toothedgoose

[toothedgoose]

Tick-o-rama!

When I first spotted these clumps on tall grasses in Olare Motorogi Conservancy, in Kenya, I thought they were some kind of insect eggs. (My vision isn't as sharp as it once was.) But when I touched a piece of grass, the tiny specks started moving... because they were thousands of baby ticks!

There is no Lyme disease in Kenya, but there is an illness called African tick bite fever that is no joke. I didn't see a single mosquito during my trip - it wasn't their season - but these little guys made me glad to have hardcore insect repellent on hand.

So. Many. Ticks.

#bugs #arachnids #tick #ticks #nymphs #nymph #so cuuuuute #reblog

[toothedgoose]

Pollinator Watering Station 💧🐝

If you want an easy way to help your local pollinators, then consider building a watering station!

For a basic one, you will need:

Tray or dish

Rocks

Water

The tray or dish is to hold everything, and the rocks are to give the pollinators something safe to land on. Without the rocks, you will likely end up with drowned bees.

The main problem I have with these basic ones is that they will often need to be filled up once or more a day due to evaporation. So, one trick I learnt from beekeepers is to use a refilling dog bowl, so that you don't have to fill it as often.

While perhaps not as pretty, this method is far less work.

If you use trickle hose watering, another option is to have some of the water enter the waterer.

No matter what you choose, though, the pollinators will appreciate it!

As a benefit for you, if you have crops or flowers, encouraging pollinators can help your plants too. For example, "Bee pollination improves crop quality, shelf life and commercial value."

#bugs #entomology #conservation #diy #reblog

[toothedgoose]

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

#art #resources #resource #reference #references #reblog #super useful #thank you!

[toothedgoose]

Sniffed up my wolf flash a little. It's much better now I think.

#wolf #wolves #others’ art #body horror #reblog #so coooool

[toothedgoose]

I am losing my mind

#bugs #weevil #weevils #beetle #beetles #silly #reblog #I cannot breathe I am dying laughing

[toothedgoose]

vid from jodybugsme on tt

#bugs #bee #bees #wool carder bee #wool carder bees #lamb’s ear #plant #plants #plant insect ecosystems #behavior #reblog #omgggg

[toothedgoose]

Fun fact: The diabolical ironclad beetle traded away the ability to fly in order to become essentially unsquishable.

Driving a car over them would just push them down into the dirt, still whole. Trying to stick a pin through wouldn't be successful without a drill. These guys are tough.

Every part of the beetle's exoskeleton seems to enhance its armor. The flattened body shape distributes pressure to even the load, the multilayered material is strong yet flexible enough not to crack, and the unique interlocking seams between wing cases function better than most joins designed by humans:

It'll be exciting to see what new materials might be possible using these concepts!

Sources: Jesse Rorabaugh, Po-Yu Chen, & Jesus Rivera et al.

#bugs #beetle #beetles #entomology #science #structure #elytra #exoskeleton #reblog

[toothedgoose]

#tardigrade #tardigrades #others’ art #frases #reblog

[toothedgoose]

Leaf-cutting Cuckoo Bees (Coelioxys sp.), family Megachilidae, in an upside down sleeping position on a stem, Quezon City, Philippines

photograph by Dix Balino

#bugs #bee #bees #leafcutter bee #leafcutter bees #reblog #ohohohoh yeasssss #love them so much

[toothedgoose]

On Wikipedia, I found an article about a bacterium that is the only known organism that exists in an ecosystem containing only itself.

#bacteria #bacterium #microbiology #so interesting!!

[toothedgoose]

#bugs #ant #ants #reblog #so cool #you got this ants!!

[toothedgoose]

tbh in a world where so many people are so hostile to bugs it makes me so happy to see people who keep them as pets and provide them with as much safety and care and enrichment and love as all the conventionally cute animal owners out there

#bugs #bug keeping #taxonomic bias #reblog #<3 #I love my bugs so much #of course I’d do anything for them

[toothedgoose]

behold: A Man

Azalea leafminer moth, Caloptilia azaleella

#bugs #moth #moths #reblog #so sillayyy #I love him your honor

[toothedgoose]

He's eating kebab

#bugs #others’ art #tailless whip scorpion #tailless whip scorpions #arachnid #arachnids #reblog #you have no idea how much I love this

[toothedgoose]

We need to better educate kids on the importance of animals that are typically hated because otherwise you end up with adults who think hating wasps is a personality.

#bugs #wasp #wasps #taxonomic bias #reblog #this was the post that inspired my undergrad thesis #wow #so wild to see it again afterwards

[toothedgoose]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

The moth Xanthopan morgani holds the record for the longest proboscis of any insect, with a length of over 35 cm (14 in) when fully extended. Even more impressive, the existence of this moth’s existence was predicted over 40 years before the first specimen was discovered. After being sent an orchid with a nectary tube over a foot long, naturalists Charles Darwin and Alfered Russel Wallace speculated that only a moth with an equally long proboscis could pollinate it. However, proof of the moth’s existence was only discovered 20 years after Darwin died, and the species was appropriately named Darwin’s Hawk Moth.

(Image: Two specimins of Darwin’s Hawk Moth (Xanthopan morganii) by Joel Minet)

If you like what I do, consider leaving a tip or buying me a ko-fi!

#bugs #moth #moths #hawkmoth #hawkmoths #entomology #science #pollination #reblog #so cool!!

[toothedgoose]

Hornets and Wasps arguing

#bugs #wasp #wasps #yellowjacket #yellowjackets #hornet #hornets #reblog