Hey, Fedi.

[annehargreaves@ioc.exchange]

@benroyce @ShaulaEvans
"Big fleas have lesser fleas
Upon their backs to bite'em
Lesser fleas have lesser fleas
And so ad infinitem"

Sorry I've forgotten the author

[annehargreaves@ioc.exchange]

@jetlagjen @ShaulaEvans When I was a kid I knew these as "Mr Pills".

[annehargreaves@ioc.exchange]

@statsguy @ShaulaEvans The moths are pretty too

[ubi@ecoevo.social]

@ShaulaEvans Not all dung beetles roll dung balls, in fact most species don't. A majority of dung beetles either live inside or under dung, collecting dung in tunnels or chambers. They shape the dung there into balls or sausage shapes, and lay a single egg inside. The developing larva is sometimes tended to by one or both parents. All its larval and pupal development happens in the nest, and it emerges as an adult.

[adamstuartsmith@sauropods.win]

@inj4n @lavievagabonde @ShaulaEvans Grace Hopper?! That’s hilarious!

[bananamangodog@aus.social]

@ShaulaEvans Hey @emmadavidson your chance to tell them about the small ant-blue butterfly

[ubi@ecoevo.social]

@ShaulaEvans The ecologist Ilka Hanski once theorised that pre-pyramid Pharaoh tombs, called mastabah, are designed to resemble the nests of tunneling dung beetles. Which were a symbol of rebirth.

The tomb lies in a tunnel chamber, under a rectangular tomb structure. Hanski argued that the structure resembled the dung beetle's nest, tunnel and a dung pat.

[hryggrbyr@fedia.social]

@ShaulaEvans Bumble bees live in burrows

[emmadavidson@aus.social]

@bananamangodog omg fun! Thank you, will do that right now

[sarah111well@mas.to]

@ShaulaEvans I have some good bug stories - not so hot on facts.
Eg When I worked at Trading Standards Dept. a member of the public brought in a brand new cricket bat complaining about a noise coming from it. The bat was sealed in a plastic bag and sat next to my desk for several days before being shipped to a Laboratory for testing.
The result was a 7+cm grub from Pakistan that had tunnelled most of the inside of the cricket bat away!

[dazzr@social.tchncs.de]

@ShaulaEvans And another one: an impressive example of moth long-distance navigation capability, and a lovely piece of research to track and analyze their flight strategy.

The navigation strategies of migrating death’s-head hawkmoths rival those of birds.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-08-12/silence-of-the-lambs-deaths-head-hawk-moth-flies-straight/101315688

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn1663

[bananamangodog@aus.social]

@emmadavidson I knew you'd be up for it

[emmadavidson@aus.social]

@ShaulaEvans oh please tell your friend about the Australian small ant-blue butterfly!

Fun facts:
1. Critically endangered in Victoria but still breeds in Canberra including near my house in the suburbs.
2. The female is more colourful than the male.
3. Has a symbiotic relationship with coconut ants who build nests in dead wood. The butterfly lays eggs next to ant nests. The ants take the eggs inside and feed the larvae. When the caterpillar is big enough it then makes food for the ants. Then it crawls out of the nest, makes its cocoon, and becomes a butterfly.
4. To protect the butterfly, we must protect the ant. To protect the ant, we must leave dead eucalyptus and acacia wood on the ground instead of tidying up our reserves or building houses on them.

[micron@mastodon.social]

@ShaulaEvans The jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii can reverse its aging process.

https://www.bbcearth.com/news/the-animal-that-lives-forever

[lindarosesmit@mastodon.social]

@ShaulaEvans there are lady bugs in the ocean. They live in and around tunicates etc.

[ghouston@mamot.fr]

@jetlagjen @afewbugs @ShaulaEvans I think aphids using parthenogenesis can also have "telescoping generations", i.e., they are born already pregnant.

[statsguy@mas.to]

@annehargreaves @ShaulaEvans Yes they are! Sadly I don't have a photo of any.

[yattoz@shelter.moe]

@ShaulaEvans here's one I learned yesterday: earwigs are harmless creatures, and they have beautiful wings that fold in super tiny elytra. When they unfold they look like they belong to some kind of unreal cristal butterfly.

[talesfromthearmchair@hachyderm.io]

@ShaulaEvans Male bees (and wasps, and ants) are _haploid_ and do not have fathers. They are not just the only animals, but the only _eukaryotes_ to evolve reproduction that differs from the normal alternation of haploid/diploid generations. (Reproduction is usually very strongly evolutionarily conserved, for obvious reasons: if a mutation messes it up somehow, there's no chance for it to get sorted out again in future generations, because there won't _be_ any future generations.) So euphemising sex ed as "the birds and the bees" is unhelpful, as "the bees" are literally _the_ worst available model organism for human reproduction.

[tiotasram@kolektiva.social]

@ShaulaEvans okay, here are some fun/gross/terrifying bug facts about polycheate worms (which live in the ocean):

1. The Bobbitt Worm is a marine ambush predator that burrows in ocean sediment and then shoots out to grab prey with its mandibles, the force of which sometimes cuts prey in half. It grows up to 3 meters long in extreme cases, although it's only about 25 millimeters in diameter. At least one article I read mentioned toxic bristles, but I wasn't able to find a legitimate source for that and suspect it was sensationalization.

2. The Bearded Fireworm does have toxic bristles (as do other fireworms). They can cause a painful sting that lasts for hours. They're also quite beautiful.

3. The Palolo Worm spawns by growing tail segments filled with sperm or eggs, and then on a specific night tied to the lunar & solar cycles, releasing these segments to float to the surface, where they disintegrate into a frothy mass. They're apparently delicious fried in coconut oil.

In case you want to do your own deep dive () on segmented ocean worms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychaete