#For the record I respect insects and arachnids

[vigilantdesert]

Tw for cockroach/insect imagry and references to animal neglect

As some of you know I work at a library, which is vaguely context. I also work at a very large library (our staff is more than 35 people and it still feels understaffed tbh), in a major USAmerican city. I was working my night shift, and we were closing up. As I'm walking down the stairs, my coworker bestie yells up at me that she found a "Giant hissing cockroach."

My immediate instinct is they just found a really big cockroach, since our region is too cold to support true hissing cockroaches, so I teasingly yelled back "You're a liar.' When I get to the bottom of the stairs, sure enough, there was a madagascar hissing cockroach in an tiny travel container, with no water in the dish and nothing for enrichment or substrate than a paper towel.

Naturally, I'm confused. It turns out that another coworker brought it in without telling anyone to keep as a "library pet." Here's the thing: we already have fish that we've been trying to get rid of because we don't have the time. We keep a worm farm for some kids programs, but they're lower maintenance, and a cockroach is actually a pretty big commitment as far as invertebrate care goes. They can live up to 5 years in captivity, they prefer to be in groups (they can be kept solitary but still, not the best line of care), they have pretty high heat and humidity requirements that would need to be cared to with heat lamps and misting because of our region, and they're best fed on a diet of mixed fruit and processed food, which none of us (least of all the coworker who brought it in) had the time or money to prepare.

I know I sound like I'm the bug person ; I'm really not, but I had a snake for my entire teen and adult life (RIP Tomato <3), and reptile keepers and invert keepers usually end up in the same community of "pets who other people get weird about," so I'm honestly a little annoyed with the coworker. All pets require some level of care, and it was clear that there hadn't been much thought into bringing this one into a shared space (let alone without the enclosure it needed). The other thing I guessed was, after a bit of research, that it was A) female (80% sure), and B) Pregnant (75% sure), because her plates were all stretched out over her abdomen.

I'm writing about this now because I finally got an update: the roach was taken home with the coworker after management had a discussion with them, and a week later she gave birth to a litter of at least 25 nymphs (hard to tell lbr). Mom and babies have been relocated with someone who has more experience with inverts, so I feel better, but the vindication I had at being able to tell she was pregnant my dudes. I was insufferable dlkjfd

Does anybody want to hear a silly work story that involves insects

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

A Guide for Adventurers, Entry 1

On Mundane Creatures 

While some may deem categorizations as unnecessary bureaucracy best left in dusty studies or decrepit libraries, an Adventurer braving the wilds of our beautiful world should passingly familiarize themself with the expanse of diverse creatures that populate it. The most common of which are the Mundane.

Mundane creatures are you, me, your neighbor walking down the street. We are born of flesh and blood and rise and fall like the sun. Time, perhaps, is the true distinction between the Mundane and the Macabre, Monstrous, and Mythical. We are bound by time’s iron will while they are not. Even the Arcane touched elves eventually succumb to time’s inevitable passing. 

The four universally recognized subcategories of Mundane are Beasts, Humanoids, Plants, and Slimes. However, these categorizations are flexible and in no way denote intelligence or independent will. They are merely groupings of similar features or behaviors. 

Beasts are a catch all category for any creature that is not a Humanoid, Plant, or Slime. I could go into detail into the minutia of the hundreds of subcategories such as Arachnid, Canine, Feline, Aquatic Mammal, Aquatic reptile, Crustation - but I dare not bore you with such trivialities. Beasts are in near complete harmony with their environment and are far more focused on survival for themselves and their progeny than fighting the random Adventurer they come across. Providing food or making non threatening gestures to a Beast that challenges you will likely allow you to continue on your merry way without tangling with the wild life. Remember while traveling in untamed wilds, you are entering the Beasts’ domain. If a Beast challenges you, it is highly likely you are encroaching on its den or it is merely hungry. Treat them with respect and consideration and you will learn to traverse the wilds without leaving a bloody trail in your wake. 

Humanoids are generally categorized as beings with a vertical spine who stand on two legs but, as in all things, there are exceptions. Most humanoids have the ability to speak verbally with hundreds of languages documented either in active use or that have been lost. Additionally, there are many who prefer written or gestural languages. Language and our ability to record knowledge through art, stories and texts are one of the hallmarks of our kind but that is not to discount the various Beasts that have developed their own methods of communication or knowledge sharing. 

Plants are a tricky thing. Most plants are harmless - in fact I had a salad this very afternoon for lunch! However, that is not the case for all. The rare Plant has evolved in tandem with its hostile environment to defend itself, relocate from danger, and even hunt for its own food. Although most of these Plants are content hunting small rodents, insects, birds, or fish, some have evolved to hunt larger prey. The most common sign of a carnivorous plant would be the quiet. Birds have learned to steer clear of most Plants for their own safety and thus, are useful indicators to their presence. If you find yourself in open plains with only the wind whistling in your ears, it may already be too late. 

Slimes are often mistaken for Oozes but such a mistake often leads to unnecessary violence. Unlike Oozes, most slimes are completely docile. It is unclear where Slimes originated but their ecological niche is clear. They are nature’s custodians. Each type of Slime feeds on specific materials such as metal, plants, bone, or even dust. Thus, many Slimes are bred to maintain sewer systems, clean old ruins, or even taken as pets by warriors to keep their metallic armor clean of rust! Discerning the distinctions between Slimes and Oozes is a skill any Adventurer must learn both to avoid killing these harmless critters and to avoid the deadly mistake of assuming an Ooze is a docile Slime.

Professor Dara Ignatius of the Institute for Wandering Minds

This is a piece of lore from my ttrpg Tales from the Aether. To check out the premise of the ttrpg, see my pinned post. To support the project or read up more lore like this, give a follow!

[galacticbugman]

On one of my latest outings one of my insect friends had a Bio Blitz on her birthday and many of the iNaturalist crew got together and helped celebrate and get observations. Among the creatures I got to see this little thing of beauty.

Now I know what you are thinking… There is no such thing as a beautiful scorpion. Well this Striped Bark Scorpion may look like a freak of nature but it has a charm all of its own in my eyes. As they say “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” And I often see that the most ugly insects and arachnids have that certain charm that appeals to me. All my life I have wanted to see on up close in the wild and on Saturday September 29th 2018 I got to see my very first one. 

These guys are one of my brother’s favorite animals. These guys are one of the coolest little bugs in my book. It is kind of like a serious natured Duck Billed Platypus in the sense that it is a mishmash of different animals assembled in a way to make a completely new organism. They look like they have a lobster body, spider like legs, and a look that would inspire the creepiest sci-fi beasties on the silver screen. 

(Fun Fact: I maybe a naturalist but even I can’t get enough of science fiction thrills and cartoon laughs. I love my pop culture as much as the next guy as well as love wildlife and nature. I am a huge Jurassic Park fan, Trekkie, and Whovian.)

Scorpions are all nocturnal but there is one thing that they all do under UV light… Check this out!  

This is what all scorpion species do under Ultra Violet lighting. You can do this on your next night hike. You can get a pretty cheap UV light at your favorite Halloween store around this time of year and then go out in your backyard or an event that is in your area and see what insects do this in UV light. Many other bugs and insects do this. Grasshoppers that have freshly molted will do this. Centipedes are known to glow. There are so many different kinds of creatures that will glow if you shine this special light on them. It is so cool to do. This was the first time I have ever seen this first hand. One of the naturalists with me had one on her and shined it and I was able to get a few photographs of it in the petri dish and out of it. I remind you all out there if you are wanting to wrangle spiders and things and put them in petri dishes to observe them up close to be careful. Some are highly venomous and can cause a lot of problems. It is a good practice to observe things up close but like everything else you must use caution and always go by the unwritten code of ethics when handling wildlife. Respect them and keep your observations short and sweet. Remember animals get stressed just like we do and they will react badly if pushed to the limit. 

(Fun Fact: Did you know that the smaller the Scorpions claws the more venomous they are and the bigger the claws the lesser?) 

The scorpion is a very cool arachnid. They do not have venom in their mouths but more or so chewing pedipalps that act like scissors to tear, slice, and grind up prey into nice bite size chunks to swallow down the hatch. The venom to immobilize their prey is stored in the bubble at the very end of their tail where their stinger is. Scorpions are very cool but always use cation when dealing with them. Miss handling them can lead to very painful injuries. They are there to look at but don’t touch. 

(Fun fact! Did you know that the largest scorpion today is the Emperor Scorpion which only gets about 20 centimeters which is 7.9 Inches? The largest one in the fossil record is about 5 feet in length and they lived underwater. They were known as Sea Scorpions.Scorpions began their lives around 460,Million Years ago.) 

Scorpions are one of the oldest creatures to have ever walked the earth. They are almost as old as the Dragonfly and are also one of the earth’s greatest success stories. Insect are much older than you think. They are true survivors of our world and are amazing to observe up close. They are such a cool one to learn about even if they are a little on the creepy side but hey we entomologist just think them as cool. 

Next time on my October Insects of terror I am going to be talking about the Southern Flannel moth and more importantly their caterpillar called the Tree Asp, or the Puss Moth Caterpillar. There is more to come so until next time I am Zachary the Bug Man… See you next time. 

[archivesofcreation]

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC WILLING TO LIE TO ADVANCE EVOLUTION

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SCIENCE - IN A FIRST, FOSSIL DINOSAUR FEATHERS FOUND NEAR THE SOUTH POLE Separating fact from fiction in a farcical story! Were fossil dinosaur feathers really found near the South Pole?

Dino-bird evolution frequently causes excitement on social media platforms so my attention was grabbed by a picture of a fully feathered dinosaur with a sensationalist National Geographic headline that read, “In a first, fossil dinosaur feathers found near the South Pole”.1 However, what had actually been found differed so significantly from the headline that words such as overreaching speculation and grandiose story-telling immediately came to mind. In what follows, I have broken down the article’s salient points to highlight the highly misleading nature of National Geographic’s claims.

What was actually found?

Fact – The research team described ten exquisitely preserved 10–30 mm long fossil feathers, found from 1962 onwards over multiple digs in the Koonwarra Fossil Bed, south-eastern Australia.2 The feathers include downy feathers, contour body feathers, a complex juvenile flight feather “like those on the wings of modern birds”, and one that they refer to as a ‘protofeather’. Speculation – They allege that the feathers are 118 million years old, some of which belonged to ground-dwelling carnivorous dinosaurs. Conventionally, this ‘dates’ from the early Cretaceous period when they believe that the landmass of Australia was joined with Antarctica, before drifting north to its current location. This is why they have fossil feathers coming from near the ‘South Pole’ in their article title, rather than Australia, to make the story even more sensational. Although they think Antarctica would not have been as cold as it is today, they speculate that, “feathers may have been important for insulation, allowing small carnivorous dinosaurs to survive the difficult winter months.” “None of the feathers are currently associated with distinct dinosaur or bird bones”—National Geographic.With what type of dinosaur did they find the feathers? – “None of the feathers are currently associated with distinct dinosaur or bird bones. Instead, they were probably lost during molting or preening and drifted on the wind onto the surface of an ancient lake, where they sank to the bottom and were preserved in the fine mud.” What they would like to find in the future? – “To actually find the skeleton of a feathered dinosaur here in Australia would be amazing,” said Dr Stephen Poropat, a paleontologist at Swinburne University, Melbourne. It appears that we can agree on something: amazing it would be! Imposed Ideology – The National Geographic article tries to reinforce the current evolutionary idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs. This is done by use of a spurious picture of a fully-feathered dinosaur (which is simply made up) and the misleading headline. The details in the actual article do not begin to support the idea that dinosaurs evolved into birds, nor even that dinosaurs had feathers (although the creation model does not necessarily rule this out). This kind of blatant propaganda occurs on an all too regular basis; for another example, see: Sorry, how many feathers did you find? The reality is this is simply one more case of paying homage to the altar of naturalistic evolution. Geological context – The research team presented no direct evidence whatsoever that the feathers did not belong to birds. And they must have been rapidly covered in sediment to preserve them. They have been found in a sedimentary rock layer laid down by water in Australia. The fossil bed also contained numerous other animals: freshwater ray-finned fish, lungfish, various insects, arachnids and other terrestrial invertebrates, aquatic insect larvae, hydrophilid beetles, and horseshoe crabs. Plant fossils were found as well: mosses, liverworts, fern-like plants, Ginkgo, and conifers. A better explanation – The reality is that these fossil feathers and their geological context fit much better with biblical history. The fossilised feathers provide yet another example of swiftly-lithified fossils. These, along the range of other creatures and plants mentioned above would have been fossilised during the conditions provided by the Noahic Flood some 4,500 years ago, itself a successive burial of pre-Flood ecosystems. Finding feathers at an alleged 118 million years old adds nothing to the evolutionary story anyway; there are ‘older’ birds with feathers in the fossil record, such as Confuciusornis, an alleged 153 million years old. Genesis 1 clearly teaches that animals were created to reproduce within their own kinds. This is exactly what the fossil record shows, and we observe today. Gondwana Research, 2019.

The 10 feathers described by the research team.

Lessons to learn that should have been learnt

Social media is used to share news stories quickly and widely. In doing so, organisations often use unique punchy headlines to get people’s attention, hoping that they visit their websites, and read their material. Creation Ministries International also use social media (why not give us a like if you have not already?). However, we are very careful to ensure that our article headlines images and captionsare factually accurate and not misleading. Unfortunately, organisations that zealously promote big-picture evolution, such as National Geographic in this bold and fanciful instance, frequently do not take the same care when titling their articles or matching the content to real facts and verifiable history. This is not the first time that National Geographic has blatantly promoted the false idea of dinosaur to bird evolution.This is not the first time that National Geographic has blatantly promoted the false idea of dinosaur to bird evolution. After the notable Archaeoraptor hoax scandal, a phony dino-feathered fossil that they published and promoted, but then had to recant, one might hope they had learnt their lesson. Leading paleornithologist Alan Feduccia was scathing in denouncing the debacle over Archaeoraptor: In his open letter to Peter Raven, Storrs Olson asserted that National Geographic had “reached an all-time low for engaging in sensationalistic, unsubstantiated, tabloid journalism,” and “The idea of feathered dinosaurs . . . is being actively promulgated by a cadre of zealous scientists acting in concert with certain editors at Nature and National Geographic who themselves have become outspoken and highly biased proselytizers of the faith.” Although the scandal was resolved through the self-corrective process of science, it is worth noting that it would not have occurred had a more critical attitude toward dinosaurs and the origin of birds prevailed in the scientific and popular literature. In illustrating the degeneration of scientific discourse with respect to this issue, Olson’s letter clearly illustrated that the highly respected magazine National Geographic and a major scientific journal, Nature, were incapable or unwilling to consider critically the question of the origin of birds.3 Jonathan Chen, Wikipedia.org

The fraudulent archaeoraptor fossil Christians should always adhere to a higher standard of truth, being careful in the information they present to others. In the National Geographic article the intention of the headline is clear, as well as the implications: another ‘helpful’ example of evolution has now been discovered, which adds to the enormous body of evidence that evolution is a fact. Yet many readers likely never clicked on the story, and actually read the details, so this is the message that they would have taken away. However, had they read carefully, with an inquisitive mind, then they should have been left with a very different understanding altogether. In view of the unwarranted imagination promoted to an unsuspecting public as fact (compared to the factual data about these fossil feathers), the whole story is farcical. Our prayer at CMI is that people will come to embrace the alternative and true understanding of the world around them: Humanity was created in the image of God (the day after the birds, and on the same day as dinosaurs; Genesis 1:20–31), but we are separated from Him due to our fallen nature (Romans 3:23). This, we have inherited from Adam, and our own personal sin further condemns us (Romans 5:12; 1 John 1:8, 10). This is bad news: each of us is totally helpless because we cannot make up for our sin towards God (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27). But God, being gracious, sent His son Jesus to live a perfect life, to shed his blood on the cross in payment for sin, and that all those who repent and believe on Him can be saved: This is good news to all people. Amen!   ORIGINAL ARTICLE FROM CREATION.COM Read the full article

[lindoig]

Days 34 to 39

Day 34

We left the poor penned animals to their fate and headed through Kakadu, south-west towards Pine Creek on the Stuart Highway – the main drag from Adelaide to Darwin.

We called in at all the places we could along the road, but several were marked as ‘4WD only’, ‘No Caravans’ – and some of them (including some of the better-known ones) were still closed due to the extended Wet this year. We had been to Nourlangie Rock with the Tour in the previous week, so zipped past that and went in to Cooinda where we had read about two interesting walks at nearby Gun Gardun.  Unfortunately, one was still under water, inhabited by the Big Bities, so we decided our flippers and water wings could stay in the closet – but we did the other one through the woodlands.  It was supposed to be a couple of kilometres and the recommendation was to allow up to an hour.  But as usual, we found so many things to look at and photograph – birds, plants, fungus, rocks, termite nests, trees, even the distant hills – that it took us more than 2 hours.  Funnily, when we got to the end of the walk, we found ourselves in a carpark with our car nowhere to be seen.  It took us several minutes and an extra few hundred metres walk to find the right road out of the carpark to where our car actually was.

We called in at the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre: a really great museum/interpretative display, still in Kakadu.  It was very well done in all respects with many hundreds of interesting artefacts, heaps of written information, very readable (with my glasses on) on all aspects of traditional indigenous life - food collection and processing, medicinal use of plants, marriage laws and clan associations, animal and plant information and so on. The only problem for me is that there was simply too much and they had very strict rules against any form of photography or recording processes.  I read a lot of information, but became quite overloaded with it and gave up after 45 minutes or so, less than half way through.  Heather kept going, but I sat outside for half an hour or so watching the birds.   It was a bit disappointing because the information was really good, interesting and well-presented, but simply overwhelming.  Normally, we would have photographed some of the display data to read and absorb later, but with this not being an option, a lot of the benefit was lost.  They certainly lost me and I would have liked to learn more in a more orderly and measured way.

We headed south again and turned off the tar to Gunlom Falls.  It was 37 km of really rough road, full of corrugations, bulldust, rocks, potholes, a couple of water hazards (and quite a few speeding car hazards) and some sudden unexpected bumps.  When we arrived at the end of the road, we decided to stay there overnight.  No power or water available, but there were showers and toilets for $30-something a night.  Oops - when we opened the van, we found that the rough and rattly road had worked loose the latches on our bathroom cupboard doors and EVERY SINGLE item was on the floor of the shower recess.  We reckon that there were a few thousand items to be resorted, repackaged, restored in their containers and put back into the cupboards before we could do anything else.  We didn’t want to face that again on the way back to the highway the following day, so we found a better way of securing the doors to prevent a recurrence.  (Not to be outdone, however, our great new $200 12-volt gimbal fan contrived to detach itself from its moorings and smashed itself on the floor.  We are now enjoying a slightly extended stay in Mataranka: waiting for a replacement to arrive in the mail in the next day or two.)

Gumlom Falls are quite spectacular – not a huge volume of water at the moment, but very high and dropping into what seemed to be a very deep crystal-clear pool maybe 150 metres across.  It was very beautiful with quite a lot of birds, some flowering plants and warnings about crocodiles.  Needless to say, that discouraged us from swimming, but not so for quite a few other people – including the ranger who decided the warning didn’t apply to her.  We saw some clowns at the top of the Falls, risking life and limb, clambering around the very brink of the cascade, one with his girlfriend on his shoulders(!!!) taking selfies.  One tiny slip and 200 metres of rock wall awaited the plunge.  It was too much for us to watch so we retreated to cook dinner and went back to the Falls to take our photos next morning.  It was very beautiful!

Days 35 to 37

Once we got back on the main road (shaken and stirred), it was a short run into Pine Creek and then on to Katherine for fuel and groceries.  We decided to go on to Mataranka to camp, but a few kilometres out of Katherine, a light came on in the car, warning that the water level in the fuel filter had reached its limit so we turned around and headed back to the Toyota agent in Katherine. It was good that it happened where it did because the next closest Toyota dealer was over 1200 km away.  I carry a spare set of filters and could probably have replaced it myself, but we preferred to have it do professionally. We arrived back in Katherine shortly before closing time at the service centre so booked the job in for early on Saturday morning and stayed two nights at the caravan park next door to Mr Toyota.

For the record, I will just update the inventory of our wildlife sightings (other than birds and the thousands of species of insects and arachnids) for the trip so far.  We have seen red and grey kangaroos, several species of wallabies, emus, echidnas, a dingo, large and small fish of numerous aetiologies, porpoises, sharks, rays, turtles, salties and freshwater crocodiles, a couple of unidentified snakes, buffaloes, a perentie and several other monitors, a frill-necked lizard, numerous little geckos and probably a dozen other beasties I can’t think of right now.  What, no koalas?

As for birds, the species count stands at 192, including 37 that were new ticks for us.

Days 38 and 39

It is only a bit over an hour from Katherine to Mataranka so we arrived here in time for lunch – Happy Birthday Kerry and Pat!

We had been told about quite a new place (only opened in April) called the Little Roper Stock Camp and we are now booked in here for two nights.  It is really rough and ready, but very interesting too.  The guy who runs it is a character – when it comes to hats, Les Hiddins, eat your heart out.  He uses an amazing Landcruiser to collect wood and other things on the property – it is quite a recent model, but has obviously rolled at some stage so the top has been removed – by the looks of it, with an axe!  It is a total wreck and has several tyres tied onto it to protect from possible body damage if/when it hits something – but not sure if the body likely to be damaged is the car of what it hits!  The place looks very run down, but he is obviously working hard to make a go of it as a bush camp with outback experiences.  It has power, but no water.  Plenty of water here, but it is very limey so he recommends not to use it in any caravan appliances.  We have filled the bucket a couple of times and used it for washing and laundry and it is fine for that – and it even tastes OK – but we have not used it for cooking or drinks.  We have plenty of good water with us – I topped us up in Katherine – so we don’t need to use limey water if we don’t want to.  The farmyard here includes buffalos, Brahman cattle, pigs and chooks at least and there are all sorts of quaint old stuff to explore.  There are a couple of huge fire-pits and he cooks ‘johnny-cakes’ for breakfast for anyone who wants them – some sort of damper.  Twenty-odd people sat around the massive fire last night and yarned until quite late (a 6-7 hour happy hour) and maybe 30 people enjoyed the johnny-cakes this morning.  We didn’t, but we have booked for the 3-course roast dinner tonight (beef, buffalo and lamb) and may indulge in the brekky tomorrow if we are up in time.

After lunch, we went back into Mataranka (7km) and out to Bitter Springs – some thermal springs 4-5 km out of town. We did an interesting short walk there – probably less than 2km – a loop around a section of the springs where dozens of people were swimming.  They get into the water with a ‘noodle’ (plastic float) and just drift with the current to a pontoon a few hundred metres downstream – then return and do it again, and again, and again…..  At 37 degrees, the water was not inviting for us, but the hoi polloi obviously love it. Except for a few too many people. it was quite a lovely scenic place, with hundreds of palms, some beautiful birds, plenty of reeds, trees and other plants, all with this crystal river flowing gently through it.  It is a couple of metres deep and you can see every feature on the bottom as if looking through sheer, polished glass.

We drove half-way back to Katherine and did 30-odd clicks out to some Aboriginal communities on the Mainoru road towards Nhulunbuy.  You need a permit to go all the way out, but we didn’t think we had time to drive the 700+km each way that afternoon, so we never even enquired about permits.

Today (when I am posting this) is Monday, 5 June and it is a lay-day for us. We need to go into Mataranka to the Post Office and servo, but we are planning a bigger week to more remote places near and beyond the Queensland border, probably starting tomorrow, so gathering our energy for the fray today is probably a good opportunity to potter around a bit and bring our blogs up to date – it will be the first time since we left home that mine has been up to date.