#we have millipedes and beetles!

[typhlonectes]

Giant millipede lost to science rediscovered in Madagascar’s jungle

A giant dark-brown millipede, not documented for 126 years, has been recorded in Makira Natural Park, home to the largest and most intact forest in Madagascar.

It is one of 21 “lost” species rediscovered by Re:wild during an expedition to the African island in September last year, the results of which have just been published. The conservation organization aims to locate species that have not been seen and recorded for a minimum of 10 years, hoping that by removing data deficiencies it will be able to help prevent species extinction.

Christina Biggs, lost species officer for Re:wild, spotted the giant millipede crawling over her boot outside her tent one morning. “I filmed it for a while because I thought it was cool, having no clue that it was an actual lost species,” she told CNN in an email. “It wasn’t until Dmitry Telnov, a beetle specialist with the Natural History Museum in London, sent material to a German colleague specializing in Madagascan myriapods, that we found out it hadn’t been documented since 1897"...

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/science/giant-millipede-madagascar-c2e-spc

[onenicebugperday]

Hiii Onenicebug!!

I'm a really big fan of insects, but I live in a city! I used to live near the woods with all kinds of cute bugs, but now it's difficult to find much beyond the occasional silly grasshopper or trash-loving fly. The only thing interesting we get is cicadas in the summer! I dunno what else there is here in northern Texas..

This is all to say that I really appreciate your blog! I love being able to see silly bugs!! I'd also like to ask, do you have any bug finding tips? I'm certain where I live isn't completely devoid of cute creatures, so they gotta be hiding somewhere! If you ever go bug hunting, where do you search? :))))

Hello :) Certainly you can find bugs in cities, though it can be more difficult obviously and you're not going to find the diversity you might outside of the city.

Some places to look, though - during the day on sides of buildings, often the side facing the sun, and around window sills. These are especially good places to look for jumping spiders, but also some true bugs and beetles will congregate there to warm themselves. Look at the same places at night rather than during the day and you'll see different friends, often orbweavers and moths if there's a bright light on the building. Any lights around entrances or patios or balconies will attract friends. Hanging a white sheet outside and shining a bright light on it can attract all sorts of dudes if you want to get that into it. Different lights attract bugs better, so that's something you'd need to look into first.

Look in landscaping around buildings, especially if there's mulch or rocks or lots of plants. If you can do it without getting in trouble or causing any damage, lifting landscape rocks or edging bricks that line walkways will almost certainly reveal some critters - mostly isopods, snails, slugs, millipedes, and centipedes, but sometimes wolf spiders or other cool fellas. Obviously just be very careful when replacing the rocks so you don't squish anyone. Digging around in mulch or leaf litter is a good way to find the same pals.

In landscaped areas around buildings with flowers or in small city parks, check the tops of flowers and all over the stems and on the undersides of leaves during the day - but be thorough, take your time and look very closely, you'd be surprised who's hiding in and around flowers that aren't immediately noticeable. This is almost always how I find things like crab spiders and ambush bugs, but of course you'll also find all kinds of flower beetles and plant-feeding true bugs. Seed bugs, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, froghoppers/spittlebugs, etc can all be found on flowering plants, or mantises if you're lucky. The taller/denser/weedier the area is, the more pals you'll likely find, assuming it hasn't been sprayed with pesticides.

In addition to the friends crawling on those plants, you'll likely find some pollinators flying around them. Bees and wasps and butterflies of course, but also lots of different flies - especially hover flies and long-legged flies, which are small but super pretty up close and fun to watch.

On trees pretty much anywhere, look all over the bark of the trunk, especially underneath any pieces of bark that are lifting, or on/under any fallen branches.

And of course water attracts all kinds of bugs, either to live in, drink from, or hunt near. Runoff ditches on the sides of roads are often full of all kinds of different bugs, but it may be difficult to get close enough without getting your feet wet. Stagnant water will tend to have different bugs than fast-moving water does, so check out both if you can. Sitting near the water and just looking into it is a good way to spot lil friends creeping around in the muck on the bottom or skating around the surface. If your city has a lake or a river, docks and piers are a great spot to find spiders, especially at night, and of course during the day dragonflies and damselflies will be near water, too.

Hopefully that was somewhat helpful! That was just a brief overview of some of the easier places to look, but if you're observant enough, you'll find friends literally all over the place.

[paracosmic-gt]

Thoughts of an insect

Warning: themes of insect death

I.

To be a bug without the exoskeleton,

Is to spend your time convincing others you don't deserve to be killed.

Near-begging them to see that you are just like the others,

But smaller, with claws that gently prick skin.

I didn't ask to be feared.

II.

Please. Please help me.

My brothers and sisters, stop.

I frantically pick them up and replace them, but they flood to the Light-Sun blindly and I can't grab them fast enough. They fall on their backs and with gentle fingertips I pick and place and pick and place and please.

I need help.

I can't save them all.

By the morning they'll all be dead.

III.

The sooner you accept insects are animals

The more animals you will encounter

And the more animal death you will have to tolerate

It must be much easier to ignore them

IV.

Image ID:

[ID Start] A traditional pencil sketch of three images, each with the caption "Hold them."

The left image depicts a shrine we built to a passed scarab beetle, it lies in the centre of a circle of rocks of various sizes.

The middle image depicts the headmate June, a humanoid figure with curly afro hair, pointed cat's ears, and wings tucked close to their body. They gently hold a millipede who appears the size of a dog due to their small size. Their paws hold the insect's face, and their tail wags with joy.

The right image depicts a human hand, palm up and thumb curled inwards, holding four black scarab beetles. Two are overturned on their backs, a third is beside them right way up. One has climbed all the way up the middle finger to the edge.

[ID End]

Snail divider created by @kodaswrld

Art and poetry created by June of Wanderstars.

[forest-and-fauna]

I miss seeing bugs so I'm sharing photos of some of my favorites from last year.

We have a Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, Chickweed Geometer, American Giant Millipede, Black Swallowtail Caterpillar, Eye-spotted Lady Beetle, Narrow-winged Mantis, Tiger Bee Fly, Dog-day Cicada, and Cuckoo Wasp.

The last photo is of a German Yellow Jacket Queen (I think) who emerged too early last spring. I nursed her back to health and released her on a warm, sunny day.

I have seen so many new bugs since I've started working on rewilding our little yard. I can't wait to meet even more this spring.

[crevicedwelling]

hi cervical delving, was wondering if you think isopods are more comparable to cows or horses IF we were small enough to milk / ride them. their many pretty patterns remind me of both, honestly. but i dont know much about isopods. i like to imagine owning large fields of them and they also large, but i hate the thought of putting them through the industrial torture cows go through... i understand there is a more comparable cow beast that ants milk, but

in my bugs-as-vertebrate fauna understanding I see isopods as rodents actually; they’re incredibly prolific and numerous where they exist, can eat anything and have these nasty little gnawing mandibles that can cut through whatever they want. being small enough to ride an isopod would be like riding a giant rat & probably either would kick you off its back and then eat you, bones and all. I have seen hungry isopods tear into their molting brethren and fight one another to eat live beetle larvae. they have been known to bite holes into the tarantulas and centipedes people mistakenly cohabitate with them thinking the isopods will “clean up” the enclosure. as soon as the predator molts they’ll clean the enclosure really well. isopods are a menace

millipedes are probably more your speed and I could imagine a relatively peaceful millipede farm with a bunch of big spirobolids munching on a bale of old rotten wood. not sure what you’d milk them for other than benzoquinone defense fluid. or in the case of flat millipedes maybe bottling their cyanide gas for chemical reagents

[witch-with-scissors]

Aother close-up shots from Welcome to the Spring Festival part 2 collage. Do you recognize all the participants? A little cheat sheet of who's who.

You already know Daniel by sight. I don't know much about him, only that he's Spot's brother. But it seems that he also likes hats and is musical, since he plays the bells. And he's Jack's buddy. Stasia The Bat is a local dancer who dances in the ~Night Ballet~. She performs mostly at night (as a bat does) but has a large group of frog fans, and as you can see, she likes to watch others dance even during the day. 🦌🦇

In the crowd we see a lot of tiny people and insect people (I still don't know if they're some kind of elves or not?). In any case, they seem to be having a good time together. (What is not obvious what we know from the collage ~Be Good to Your Neighbor~).🕺💃🕺💃

Apparently, it's not just snails and millipedes that they use for transportation, but also beetles (I'm getting Hollow Knight vibes again). I wonder about those kids on the beetle though… I've seen that teddy bear somewhere before! 🧸

I'm not sure about the flying ant, but perhaps it's an escapee from the Ant Herder's herd? 🐜

[skekthesilly]

Anywya. Tell me a joke. Plsalse -🍞

ouhhhmmmm ill do my darndest! mmy mind is blank. ouhhh ouhhh uhhh ouhhh ouhhhhhhh

icant. think of anything. but maybe ill tell you some of my dreams instead. maybe ill keep talking and you can listen to me and everythingll be okay

there was this one dream i had sometime around march of last year. i was in this treehouse and there was this guy behind the register. i asked him for a large cheese pizza and he said okay! your pizza will be ready in 9 years" and i am eagerly awaiting that day. anyways after that i went out to the treehouse balcony and it looked like my old house. i miss my old house. sure the neighbors were probably doing drugs and the police checked up on them monthly for some reason i dont know and it always smelled like smog but. it was cozy. it rained a lot. there were lots of grasshoppers. there was this apple tree i used to climb up all the time and the family downstairs would pick the apples when they were still unripe so they were super sour and they would eat the apples with chili and salt and sugar so i could never eat an actual apple from my apple tree. i used to play hide and seek with the kids downstairs. i wonder if theyre doing okay. there was this one girl i used to really like when i was in third grade. she used to laugh at poop jokes. she was in grade 2 and i was in grade 3 and we were friends. the last day before i moved i went to her house and cried and she hugged me and before we left i kissed her. and it was the first and best kiss of my life. i miss her. i wonder if shes doing okay. there was this grade 6 girl i used to look up to a lot. she always read wings of fire and i would hang out with her because i had nobody else to go to. i know she didn't like me very much. she would ask me to play somewhere else. i was a quiet kid. i had one friend. then no friends. then one friend. i friend hopped. i used to have a friend named liam. one day this group of kids sang a song about us kissing and i stopped being friends with him. i remember wanting to kill those kids back then. i hated them. i used to have another friend. from kindergarten. she stopped being friends with me one day because i stacked erasers during class and she wanted me to pay attention. then she became friends with this girl i didnt like. she was mean to me. i wanted her dead. she kept saying my umbrella had bird poop on it and i said it was only rusty because i liked licking the cold metal. they screamed and ran away. i hated her. there was this guy i used to be friends with. he offered to catch me when i slid down the playground pole. i hurt my hands sliding down once and i didnt want to do it again. i cried up there. i used to go to this little shaded fence area and look at bugs when i was having one of my lonely days. i saw centipedes and millipedes and aphids and ants and ladybugs and spiders. there was this one massive spider i used to adore. she was beautiful. during the really bad lonely days i would sit in a corner and pull my hood over my head and stare at everyone. especially the boys. there was this group of buys i used to hang out with. they likes pokemon. they convinced me to make fun of a kid named fadi. i hope hes doing okay. i used to steal pokemon cards from that boy group. there was another boy group i went to. they liked beyblades. i wanted to hang out with them but they were mean to me and i almost cried so i left. there was this little garden area in the school with picnic tables. there was this little tree and golden beetles everywhere. it was cute. the golden beetles died really easily. i miss that school. anyways. um. i hope you enjoyed reading???

[auckie]

Where do you work? Why do you work with spiders? How can one end up working with spiders? (Just curious) (also you dont have to respond if you don't feel comfortable)

Listen. I will tell you. In graphic brutal detail. Check back this tag in a month okay? I’ll have a lot to report. Or dm me. If YOURE comfortable.

Anyways! I work at a tarantula breeder, we ship the spiders out across the us save Hawaii, and sell them in store.

I feed them, along with roaches, beetles, millipedes, etc etc, rehouse them, and pack them in those little vials for shipping.

We sell adults too but more sparingly bc they’re more delicate. It sounds cool and fun and could be but sadly it’s a small business and if you’ve ever worked for a small business owner you’ll understand that there’s no such thing as a sane small business owner.

My coworkers and the animals rule, but I’ve learned all there is to learn from that particular place, wrt the trade. Definitely more I could learn about spiders and insects as a whole but not from there! My boss thinks entomology isn’t a real field LOL! Despite working with entomologists 🤔 and regularly trying to hire biologists. Sorry I had a bad work day and I’m still mad about it.

There may be some weird little pet shops near you! Like reptile and exotic ones tend to carry a handful of arthropods, you’d be surprised! Zoos also will often house insects, museums, etc etc.

entomology is unfortunately niche and hard to break into professionally, which is why so many hobbyists are the ones making breakthroughs in their respective fields of interests!

if I had a better camera I’d be taking so many more videos and probably making roach TikTok’s, and try to ‘break in’ that way.

There’s a lot of insect YouTubers that have ‘professional’ relationships with breeders and hobby retailers, which also seems to be an easier in than like. A more traditional career outside of research or photography.

There’s also gov’t agencies like fish and wildlife who bring the hammer of gd down on breeders and wholesalers who try to brown box imports, which I think is just and right. They help regulate laws about what species can cross what state lines to help prevent invasion risks. As you can imagine there’s a lot of bans on shipping to Florida.

[thenecropolix]

@sketch-pencilpoint @/notsozenzeneth [Cracks Knuckles] you two gave me an inch and now I'm going a mile

OK so off the bat when I started thinking "what would a train look like if it was a biological organism" I turned to the obvious that was crustaceans, with lobsters in particular what with their multiple legs (in place of wheels), armored bodies, and the way said legs look when they move

I wanted to keep it as realistic as possible, so instead of mammals, I immediately thought of these guys, which then quickly diverted me to insects, specifically millipedes

So we have a general basis for how a biological engine should look, but now comes the issues of wheels; while we have animals that roll their entire body as a form of locomotion (e.g. armadillo) or roll things (e.g. dung beetle), we have no critter that could be said to have wheels in place of legs in the taxonomic domain eukarya. Ergo, I decided to take a page out of Nintendo's book and turn towards making train wheels into skin patterns that would go on the train's feet.

Enter the humble caterpillar

Barring the first couple set of legs, you'll notice the "feet" of a caterpillar are rather round; that's because they're more like little suction cups that help them stick to the surface of things; what I'm getting at is that train "wheels" would instead be more like these suction cup feet that are patterned in such a way that resemble said wheels.

I want to quickly give a shout out to @theflyingkipper for this next point as their monster engine series introduced to me the concept of turning the funnel of trains into blowholes that release steam. I thought it was a very clever design, but I realize it could be taken a step further if we consider the funnel to be a horn; more specifically, I thought about the parasaurolophus

A thing to make note is that these guys' iconic horns were thought to act as an amplifier for their calls; I figured the same could be applied to trains, boiling down to 2 possibilities:

The blowhole is placed either in front of or in back of the horn, thus creating the illusion of a steam-blowing funnel

The funnel itself has the nostrils on the end like a trunk shaped horn, thus housing another airway aside from the mouth where steam is released

This brings us to the topic of steam and feel source; as much as I find the idea of flesh-eating trains fun, I do think realistically, their diet would be the same as the fuel used to light their fires. I think of how some of the largest animals on earth are primarily herbivores (or in the case of the whale, filter feeders) and how even if they don't eat meat, that doesn't make them any less frightening that say a tiger or wolf.

Henceforth, I like the thought of living trains grazing on grass and being fed coal by their drivers and firemen, but it bets the question: how do they get nutrients? Initially I thought they'd be literal gastroliths and actually eat the coal they're given, but given how most stones are consumed half of the time to aide in digestion rather than be digested themselves, I figured perhaps something else could be at play.

Enter the volcanic snail

These little guys are amazing because they are found in hydrothermal vents, aka underwater volcanoes. They were actually one of the first guys I thought of with train armor because their foot and shell contain iron, which I think makes for a fun comparison of biological organisms and engines with steel bodies. But back to my initial point, these guys are chemoautotrophs, aka organisms that get their nutrients from chemical reactions through a process called chemosynthesis. Ergo, it wouldn't be entirely unrealistic for engines to technically get nutrients from steam itself rather than what produces the steam, but that begs the question: how do they produce the steam?

After much thinking, I deduced that they could "eat" coal by swallowing it whole and they lighting it up from the inside using a pyrophoric liquid contained in a separate chamber that gets "leaked" into the chamber where the fuel is, thus producing steam that then is released through the funnel/blowhole. And as crazy as it sounds, there is some potential due to the inspiration for this idea: the bombardier beetle

Cute right?

This little fella uses chemistry to ward off predators: essentially there are 2 chambers in its abdomen that contain 2 separate liquids that upon contact, produce a chemical reaction that reaches the boiling the point of water, to which is then expelled as a scalding liquid that causes irritation upon contact. Let me repeat that again: a bug is mixing 2 volatile liquids to create a new liquid as hot as 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) and is then spraying it at everyone else.

From this, I figured the inside of a train would be just as heavily armored as its outside in order to prevent internal scarring from its own pyrophoric liquid once it ignites; I'm comparing it to what the bombardier beetle does in that rather than releasing the explosive reaction, it keeps it inside and and instead releases the byproduct (steam). That being said, I enjoy the thought of an engine "breathing" fire by expelling this liquid not unlike a spitting cobra as a scare tactic.

On a final note, I think if the buffers of trains weren't just elaborate body gear akin to what horses wear when pulling goods or people, I could see them as modified spikes seen on a thorny devil or the kentrosaurs, pointing forwards not unlike a boar's tusk and used in combat and perhaps be subjected to being dulled with tennis balls to prevent accidents like one does with goats.

If by some chance anyone reads this and gets this far, I'd like to both thank and applaud you for taking time to listen to this nonsensical rambling of mine as I've quickly gone down the mine that is ttte and creature design.

[cybertron-after-dark]

"Would you still love me if I was a worm?"

TFA edition. (Update: now available in tfp flavor)

Optimus: "Aw, you know I'd love you no matter what form you take, Sweetspark. But it would probably be pretty hard to keep track of you when you're that small."

Bumblebee: "A worm? Like the little pink slimy things? How would we even hang out? How could you hold a game controller? You wouldn't even be able to see over my dashboard when we're driving around!! I'd still love you, but changing you back would be top priority, that's no way to live."

Bulkhead: "Of course I would! I'd put you in your own little ultra sturdy worm-sized hamster ball so you couldnt get hurt! Maybe I could rig up a little worm mech-suit so you could still move around and do stuff you need hands for..."

Ratchet: "you're not gonna turn into a worm, quit stressing over it. I love you as you are, and that's all that matters"

Prowl: "Every one of Earth's creatures is beautiful and worthy of love. A worm is no exception, especially if that worm is you."

Megatron: "...if you are at the point where you are asking me fringe, absurd hypotheticals, you are clearly either sleep deprived or intoxicated. Go to bed."

Starscream: "lol no"

Lugnut: "SO LONG AS YOU SERVE THE DECEPTICONS, MY SPARK BEATS FOR YOU IN ANY SHAPE YOU MAY TAKE."

Blitzwing: "Of course I vould. What kind of mech would I be if I abandoned you for somezhing out of your nonexistent worm hands? Though I am curious as to where zhis is coming from. OO, OO, ARE YOU ZHINKING OF SCANNING A WORM AS A BEAST MODE?! ZHIS I HAVE TO SEE!!!"

Blackarachnia: "ew no."

Shockwave: "Assuming you can inexplicably still speak and your personality remains the same, I see no reason why I wouldn't continue to love you. But this seems a bit out of left field."

Jazz: "it'd still be you, wouldn't it?"

Sentinel Prime: "no, no, ew, no, why would you make me think about that?! Gross..."

Wasp: As long as you'd still love Wasp.

Ultra Magnus: "What's a worm? And why would it affect anything?"

Blurr: "Of-course-Id-love-you-why-wouldnt-i-love-you-youre-you-and-youre-adorable,-worm-or-human-or-cybertronian-or-any-other-known-species-you-could-think-of,-and-for-that-matter-probably-any-species-you-couldnt-think-of-as-well"

Wreck Gar: "I'd love you if you were a worm, a millipede, a centipede, a beetle, a flea, or even a giant brain eating space eel!! You're the best!"

[heros-bug-collection]

         Hero

Hi! My name is Hero, I'm a fictive of Hero from OMORI Main sys blog >> @starfilled-galaxy Hs Kel's agere blog >> @kels-pillow-fort (I'm his CG!) Bodily minor We are pro endogenic and willogenic systems, as well as pro good faith/"contradictory" queer identities

I'm 20, neurodivergent, queer, alterhuman, and have a special interest in insects ^^ Yeah I know source has a phobia of bugs, I'm source divergent!

Sexuality: Asexual (sex repulsed) Romanticity: Abro, pan, & bi Gender: Transmasc (he/him only pls!) Alterhumanity: SilkWing (WOF) otherheart, bumblebee kin

Sourcemates & doubles are fine to interact !

BYF:

I will not be trigger tagging bugs on this blog, as, well, that's the main focus. If you have a phobia of any bugs I'd suggest blocking this blog!

I will also not tag/trigger tag capslock, repetition, big text, etc or add image ids, I'd also suggest blocking if this kind of thing is an accessibility issue for you

While the focus is bugs, I will reblog or post non-bug posts occasionally! Usually non-bug posts I reblog are flowers and fanart of me and sourcemates

DNI:

Full DNI is on our main blog, but here's the short version

Basic criteria

Transid, radqueer, and supporters

Proshippers

Demonize ANY disorders

Anti good faith identities, anti alterhuman, anti endos, anti willos

If you think Kel from OMORI isn't traumatized, you think of him as a joke, or you think he's stupid/a moron

Demonize, hate, or sexualize ANY of the OMORI cast, including sexualizing the adults

Tags and userboxes under cut!

Tags:

#Hero.txt - OG Text posts

#Asks! - Posts with asks

#Important 🌹❕ - Important posts

#Favs! 🌹✨ - Favorite posts!

-

#Butterfly 🦋 - Posts with butterflies

#Moth 🦋 - Posts with moths

#Caterpillar 🐛 - Posts with caterpillars

#Beetle 🪲 - Posts with beetles

#Hemiptera 🪲 - Posts with hemiptera (cicadas, aphids, shield bugs, etc)

#Mantodea 🦗 - Posts with mantodea (mantises)

#Orthoptera 🦗 - Posts with orthoptera (crickets, grasshoppers, etc)

#Isopod 🩶 - Posts with isopods

#Hymenoptera 🐝 - Posts with hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants, etc)

#Blattodea 🪳 - Posts with blattodea (cockroaches, termites)

#Fly 🪰 - Posts with flies

#Phasmid 🥢 - Posts with phasmids (stick bugs)

#Odonata 🐉 - Posts with odonata (dragonflies, damselflies)

#Myriapoda 🐍 - Posts with myriapods (centipedes, millipedes, etc)

#Too many to tag ❕ - Posts with a lot of insect species

#Other ❔ - Posts with insects that I can't figure out the species of or don't have a tag for

-

#Not Insect ✖️ - Posts with critters that aren't considered insects

#Arachnid 🕷️ - Posts with arachnids

#Slimy 🐌 - Posts with worms, snails, or slugs

#Amphibia 🐍 - Posts with amphibia (frogs, salamanders, etc)

#Reptiles 🦎 - Posts with reptiles

-

#Flowers 💐 - Posts with flowers

-

#Me 🌹 - Posts with me!

#Mari 💜🕊️ - Posts with Mari!

#Friends ❤️ - Posts with my friends (sourcemates)!

-

#Not Categorized 🍂 - Posts that don't fit into any of these tags [excluding the important and favs tags]

Userboxes!

[userboxes made by us & @genicpunk]

[l3irdl3rain]

May we see Josie?

Also what size tank is she in and do you have any plans for a second tarantula or invertebrate in general? If so what species?:D

Josie is in a 15 gallon! I feel like it’s a really good size to allow her to move around and give her everything she needs while also being easy to clutter in a way that makes her feel safe. Ignore her water dish full of dirt, apparently she did some redecorating yesterday.

I love keeping Josie and would love to keep more inverts in the future. There’s nothing in particular that I’ve researched a ton, but just things that I’ve seen here and there and thought “maybe someday”. No immediate plans for anything though.

I’d love to try out caring for more tarantulas. But I’m also interested in various scorpions, giant African millipedes, and blue feigning death beetles. Other creepy crawlies interest me too, those are just some off the top of my head

EDIT: also jumping spiders!!! I want one so very bad

[smile-files]

today's the arthropod parade! where beetles dance and weevils sway -- the ants march with their twig batons; caddisflies have costumes on; the lantern lights come swinging by, carried by joyful fireflies; and spiders wave their silken flags -- antennae twitch, mandibles wag -- cicadas and the crickets sing, a harmony of buzzing wings; prancing mantids clap their hands, as the bees play in their band; the mayflies dance a merry jig, led by aphids and earwigs; stickbugs walk on stilts of wood -- no leafbug leaves, although they could, they stay to see whirligig clowns, who laugh and smile and twirl around; the dragonflies, they float like kites, whose strings are held by little mites; the larvae eat leaves overhead, they stay up late, past time for bed, to watch the roaming millipedes, whose stomping sounds like a stampede; as the show comes to a close, the butterflies and moths eclose; every insect shouts "hooray! we love the arthropod parade!"

[paracosmic-gt]

Compound Eyes

I identify as bughearted, mainly because it's probably the right word for it. I border on cambitherian.

An essay about being bug-hearted. Warning for mentions of insect mistreatment and death.

As long as I've known, I've cared for bugs as a subset of my care for animals. We as a system were always the one to call back in the day, and that didn't change as I came into my priority frontings. A moth, butterfly, cockroach, millipede, even spider was my game. I always took care to take them outside and put them in the grass where they belonged.

I loved to read about bugs, I wanted to own bugs. I cared and loved bugs more than others. I knew the feeling of excitedly presenting a caterpillar only to be faced with screams of fear. The constant demanding to be killed just because they looked different and were found in the wrong place. I empathised even if I didn't know why.

Alongside this, I was a prominent engager in giant tiny media through my own writings. I explored what it meant to be small in a large world through a thousand different lenses before finding out I had my own. I realised that I was in fact nonhuman, and the first kintype I confirmed almost immediately, was a tiny. This type has blossomed, I no longer call it a kintype but my anchor. I experienced life, love, and pain through the eyes of a tiny every day.

I identify as a borrower also, I watch and wait from the shadows. I admire humans, so different from me, from a crack in the wall. Accompanied by beetles and house moths. I feel genuine euphoria being small, it's where I belong - among blades of grass and grains of soil.

And maybe that's why coming back to bugs, my connection and affection to them became deeper. Because I now fully accepted that as a fellow miniscule being, and someone who experienced trauma, I knew how it felt. I knew how they felt - wandering in an enormous foreign world. Interacting with giant beings every day. Being ignored. Being belittled and lessened. Being stepped on.

If I was to be treated as invisibly tiny at least I would always have an insect beside me who knew my pain. There's a lot of pain and danger in the life of a bug. But there's always change. Metamorphosis.

I've come into a space of joy. I am proudly tiny, and I am proudly what I call "a small thing". And once I front in this body, I consider it my duty to protect other small things because I have knowledge of that existence. I have explored a hundred times the feeling a person gets when exposed to a massively larger creature. The fear, the awe, and the comfort.

At least now, I can stop my companions from suffering. I can be the kind hand so rare in this world. I can try my hardest to make my presence a home for insects which I love. Because I know that's all I'd want.

I would love you if you were a worm. I'd make you an enclosure and care for you. Because I am a bug too, even just in my soul and not in my form. I've become a bug, I've been made a bug, and I choose to be a bug. I choose to be your friend, you'll always have a place in my heart.

[parismemes]

SENTENCE STARTERS FROM AN ARGUMENT THAT GOT OUT OF HAND: THE SEQUEL

"are there more eyes or legs? in the world."

"i feel it in my bones."

"think about all the beetles and the ants."

"but think about all the fish."

"there are way more bugs than fish. every bug has like 6 legs. but every fish has like 2 eyes."

"how do you know how many fish there are?"

"um i speak to the fish personally they told me."

"i'm just saying i've seen like a million spiders in my house but i've never seen a fish."

"ok well potatoes also have eyes and there are way more potatoes and fish combined than bugs."

"have you SEEN ants? they're everywhere."

"one quadrillion ants."

"SPIDERS HAVE A PROPORTIONATE NUMBER OF EYES AND LEGS."

"110 TRILLION MOSQUITOS."

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH A QUADRILLION IS?"

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY POTATOES ARE IN A MILLION METRIC TONS?"

"the bugs will kill your potatoes and then what will you have?"

"consider: every person with glasses has four eyes."

"we're not accepting metaphorical eyes."

"THERE'S SO MANY BUGS YOU CANT EVEN SEE."

"legs are amputated more often than eyes."

"it's called being creative."

"if something is called a leg or an eye it counts."

"source: IT'S A QUADRILLION ANTS."

"there's not 2 quadrillion fanart. that's literally physically not possible."

"oh it must've flew by me because we are going so fast."

"NEEDLES HAVE EYES."

"millipedes. there are so fucking many of them, dude. they have so many legs."

"i'm not talking about needles, ___. i'm talking about real things."

"YEAH MILLIPEDE GANG!"

"needles are real, you fucking pickle."

"NEEDLES ARE FAKE NOW?"

"they are only figments of our imagination. collective mass hysteria."

"i've never seen a needle in my life."

"millipedes are fake."

"look at these religious texts. they prove the millipede."

"THIS is subliminal messaging actually. this beamed the idea of millipedes existing into your brains."

"what does that have to do with religion?"

"bugs reign supreme."

"bugs aren't real."

"YOU BE NICE. THEY'RE LITTLE. THEY'RE TOO SMALL TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST YOUR HATE SPEECH."

"bug bug bug. IT'S BEES BABY!"

"i'm full of bugs so i count."

"HE'S NOT MULTIPLE PEOPLE."

"that's like saying every time i move my leg it's a new leg."

"you sound like a dumb ass."

"eyes are more common because full bodies are a pain in the ass."

"it's not a good measurement because literally anyone can unbalance it."

"you're just mad because millipede supremacy."

"sometimes things don't work perfectly, ___!"

"ANTS ARE TEMPORARY."

"what the fuck is a millipede."

"ants reproduce so fast. they multiply. like rabbits which ALSO HAVE MORE LEGS."

"THEY'RE STILL TEMPORARY. EVERYTHING IS."

"ants live for ever."

"newton's law says that we do know that."

"newton can't tell me what to do. fuck the law."

"oh yeah the one hurricane happening at any given time ever?"

"i feel like you guys don't know how big a quadrillion is."

"THEY CAN'T DEFEND THEMSELVES SHUT THE FUCK UP."

"I CAN'T GO TO COURT FOR AN ANT I DON'T KNOW THE ANT LAW."

"you know what? i'm starting to think YOU aren't real. what living person would be so cruel to little guys like them? no one real that's who."

"that's not even mentioning the beetle and mosquito and scorpion and crab and starfish AND CHAIR AND TABLE."

"no they don't bitch ass."

"stop this anti-ant propaganda."

"i know more about ants than you do genius."

"says the person who thinks OHIO is a place."

"capitalism propaganda is notoriously pretending the midwest does not exist."

"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW MY BUGS?"

"if ants were real, they would have five eyes."

"HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF CAPITALISM?"

"that's not true 5 is a stupid number for eyes."

"ohio is fake."

"baby. baby boy."

"the midwest IS capitalist propaganda it exists only to produce corn and middle-american families with traditional values, everything else is an outlier."

"he's got little boots!"

"you say that like the people in the midwest were not exploited by the capitalist society of america and by the time certain parts of the midwest became of little use to the capitalist machine, the system ultimately failed them and broke them down. the midwest, especially the rust belt, was a precursor and a warning of capitalist failure."

"LOBSTERS!"

"ANOTHER WIN FOR THE PRAWNY BOYS!"

"iguanas have three eyes."

"it doesn't count for eyes unless more eyes than legs."

"potatoes have zero legs and can have up to ten eyes."

"two is less than a quadrillion."

"okay but tiamat only has four legs and she has ten eyes."

"i was gonna say something really bad. it was about the h... never mind."

"that's what the government wants you to think."

"are YOU a capitalist too?"

"worms on strings have two eyes and no legs."

"THERE ARE JARS AND JARS OF FREE FLOATING GOOGLY EYES IN THE WORLD."

"they probably cost a lot of money."

"i straight up thought you were saying there were jars and jars of actual real eyes and i was gonna ask you how you'd even know that."

"well, when they prepare your body to be buried, they take an ice cream scoop and scoop out your eyes."

"YOU'RE HURTING OUR ARGUMENT. YOU JUDAS."

"i'm going to eat your eyes and then there's gonna be two less eyes in the world."

"oh yeah, the QUADRILLION snakes?"

"beholders literally are not real."

"habushu has a snake in every jar."

"i was just too busy trying not to say human centipede."

"i have so many grass hopping outside."

"cicadas... the sweet song."

"why is your grass hopping?"

"i also have so many house centipedes just living here in my basement with me."

"you said they weren't real."

"you take things i say seriously and that is your issue not mine."

"i have autism."

"we ALL have autism."

"i'm sorry you took my word as god on the realness of a common household item."

"my mental fortitude is unmatched i am a FORTRESS."

"my fortress is only legs. wake up."

"WHAT ABOUT THE BABA YAGA?"

"i made a diagram of the house."

"there are literally two eyes in that picture."

"OH SO WINDOWS ARE EYES NOW BUT THEY CAN'T BE DOORS?"

"ok but are there more windows or doors in baba yaga's hut?"

"I GUESS THE DEFINITION OF A WINDOW IS ONLY FLUID WHEN IT SUITS YOUR ARGUMENT."

"windows are NOT EYES. but they are doors."

"I ASSUMED IT WAS A RABBIT. SO FUCK YOU."

"how can we trust your judgment now?"

"damn even triangles got legs."

"my refrigerator also has legs cuz it's running. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

"i gotta go catch my fridge."

"or will your fridge catch you...?"

"no, he's scared of me."

"the most dangerous game."

"i would be scared of you, too, if you opened me up and looked at my insides when you were hungry."

"i can't count all the glasses in the world and history of it."

"do not eat the bees. we need them. they're disappearing at an alarming rate."

"lots of bees. lots of legs."

"ok. don't see how that's more than a quadrillion."

"i literally gave you needles"

"insects don't fucking EXIST."

"in my heart they exist, and i think that absolutely counts."

"i'm sorry you can't afford better glasses but when you get the right prescription everything becomes clearer and you can see the little guys."

"THERE'S LIKE FOUR PEACOCKS. ever."

"name one peacock--- oh shit kung fu panda. name two peacocks!"

"name one of them and DON'T SAY THE ONE FROM KUNG FU PANDA."

"unfortunately, i did know someone in our town who had a pet peacock."

"check facted."

"ok that's not a quadrillion."

"i don't think that's a real number."

"how can anyone possibly count that high?"

"BACTERIA DO IN FACT WALK!"

"see you in a few years."

"the eyes decompose so nobody wins."

"eye socket isn't part of the eyes."

"leg bones are part of the leg."

"leg bones aren't called leg, they have other names."

"leg is connected to the. leg bone."

"put me into orbit."

"bones in the legs are more often referred to by name, such as tibia."

"some of us are stupid."

"mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. haha microwave."

"so you can count the bones but only if it's a full skeletal structure of a full leg."

"snotelek wins again."

"WAIT THERE'S SO MANY DEAD BODIES MISSING THEIR EYES IN THE GROUND."

"THE SKELETON ARMY COMES THROUGH FOR LEG GANG!"

"oh my fucking god the queen died."

[crevicedwelling]

favorites of: flatback millipedes

Symphala

scutigeramorphs

click beetles

(yes the level of specificity varies wildly)

- I’m kind of ambivalent about all polydesmidans. there’s beautiful members in all of the families, and plenty of plain ones to balance it out.

- this is sort of like asking what my favorite brand of clothespin is. I am not yet enough of an insane myriapodologist to give a conclusive answer on a group that’s so poorly studied and also all look the damn same but I will say that Hanseniella are very plumpy and joyful

- Thereuopoda clunifera. a powerful beast found in a surprising range of environments which make me so sad we don’t have native 3” body length scutis in the US. they should be here. if it wasn’t the most 1870s brand of awful idea I would be importing them for release just because I want to see them every day of my life

- same answer as polydesms. lotsa pretty ones lotsa boring ones. the bioluminescent guys maybe would’ve won here if they didn’t suck my millipedes into dried husks, the bastards