a-book-of-creatures

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love you my horrible homosexual four eyed dragon twink

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Chinese hourglass spider - 里氏盤腹蛛 - Cyclocosmia ricketti

The Chinese hourglass spider is a fascinating species of arachnid, a very rare one at that ! Between the years 2000 and 2016 ONLY six of these spiders have been spotted in China, that we know of.

@hispaatra, @zick-the-fairy more on the awesome seal :D

Description

Cyclocosmia ricketti has a very distinctive disk on its abdomen which resembles an ancient coin, a seal, or even a grinding disc. The male Cyclocosmia ricketti are about 20.5 millimetres in length while the females of the species tend to be slightly bigger at around 25.83 to 30.0 millimetres in length. The largest known specimens can exceed 30 millimetres. The disk located on its abdomen typically has a radius of around 16 millimetres.

Extract from 'Zhu, Zhang & Zhang, 2006 : Rare spiders of the genus Cyclocosmia (Arachnida: Araneae: Ctenizidae) from tropical and subtropical China.' Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, vol. 54, No. 1, p. 119-124

According to Zhao Li, Director and Senior Biological Engineer of the Insect Museum of West China in Chengdu, Sichuan, Cyclocosmia ricketti is a nocturnal animal.

Predation behaviour

Cyclocosmia ricketti, like many other trapdoor spiders, dig burrows which are closed off by hatches in the ground. They do this instead of making webs, as they are not good at spinning silk, to catch their prey. They line their burrows with silk threads and mud. They use their disk to plug the opening of the burrow. When a small insect would step on its disk, Cyclocosmia ricketti will then purportedly shrink its abdomen to allow its prey to fall further into its burrow to be devoured. The disk also makes it difficult for its prey to escape from its grasp.

Cyclocosmia ricketti doesn't always use this method to hunt, as when its confronted with a non-threatening insect, Cyclocosmia ricketti will get out of its burrow and then directly grab it to eat it. This spider can also use the coin-shaped disk on its abdomen to protect itself from enemies by blocking the entrance to its burrow with it, and using it as a shield, a phenomenon called 'phragmosis'.

Distribution

Cyclocosmia ricketti are found in the Chinese provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Sichuan. They are primarily found living in caves. The farthest north they are known to have been found is Sichuan, this is notable as it was previously believed that Cyclocosmia ricketti were not able to survive in places where the temperature could drop below 13 degrees Celsius. Winters in the province of Sichuan are known to get even colder.

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Image sources:

1.

https://za.pinterest.com/pin/604186106296940858/

2.

https://spidershoppe.com/products/cyclocosmia-ricketti-chinese-hourglass-trapdoor-sub-adults

3.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070811074158/http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/54/54rbz119-124.pdf

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Text references:

1.

Zhu, Zhang & Zhang, 2006 : Rare spiders of the genus Cyclocosmia (Arachnida: Araneae: Ctenizidae) from tropical and subtropical China. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, vol. 54, No. 1, p. 119-124

https://web.archive.org/web/20070811074158/http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/54/54rbz119-124.pdf

2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclocosmia_ricketti

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Your creatures are magnificent. I humbly request the dragon to allow some sort of small token as offering. A pet of the snoot, a coin, my leftover fries, etc.

As for the manticore I do not smile at or bare my teeth, but offer a wave as in their similarity to baboons I am too scared to come closer to give trinkets. I would be happy to leave something on the ground for their liking as long as it's not my flesh and blood, and they let me live.

(sincerely, someone who'd take a gator over a greater monkey any day even though they may both be equally dangerous in the correct circumstances.) 🫶

Leftover fries have been accepted

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Source details and larger version.

The eagle-eyed might appreciate my collection of vintage eagles.

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Creek Dragon.

I've posted a new illustration to my Patreon! Full size JPG, PSD and video files can be downloaded according to the amount of support. https://www.patreon.com/satoshi_matsuura

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Character design tip: store in a cool, dry place.

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That car crash group post is about David Cronenberg's 1996 film "Crash"!

Which was based on J. G. Ballard’s book Crash, as I mentioned. 😎

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if tumblr shuts down we should all develop car crash fetishes and form an underground community that reenacts famous car crashes for sexual pleasure

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For the art prompt "if i was a fish..."

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North American porcupine By: Raymond A. Mendez From: Nature's Unlovables 1990

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Postage Stamps, Poland 1965

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🥒 Le attinie. Leipzig, W. Engelmann, 1884. Original source Image description: The image is a historical illustration of anemone, a type of marine life. It depicts two anemones in a rocky underwater environment. One anemone is prominently displayed in the foreground, while the other is partially obscured by rocks in the background. The illustration is done in a realistic style with attention to detail, particularly in the textures of the rocks and the tentacles of the anemones. The color palette is muted, with earth tones dominating the scene, creating a sense of depth and realism. Notable details include the intricate patterns on the rocks and the delicate, wavy tendrils of the anemones.

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Fantasizing about publishing my folklore works under a pen name and showing up to all interviews dressed in a fursuit. You don't need to know my private identity.

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Knucker (Lindworm felpalus)

Habitat: swamps, lakes

Size: 10 feet long

Coloration: dull green, brown

Diet: rabbits, waterfowl, fish, carrion

Magical Abilities: toxic breath, acceleration of plant growth, toxin removal

So Smaugust is here, and I do not have the energy to draw for the entire month. I still want to participate in it, and I thought of the perfect plan for it!

So I haven’t really discussed it much here, but I’ve been planning out a fantasy setting and story in my head. I’m calling the planned story “Misadventures In Monstrology”.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been deeply enamored with zoology, so I feel the fantasy story I am going to tell should have zoology as its heart, like how language is the heart of Middle Earth. It’s somewhat disheartening how uncommon fantasy biology is as a trope. So someone has to step in, and I’m gonna be that someone!

Some major inspirations for this setting are the Dragonology and Monstrology books, the Flight of Dragons movie, @tyrantisterror’s Midgaheim Bestiary, and @draconesmundi. (I think you’d both like to see this!)

So in this universe, monsters such as dragons exist due to magic. While magic doesn’t allow for too much craziness (there won’t be much fairytale logic), it does allow monsters to gain mutations that would be strange or impossible otherwise, and also allows them to locally control the elements.

Dragons are squamates (having evolved from monitor lizards), but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any hybrids. Chimeras also exist in this universe, basically through a fantasy version of horizontal gene transfer, which is a real thing with some rotifers! I am planning to make them kinda rare, because I mainly want to do it with creatures that make the most sense (and are more interesting to me) as chimeras, like griffins, pegasi, and some dragons I’ll end up drawing eventually…

Also, I felt I should talk about this dragon. A knucker in English folklore is a sort of water dragon, but unlike sea serpents, they dwell in freshwater “knuckerholes” rather than the ocean. They’ve got a lot in common with wyrms like the Lambton Worm and Hydra in folklore, with how they’re aquatic serpents. So they’re more like lindworms in appearance, rather than the more common modern portrayal of them having four legs.

Design wise, they’re very much based on crocodilians with their heads and back spikes, since they are swamp dwelling reptiles. They’ve also got some amphisbaenian in them, which is kinda inevitable considering their body plan. Also, they’ve got barbels like a fish to kinda add to the swamp creature aesthetic. Poison breath seemed like a given, the magic over plants is due to them probably living in more lush areas, and I like the idea of their body kinda absorbing the toxins they breathe out, keeping their environment healthy.

If you wanna keep up with these posts, click my #field guide to dragons tag which will update throughout the month! Or follow me, if you'd like.

Next ->

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Cover art by Mowry for 'Altair 4,' January 1978.

One of hundreds of speculative fiction fanzines available online from the Milwaukee Public Library's Rare Books Collection. Via Daniel Solis.

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A couple of years ago I organized my father's National Geographic collection.

They are like old friends to me. I remember going through them as a child. I ignored the boring things like articles about Martha's Vineyard or interstate highways, instead focusing on things like the world of ants (by Wilson and Hölldobler!), or new discoveries about sharks (lemon sharks in labs!), or the diversity of squids (delicious Humboldt squid fisheries!), or dinosaurs (there's a new movie coming out in 1993, did you hear? It's going to have the most accurate dinosaurs ever!)

Of course I had to catalogue them. Dust them off. Organize each one by date. List each one in a spreadsheet. Am I the only one who likes organizing random things in spreadsheets?

Little by little the spreadsheet filled out. The collection started in 1961 (there is one outlier, January 1951, adn should not be counted). After March 1961 the issues are consistent. Every month is there. My dad's dad, my grandfather, was clearly subscribed. For 14 years almost every issue is accounted for, with only 7 missing. They are well-worn, well-read. They smell of dust and old libraries. Some have their spines taped to keep them from falling apart.

One year the issues stop very suddenly. January, May, June, August. Then nothing.

That was 1975.

On April 13, 1975, the civil war started.

Happy 50th anniversary.

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I think you should

This image of a chalcidoid wasp is sending me like

"Draw me like one of your French wasps"