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Golden Jackal x Feral Dog hybrid (source).

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Could I request this https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107425868 bilateral gynandromorph bee, please? Or a regular one if that's a bit too complex.

if you can guess this jewel subgenus, I'll give you a bug!

if someone has already guessed, you can buy a bug here

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This extremely deceased man is a Blue Death-Feigning Beetle. They make good pets, as bugs go.

if you can guess this jewel subgenus, I'll give you a bug!

if someone has already guessed, you can buy a bug here

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Reblog this post to cast Crumb of Serotonin on whoever you reblogged it from

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did you know that the well-known factoid that male anglerfishes degenerate after attachment until they’re basically just a pair of testes is false? i knew of course that they don’t just become “growths” on the female because I’ve handled dozens of attached pairs and every male I’ve ever seen has been very much obviously a whole and complete second fish, but I sort of assumed there was internal degeneration, perhaps muscle atrophy, etc. i can’t believe no one ever corrected me on this but this just doesn’t happen. in obligatorily parasitic species, the male actually continues to grow and increases considerably in size after he attaches to the female, because the two of them can only reach sexual maturity together. me, an octavia butler fan: is this the height of romance??

what is true is that attached males do have hugely enlarged testes proportionate to the rest of their bodies & organs, and that they receive all nutrition from the female’s bloodstream so their stomachs are always empty, though their own gills seem to still be functional, as are their fins and muscles—you can even induce movement and swimming motions on recently dead attached males. I can only assume that at some point someone said that basically the only biological function a male anglerfish needs to perform is sperm production and this got taken out of context and luridly exaggerated over time. he’s not just a pair of testicles! he’s her forever partner! one flesh one end!

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Eurasian Hoopoes (Upupa epops), RAISE A RUCKUS & EAT A TASTY BUG!!!, family Upupidae, order Bucerotiformes, Athens, Greece

photograph by Davide Diana

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give him a smooch

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Cats did evolve to eat raw meat, but they evolved to eat raw meat they'd just killed themselves. Raw meat that's been through the whole system by which meat is typically acquired to feed cats has been dead for much longer and has been exposed to many more bacteria, which have had much more time to multiply. Plus it was probably grown in tighter quarters than wild animals, which means more time for it to have picked up a disease while it was alive.

(also, wild animals do just die of eating contaminated meat sometimes. That's part of how a fair number of diseases spread. Wild animals doing something doesn't always mean that thing is best for them in human care, just that it's the most available option to a wild animal.)

The H5N1 (bird flu) virus is going around, and cats are proving especially susceptible to it. A big cat sanctuary in Washington state had TWENTY of their big cats (cougars, tigers, etc) die of bird flu.

There have also been cases of indoor-only domestic cats getting sick or even dying of bird flu after contracting it from raw cat food. And of course coming into contact with birds also puts your cat at risk.

To keep your cat safe:

Keep them away from birds, preferably keeping them entirely inside. If they are indoor-outdoor then remove any bird feeders from your yard to make cat-bird contact less likely.

Do NOT feed them raw food of any sort, including freeze-dried raw food. Freezing will not kill the virus!

A lot of raw pet food companies are using PR speak to assure customers that their raw food is safe. Remember that at the end of the day their priority is to make money and stay in business. Unless they are testing every bird carcass for the virus their assurances are meaningless, and they certainly are not testing every bird because it would be too expensive.

Cooking kills most viruses and bacteria, including H5N1.

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#looks like a hose (affectionate)

Coil aquired

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I got bit by a fucking thing

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Big-headed Turtle (Platysternon megacephalum), family Platysternidae, Hong Kong

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.

photograph by Francis Seow Choen

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They eat a comical amount of fruit, to the point where their digestive system is specialized to handle eating potentially nothing but fruit for months on end. They'll also drink nectar and eat the occasional small bug, but over the winter they really do eat pretty much just various photogenic berries.

Cedar Waxwings by jocelynefeizo1 http://ift.tt/1RM3Kk0

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#frogs really are just mouths with legs and i love being reminded of that fact