#and like. Buggies. So wasps and etc

[2weevils]

perhaps i am a silly individual but sometimes i get scared that people will only know me for the most Recent intense overwhelming animal special interest and not the Other ones. i am not just the weevil Mutual i am also the eel and worm mutual!!!!!!!!!!!

[de-fright-ful]

Some monster Amity (see here for further context) thoughts about Amity & Amity adjacent things:

THE ONES THAT KNOW HER ABILITIES WELL CALL HER LADY PESTILENCE.

TW for mentions of insects, parasitic insects, fates worse than death, body dysmorphia, murder and other monster-type fodder. Read ahead at own risk!

Amity, in her human-shapeshifted form, does fall into the supernaturally / uncannily beautiful end of the spectrum that you often see with supernatural creatures. With Amity, though, she looks less like a natural beauty and more like something more doll-like, porcelain, and fake—as though she were the most intricately painted doll and not just... like that.

Let me elaborate a little bit more: even when shapeshifted as a human, she's only mimicking her former, living form using what she has: her swarm. So the coloration, skin, and smoothness are all the result of her insects and their elytra' providing coloration and form. The big problem with this is that humans are naturally, beautifully imperfect - they have discolorations and altering textures, so many small marks, wrinkles, etc. The bugs, try as Amity might, will NEVER be able to capture that look exactly. Making her seem so timeless and pretty in a strange, smooth, ethereal and utterly frustrating manner.

It goes without saying her body dysmorphia is AWFUL, and you're not going to find many pictures of her former self around the estate.

So, so shiny that it looks like she's iridescent: from her hair to her skin, she refracts light beautifully—though again, this is because of the elytra!

SHE DOES NOT ACTUALLY WEAR CLOTHES WHEN SHAPESHIFTED AS A HUMAN (under typical circumstances, that is). The clothes you see her 'wearing' when shapeshifted are usually part of her greater carapace and will seamlessly turn into the swarm just as the rest of her will - which, funnily enough, is actually the reason WHY she doesn't choose to wear clothes in her human shapeshifted form: if she's wearing physical clothing, then when she transforms back into the Swarm, they'll drop to the ground and it'll be a pain in the rear to get them back. It's easier to just... not.

Her human form is physically as human as possible - I love love love the trope of buggy girls with six arms and multiple eyes and pincers, but, for Amity, changing her physical form to reflect insectoid traits would do nothing for her personally, so she simply doesn't.

Swarm to Human Shapeshifting is a spectrum from the most concrete to the most fluid forms, and typically? Amity hovers at an 80% between full Swarm and full Humanoid form.

MOVES FASTER THAN NORMAL HUMANS! It's the tiniest little detail, but she no longer moves at the same pace she used to. Amity is now much, much faster, both in terms of pace and reaction time.

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The Swarm is typically broken up in 6 ways, with the Flies composing Amity's 'body' at any physical time being a tiny fraction of the Full Swarm. The number of insects Amity's consciousness extends to: for instance, let's say there's a ball park of around 18 million members of the swarm active at any single time: of that 18 million, 2-6 million insects would roughly make up Amity's 'body' (give or take extra if she was knowingly going into a fighting situation), and that's A LOT, but the other 11 or so million would be split roughly between 4 concrete hives, forever manning the victims inside and breeding more and more flies for the consciousness, and a final, small portion, would be off doing independent scouting for MORE viable hive locations.

Now to give a little more context as to size and whatnot, the average length of the Swarm Drone is roughly 1 3⁄4 in and with a wingspan of 4 in. Back to back, if we lined up every single one of those flies in her 'body,' the length would be roughly the distance from New York to Baltimore (no wonder the Swarm has been described as 'the darkness' swallowing entire towns) OR FOR A BETTER IDEA, this photo is the size of an equivalent wasp IRL in someone's hand

BIG

This being said, the more Amity diverts other members of the swarm from their posts at hives to join her 'body', and the more insects she takes on, the harder and harder it is to maintain a humanoid-shapeshifted form, to the point when, at full mass, the hive CANNOT become humanoid and will instead seek to fly around itself in a manner comparable to the depiction of an Angel from Ezekiel 1

All members of the Swarm Amity take on to form a 'body' are considered expendable to the Swarm and, for logistic reasons, will never retreat or return to a Hive once thrust into a fight. And thus, if the need comes and she's forced to battle or fight, she will go until the very last fly from that branch has been killed and her body has been reduced to nothing. She's sort of like a dog that will keep its teeth clasped onto a target even in death - her body is disposable, and if she gotta die, then she's dying standing and with the location of her hive still a secret.

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The Swarm itself is rather physically varied and consists of 5 castes, each specialized for individual tasks vital to the hive's survival, despite all members ultimately sharing a single, united consciousness.

(Castes within Amity's Swarm include: the classic Queens (the ones that lay the self-fertilized eggs responsible for the continuation of the Swarm, though it should be noted that often Queens within the Swarm will pass off eggs to the worker flies to actively implant directly into a host), Soldiers (the ones with the most imposing mouth pieces, are the ones that make the first bites into a victim and trigger the Workers to flock and attack), Workers, Spinnerets (the ones capable of creating the sticky cocoon like-structures used to trap living hosts and meld them to the inside of the Hive) & Scorpions (the ones that have the defined scorpion like segmented tails, used for injecting the chemical cocktails that can paralyze hosts, alter brain chemistry, etc. )

It should also be noted that in times of duress/survivalist pressure, members within the Swarm can effectively swap castes (i.e. drone to a queen, spinneret to a scorpion, etc) by reverting back into an immature, pupating (cocooned) state and re-developing into a role optimal for the Hive's for survival's long-term survival.

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The Swarm itself isn't a person - don't get her or it wrong - it can barely be considered a stream of consciousness, but it's a sort of constant thrumming animal impulse influencing monster!Amity at all times - like her ID if it was a giant mass of insects. HOWEVER, Amity once used meditation to focus and root out the swarm in her mind - ostensibly to try and understand it a bit better - but to say it didn't go well is an understatement, and she was terrified by what she learned by opening the door to her subconscious.

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When Amity hunts, her M.O. is to take humans/animals/etc., alive by injecting them with paralytic venom and flying them off to a secondary hive, where she can implant them with Swarm eggs and leave them to be eaten alive.

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There's a running sentiment after Amity's been revealed for EXACTLY what she is, that there has to be some kind of a gas leak in the Palace that's warping the minds of the Coven, her family and siblings to make them able to be at peace with *gestures vaguely to everything Amity has become* THAT.

Funnily enough, the people who point this out aren't ENTIRELY wrong. Those with long-term exposure (>1 week) to Amity in her Swarm Form do experience changes to their amygdala that make them less likely to (reasonably) fear Amity and her Swarm, and, in fact, behave more receptively towards her Swarm and incline them towards humanizing and attaching to her.

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On the subject of the young of Amity's hive, nicknamed the Amitites by Asteria: they start off as small, ugly, maggot white grubs with spines down their dorsal sections and symmetrical, angular patterns that can be described best as evoking pre-Spanish Aztec stone sculptures aesthetically. They're parasitoid in nature and often implanted into living hosts, which will serve as a protection and food source, incubating the eggs and serving to feed them as they quickly mature and pupate into mature members of the hive.

An Amitite, or Amity larvae, can consume double its weight in the flesh and incubate into a mature fly in as little as a week.

Hellishly, a single clutch of eggs (roughly 650) laid by one of Amity's queens into a host is not enough to kill them - and purposely so - a single host for a single clutch wouldn't work to maintain the numbers necessary for Amity's swarm, especially not if she wants to reach Vespodoza heights. Instead, the average human/animal transformed into a living-hive for her spawn will endure on average 6 clutches in succession before finally passing away and becoming part of the walls of whatever spawning chamber they were dragged off too.

BUT WAIT, IT GETS WORSE: Okay, so for as much as the larvae will consume and grow—they are horrifically clean creatures—no waste is ever left in a host. Likewise, they have been known to triage and eat infected/non-healing flesh and non-vital areas first to prolong the longevity of a host and emit chemicals that actively aid in their hosts' healing from the damage they do.

They WILL kill you if left to it, but oh, will they ever drag it out until a host has been wrung dry of all they can give.

Can a person be effectively saved from being eaten alive by the Amitites? YES! Yes, they can! Amity, her larva and her stings are not an inherent death sentence - yes a person can succumb when they reach critical mass inside the body - but given the fact Amity's nature means death is LEAST optimal, she and people hoping to save victims from her, share the objective of preserving life.

The point of no return after being implanted with Larva is, effectively, after the first clutch has been hatched out and eating for 3 days - so, just a little over a week after first capture (8-9 days exactly)

It's a pain in the ASS to remove each individual egg, though, especially given that they are rarely implanted in the same area.

Also, more body horror? More body horror! After a person has gone past the point of no return when it comes to incubating Amitites, they experience intense psychological changes - their sense of self begins to shift (they view themselves as a part of the Swarm, changing to a royal 'we' and expressing a sort of fondness towards their situation), they exhibit delusional lines of thought, and a near fatal, co-dependant NEED for the Hive and the Swarm.

Let me paint you a picture: Your co-worker or friend has been gone for 3 weeks. You have no idea where they were, but surely, you've been able to track them to the Hive. What you don't know is they've incubated more than 2 egg clutches and begun to fuse to the hive's biological walls. They're dying; more than half of their body is gone - naught but mummified, twisted bits of undigestable tissue. But somehow, they're conscious, they can talk, and so, when you find them. You try to talk to them - they're glad! Overjoyed, but you quickly realize they're not talking sense. They keep referring to themselves as a 'we', we this, we that, and... their young. It a shiver go down your spine, your breath getting faster, even when they sense your discomfort and try to swap topics - what about their puppy? How has the gang been? They're in there. You know it, you have enough, so you pull out a knife to cut them down, only for them to begin SHRIEKING. No, no, no, stop it! Stop! You're going to hurt them! They need this! You don't understand! Let them explain! They'll get the Hive - they'll- but you cut them off and start sawing away, and you expect a whole body to drop down - but no. They're screeching, you've hurt them, you've killed them - please, the babies, they need them, they make the pain go away- you'll pay for this! Meanwhile, you're just left staring at this mangled, half-mummified thing that was once your friend desperately clutching and reaching for these maggots the size of your middle finger and attempting to stuff them back into the vacant cavities of their body.

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On the flip side, however, her larvae's gestating habits and Amity's absolute control of them make them ideal for cleaning deep/tricky wounds and ensuring they heal evenly and entirely.

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OH and, before I before everyone to death with much more: The Hives, as in the place where she drags her victims to incubate the Swarm's young, is technically alive in its own right! Make of that what you will!

[panfishonthefly]

Terrestrial Patterns for Panfish

One of the great things about bluegills and other panfish is their willingness to take flies off the surface. In the world of fly fishing, dry fly fishing holds top honors. I have known a few fly fishing anglers that will only fish a dry fly. If they can not fish a dry, they will not fish! Although not a dry fly purist, I enjoy the topwater take as much as the next guy. So if I have an opportunity to fish a floating fly, I take it, every time!

The angler who chases panfish with a fly has a mind-numbing variety of flies to choose from. Traditional dry flies, hair bugs, foam bugs, and poppers will all work if the fish are looking up. As we move into the spring and summer, terrestrial insects become an essential food source on the ponds and small lakes that I fish near home. The shorelines of these bodies of water are buzzing with flying and crawling terrestrial insects and many of them find their way into the water.

Before we go any further, it may be helpful to define the term "terrestrial insect." When I refer to a terrestrial insect, I am referring to land-based insects like ants, beetles, spiders, grasshoppers, and the endless variety of flying insects that exist like bees, moths, flies, etc. Insects that live near water are going to end up wet at some point. When this happens with enough frequency that fish very quickly recognize them as a viable food source.

Early in the season the top water bite is slow. This is probably due to water temperature and slow metabolisms but I often wonder about that. I have had some excellent dry fly fishing just after ice-out during a good midge hatch when the water is probably at its coldest. If bluegills are willing to rise for midges in water in the high thirties, why does it refuse a dry fly a little later in the season when the water is warming? I have a theory that they don't recognize the fly as food. Once the weather warms and insects are crawling and flying around, they find their way into the water more often, and the fish begin to react positively to them. Fast forward into late spring/early summer, and the rings caused by fly landing on the surface of the water don't even have a chance to dissipate before the fly is snatched. Once we approach fall most aquatic insects have hatched for the year and the only insects available to fish are often terrestrials. As I mentioned earlier, you have a lot of options when it comes to selecting a terrestrial pattern. Here is a rundown on some of my favorite terrestrial fly patterns.

Ants

Ants are one of my favorite terrestrial patterns, whether I am knee-deep in a trout stream or prowling the banks of a warm water pond in my kayak. A simple foam cylinder ant pattern with a ring of hackle at its middle is about as complicated as you have to get with panfish. They quickly recognize that silhouette and will usually eat them without hesitation. There are times when a winged ant is the ticket. Ants and termites will release tens of thousands of flying insects from their mounds several times a year. These winged males and females mate and move off to form new colonies. If one of these swarms occur near the water, it is almost a guarantee that a large number of them will end up in the water. This activity often causes a feeding frenzy with fish rising everywhere, so always keep a couple of winged versions in a few different sizes in your fly box. When it comes to ants, don't ignore the sinking variety, either. An epoxy bodied, sinking ant fished as a dropper off of a floating pattern can be deadly.

Beetles

Beetles are another go-to terrestrial pattern for panfish. They are often overlooked as a terrestrial pattern in warm water fly fishing. There are about 400,000 species of beetles, constituting almost 40% of all insects and 25% of all known animal life. So chances are fish are going to see them on the menu on a regular basis! The great thing about beetle patterns is they are a little larger than ants and easier to see on the water, especially if you tie them with an indicator. Another good thing about beetle imitations is they can be straightforward to tie. Although you can produce excellent beetle imitations with natural materials like deer hair, foam is easier to work with and can be used to create great-looking patterns. Another popular beetle imitation is a pattern called the UFO. I consider it more of a generic terrestrial but it has answered the call on more that one occasion when beetles were on the menu.

Spiders

The foam spider is the quintessential panfish fly. Foam spiders in either a floating or sinking form are deadly panfish patterns. Your terrestrial panfish box should have a variety of both floating and sinking foam spiders. Don't be afraid to include some seemingly outlandish colors as well. One of my favorite foam spiders is pink with white legs and of course you can never go wrong with yellow. There is nothing like either of these colors combinations in the natural world, but the fish don't seem to care!

Hoppers and Crickets

Every bait fisherman nows that nothing beats a live cricket for catching bluegills! Hoppers and crickets are right at the top of the list when it comes to panfish terrestrial patterns. Because of their size, they float well and are an excellent option for dropper rigs when you want to suspend a second sinking fly behind it. They land on the water with a fish attracting slap and their moving rubber legs draw fish in for the kill.

The "Generic Terrestrial"

The generic terrestrial is my favorite type of terrestrial pattern. They don't necessarily imitate any particular insect but look buggy enough that they could be just about anything. Again foam is the material of choice for this type of pattern. You can achieve excellent results combining foam with a natural material like deer hair to produce flies that are both beautiful to look at and highly effective! Generic terrestrials are also a category of flies where you can let your imagination run wild at the fly tying vise. I have a bunch of patterns that are a crazy combination of foam, fur, hair, and rubber legs that fish cannot resist. Two of my favorites are the Fat Albert and the Mega Foam Indi Hopper. Both of these flies will float a good sized nymph or wet fly making them excellent choices fpr dropper rigs.

Bees and Wasps

All of the fish I have caught on be patterns have taught one thing, Bluegills don’t feel the sting! Not only do they have no problem with the stinging end of a yellow jacket, wasp or bee, but they also seem to relish them.  A misguided yellow jacket that finds itself struggling on the surface of the water does not linger there for long.   These hornets disappear in a slurp, and the only trace of their existence is a vanishing set of concentric rings on the surface of the water.  Do bluegills and other fish get stung as they take one of these insects off the water?  If they do, it does not affect them, or their tiny brains don’t associate the discomfort with the food source because they seem to key in on these insects when they are available to them.  I find these patterns particularly effective in the fall when these insects are the most active.

If you don’t regularly fish terrestrial patterns you are missing out on some great top water fishing. Terrestrial patterns are a lot of fun to tie and even more fun to fish! Give them a try!

Do you need to restock your terrestrial box? We have the flies and the materials if you tie your own. Please visit the shop by clicking the button below.

[disabled-queen-hc-blog]

autistic brian getting very very excited when he finds bugs in the house because he loves bugs and putting them back outside makes him super happy

Yes!!

He thinks all lives are worthy of respect, even the very small and creepy crawly variety.

So whenever he finds a buggy in his house, he always takes time to admire it before doing what is appropriate!

Some bugs actually evolved to live in our houses, like spiders, silverfish and house centipedes. When he finds these, he simply looks at them and maybe has a little chat with them before leaving them alone. 

“Oh, you are a very handsome centipede! Where are you off too? Eating mosquitoes, I reckon!”

He tends to leave spiders alone, because spiders are actually terrified of humans! He’d feel so bad seeing a spider make such a lovely web and then take it all down and move away because he bothered it. Hyper empathy for animals anyone…

Moths, bees, flies, dragonflies, etc, do get released back outside though. And with a lot of care as to not damage their fragile legs and wings! He has a bug catching cup just for these situations. Some of these buggys are quite fast, so you can imagine gangly Brian running all over his house, cooing to a wasp that he’s not here to hurt them.

And there isn’t a prettier sight than the bug taking off back outside where it belongs.

Bugs aren’t a special interest of his, but he does appreciate their role in the environment and is adamant on treating them with the same love and decency as a furry critter. They’re great listeners too…better than badgers and cats. That’s for sure..