#“brood parasitism”

[theamazingstories]

TV REVIEW: THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS (2022), some spoilers

TV REVIEW: THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS (2022), some spoilers

Figure 1 – Midwich Cuckoos First Edition (British) Before I begin, let me congratulate our R. Graeme Cameron, who has won the Canadian Aurora Award for Fan Writing! Well done, Graeme! Back in the late 1950s, when I was a wee lad, I read everything in the library that was even vaguely science-fictional. That’s the reason I read Moonraker, by Ian Fleming, years before anyone ever heard of James…

View On WordPress

#“brood parasitism” #“Nope” #1957 #alien invasion by pregnancy #black and white #Bob Ball #Children of the Damned (1964) #Column 345 #Damon Knight review #Day of the Triffids #Dolores Reed #Edward G. Robinson impression #Frankie Ray Penelli #Ian Fleming #Invasion of the Star Creatures #James Bond #Jimmy Cagney impression #Joanne Arnold #John Wyndham #John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris #Jordan Peele #Keely Hawes #Lewis and Martin #Mark Ferris #Max Beesley #Moonraker #Out of the Deeps #pad out the movie #Panama City Florida #Peter Lorre impression

[great-and-small]

Me: *plays specific song repeatedly for my unborn child in the womb*

Person: Awww that’s lovely, music is so important to a developing baby 😊

Me: haha yeah definitely that’s why I’m doing it totally not so I can use pre-learned acoustic call-and-response as a form of protection against brood parasitism by cuckoo birds 👀

#warning this will not work if mafia hypothesis is in play #birds #animal behavior #brood parasitism #parasitology #esoteric biology jokes

[hoofpeet]

Okay after some consideration I think togekiss is a good pokemon to parasitize !! Reasons being

-they're fairly rare, which leads me to believe they have small broods that wouldn't provide much competition

-Togekiss are also very friendly and probably wouldn't reject a parasitic murkrow even if they did notice

-Obvious fairy type tie-in

The only initial drawback I saw was that the togetic line has 3 evolutionary stages while murkrows only have 2; but upon further consideration that might actually trick parent togekiss into thinking the murkrow is just a runt that needs to be fed more to grow stronger? So uhm . brood parasite murkrow/honchrow variant because I think brood parasitism is cool !!

#hoof draws #pokemon #also dark/fairy honchcrow looks cool #i get why from a gameplay standpoint but the idea of mimicry is very very unexplored in pokemon !! #like. they can't just make new pokemon that look more or less exactly like other pokemon . #but irl (if they were real) there would definitely be a lot of species adapted to mimic other species #anyway brood parasite pokemon !!

[rubydart]

I had a big need for a fandom butterfly/moth display. Updated with an ID: Art drawn to look like a Fictional Moth/Butterfly display case based on 4 characters from The Magnus Archives on a 8.5x11" print. Big bug center top is labeled as "J. Sims": big green Luna Moth with multiple prominent eyes a bit like an Emperor Moth's markings, and holes in the wings that mimic the holes in a cassette tape. There's an eye on the mid of its body. The markings are more fantastical than the other bugs.

Labeled "M. Blackwood": Silver Clouded moth, smaller, to the right of J. Sims, with a cloudy looking pattern in greys on the wings, and two small dots.

Labeled "N. Sasha": Center-left. A blue butterfly but with markings that look like eyes and possibly claws extending across the top pair of wings. The wings are lined with black and white markings that resemble piano-keys. The lower pair of wings have golden markings that is supposed to resemble calliope pipes.

Labeled "Tim": Takes up the lower right side. A Mourning Cloak butterfly but with orange markings inside the wings that resemble flames. Mainly red wings lined with black then yellow edges, with blue spots across the black.

They are on a board with a spider web stretched across underneath them. The black tape of a cassette tape ribbons around the board in loose loops.

#the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #not sasha #timothy stoker #I'm so sorry Sasha #btw the Rebel's Large Blue butterfly caterpillar mimics ant queen sounds and smells so they are taken to the ant's nest as a brood parasite #moth fanart #tma as moths

[revretch]

I was out sitting in a field sketching today when a little bird started hanging around me! She started getting closer and closer, until finally she hopped up on my foot, then on my leg, then on my other leg! She must have climbed on me at least four different times! (She also tried to eat my pencil and pooped on my shoe.)

Anyway, I looked her up and it turns out she was a brown-headed cowbird--a type of brood parasite, like a cuckoo! They even have the mafia tactics of cuckoos, laying their eggs in the nests of littler birds and destroying them if their offspring isn't cared for.

I hope she lives a long happy life and terrorizes many little birds to come

#rev retches #bird #cowbird #brown-headed cowbird #parasite #brood parasite

[elliottnotyet]

Day 12 of Marchirp: brood parasites. I drew a cow bird

[Image ID: black bird with a brown head and a thick beak standing on a branch. End ID]

#cow bird #brood parasites #marchirp #marchirp 2024 #image id #artist described #art #bird art

[sheisalivingchild]

the songbird and snake imagery in tbosas is really incredibly versatile. Coryo is bird coded in a few ways, he's a jabberjay for instance - parroting what he's fed for the benefit of the Capitol - in relation to the rebellious district mockingjay, but he's also a brood parasite like a cowbird or cuckoo for the way he kicks Sejanus out of the nest and replaces him as the Plinth heir

#I really do need to get a copy of the book so I can pull the relevant quotes... #tbosas #coriolanus snow #just learned the term 'brood parasite'. obsessed #my thoughts

[thecreaturecodex]

What's your options on bugbears in Golorian being all serial killers or atleast obsessed with fear? I think that has room for, improvement. Definitely feels weird for them though.

I love it.

It's one of my favorite lore changes between D&D and Pathfinder. It makes bugbears feel less like "goblin, but giant". And Paizo has made it clear that some goblins mutate and just grow to Medium size, so you can have giant goblins if you want 'em.

@monstersdownthepath suggested that bugbears have a demonic taint to them. Despite their CE nature, I'd suggest sahkils instead. Bugbears are the Fear of Marauders, of Banditry, of Murder. Only they're mortal. But I bet a lot of their souls end up in Xilbaba when they die.

I imagine that small groups of bugbears are somewhere between bandit gangs and terrorist cells, roaming around and striking for maximum psychological impact as much as to get material goods. Larger communities would be like Halloweentown, only much less friendly. With running competitions for "most blood drained in a single evening". And adopting more terrible monsters into their numbers as Honorary Bugbears. Life's no fun without a good scare! If the Thing Hiding Under Your Stairs and The Shadow on the Moon At Night really wanted to kill you, and then looted your supplies and took over your village until the well runs dry or next year's crop doesn't plant itself. That's a bugbear clan.

I also love the implication in Ironfang Invasion, through characters like Scarvinious and Scabvistin (great naming convention too, IMO), that some, but not all, bugbears are envious of hobgoblins. They like the idea of civilization, of order and rigidity. And so they enlist. And because of their strength and power, they can succeed. If they "beat the bear" out, in Scabvistin's words.

So if you want to give bugbears another hook, here's my alternate, but not necessarily incompatible take. They're brood parasites. Because what's scarier than a baby that's not yours taking over your life?

We know that in Pathfinder canon, goblins and hobgoblins are both communal breeders (thanks to nursery locations in both Rise of the Runelords and Jade Regent). A mother bugbear sneaks into a goblin creche and leaves her baby behind, after killing one of the young and either eating it themselves or feeding it to Junior. The somewhat addlepated and mutation-prone goblins won't notice or mind a slightly hairier infant, right? And then the bugbear baby takes more than its fair share of resources, maybe knocks off a few of the other kids, and then either leaves the goblin colony at a young age in order to find more bugbears, or stays and muscles his way into a leadership position.

Doing the same to a hobgoblin community is riskier. The hobgoblins are much more in tune and observant. But in this case, it becomes more of a mutualistic relationship that could tip into parasitism on either end. Maybe the bugbear can get along in the hobgoblin village by learning discipline, or be content with the role of scavenger or brute. Or the bugbear could try to take over, if the hobgoblins are weak. And if the bugbear doesn't have the resources to survive and thrive, the hobgoblins send them off on a suicide mission.

And even though they only rely on other goblinoids for raising their young...most of the time, there are rumors that they do this to other peoples. Even if it happens once in a hundred years, everyone will know the story of how the Munson boy got very hairy and very big very quickly, and then slaughtered and spit-roasted the family dog when he was only 4? That kind of fear keeps the bugbears powerful. And makes the bugbears very happy.

#bugbear #pathfinder rpg #pathfinder 1e #pathfinder 2e #D&D #goblin #hobgoblin #goblinoid #ecology #brood parasite #plot hooks #did you hear the news about eddie munson? #could have been a werewolf of how keen his nose was and how big his sideburns grew #and then he burned down the family house and disappeared on his eighth birthday #you can still hear his laughin on the anniversary of that night #go to the ruins of the ol munson house if you don't believe me

[callme-cursed]

Hey you know what let's add some horror to the tag I'm bored. A lot of people have mentioned Marines mistaking normal children for marinelings. But what if the opposite is also in play.

You foster a child, such a bright young boy. His case worker says he's five even as he is already at your waist. Everyone tells you that's normal that growing quickly was great given his previous home. You do your best to provide but it never seems enough. He's own been here a month but he's already grown several inches. There is a hunger behind his eyes you worry about.

#space marine husbandry #brood parasite #it is a blood angel btw #wanted to write them having symptoms of red thirst then remembered i never had a twilight phase #anyway the parent gets chased out of town when the marineling get caught eating a deer in the woods #they take the marine with them

[abyssalzones]

i can't speak for everyone but i personally LOVE overly ambitious fan content that relies heavily on personal experience. it improves the quality imo, enhances the experience if you will. so much fan content is just retreading what the source material already did and it's like girl if i wanted to see that i would just re-consume the source material. fan content SHOULD be personal imo. it should have heart and do things the source material never would or could. so keep it up 👍 ok thats all

that IS refreshing to hear actually you make a good point. I have a tendency to get self conscious about putting anything I care about into the world, so hearing this means a lot and definitely inspires me to keep going ^_^ thanks for the kind words !!

#askbox #this was all prompted by me being particularly anxious about sprinkling trans themes in with the existing story #I generally feel like I work with the source material in a way that makes sense and expands on an existing groundwork #sort of having a conversation with canon intent I suppose #but I have those moments where I think 'am I stretching it too far? does this make any sense?' and it boggles me down #I worry about being a sort of brood parasite in regards to an existing story #but then again maybe that's the point. maybe that in itself is interesting #anyway.... thank you again :J

[jettkuso]

Soundwave, but he turns into a single wireless earbud and hides as part of your set, tossing out one of your AirPods, like a bird hiding its egg in another bird’s nest.

#transformers #soundwave #cowbird #brood parasites

[froody]

MY 100 BABY CHALLENGE SIM IS UP TO 45 BABIES!!!!

#currently she’s just having children with townies and having them raise them like they’re brood parasites #I love her. queen. girlboss. she makes gorgeous children

[gibberishquestion]

cowbirds exacting revenge on host birds for rejecting their eggs is so funny to me actually. dont you fucking DARE to refuse to raise my stupid shitty baby that i’m also refusing to raise

#sawyer speaking #was reading up on cowbird brood parasitism bc we have a nest on our porch that appears to be a house finch nest with one imposter among us

[soupy-sez]

Cardinal Feeds Goldfish

#unfortunate he's molting you caught him at a bad time... anyway some video I watched said their instincts to feed their babies are so strong #that they'll start feeding animals that aren't their kids. something like that. also the fish kinda look like baby birds #cardinals #northern cardinals #birds #birdgifs #my gifs #gifs #gifset #birdblr #animals #fish #goldfish #northern cardinal #cardinal #also they'll feed non cardinal baby birds not only because of brood parasites but they'll hear birds begging nearby and go feed them #soupy's

[invidiatechdemo]

Meandering thoughts about Pecharunt/possible ecology Stuff(tm) for the specific one in Mochi Mayhem + more general ideas for if you treat them as a species, since a surprising amount of mythical+legendary pokemon are explicitely /not/ single specimen species, just very rare (Shaymin being mentioned as migrating, Latios and Latias entries mentioning flocks, etc)

Pleeease note I'm going to write a post about this with illustrations/partially in-universe perspective in a bit, but I did want to throw out my initial thoughts!!!

Also, with the exception of the first thing I say, I really encourage people to consider Pecharunt from an ecology perspective in their works alongside like. an individual pokemon with its own backstory, because I think that allows for richer more interesting stories! I think if you like Pecharunt and want to attack me with rocks for saying what I'm about to say, please feel free to write your own meta/opinions in your own post, because I also really like Pecharunt and would like to see more stuff written about it as an inidividual animal and also as a theoretical species. I think it's very cute. ^_^

Also I will note that this is steam of conscious style stuff; I may restate my points multiple times, sorry about that!

With that out of the way, let's look at the scarlet and violet website's entry.

The one that has people fighting about this thing's malice or lack thereof.

'Uses Its Cunning To Survive' is a very evocative phrasing.

That line being so carefully combined with Pecharunt being described as 'sly' and doing actions such as pretending to be a baby Pokemon a la Happiny to gain sympathy, and possibly specifically mimicking /human/ kids in vocalization/etc depending on the tone you read it in... that is a very specific sort of evolutionary strategy that this calls to mind.

The information provided on this page, combined with the fact it apparently was living with an old couple, and the fact that in the story of Momotaro, the couple found the child in a peach floating down the river, and decided to raise the child as their own...

...Game Freak accidentally made a Mythical that is a brood parasite.

This probably sounds like I'm jumping to conclusions, but there's a couple other things that make me think that this is a reasonable conclusion about how a young instance of Pecharunt works.

To explain why, let's look at Pecharunt's movelist, and specifically its egg moves! Also, a quick review of what 'Brood Parasite' means.

Brood parasitism as an evolutionary strategy comes about since raising young takes a lot of time and effort; in the more standard usecases, like in birds, this tends towards an egg being placed in the nest, and the hatching animal outcompeting the host bird's actual young by crying louder and more consistently, or pushing them out of the nest to obtain more resources/attention.

Much like Pecharunt, this may seem baffling at first (in cuckoo bird's case, because of the size disparity, and in Pecharunt's case, the Base Stat Total disparity)

This is not always the case, mind; Asian Koels tend to not push other young out the nest (though they still do it Sometimes), and the Black-headed duck is notable for having an extremely extended incubation time in which after that point the duck hatches and wanders off.

'But Pecharunt is a mythical, does it really need that much protection?' Well, lets look at a couple facts you may or may not already know. Here are Pecharunt's egg moves:

Pecharunt at level one has extremely weak moves, and to make matters worse, Pecharunt is in one of the slowest exp gain groupings. Even worse, it learns new moves every eight levels when a lot of pokemon are getting new stuff to learn every four, and does not get a lot of good coverage moves at that!

To put it in even further context, Pecharunt learns Malignant Chain, its signature move and the one that specifically utilizes binding mochi in a more aggressive fashion than the firing mochi/serving mochi seen in game events and youtube video stuff, at level 48.

With that in mind, its growth rate seems to be in a similar range as something like the dragons.

A lot of Dark types, one of the things that Pecharunt is weak to, specifically exist in packs, which would leave smaller less experienced instances profoundly vulnerable. To add on this this, the areas I've been suspecting for original range + what in birdwatching stuff is termed as vagrancy (animal appearing way way outside of normal range) all don't just have Dark types, but in many cases /multiple/ species of Dark types. Poochyena, Houndour, Bisharp... all of these are dark types that live in packs or large groups. Even more notably, Poochyena and Mightyena in the wild have a chance of carrying Pecha Berries, which cure poison. Isn't that something.

These same evolutionary pressures could very reasonably result in Pecharunt's comically high defense! Mightyena and Poochyena are physical attackers, and a lot of the Dark moves Houndour and Doom learn by level up are physical.

On that note: Special Defense notably is /not/ Pecharunt's strong suit, and the weakness to Psychic means that any sufficiently nasty special attacker could rip through the lower hp pool hiding behind the physical defense like wet tissue paper. I'm going to specifically point at Beldum and Metagross and then smile serenely. Steel types in general would be a problem if in a sitation where its unable to utilize mochi properly. Which is where the 'subjugation pokemon' aspect, and its ecological strategy after its lengthy maturation would come about.

So, if Pecharunt were a species, they'd need a lot of extra care and protection to reach anywhere near maturity/full potential, and specifically that sort of care and protection from something or someone that can handle the things it can't whether that's via a more varied movepool/different typing, or the structures and technology of human beings in the pokemon setting (though in another post I mmmaay get into some thoughts about how if Pecharunt is a species, it probably is in decline in the modern Poke-setting. Stay tuned.)

A limited movepool makes sense if ecology-wise, Pecharunt is a parasite, even if one that is significantly more free-living than the ones these sort of things usually apply to; trait loss is pretty common with parasites as stuff gets delegated to hosts/host species. This is a Pokemon that doesn't need to have type coverage because its own ecology is based around commanding other Pokémon that do have the correct type coverage to defend it.

And since that's covered with Binding Mochi, all that it needs to be good at is the things that its movepool is geared towards; manipulating people and Pokémon to protect itself, giving pause and sympathy without the use of poison when it can't directly manipulate something, running away when /that/ fails utilizing Astonish to make a target flinch when alone and Parting Shot when with a retainer/bodyguard, and then finally as a last resort when an old enough/high enough level, the arsenal of extremely powerful non-mochi poison type moves, Malignant Chain, and Shadow Ball... so, the exact sort of actions that Pecharunt one for one takes in Mochi Mayhem.

It even specifically attempts to flee after Arven and Penny are defeated, which lines up nicely with the possible usecase for Parting Shot!

Prior to learning Shadow Ball and Malignant Chain, It has a TON of moves that specifically take it out of the fight and put another Pokemon into the fight with advantages, like Memento and Parting Shot. This, in my opinion, gives credence to this being the in-universe reasoning for the movepool being what it is.

Memento in /particular/ being a move that goes so far as to risk fainting is uh. Interesting, especially since it's one of the moves learned at level 1!

Oh and speaking about its level one/egg moves: on the topic of Astonish!

I think that move reflects something really fun about the peach pit motif. Which is that I think the glowing interiors of the shell serve similar purposes to the false eyes on irl moths + also the pokemon Masquerain (who also learns astonish famously!) Imo, the false eye flashing analogue feels like a really easy pull to make.

A less move-oriented view of this is also kind of established in the scene with Arven and Penny!

This Pokemon tends to keep the shell closed outside of battle and certain interactions, and the scene specifically uses the kind of duller, slow moving animations for the closed form and then has them launch into the mochi thing, utilizing startle response/reflexive action to advantage, comedic as it is.

The mochi throwing also works really well as a two birds one stone defense measure for Pecharunt ecology-wise, as similar 'throw food that was being eaten in hopes predatory animals will give up chase to eat that' is actually pretty common, and hell, Legends Arceus has shown that bean cakes and muffins work very well against many pokemon.

You may ask, 'Invi, does that mean the shell being fully open for the entire mythical encounter fight mean they're puffing themself out like a cat as an agonistic display for the entire duration of the fight?'

And to that I say...Quite possibly! Other instances of Pecharunt in the story showing itself probably land more into deimatic displays/startle displays like those used by butterflies and stick insects, but the fight instance probably specifically is agonistic, considering it starts making aggressive hissing 'chhhrah' noises, especially in contact with the Loyal Three.

As for the Binding Mochi from an ecology perspective/real life analogue... there's no completely direct analogue irl, but it serves two purposes that are very much common strategies!

What Pecharunt did by making the Loyal Three retainers + what it did to Mossui Town is a pretty open and shut example of bodyguard manipulation.

This is something more commonly seen in parasitoid species, but essentially, this is a subsection of behavior altering in parasites where you get your host to do stuff for you to keep you safe. Examples in our real world include wasp species that get caterpillars thrash if potential predators get too close.

In the Pokemon world, the go-to example would be Nihilego, whose venom has some similarities to Binding Mochi, but is noted as specifically messing with someone's preexisting abilities and impulses, while Pecharunt's alterations of its retainers tend to fall in line with their desires/wishes.

As for the fact it's a food item that gets other things to defend it, that's also common! Aphids and scale insects commonly produce honeydew, and get ants to defend them from predators in return for such.

As for it being mochi? The concept of something along those lines being produced as a starchy thing is also not that far out, as a number of psyllid bugs produce Lerps, which consist of sugars and starches. In the case of the bell lerp, which actually utilizes a bird, the Bell Miner, to avoid being attacked by other fauna and flora in return for continued consumption of aforementioned lerps!

I've focused on the brood parasite section, but overall I will say that after hitting Malignant Chain, it likely becomes a social parasite a la certain types of cuckoo bees, and these would essentially intergrade nicely (can start more actively controlling pokemon/people it's with already, move around more freely than the initially probably very nest-centralized movement to keep itself safe until its defenses can develop more properly).

Misc additional notes:

Interestingly enough, while Pecharunt has the 'no eggs discovered' thing, it does have a set amount of time to hatch in game data and it is specifically way shorter than most other Legendaries/Mythicals minus a couple notable exceptions like Terapagos and the guardian deities; Pecharunt's starts at 20, which is the same as eggs for starters like Bulbasaur and etc.

Like for context, most of the other guys have egg cycles of 80-120. This would match up to a really common phenomenon in brood parasites where the eggs actively hatch faster than the host animal's to get a leg up on resources and etc.

... I actually have even more thoughts specifically about what Pecharunt's habitat/original home was, and also a couple different theories about what it eats, as well as more granular things about like, physical stuff about this guy's body instead of a life cycle overview, but I'm going to save those for later because this is already ungodly long. Uhhh closing thoughts:

Hold Pecharunt like hamburger, and give it one of every food and drink. It's safe to do this.

#pokemon mochi mayhem #mochi mayhem spoilers #pokemon scarlet epilogue spoilers #pokemon scarvio #pecharunt #also i may not have mentioned it but i do genuinely think pecharunt liked the old couple. #i just think it is /also/ a pokemon that probably has a life cycle that is very hostile to other pokemon even when 'nice' #but eh. that's ghost pokemon for you. #if this reads like a pecharunt hitpiece: wrong! brood parasites are some of the cutest animals on earth esp cuckoobirds

[plasky]

I just had a really dumb character idea

So you know how there's like mimics n stuff to which they transform/mimic and object/thing/person

I then also thought of a cuckoo bird and how it inacts brood parasitism

What if let's say this was translated to a sort of mimic thing where the mimic leaves their child to some random family and the child shifts to look like they belonged to that family although still looking more off/off-putting

The mimic child then causes "accidents" to the rest of the children in the family leaving only them in the end to have all the food and everything they need for themself to live

#oc #oc idea #oc ideas #cuckoo #brood parasitism #mimic #mimics #and then the cycle would repeat for like the next generation or whatever #what if the mimic child also theoretically copied how the other children sounded to give the parents some false hope of their old children- #being alive #idfk where that would fit into it but yeah #i would have to say this would apply also to just like normal animals in general too #like cats dogs n all that jazz #because the mimics probably wouldn't be as successful if they only went for humans #I would imagine they only go after mammals though #uhhhhmmm #anyways i hope this post wasn't like too grim or anything because this is just a small idea i had for it #i would also imagine the mimic would eat its siblings if not parents at some point once it “leaves the nest” per se