F
The spider's "feelers" are so big because it's holding it's front legs waving them around pretending to be an ant.
Which my carpenter ant colony says is very culturally insensitive.
The ant mimic spiders say getting eaten by carpenter ants is "culturally insensitive" and keep pretending to be ants.
(Ants will eat just about any insect they can figure out how to take down. A little spider isn't safe. )
That's an ant-mimic spider! Ha! so cute!
EXACTLY
On the very slim off chance someone hasn't seen this yet:
Moths are the total soft kid who tries SO HARD to be metal. See also the "death's head" moth, who *squeaks* by way. In case you didn't know.
Really undermines the whole edgy image "I only come out at night" thing they go for. (You eat nothing but nectar and can't even bite. Puh-leeez)
I'm sensing an anti-eusocial subtext! HMMMM
I'd probably still like them a lot. I just grumble when ants are left out... which happens more than you'd think for such a common well known insect!
This is so charming I can *almost* not mention the absence of ants.
via tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/queerorthodoxy/764458256069476352?source=share
Also HAPPY PRIDE MONTH
Tax Cuts: $4.5 trillion
"Someone who is good with the economy please help me."
"don't have so many tax cuts"
"NO."
We can't afford the tax cuts and they are sending money to people who will do NOTHING of consequence with it.
I would prefer government spending (hiring) but since they are republicans how about just doing the kind of tax cuts that juice of the economy... tax cuts for working class people?
Oh yeah, THEY are gonna pay more. So smart.
It's easy. Cancel the damn tax cuts.
I'm a HUGE DSNY fangirl.
Only in highly diverse ecosystems do we see the full range of fungus-farming strategies. Simpler ecosystems may support just one or two types.
There’s also an assumption that larger colonies and greater worker polymorphism are more "derived" traits. That may be true, but I remain uneasy with the implication.
2/2
Much of the literature on leafcutter ants draws a sharp line between "higher" and "lower" attines. The lower attines are thought to resemble ancestral forms and show simpler adaptations.
But from an ecosystem-wide perspective, the coexistence of both—lower attines with smaller colonies and specialized niches, and higher attines with mass leaf harvesting and extreme worker polymorphism—signals a richer ecosystem.
1/
Call me morbid but this is fascinating.
... a little animal is *staring* at me. What should I do???
"He said he's "not accustomed to" law enforcement without IDs, approaching people masked and without a warrant. "
Oh to be Young at 84 years of age like this man is. How I long to not know such things.
Wow. No thank you!
I like the idea of aliens that aren't "intelligent" in any way that we'd recognize. They just mastered space flight to keep doing what they have always done. In the case of ants? Raising queens and drones to fly far and wide to make new colonies.