#Naked mole rats

[sappholotl]

It is 3am and I have created my masterpiece

She

[letteredlettered]

We’d all like the rest of your butterfly facts, please.

I have SO MANY; I'm not even sure how to share them all.

Butterflies and moths are not taxonomic or cladistic groups; they're colloquial terms to refer to lepidoptera (the taxonomic order butterflies and moths belong to) that have different characteristics and behaviors. That said:

Moths tend to be nocturnal

Moths tend to have fuzzy bodies, butterflies are sleek

Moths tend to have fuzzy antennae, butterflies just have straight plain ones

The additional fuzz on months allows them to sense what's around them, which is helpful because they're not seeing as much because they're nocturnal

Moths tend to build chrysalises with silk but also leaves and mud, etc. These are known as cocoons. Butterflies only use silk and don't have cocoons (either are known as chrysalis)

The Atlas Moth has the biggest wingspan of any lepidoptera

The Atlas Moth usually emerges from its cocoon without a mouth. It can only breed and die

The Atlas Moth caterpillar lives for months. It's generally in the cocoon for months! But it only lives as an adult moth for a few days (because it can't even eat!)

Inside their chrysalises, caterpillars don't just grow wings and longer legs. They liquify completely and reform.

Caterpillars have six legs called "true legs" that mirror the six legs butterflies have. Then they have additional nubs farther down their bodies that help them move around.

Butterflies taste with their feet. If they land on you, they're tasting you!

Butterflies can only eat liquid. They primarily eat nectar and juice from fruit. Rotten fruit is easier for them because rotten fruit is juicy.

The butterfly mouth is called a proboscis. It curls up when not in use and uncurls when the butterfly eats. It's like a straw.

The word "proboscis" can sometimes refer (as a joke!) to nose, but butterflies can't smell with their proboscis. They smell with their antennae!

Like many insects, butterflies have faceted eyes. But unlike the movies, they probably don't see the same image over and over, because their vision isn't refined enough for that. What faceted eyes allow them to see are big patches of color, which is useful considering they eat fruit and flowers. If you want a butterfly to land on you, wear something colorful.

Butterflies don't have lungs. Like most insects, they breathe through holes in their bodies called spiracles.

Incidentally, this is why insects are so small. If they were giant, these holes would have to be bigger or there would have to be many more of them, and that would mean their exoskeleton was not stable!

Oh, yeah, butterflies do not have bones. Like all insects, they have an exoskeleton.

Butterflies do not have blood. Like all insects, they had a fluid that moves most nutrients through their bodies. It's called hemalymph. It carries hormones, nutrients, and waste. It's blue!

Male butterflies tend to be smaller and more colorful than female butterflies. This is the same style of sexual dimorphism present in most insects. Also in birds!

Male monarch butterflies have distinctive dark spots on the lower wings that female monarch butterflies don't have. The spots are scent glands that help them attract mates.

Most butterflies migrate. Like birds.

Monarch butterflies in North America east of the Rocky Mountains have one of the most impressive migration patterns of any animal. They may travel up to 3,000 miles from Canada to Mexico, but what is most spectacular about it is that almost all of them end up in just a few spots relatively close together on some mountain peaks in Central Mexico. The monarchs are so dense that you can't see the trees.

Butterflies are great for studying evolutionary adaptations in coloration and appearance because they are so striking. Camouflage is the adaptation present when an animal blends in with its surroundings. Mimicry is the adaptation that makes an animal look like a different animal.

The owl butterfly is a great example of mimicry because it has two big owl eyes on its wings. The Atlas moth wing tips look like snake heads.

"Batesian mimicry" is named after Henry Walter Bates, who studied mimicry in butterflies. Batesian mimicry means that one species who is harmless looks like another species that is not harmless. Mullerian mimicry is when several species that are harmful all look like each other, so the warning to predators is stronger. Butterflies have great examples of both types of mimicry.

Monarch butterflies and viceroy butterflies were once thought to exhibit Batesian mimicry, because it was thought that vicroys weren't toxic, but it turns out both butterflies are poisonous and so the species have evolved to mimic each other in an example of Mullerian mimicry.

Monarch butterflies are poisonous because the milkweed caterpillars eat is poisonous

The best way to attract butterflies is to grow native plants.

[maxwellatoms]

This is some early development from that special I worked on a couple of years back. It’s not too often that I’m asked to be an Art Director, so it was a fun change of pace. I mean, sort of. Turns out it’s tough to have molerats with skin in varying shades of tan and brown over backgrounds which are primarily shades of tan and brown. Every project has its own challenges, I suppose...

My favorite bit was the idea of using the rock strata as a sort of 1970s supergraphic. Ultimately, this version was deemed too spooky (what can I say? It’s in my blood) for kids and we ended up shifting to a different palette.

I don’t know why, but I love drawing isometric stuff too. That probably goes back to my video game and pixel art roots.

[floral-alchemist]

Top ten vertebrates that are bugs:

10: Hummingbirds

Tiny, pollinators, a million wingbeats a second, some of them are actually just moths, some of them get eaten by mantids. Bones aside, these are bugs

9: Bumblebee bats

Look at it. It is just Too Small

8: Naked mole rats

These are the only mammals to be eusocial, like bees and ants! They live collectively in colonies underground, they are immune to cancer, and as the name implies, much like real bugs, they do not wear clothes

7: Pumpkin toadlets

Native to isolated mountain ranges in Brazil, these frogs are extremely clumsy all the time because they are simply Too Small

6: Bugs

Everyone’s favorite nonbinary African- and Nordic-American lagomorph, Bugs is Bugs

5: Lumpfish

As beautiful as they are powerful, these little fish have fins that have evolved to form a suction cup on the bottom of their bellies

4: Lampreys

One of two surviving sorts of jawless fish, lampreys are just worms with bones

3: Pink fairy armadillos

Look at that carapace! Much like many members of the orders hymenoptera and dipthera, these armadillos are actually a type of fairy

2: Elf owls

Millions and millions of years ago, a worm in Wormworld was born with its head on sideways. Despite this it managed to reproduce. Some time later one of its descendants compensated for this by being born with its body also on sideways, but in the other direction. This worm was the ancestor of every chordate, including you, me, and everyone on this list. Owls however, including the minuscule elf owl, can turn their heads entirely backwards, so for a few moments, these birds can arrange their bodies like a protostome’s

1: This guy

The name “African p*gmy mouse” contains a slur because biology is still racist sometimes. Nonetheless, the number one spot had to go to a rodent of course, so why not the smallest one? I mean look at this thing. It’s so bug

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

i have to vote for mole rats because i enjoy bugs (espeially hymenoptera, wasps my beloved) and mole rats are like if some rodents decided to try to be termites. i think there should be more groups of animals that evolve eusociality i think that would be Neat. imagine eusocial birds. that would rule.

oh man I wish. that would be so interesting. More eusociality!

[timebird84]

New naked mole rat Christmas themed design available on my Redbubble shop! Check it out! Available on many different items!

[lazarus-taxon]

Ok i know its not Moles specifically

But its about mole rats. Naked mole rats.

Did you know that naked mole rats are the only eusocial/true social/hive species of mammal?

As in they have a hive, a queen, non breeding workers, even soldier moles!

Here is a colony keeping its queen and young warm!

They are such strange, yet fascinating creatures!

[wigoutlet]

At the rate I'm going in life I'll never amount to anything....WAIT, WAIT, JUST WAIT A MINUTE!!!

[wild-wow-facts]

Naked Mole Rats: Nature's Odd Resilience

Discover the secrets of the naked mole rat! These fascinating creatures can survive without oxygen for long periods. Uncover more about their unique abilities!

Check out my other videos here: Animal Kingdom Animal Facts Animal Education

[ashleybenlove]

Stuff You Should Know released an episode about Naked mole rats and apparently (and confirmed on Wikipedia) can live for decades, with the longest reported being 37 years.

So at least Ron Stoppable gets like, several decades with him!!

Also: the episode does not mention Kim Possible but these guys are two Gen-Xers. (Chuck has a youngish daughter tho)

[sappholotl]

Halloween naked mole rat because I’m nothing if not really obsessed with them

(This is Genevieve Hippo-Glaber named after a teddy naked mole rat my friends gave me !!)

[iliketothinksometimes]

Naked mole-rats don't age! Basically. Their mortality doesn't increase with age like it does for other species.

(Ruby et al. eLife 2018)

[pessimisticweed]

we’re like the naked mole rats of apes

[bookanimeart]

I like how naked mole cats tuck their knees into their armpits. I think that’s just fabulous

[timebird84]

I've started a funny naked mole rat design series. It's available on my Redbubble shop on a lot of different items. Go check it out and if you want to support me, please consider a reblog. Thank you!

[rot10fruits]

idk if this is a lonely kid thing or an autism thing but when i was 5-7 i was completely obsessed with naked mole rats...i had like 5-6 books on them and watched this one documentary on youtube about them at least once a week. every time i went to seattle's pacific science center (a grand field trip excursion for us kiddos in northwest washington) i would literally get progressively more uncomfortable and rowdy until i saw the mole rats exhibit, crawling around in their little tubes, seein the little pink babies in a pile, reading the big ass information panels multiple times... and i would literally be so chill the entire rest of the day. i thought they were cute and i thought the names were funny and it sparked a forever love of rodentia in general. and my family will just casually refer to it as my naked mole rat phase. that is not an average phase i don't think.

fyi the pacific science center is both overwhelming yet super nice at the same time like lowkey... there's a butterfly room, a touch tank with little sea critters, lots of historical stuff to geek out over.... i mean, i actually haven't been there in a super long time! but i maybe shall go soon. and maybe share pictures on here. maybe. haha....