body changed, your cock had made itself known.

New thoughts filled your head. Thoughts of mating, and breeding.

You numbly pulled your phone closer to you, from where you had dropped it.

This is why we don't do fingerprint unlock, you thought to yourself as your thumb slid along your unlock pattern.

Another candy-tasting pillbug pokes at your cheek with one foreleg, and you absently open your mouth, chewing hungrily on it with a mighty crunch.

Your new thumbs clumsily type on your phone's keyboard. One of your new hands was gently stroking your long cock, up and down.

In the Yahoogle search bar:

do velvet worms lay eggs?

As it turned out, that was a complicated question, but the answer boiled down to “some do, some don't, depending on the species.”

Huh. Interesting.

You weren't sure which idea appealed to you more. Carrying live, squirming young within you, or laying a mass of soft, velvety eggs…

Your long, fleshy cock wriggled in delight in one chubby hand.

You leaned forward, once again, trying to see if it would reach your mouth. You strained forward, mouth agape, trying so hard to reach it as you stretched it toward your face...

...not quite. Just short.

You sighed, falling back against the wall. No matter. You were still growing, and your bugdick showed no sign of stopping either. A little longer.

You were dimly aware, somewhere in your mutagen-addled mind, that you were losing control.

That perhaps this was reversible, if you could get help.

But once your cock could reach your mouth... that was the ballgame. You'd be lost.

You could just imagine... your mouth sliding around your cock, enveloping it in warm, wet heat... your tongue sliding into your cocktip, tasting your own sweet precum... it sliding down your throat, your gag reflex long gone... being able to caress every inch of your own length, until that tight heat rose within it like a shotgun blast, cumming down your own throat and into your growing gut, adding to your own cushion of blubber... all the better to provide a warm, nourishing softness for your babies...

You shook off the thought, your antennae rustling gently above your head. So long as you had to wait anyway, you might as well make your home more comfortable.

Rising to your extra forelegs, you carefully lumbered out of your room and down the hall to the thermostat. You cranked the temperature up, sighing with relief as you felt the heat come from the vents. You’d have to dig that humidifier out of the closet, too. And hunt down as many blankets, sheets, towels, cushions, and pillows you had. Even better, take your clothes off the hangers and out of the drawers. You’d need as much cushioning as you could get, for what was to come.

~/~/~

So much later, your partner finally arrives home.

They blink in confusion, already shucking their winter jacket off, with how warm and humid the house is.

They squint in the dim light, searching for you.

A massive, twenty-foot long shape rises from the nest of clothes it had built, your long, snakelike penis sliding from your mouth with a wet pop.

Your partner gasps in shock, unknowingly inhaling a big lungful of the pheromones you’d been emitting for the past few hours.

Their brain goes fuzzy, their thoughts slowing to a crawl.

They giggle giddily, almost drunkenly, feeling a horny warmth rise within them.

The enormous velvet worm smiles, your black, mirror eyes seeming happy, proud.

You caress your enormous belly with four eager hands, a fifth one cramming another juicy pillbug into your mouth, juices trickling down your chin.

As your partner staggers toward the nest, your cock is ready and eager, precum dribbling from its tip.

You’re already imagining what comes next. First, you’ll pump them full of babies. Then, once their muta-cock grows in, they can pump you full of babies.

A few hours from now, once their transformation has finalized, the two of you will curl up around each other, tails and bodies lacing around and around each other, pregnant bellies pressed against each other, suckling each other in the world’s most interlaced, convoluted sixty-nine, as you wait for your babies to gestate.

You can hardly wait.

#transformation nsft #bug transformation #pregnant #preggo kink #brainwashing #weight gain #wg fantasy #my posts

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Imagine that we as a species suddenly encounter some new and acutely horrible infectious parasite. Doesn’t kill, exactly, not right away, but causes constant and excruciating pain and cognitive/emotional deterioration. And it’s horribly infectious. It’s just the worst!

So we could kill them all, the drugs exist, but instead, out of the abundant kindness of our hearts, putting every buddhist monk to shame, we instead do our best to try and communicate to them in worm-ese: please, please just fucking stop. Ofc that doesn’t work, so we resort to the next most divinely merciful thing: individually isolate and house the great mass of these parasites in a little enclave, sometimes alone but more often with a bunch of other wriggly bloodsucking friends, filled with nutrients and artificial stimulation, away from vulnerable human flesh. Until suddenly, one day, one of the parasites breaks free of its bell jar as tho by magic, pulling others out with it, and starts wreaking havoc once more on humanity

Again, we could kill them all! Would be a piece of cake! But instead, we create a giant container to contain all the other containers still remaining, to wait and see if any of these others are able to pull this same bit of invertebrate!Houdini trickery. Or at least, most of us do. There’s an eccentric, tho, who tries a different tack. Bc he cares about these little fuckers. They are his special little buddies. Instead he picks one, his precious little fucking nightmare pet, to bring back into his own privately maintained demon habitat, doing his best to communicate with a tiny little worm puppet he crafted specifically to interact with the bastard. Waits for it to spawn younglings so he can set up them with their own living quarters. He even arranges a sort of pen pal programme where the worm can wiggle and get wiggled at by its monstrous broodmates, and eventually finds them all a particularly dangerous conspecific roommate, all the while tending to its every need thru the puppet.

Why? Why does he maintain this ludicrous arrangement with a little worm boasting fewer brain cells than he has has taste buds? Bc he is going to teach it to talk, and then converse with it to see how the other worm could have escaped, and build a way forward for the two species to live in harmony. It’s insane, ofc. Nobody takes him seriously bc it’s the stupidest idea they’ve ever heard. Any number of snide remarks are made by his colleagues (as much as anything bc they see in him their failures). But it works!! One of his ~100 iterations bred from the first manages to learn to speak in human speech! It’s a fucking miracle! And so he presses on with it, showing it the damage the outbreak has caused, pleading to help him find a solution to keep both species in safety and comfort

And what does this little platyhelminth bitch do? How does this pampered little tapeworm ingrate respond to these overtures of inter-phylum peace? Tells him it thinks the one to mysteriously break free was a hottie, that he should have somehow asked permission and better collaborated on the interior design of the terrarium with it before it had the gift of fucking language to convey its wants, that he was tooooo pushy in trying to talk about how to avoid species-wide relentless torture, and now its going to use what it learned in conversation to a) kill him and ii) escape to cause the plague to end all human plagues. And it does it! While he’s prone and vulnerable and screaming for mercy and avowing his confusion and refusing to defend himself, it fucking does it!!

God what an entitled little fucking bitch

#chirality angels #some scorpion and frog shit

[fawnuh]

The official refsheet for Wiggle Worms is finally finished!!!

check #wiggleworms for more info on the species

more lore and info coming soon! Feel free to ask me any questions you have about them :3

#wiggleworms #wiggle worms #worm on a string #oc #original species #open species #worm off the string #furry species #furry #fursona #fawnuhuh #fawnuh

[have-some-facts]

Okokokok

So, I am going to talk about the bee moth tomorrow. But now it’s time

For this

This is a blind-worm or a slowworm. If that’s not the correct name, please tell me because I don’t know it.

Now I’m going to do a little test.

Please do this poll before reading the information:)

Now, Slowworms are native to Britain but can be found around the world. I have personally seen them in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France.

They are not venomous and rarely bite. So don’t worry if you see one right next to you. Unless you’re from Australia. It might be a snake.

But yes, they are also in Australia. 47 different species to be exact.

They can live up to 15 years and reproduce ovoviviparous. This is when a female slowworm lays eggs inside herself. She’s still alive, don’t worry. The little ‘worms’ will hatch inside the mama and will stay there for a while to absorb the egg yolk. Then they get birthed. (Yes, the mama is probably still alive)

They are quite common. I’ve personally only found them in forests and close to the road. They just. Live

Its

Respectable

Now onto the big question, what is a slowworm.

A slowworm is a lizard. ‘But it looks like a snake!’

Let me explain, that is a legless lizard. They have eyelids, a flat-ish tongue and when in danger their tail will fall off. (Of course their tail will grow back)

Now I’ve heard some people don’t know why the tails of lizards fall off. This is to cause a distraction. When they’re somewhere and a bird comes or another animal to eat them they will let their tail go and let on wiggle there. Because of this distraction they can run (or in the slow-worm’s case slither) away to safety.

That’s all, byeee and have a good day!

#fun facts #fun facts with idi #animal facts #snakes #lizards #tumblr polls #salamander #worm

[crevicedwelling]

Of the bugs that molt, do they have increased motion/running when they're getting ready to molt, similar to some reptiles?

bugs that molt = Ecdysozoa = arthropods, nematodes, velvet worms, tardigrades, some other weird little guys. I don’t really know how any behave firsthand except for the arthropods I’ve kept.

sort of depends on the species but in many cases it’s precisely the opposite. tarantulas actually flip on their backs and remain motionless for hours prior to molting, centipedes get very stiff (and turn yellowish due to the new cuticle separating from the old) in premolt and in my experience tend to fast for a good few weeks before ecdysis. millipedes even more so; they’ll burrow as deep as they can and might not come up for another month, sporting a fresh new exoskeleton. some mantises might not move for a day or more if they find a good spot to hang to molt, and like many insects anchor their feet in place before molting so that they can cling to good solid footing—their own exuvia—as they emerge.

(Scolopendra hainanum between molts and one in premolt, with the old yellowed exoskeleton separating)

isopods with their weird biphasic molt are different, and besides the actual process of shedding + 10-30 min of drying, they just get on with their lives before and after. they have it easy! same with things like maggots and other soft-bodied larvae, their exoskeletons are basically thin cellophane and are easy to wiggle out of and it doesn’t slow them down much.

for some aquatic arthropods it’s a bit different, Triops molt by thrashing themselves out of their old skins & it only takes a few seconds sometimes! but for other aquatic creatures with more well developed shells, like lobsters and big crabs, molting is quite laborious and lengthy even with the added support of water.

(Porcellio laevis “Dairy Cow” with his anterior exuvia, Scolopendra hainanum the middle of ecdysis w/ respiratory tract lining “strings” visible)

molting for reptiles literally is shedding some skin, but molting for arthropods is shedding a skeleton and then some! since a soft new exoskeleton is grown beneath the old one, but before it’s shed the animal has to sit inside a now too-small, very rigid suit of armor, I would assume the general pattern is for arthropods to move less before molting. the lining of the respiratory tract and some of the other internal organs that are part of the cuticle also get molted, plus legs/appendages can get stuck in molt, so also best to find somewhere safe and not leave until hardened up!

a good example of this might be cicadas, which emerge from the ground as nymphs, climb to find a perch, and then don’t move at all except for the muscular contractions needed to break free of the exuvia. that’s why cicada shells are often posed in curious ways—they’re a snapshot frozen in time of a cicada’s last moments as a juvenile.

(teneral Neotibicen linnei)

#bugs #cw bugs #centipede #isopods #insect #biology

[gay-artificer]

Thinking about vulture grub summoning signals.

Vultures respond to signal, but it also seems that the grubs themselves are aware of when the signals fail- I was previously assuming it was a case of risky behavior on the part of the grubs since if the vulture doesn’t find anything, it takes the grubs. This originally read to me as a sort of fail state the grub would ideally want to avoid, and that calling the vulture was a means of driving off predators by intentionally attracting a threat that would pick a bigger target. A badly timed call to the vulture would result in the selection of the grub, but a reasonable threat to the grubs safety would be something worth that risk. This is more or less how even slugcats use them (if they aren’t players who feel bold enough to go straight for the vulture, they’re mostly used to get lizards out of the way) This would be a fairly straightforward mutual relationship to evolve, with some risk to the grub. We can assume its not a unintentional relationship due to the fact that if blocked, but potentially able to move the light into the sky, grubs will make some effort to get their signal visible by wiggling over a bit. This specific effort to at least get the signal skyward suggests that its not merely an unrelated sign vultures seek out, but rather pretty intentionally targeted at them. Its not impossible that vultures and grubs are related directly, but I feel like its not as strongly implied as some people suggest. It really reads more as mutualism vs. a parent - offspring relationship. Especially since vultures do kill grubs freely. That’s not unheard of with animals (and there isnt any particular reason why vultures would be encouraged not to, with seemingly no way to identify grubs as their own offspring) but in this case assumption of relation really adds little to their relationship other than “reason why they cooperate” It’s the inclusion of the “failed” signal that I find interesting, as it suggests the grubs are aware when the signal doesn’t work and communicate that as important data (And yes, in terms of game design this is a good thing for the player). But if you were attempting straightforward predator deterrence via alerting bigger threats, it would generally be better to feign success in the hopes that the current threat would respond anyway. So a ‘green’ signal would always be the ideal... so I think the better concept is that the signal is actually an area warning.

In several types of plants, predation from long-term predators such as caterpillars can prompt the omission of specialized chemical signals that are designed to attract other insects and predators who target the offending species. Dealing with a certain type of caterpillar? Call a wasp that is an exclusive parasite of that caterpillar. The predators benefit from responding due to the presence of the prey, and the plant is protected by having predators kept near it. Another type of chemical signal sent by threatened plants is actually for the benefit of other plants- they warn each other about grazing or disease threats. Even if plants can’t exactly get up and walk away, the warning allows for them to prepare ahead of time and hopefully decrease their own damages. I think vulture grubs, with a bit of self sacrificial behavior are trying similar with vultures- and communicating failure to summon as a means of notifying their surroundings that the desired defense mechanism has failed. Vulture presence would be a pretty noteworthy thing to announce (especially given that they fly, and thus might be subject to some pretty heavy migratory patterns) if it was a primary defense mechanism. Since we also don’t know exactly how the worms get where they are, it could even be a means of encouraging whatever parent animal they have to chose more protected areas. And since the grubs are not immune from vulture targeting, they still benefit from primarily being subterranean and in locations unlikely to be directly scouted by active vulture colonies- but most of these locations are still fairly close to open air, where it might be feasible to send SOS still if carried from their initial position. and if you wanna get very risky, sending the fail signal might also be a plead to other non-vulture predators. “There’s no vultures, please come in-fight” would be... very high risk, for a lot of reasons, but many of the species in rain world are threatening enough to each other that using them as a last resort in lieu of a more favorable species is reasonable. With the overall idea being that you make the immediate area risky enough that the remaining colony of grubs (since they spawn in groups, even if they’re mostly dead in-game) isn’t completely harvested.

#rain world #okay im finally tagging it #long post #rw bioposting #fuck it that will be my biology tag i guess #and ecology and zoology whatever whatever #they are probably all gonna get long post tags so yeah #oh yeah it could also be to alert further away vultures to move into the area #a 'this spots open!!!!!!!' type signal

[nevadas-explorer]

Types of Void

Hehehe more lore at last!!! These are all headcanons, so know these aren't canon to their source material. This gets quite long, so everything is under the cut!

List of void types so far:

Gold void (Rain World)

Abyssal void (Hollow Knight)

Nightmare void (Don't Starve)

End void (Minecraft)

Aetherial void/shimmer (Terraria)

Memory Void (Sky: Children of the Light)

This document contains spoilers for all of the above games!

For context on what void is and some basics about it, go here.

Back to the lore masterpost

Gold Void (Rain World)

Appearance: Black in its pure form but develops ripples of gold when exposed to impurities. Normally exists as a liquid called "void fluid."

Location: Naturally found in subterranean reservoirs known as "void seas." While it may seem that Rain World's planet has a mantle made entirely of void fluid, this is false; the void seas simply seem infinite due to the weirdness of void. Void fluid has also been exploited by an extinct civilization and can be found in various artifacts.

Creatures: Always have gold in their palettes. Some creatures are mostly dark-colored while others are mostly white. Species include echoes, ghost voidspawn (the small gold ghosts), and void worms.

Properties:

Capable of dissolving virtually anything, including reality itself. This makes storing void fluid very difficult and expensive. Rain World's Ancients found a way to dilute void fluid and were able to engineer materials that take a long time to dissolve, allowing them to store it. Since gold void is highly corrosive, handling it is a very bad idea.

Unstable and volatile when exposed to energy. Void fluid is normally inert, but using energy sources (such as heat, kinetic energy, electricity, or even void fluid that's already been energized) can make it volatile. This was harnessed by the Ancients to power technology. However, this technology must be handled with care, as mishandling can lead to a runaway reaction and the formation of a temporary singularity.

Has an unusually strong effect on reality. Examples of this include the void sea's screen-melting effect and the aura that echoes have. Some Ancient technologies make void fluid wiggle reality in a specific way to get desired results (e.g. to produce an antigravity field).

Abyssal Void (Hollow Knight)

Appearance: Pitch black and may have glowing white "eyes." Normally exists in a liquid form but becomes gaseous if disturbed.

Location: Similar to gold void, abyssal void exists in reservoirs deep underground. One such reservoir is found directly underneath Hallownest.

Creatures: Black with glowing white eyes. Some abyssal voidspawn inhabit physical bodies or constructs, which act like a protective shell. Includes vessels, shades, kingsmoulds, and whatever the Collector is.

Properties:

It absorbs sound and creates silence. Locations near an abyss are eerily quiet, and abyssal voidspawn tend to be silent as well. Some voidspawn can "roar," but instead of making a sound they make a wave of silence instead.

Nightmare Void (Don't Starve)

Appearance: Nightmarish shadows. Its tangible form is a gelatinous liquid known as nightmare fuel. It can also appear as dark flames.

Location: Found all over the Constant but is strangely abundant in the Ruins deep underground.

Creatures: Nightmare voidspawn (aka fissured voidspawn) are normally living shadows with holes where their eyes would be. They are normally invisible and incorporeal but can be seen by creatures that have low sanity. Includes terrorbeaks, crawling horrors, and Mr. Skitts. Some creatures resemble the Ancient Fuelweaver instead, or are more tangible like the fused shadelings.

Properties:

Has an insanity aura. Creatures and objects made from nightmare void cause intense unease and stress in living creatures. Since nightmare voidspawn usually only appear to someone who has low sanity, this can create a nasty feedback loop.

Can be puppeteered - for a price. A monarch (formerly a king, now a queen) exists who is able to direct and control nightmare void; however, they are changed forever by this and are, in a way, voidspawn themselves.

Note: "Them" in Don't Starve lore refers to multiple beings. Void is the most powerful and influential of them.

End Void (Minecraft)

Appearance: Black, purple, or staticky. Its tangible form is a purple particulate that does not persist for very long.

Location: Mostly found in a dimension known as the End. Tangible end void is rare and is emitted by some end voidspawn.

Creatures: Usually mostly black with purple eyes and accents. Includes endermen and the Ender Dragon. If a living creature lingers in the End for an extremely long period of time, they may eventually become an end voidspawn.

Properties:

Can be used for teleportation. Endermen are able to teleport and eyes of ender are used to activate End portals.

Aetherial Void/Shimmer (Terraria)

Appearance: Glowing, shimmery, and pearlescent. Usually found as a liquid known as "shimmer."

Location: Pools of shimmer naturally generate in the Aether mini-biome.

Creatures: Shimmery and pearlescent. Include shimmer slimes and faelings.

Properties:

Can transmute or decraft things. By dunking them in shimmer, many items can be given a new form or broken down into the materials used to craft them. Critters and slimes are easily turned into aetherial voidspawn through transmutation, but larger creatures such as humans need more time to soak.

Intangibility. This is also known as the Shimmering debuff, where the player becomes intangible for a short time after entering a pool of shimmer. Aetherial voidspawn can become intangible at will.

Memory Void (Sky: Children of the Light)

Appearance: Doesn't have a tangible form. Instead it manifests as pocket dimensions called "memory spaces." These dimensions have two variants: an empty, grayscale one with a solid, reflective floor (ex. the ancient memories) and one that is blue with distant stars and no floor (ex. the vault of knowledge). It's possible the blue variant exists due to interactions with light magic.

Location: Memory spaces.

Creatures: Ghostly and translucent with glowing, star-like flecks. Includes cosmic mantas. Normally the only way to convert a creature into a memory voidspawn is if it dies while inside a memory space.

Properties:

Can form memory spaces. Memory spaces preserve locations in a moment of time as if it's a memory. These spaces can be entered and interacted with. Shared spaces are a miniature and temporary form.

Is harmless to living things. This is highly unusual for a void type. The only danger presented by a memory space itself is the fact that it's infinite, so it is possible to get lost inside one (light barriers can be erected to prevent this).

The world of Sky has many memory spaces, including:

Most of the Vault of Knowledge. The actual Vault is the stone room you reach after meditating at the end of the realm.

The empty void you are in after dying in Eden.

The starry location you reach after going through Orbit and before you are reborn.

The memories accessed in the Season of Shattering quests.

#raintailed rambles #lore #void lore #not gonna tag the fandoms here bc i dont want to #i wrote this while sleep-deprived so there may be errors

[allieebobo]

it's a must at this point but the ros react to mc asking “would you still love me if i was a worm”

I know this has been floating around, but. Wow. What a question. I hope you forgive me for the level of weird that comes after this - I suppose you have to, given what the prompt was.

G

G immediately raises an eyebrow. "Asking all the earth-shattering questions today, aren't you?" There's a pause and a short sigh, as the exchange student braces themselves. "What kind of worm?"

MC snorts, and shakes their head. "Does it matter?"

G spreads their arms wide. "Of course it does. If you're an earthworm and I'm a plant, I might consider it. If you're a tapeworm and I'm human, then hell no." There's a beat, and G licks their lips, a devilish half-grin forming on their lips as they lean in. "I'm sure you can find some other way of getting inside of me." Then a wink.

Tobin

Tobin laughs and pulls MC into a hug.

MC melts into the hug, but whispers, "I know what you're doing, you're trying to get out of the question."

Tobin grins, turning their face a little so they can whisper into MC's ear. "I love you, forever and always."

MC feels a flush of warmth from the words, but narrows their eyes a little skeptically. "Really. Even if I were a worm."

Tobin's still grinning. "Sure, but there are... a lot of different kinds of love. I think sexual and romantic love would be out for the both of us." They lean down and capture MC's lips, smiling into the kiss, as though to pre-empt MC's protests. "I could definitely still do profound inter-species 'thanks for keeping me alive' love, though."

MC laughs, and pulls away, shaking their head at Tobin. "Goddamn, I knew you'd find a way out of it."

Rayyan

Rayyan doesn't even think about it - but they do at least put whatever it is they're holding down and look at MC. The look communicates 'why the hell are you doing this to me' as strongly as any words ever could. "No," They say, eyebrows knitting over their eyes.

MC snorts, and protests, coming in closer. "What?! Why not?"

Rayyan rolls their eyes, and pulls MC in the rest of the way, leaning down for a quick kiss. Their lips are curled upwards in a small smile. It's only when they pull apart again that MC remembers to scowl. "Don't kiss me like that, you just said you won't love me!"

Rayyan shrugs. "So enjoy life as a human while it lasts," They grunt.

Sam

Sam guffaws. "Hell yeah! I'd be down to rub clitellas!" There's a brief pause, as MC pauses, already regretting the question. "You know?! The swollen area near the head of a mature earthworm? It's how we exchange sperm." MC blinks, and Sam nods excitedly. "Then each of us can form an egg capsule in our clitellums!" They pause, frowning. "Is that the plural form? I have no idea."

MC bites their lip, suppressing a laugh. "It's... a little worrying how much you know about the mating practices of worms." They're more than used to this, though. "So we'll have sperm and egg?"

"Yeah! Breaking the gender binaries to-ge-ther!" Sam sings, doing a little dorky worm dance, wiggling their butt against MC, snorting - it's as though they were doing the theme-song of some extremely strange kid's show. "As worms!"

#Sam #Rayyan #Tobin #G #asks #if #college tennis: origin story #CT:OS