#winter 2021 anime

[anisongoftheday]

SK8 the Infinity Ending

Infinity by Yuuri

[hairunowa]

[heather-m-quigley]

[klaasfoto]

[klaascows]

[sorrcha]

terk !

[fullscoreshenanigans]

been thinking about tpn a lot recently and Ray has been giving me he/they vibes

of course he would have blue(-tinted) hair and pronouns

[okochamasensou]

magical mirai figure transparents

[piru-illu]

Animal studies experimenting with transparency in media using watercolour and gouache! This is preparing for my second Analogue Media assignment, and the theme is animals, which one is your favourite?

[animatedshortoftheday]

La Neige Incertaine (The Uncertain Snow) (2021) [6 min] by Marion Boisrond, Marie-Liesse Coumau, Ada Hernaez, Gwendoline Legendre and Romane Tisseau | France

[anisongoftheday]

Horimiya Opening

Iro Kousui by Yoh Kamiyama

[hairunowa]

[heather-m-quigley]

it's not a bluff, it's a strategy.

[epicswagdivorceguy1]

IDK how you can like summer down here, I'm up north (( Texas )) and istg I'm already dreading the heat (( hater moment ))

oh don't get me wrong i HATE texas summer weather, like i step outside for five seconds and my body is already drenched in sweat from how humid it is. however. however. dreary winter weather make me sad :o(

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar - Danaus plexippus

If the showcase earlier this year of the adults is anything to go by, there were quite a few of the hungry milkweed-eating wrigglers to be found in the yard this year first. This post highlights several stages of development as the Caterpillars here go from instar to instar with each molt. They begin life as small eggs left on milkweed from the adults that have returned from the south, following the winter migration. Given how their lifespans are, the adults that return to Ontario in the warmer months to lay their eggs are descendants of those who left before winter. The hatchlings that emerge from the eggs are pale and bereft the iconic markings that larger Monarch Caterpillars have. They do however, gain those markings after molting to their 2nd instar alongside the filaments near the front and behind their body. When not feasting on their host plant, they’ll hide away to avoid danger and the intense summer, as can be seen with the individual in Pictures 1-3. Goodness, how tiny it is. As it eats, it will grow MUCH bigger, from smaller than my nail, to longer than my thumb. After molting, the Caterpillar reaches instar 3 and then instar 4. The individual in Pictures 4-6 falls into one of those stages, but size might not be the best way to tell without anything as a scale. 

While size is the biggest factor here (larger the Caterpillar, the more it has grown), the Caterpillar is probably in instar 4 if he consider the length of those sensory filaments. In instar 3, the filaments tend to be shortened; grown much from earlier, but not yet stringy and floppy in appearance. Nearly at full size, these Caterpillars still have a lot of work to do and leaves to eat. As it eats, it grows on the inside, becoming larger until it outgrows its old exoskeleton and necessitating a molt. Though a Caterpillar is soft-bodied, it’s still an insect, and thusly surrounded in a sturdy exoskeleton that protects it, and when outgrown, is shed. Now at giant size, we have the individual in Pictures 7-10; Instar 5 and the last stage of development before the Chrysalis. How much they’ve grown from smaller than a droplet on a leaf, to a patterned, large Caterpillar, and the process usually takes 10-20 days depending on the Caterpillar. And of course, after the Chrysalis molt and a few days of transformation, the regal orange Monarch Butterfly emerges in glory! I could probably make a better timeline of observations if I took a few inside and handled them in a controlled environment, but as always, I like to leave them be (as much as I can) and let the insect go about its business in the natural world. See you next year, little Caterpillars.

Pictures were taken on June 26, 27 & July 10, 2021 and July 9, 2022 with a Google Pixel 4. Happy First day of Winter!

[xaviergalatis]