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hey americans there is a recall on testosterone gel because they found benzene in it! please check the lot numbers on your batches, benzene is really not something you want to be rubbing into your skin, also you might be eligible for compensation because this is just insane what the fuck

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Oriental Bay Owl (Phodilus badius), family Tytonidae, order Strigiformes, Thailand

photograph by Mathieu Bally

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EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP SCIENTISTS AT THE SCHMIDT OCEAN INSTITUTE HAVE FOOTAGE OF A LIVE COLOSSAL SQUID FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

🦑‼️🦑‼️🦑‼️🦑‼️🦑‼️🦑

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everyone make sure to set out cheese & crackers for neil tonight <3

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Normalize having Lifer Wasps: Tetracnemus Edition

Look at this gorgeous weirdo. 🥹 I met her first back in 2022; another appeared today as I was sitting in what used to be a rice field (200 years ago), poking under clumps of grass for creatures.

Encyrtids are fantastic.

flappy flappy flappy

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Eva Funderburgh

love her work

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Really proud of this one, which is why I will NOT tag it as toxic yaoi even if it's probably accurate.

Out of Control

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My piece for @whafineart 🐚

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when spiders put their little pedipalps together

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Researchers have discovered a new species of rove beetle that grows a termite puppet on its back to fool real termites into feeding it. The replica is so precise, it even mirrors the termites’ distinct body segments and has three pairs of pseudo-appendages that resemble antennae and legs.

The new beetle species (Austrospirachtha carrijoi)—found beneath the soil in Australia’s Northern Territory—emulates a termite by enlarging its abdomen, a phenomenon known as physogastry. Evolution has reshaped this body part into a highly realistic replica of a termite (as seen above), head and all, which rides on top of the rest of the beetle’s body. The beetle’s real, much smaller head peeks out from beneath its termite disguise, the authors report this month in the journal Zootaxa. The termite “puppet” may help the beetle evade detection—though termites are blind, they sense one another through touch.

Because A. carrijoi’s mouth parts are tiny, the authors think it begs food from its hosts rather than eating eggs or larvae. Worker termites feed other castes digested food in a process called trophallaxis. This adaptation has obvious advantages to the beetle. Once it is inside the nest, it can relax and spend the rest of its life living off of termite room service.

Words by Richard Pallady

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Walter Street, Takapau, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.

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Care for a drink?

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NASA released the clearest pictures yet of our neighbours in the solar system

Oh and of course us

Honourable mention

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in case you ever wanted to know what mambo number 5 sounds like with all the instruments (including the drums) replaced with bike horns 

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The fundamental goal of all world building projects is to make trans cat-girls commonplace.