#macleay's

[i-give-you-a-fish]

can i have a fish please

You get a Macleay’s Glassfish

Ambassis macleayi

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Puffin to see here: "Kissing at Bullers of Buchan in Aberdeenshire"

Photographer: Alan MacLeay.

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Spiny Leaf Insect - Extatosoma tiaratum

It's been many years since I've laid my eyes on one of these magnificent creatures, and even longer since my days at U of T where I held one in my hand. As such, it was gratifying to see so many individuals on display at the Toronto Zoo and to soak in all their details and movements (mostly wobbles and slow, methodical steps) while observing them. With many female individuals, and a few different instars among them, I should have taken a video, but there was lots of excited screaming in the background from children happy to see the otters and reptiles. As much as I love animals, this blog is all about the insects, and so today we have pictures of these Giant Prickly Stick Insects. Today, they are known by many names such as Australian Walking Sticks, Spiny Leaf Insects, Macleay’s Spectres (named for British entomologist William Macleay and referencing their order Phasmatodea, whose name is derived from apparitions or more commonly, ghosts) or E. tiaratum. You can call them many names, just don't call them "Leaf Insects" as those are a different branch of Phasmid, of the family Phylliidae. Amazing as that family is are, these large armored insects also have a certain special quality to them. Maybe it's just how large and unusual they are compared to our fauna, but I certainly think that they're eye-catching when they can actually be found and observed. In the wild, finding them could be more difficult since their mottled, spiked, dried-in-appearance leafy armor is meant to hide them from their predators.

These peaceful, plant-eating giants need every advantage they can secure since they aren't aggressive and are burdened with slow movement due to their armor. In most cases, if anything gets close, their "scorpion" posture combined with a mild chemical defense and their sharp spines may be just enough. But what if you're a thinner, more agile male? If you've been observant, there is one such darker individual in the background of Picture 1! They're quite different in appearance from females, being much smaller and they are also quite rare! Moreover, a mild reliance on using parthenogenesis to reproduce and lay eggs, they can become even rarer! The thin male has functioning wings and can use them when in danger by either flying away or flashing them to a predator, startling them. Naturally, wings also allow for a wider dispersal and an expansion to the search for fertile females. In an environment within captivity, the presence of a male may be likely to discourage parthenogenesis and in fertilized eggs that will hatch earlier after females drop them to the soil floor. There were no eggs to be found, so if you plan to visit and search for them, look for brown and white, seed-like objects fitted with a capsule-like projection (capitulum). They are likely to be removed and stored, as the eggs of E. tiaratum are reported to need cooler conditions to successfully hatch. Their terrarium may simulate a warm, tropical environment too well in that case. In the wild, Ants fulfill this condition, bringing the "seeds" underground into their cooler subterranean food stockpile.

These insects are exhibited in the Toronto Zoo, so I’ve marked them with the Mantis icon. Pictures were taken August 27, 2023 at the Toronto Zoo with a Google Pixel 4. Please go and visit the animals (insects very much included).

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

Erin MacLeay from Idol Pursuits is asexual!

[heracliteanfire]

Young Lady Seated. Kenneth MacLeay (1802 - 1878) via National Galleries of Scotland

[squawkoverflow]

A new variant has been added!

Macleay's Honeyeater (Xanthotis macleayanus) © Unknown

It hatches from adjacent, bare, black, brown, distinctive, dull, few, northern, olive, small, top, white, and yellowish eggs.

squawkoverflow - the ultimate bird collecting game          🥚 hatch    ❤️ collect     🤝 connect

[seniouesbabes]

Lily Maymac 🌸💋🍒🌸 So good @chochosan petal and cherry blossom mochi is to die for @rimowa

🎥 by @icybutterfly

[weary-hearted-art]

Kenneth Macleay, Donald Steward and Charles Duncan, c.1865-66 (left), William Ross, 1866 (right). 

[gothghostiie]

guess who has a pet now :)

[urbanadventureleague]

Coffeeneuring 2024, Ride 1: SimWorks special edition at Lower Macleay Park, plus PDX Film League photo walk! Sat 5 Oct

5 Oct 2024. Canon Canonet QL17 G-III/Ilford XP2 I have a tendency to desire my first ride of the annual Coffeeneuring Challenge to start off with a bang, something extra. Sometimes it’s length, like in 2015 with a 60 mile round trip to Warrior Rock Lighthouse. Sometimes it’s “how can I tie it into rock music” like with last year’s debut. Sometimes I’ll do it at the beach, like in 2020. This…

[zosialynchphotography]

Lower Macleay Park, Portland, Oregon. May 2024.

[thirst-for-boys]

Adrian Lyles and MacLeay Bolgatz via Sophia Hammons' IG (x).

[whatnext10]

Owlflies Can be Unusual and Interesting Looking Little Things

Owlflies Can be Unusual and Interesting Looking Little Things shows readers an example of a Macleay’s owlfly. It goes on to explain where the author/artist found this one and gives some facts about this species and owlflies in general.

Owlfly This unusual looking little insect was sitting on the white wall the other morning and I couldn’t help but notice it. At first glance, I thought it was some sort of damselfly, but when I got close enough to really look at it, I knew it wasn’t. My next guess was some type of ant lion, but I had never seen one with such long antennas, large eyes, or such an unusual posture. Whatever it was,…

[locusfandomtime]

see the fandom has this thing where the hermits are different species and when they’re part animal/mob they’re a hybrid but nobody talks about the even funnier canon lore that they’re all the exact same species. Their species is hermit.

[long post - lots of worldbuilding and speculative biology below]

Jevin looks like a slime, Doc looks like that, most of them look human, but in actuality they’re all just hermits. The only information we have about this is that hermits are shorter than the average player, some references to hobbits, some references to hermits being hardworking, the fact that gem isn’t a hermit and had to wear antlers to pretend to be one, and that’s it.

I love biology and worldbuilding and this is fascinating to me. When you take into account previous seasons and events and throw-away lines this gets even more insane. Grian and Hypno are acknowledged to not have mouths (and even more hermits don’t have them on their skin). Mumbo turned into a potato. Cleo had snake hair at one point. There are a million other weird things I’m forgetting. You could handwave some of this with an explanation like “hermits are shapeshifters” or “hermits are gods” and that is a very valid and fun take but I think it is SO much funnier if these are just normal things that happen in the hermit species, which aren’t fantastical at all and are adaptations with elaborate mechanics and explanations.

Perhaps hermits, similar to bugs, regularly shed their skin (or a process similar to it) and change their appearance. Some insects change colours/appearance due to their environment rather than genetics, ie macleays spectre stick insects can turn lichen colours when raised around lichen. Maybe the hermits shed their skins on a regular basis, including during their adult life, and this allows them to better match their environment- causing physical changes related to what they have been exposed to. This causes potato Mumbo and medusa Cleo and DM Tango and any other example of a specific skin change. For more constant differences in appearance - maybe life cycles could be considered?

this may be the weirdest thing I’ve ever made. For those that don’t know, “n” is the number of chromosomes, where n is the haploid number, so 2n is diploid. Diploid cells are necessary for sexual reproduction. Of course, a lot of these life cycles are centered around reproduction, as is the nature of a life cycle, but in reality the hermits are in no rush and are happy to stay at whatever point of the life cycle they’re at, this is just an outline of the species’ mechanics.

I mean, most of this diagram is conjecture… but I think it is interesting to consider! Jevin especially reminded me a lot of slime mould life cycles so this is heavily inspired off that, but also inspired by bug life cycles as well.

If you want to get even more indepth we can consider the gender roles of hermit society (remember that clip where Grian implied builders were housewives and redstoners were breadwinning husbands?). Perhaps we can get meta and consider respawn an aspect of being a hermit as well - are they able to regenerate after death? What is Cleo’s place in all this, being undead? Is arm thickness, where your arm can either be 3px or 4px wide, an example of sexual dimorphism?

but. well. tldr: the hermits being one species is a very fun idea we should be doing more with, i think

[organicmatter]

Lower Macleay Trail - photo by me

[dozydawn]

“The two Sydney dancers of the London festival Ballet, Amanda Wenban (22) of Avalon and Christine Keith (24) of Greenacre returned to look over Kings Cross.”

“Here Amanda gives an impromptu lesson to 6-years-old Jeannie No of Newtown in Macleay Street, Kings Cross. August 12, 1977.”