I’m sick of running two blogs, so I’ll be posting my nature GIFs and all that good stuff on my personal blog (they’re basically the same anyway).
TREEHOPPER mimicking a dead leaf or old insect casing
Oeda inflata
©Paul BertnerThere are about 3,200 known species of treehoppers in over 600 genera. They are found on all continents except Antarctica, although there are only three species in Europe.This one is from Kurupukari crossing, Guyana.
They are best known for their enlarged and ornate pronotum, which most often resembles thorns, apparently to aid camouflage. But in some species, the pronotum grows to an extension even more bizarre like the desiccated leaf shape pictured above.
Treehoppers (and their cousins Planthoppers and Leafhoppers), due to their unusual appearance, have long interested naturalists. There is no way to tell the male and females apart other than looking at the male genitalia. Individual treehoppers usually live for only a few months, but they belong to a lineage that is at least 40 million years old.
A team from the Institute of Developmental Biology of Marseille-Luminy in 2011 provide good evidence that the helmet arises as a pair of appendages, attached to each side of the dorsal prothorax by an articulation, with muscles and flexible membrane that allow it to be mobile. Genetic evidence: the same genes are involved in development of the helmet and the wings.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treehopper
Other posts:
I love these hoppers and have posted many odd-looking species in the past. Here are a few of my favorite:Blue Horseshoe-shaped Treehopper
Cluster of Fulgorid Planthoppers
The Rodrigues Parrot or Reunion Red-and-Green Parakeet. It’s unknown whether or not this bird actually existed, was a sub-population of a mutation of another parrot species of the area, or is actually an extinct species.
Extinct Birds. Hon. Walter Rothschild, 1907.
11:03AM GMT 31 Oct 2008
Staff believe that the octopus called Otto had been annoyed by the bright light shining into his aquarium and had discovered he could extinguish it by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water in its direction.
The short-circuit had baffled electricians as well as staff at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, who decided to take shifts sleeping on the floor to find out what caused the mysterious blackouts.
A spokesman said: “It was a serious matter because it shorted the electricity supply to the whole aquarium that threatened the lives of the other animals when water pumps ceased to work.
“It was on the third night that we found out that the octopus Otto was responsible for the chaos.
“We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water.”
Director Elfriede Kummer who witnessed the act said: “We’ve put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn’t be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him - and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.
“Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better - much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants.”
This is one smart octopus.
A rare slipper lobster, nicknamed Popeye, is cared for at Newquay’s Blue Reef Aquarium after being discovered sitting on the pots of a fisherman in St Mawes, Cornwall. The slipper lobster - which is normally found in much warmer waters - is one of only a handful of specimens recorded in UK waters since records began back in 1758.
Ostracion spp.
The boxfish are the smooth and rigid fish of the Ostraciidae family. Several of them produce a deadly toxic mucus from their skin when under stress. Luckily, unlike the lionfish or stonefish, the Ostraciidae don’t have spiky spines or a way to inject the toxin into humans. Just don’t go biting on any fish when you go scuba diving in the Hawaiian reefs, and you should be good!
Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. III. 1849.
Six-Banded Armadillo, Tatouay, Truncated Clamyphore of Chili
The “Truncated Clamyphore of Chili” is what we now know as the pink fairy armadillo, and the tatouay is also known as the Greater Naked-Tailed Armadillo.
These are all South American armadillos. The one North American armadillo (the nine-banded) is the coolest one, in my opinion. They always have identical quadruplets, because shortly after fertilization, the egg splits into four. Basically, it’s exactly the same thing that happens in humans when identical twins are formed, but each half splits again. They’re the only mammals that reliably manifest this trait, called polyembryony.
The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization. Serving as a Foundation for the Natural History of Animals and an Introduction to Comparative Anatomy. Baron Cuvier, 1837.
Teeth of the Wolf-Fish
The wolf-fish is also known as the seawolf. A cold-water dweller that can survive all the way up to the top of Greenland thanks to a unique blood antifreeze it produces, the wolf-fish is currently facing conservation crises due to both over-fishing and being caught as by-catch when other fish and crustaceans are harvested.
It’s not even like this fish is up near the top of the ocean or a threat to humans…they chill in the deep benthic zone, on the hard floor of the Atlantic ocean. Thing is, that’s also where wild clams & crabs live - and the wolf-fish loves it some crab. Bottom trawlers often catch them along with their intended targets, and this leads to a massive number of inadvertent deaths. The fact that people love to catch these ugly dudes for mounting, especially in their shallower habitats near the British Isles, really doesn’t help their survival as a species. You’d think being so ugly would help keep them OUT of peoples’ collections…
The Principal Forms of the Skeleton and of the Teeth. Dr. Richard Owen, 1854.
Two large fins are manifested on the anterior end, accompanied by a dorsal and a caudal fin with a lower lobe as observed on the posterior end of its long serpentine body, thus leading scientists to assume that the frilled shark may account for the number of sea serpent sightings reported throughout the years, though this is highly unlikely, considering the shark rarely surfaces, and that it can only grow to around 2 m in body length. The frilled shark’s mouth contains an odd 25 rows of 300 teeth trident-like teeth.
Kermode Bear in Tree, British Columbia
Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic
A mother of two cubs climbs a Pacific crab apple tree to grab its tart and tiny fruit. In years when autumn salmon numbers are low, the bears must find other food, such as wild berries, lupine roots, and mussels.
See more pictures from the August 2011 feature story “Spirit Bear.”
Pomogale velox.
No, it’s not a derpy otter (well, that was my first guess, at least). This is a Giant Otter Shrew. These guys are from the central rainforest region of Africa. The Giant Otter is from the central rainforest of South America.
Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, Vol. VIII. 1874.
Stunning photos of zebras in South Africa from National Geographic. In the second pic, a very pregnant mother stares into the photographers lens amidst a cloud of dust created by the shifting herd.
The Kodkod (Leopardus guigna), alternatively spelled Codcod and also known as the Guiña, is the smallest cat in the Americas. It is found only in central and southern Chile and adjacent parts of southwestern Argentina. It is strongly associated with mixed temperate rainforests. Little is known about this species, because it is extremely rare and very elusive.
(We apologize for the picture quality of this beautiful cat, as it is an elusive and rare species, getting photographic evidence must be difficult.)
