#solitary animals

[gargoylegirly]

8/25 🕊 Frequent Flyers Club

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Wool-Carder Bees: these solitary bees harvest the soft, downy hairs that grow on certain plants, rolling them into bundles and then using the material to line their nests

Wool-carder bees build their nests in existing cavities, usually finding a hole/crevice in a tree, a plant stem, a piece of rotting wood, or a man-made structure, and then lining the cavity with woolly plant fibers, which are used to form a series of brood cells.

The fibers (known as trichomes) are collected from the leaves and stems of various plants, including lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina), mulleins, globe thistle, rose campion, and other fuzzy plants.

From the University of Florida's Department of Entomology & Nematology:

The female uses her toothed mandibles to scrape trichomes off fuzzy plants and collects a ball of the material under her abdomen. She transports these soft plant fibers to her selected nest site and uses them to line a brood cell. Next, she collects and deposits a provision of pollen and nectar into the cell, enough pollen to feed a larva until it is ready to pupate. Lastly, she lays a single egg on top of the pollen and nectar supply before sealing the cell. ... She will repeat this process with adjoining cells until the cavity is full.

These are solitary bees, meaning that they do not form colonies or live together in hives. Each female builds her own nest, and the males do not have nests at all.

Female wool-carder bees will sometimes sting if their nest is threatened, but they are generally docile. The males are notoriously aggressive, however; they will often chase, head-butt, and/or wrestle any other insect that invades their territory, and they may defend their territory from intruders up to 70 times per hour. The males do not have stingers, but there are five tiny spikes located on the last segment of their abdomen, and they often use those spikes when fighting. They also have strong, sharp mandibles that can crush other bees.

There are many different types of wool-carder bee, but the most prolific is the European wool-carder (Anthidium manicatum), which is native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa, but has also become established as an invasive species throughout much of North America, most of South America, and New Zealand. It is the most widely distributed unmanaged bee in the world.

A few different species of wool-carder bee: the top row depicts the European wool-carder, A. manicatum (left) and the spotted wool-carder, Anthidium maculosum (right), while the bottom row depicts the reticulated small-woolcarder, Pseudoanthidium reticulatum, and Porter's wool-carder, Anthidium porterae

Sources & More Info:

University of Florida: The Woolcarder Bee

Oregon State University: European Woolcarder Bees

Bohart Museum of Entomology: Facts about the Wool Carder Bee (PDF)

Bumblebee Conservation Trust: A. manicatum

World's Best Gardening Blog: European Wool Carder Bees - Likeable Bullies

Biological Invasions: Global Invasion by Anthidium manicatum

[hplonesomeart]

HEYYY GUYS quickly hopping back on here, messily taping/supergluing my art onto the blog, and then promptly skedaddling right afterwards because OH BOY I need to focus this week and lock into my animation MAP part. The time crunch has gotten real!! AUUUUU!! But I had to get this image out of my system before anything else so here ya go enjoy some solitary confinement Puzzle appreciation. I’m sorry that it’s rushed!! Maybe once I finish this MAP I’ll return and make it less janky (specifically for the animated gif here because OOF that looks rough buddy. But it’s the best I can afford to do without getting totally side tracked on my goals. It looks real lazy and is low-key triggering me but I’m letting it slide—sir is mocking my perfectionism right now. Gotta focus all that energy onto the MAP instead).

Yea okay that’s all folks byeeee

Okayyyy so apparently not only is the animated gif janky in motion but also kinda broken?? It’s supposed to loop but that’s not working on Tumblr so guess the entire thing needs to be redone when I have spare time :P

I’ve decided to include a compressed version so you can at LEAST see what I was trying to achieve jksjsksp help this is a mess right now

[icarusredwings]

Thinking about Wade coming home to find Logan taking a nap with all of his adopted daughters who are most certianly whole grown ups by now, Like Yukio, Laura, Rouge, and Jubilee as well as Mary Puppins.

And you know what? It's the happiest nap he's ever had but also highly stressed out when they leave. Wolverine fathers usually don't stay with their kits, but obviously, he's an exception, individually snuggling them all only to instantly sit up, claws drawn the second the door opens and he gets a knife to the head.

"Hey do you guys-... OUCH...Rude."

And Yukio is like, "oopsies." But Logan just gives her an approving nod and a "good one, kid."

"Well, fine. No burritos for you then. Jeez."

Between sparing with them and hearing, "You haven't changed a bit, huh?" 4 different times, him giving Laura a scratch on the scalp in which she almost cries because that's the exact spot her dad used to do it, Yukio telling him stories about Wade and Negasonic, and Jubilee and Rouge talking in their own slangs while hugging him (and yet... somehow, he can understand them. It's weird. Like he just autoamtically gets their accents and odd words.) Everything is almost perfect. About as perfect as you can be with 6 different mutants in one tiny appartment.

Al isn't really sure what's happening this entire day, but enjoys the company and knows for a fact that these girls have Logan absolutely trained, correcting his manners and his language, telling stories from way back when, stories about their current lives, makes him eat real food not just liquor. Etc.

But when they leave, She can hear him pacing the apparent like a stressed-out tiger, back and forth, back and forth.

"Why did you lie?" She asks, and he stops and is like,"What? I didn't - " She smiles and goes. "You told them you'd be fine, and now you're making a new path in my floors."

"I dont know okay!?" But he does know. Oh he knows so much but he doesn't know how to describe it on an emotional level. He misses them already, he misses having something to protect, what if they get hurt without him? What if- but Puppins comes over and yips at him. Its time for her walk.

This is when Logan realizes that the others are strong enough to take care of themsleves, that hes trained them too. Well.. or at least a different version of him did. But puppins didn't. Puppins needs him. And will forever. This idea alone brings him great comfort, but he still invites his daughters over as much as possible and visibly gets upset if they say they're too busy. It was hard enough getting them together in the first place. Everybody say thank you, Wade, for making those calls since Mr. Manly man was too emotionally distant and embarrassed to do it.

Welcome to dad life, Logan. It's a hell of a ride.

[prismaticsaltedink]

Scoria and Sakura are best friends! It's so cute when I see the things they do together, and it makes me so beyond happy that they both came to live with me so that they could share their lives with each other. They absolutely insist on it, and does so much good for the other.

I can't imagine how else they could have found happiness if things hadn't worked out exactly as they did. Scoria has basically been Sakura's "emotional support snake" while she worked through things from her past I'll never fully know that caused her a lot of issues with panic and fear. Sakura knows this too, and looks out for her sister, the only one she truly trusts and feels completely safe with.

The moment they wake up they both want each other to snuggle and play with. Scoria loves to be affectionate with both me and her sister who seems to have not had this earlier in her life- but Scoria is showing her how nice it is not only directly but demonstrating with me and Sakura also trying, copying what she has seen her sister do.

Sometimes when one goes to check on the other they'll join in on... I'm not even sure what they were doing. But they had a good time while taking a mandated union break from digging tunnels for the isopods.

So happy I get to share in the adventures of these two best friends! It makes me so happy to see them living their best lives together, and being beyond content snuggled together with their found family.

[cringecrew]

Maned Wolf photodump! Learn more about them here <3

[a-forbidden-detective]

Curious add-ons and why RonToto is sailing, Episode 7 (Part 4)

I can’t decide the meaning of these additional scenes. I have two options. Either Ron asks Toto if he’d like to have a taste of his food covered in sugarcane syrup. And Toto smiles softly, shakes his head declining Ron’s offer. Or, Toto is shaking his head by way of scolding Ron because of his extra wishes being fulfilled. It must be both. Or, it’d be like this:

Ron: Oh well, this is me. What can I do? (That head turn thing)

Toto: Tsk, tsk, tsk…

This precedes Toto’s thoughts that he doesn’t know much about Ron’s past.

Toto rushing to Ron’s side at the dome crying out his name upon seeing the dead Onodera the photographer and is immediately relieved by releasing a loud sigh, grateful that Ron is alive upon hearing his friend’s soft breathing.

It is interesting that the anime version is limiting Ron’s asshole tendencies by being softer and kinder to Toto. In the anime, he’s really convinced that Toto will one day become a very capable detective.

Must be the English translator or the anime writers’ choice to change some wordings that immediately transform these manga panels an altogether new experience for me to view Ron and Toto’s relationship in a manner that is soft built in trust and dependency.

Apologies, I really love these scenes.

[connorphilpphotography]

Lone Ranger

[wambwham]

You've heard of Aroace, but get ready for

𖦹 APL / Aplatonic

- A term used to describe people who do not experience platonic attraction. Specifically, it is most commonly employed by apl people to describe a lack of desire to form friendships with specific people, or difficulty forming friendships in general as a result of neurodivergence or trauma.

╰＞ " As an AroAce person there was always something weird to me, something that effected my friendships worse than any relationship I had. My "friends" came and went closer to how fixations would, and in-between I had no interest in interaction that wasn't specific. "

Of course, this doesn't mean every Aplato person is adverse to friends-

≧There are ways to specify the AplSpec≦

-and a shit-load of resources for curious cats like urself-

Friendship-Ambivalent, Friendship-Averse, Friendship-Drained, Friendship-Favorable, Friendship-Indifferent, Friendship-Oscillating, Friendship-Repulsed

There's so much I could say, but I'll leave that up to the professionals, the links above me are directed to my favorite Aplatonic Identity list

Check out this masterlist by user @/aromagni too!

[mullet--head]

I wish I waa someone's boyfriend

[ranticore]

how do aquatic zetas reproduce if they stay so isolated from each other?

sometimes the urge hits

[plesiosaurys]

hate to inform u but goats do in fact exist in skyrim in fact they are everywhere

technically yes there are goats, but they're not the type that produce wool. the breeds of goat with hair worth spinning are fluffy and usually curly - compare this skyrim goat to this angora goat.

and the goats in skyrim are mostly wild. only a few farms keep them, and only 1 or 2. unless the people of skyrim are vigilante shearing wild goats, that's not enough wool to clothe everyone.

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Leafcutter Bees: these bees snip off bits of foliage and/or flower petals and then weave the pieces together to build their nests

The nests are built and used only by the female leafcutter bees (family Megachilidae). Unlike honey bees, leafcutters do not form colonies or live together in hives, meaning that each nest belongs to a single, solitary bee.

The females use their mandibles to cut out pieces of foliage, carefully snipping off rounded segments and then carrying them back to an existing cavity/burrow (which may be located in a plant stem, a piece of wood, the side of a tree, etc.), where the pieces are used to construct a series of brood cells along the inner walls of the cavity.

Most leafcutter bees build their nests out of leaves, but there are some species that are more accurately described as "petalcutters," because they use flower petals instead.

The Silver-Tailed Petalcutter Bee (M. montivaga): this species uses flower petals to build its nest; it is one of the few Megachilid bees to do so

The leaves and/or flower petals are then folded together along the inner walls of the chamber, forming a long, cigar-shaped nest that contains multiple brood cells.

As this article explains:

Leafcutter bees may nest in many different spaces, such as existing holes in timber or masonry, hollow stems, gaps in door/window frames, old folded towels left outside, rock walls and outdoor furniture.

Each female builds her own nest. The cut leaves are used to make a tube as a nest for the eggs or to line an existing hole with it. The leaves are cut in various shapes, round and elongated, to suit the construction of the cell for the eggs. The cell is then stocked with a mixture of nectar and pollen in which the leafcutter bee lays her eggs.

There are multiple brood cells built into the internal structure of the nest, but they are all separate from one another. Each cell contains a single egg, along with just enough pollen and nectar to sustain the larva until it reaches maturity.

When the eggs hatch, tiny larvae eat the provisions and, when fully grown, they spin silky cocoons and then develop into pupae, finally emerging as adult bees. 

Leafcutter bees come in a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. These are just a few other examples:

Top Row (left-to-right): Megachile latimanus and Megachile octosignata; Bottom Row: Megachiloides sp. and Megachile poeyi

Sources & More Info:

University of Colorado's Museum of Natural History: Leafcutting Bee

Florida Wildflower Foundation: Getting to Know your Native Pollinators - Leafcutter Bees

University of Nebraska: Facts about the Leafcutter Bee

Land for Wildlife (Southeast Queensland): Leafcutter Bees

What's that Bug?: Leafcutter Bee Life Cycle - a Fascinating Journey Revealed

Entomology Today: Beyond the Honey Bee - How Pesticides Affect Solitary, Cavity-Nesting Bees

[saintlesbian]

what if we kissed 😳 (and we were both animal girls~!)

[sebastians-asks]

Oh, then I think Goopy ate your computer mouse, good enough for him ig.

But I don't it's healthy for Prince Samson to not have any friends? You can't let the frog live like you

He’s got plenty friends. Alex, Jas, Abigail, Vincent, uh.. But he is just as solitary as I am.

He feels a lot, okay? His emotions are too complex for other imbecile frogs to understand. He’s just like me.. he’s different.

[strangebossyuri]

this post keeps showing up on my feed and it is so so very wrong ive never met a dog person who genuinely hates cats but so so so so SOOOOOOOOO many cat people who hate dogs and treat them like theyre disgusting and stupid 💀