drueisms:

Wow Wednesday - Wasps that are smaller than amoebas

Thrips are tiny insects, typically just a millimetre in length. Some are barely half that size. If that’s how big the adults are, imagine how small a thrips’ egg must be. Now, consider that there are insects that lay their eggs inside the egg of a thrips.

That’s one of them in the image above – the wasp, Megaphragma mymaripenne. It’s pictured next to a Paramecium and an amoeba at the same scale. Even though both these creatures are made up of a single cell, the wasp – complete with eyes, brain, wings, muscles, guts and genitals – is actuallysmaller. At just 200 micrometres (a fifth of a millimetre), this wasp is the third smallest insect alive and a miracle of miniaturisation.

Polilov found that M.mymaripenne has one of the smallest nervous systems of any insect, consisting of just 7,400 neurons. For comparison, the common housefly has 340,000 and the honeybee has 850,000. And yet, with a hundred times fewer neurons, the wasp can fly, search for food, and find the right places to lay its eggs.

Click through to read more about this ridiculously awesome animal.

On top of that Polilov found that over 95 per cent of the wasps’s neurons don’t have a nucleus. The nucleus is the command centre of a cell, the structure that sits in the middle and hoards a precious cache of DNA. Without it, the neurons shouldn’t be able to replenish their vital supply of proteins. They shouldn’t work. Until now, intact neurons without a nucleus have never been described in the wild.

This is awesome.

The Armadillo Lizard (Cordylus cataphractus) is a lizard endemic to desert areas of southern Africa. It is also known as the Typical Girdled Lizard, Armadillo Girdled Lizard, Golden Armadillo Lizard, and Armadillo Spiny-tailed Lizard.

The Armadillo Lizard possesses an uncommon antipredator adaptation, in which it takes its tail in its mouth and rolls into a ball when frightened. In this shape it is protected from predators by the thick, squarish scales along its back and the spines on its tail. This behavior, which resembles that of the mammalian armadillo, gives it its English common name. This behavior may have inspired tales of the mythical creature Ouroboros.

rhamphotheca:

Malagasy or Striped civet (Fossa fossana)

… also known as the fanaloka, is a rare euplerid endemic to Madagascar. It should not be confused with the fossa (common name), a similar animal also endemic to Madagascar, which has the scientific name Cryptoprocta ferox. Nor is it the same as the related—and similarly named—Malagasy carnivore the falanouc, which is also a euplerine.

It is a small mammal: about 47 cm excluding the tail (which is only about 20 cm) and 2.5 kg. It has the appearance and movements of a small fox. The sources disagree over whether its claws are retractile. It has no anal glands, unlike other civets. It is endemic to the tropical forests of Madagascar, and specifically can be found in the Madagascar dry deciduous forests.

Nocturnal, though sources disagree over whether it is solitary or, unusual among euplerids, lives in pairs. It is not a good climber and frequents ravines. It eats small vertebrates (mammals, reptiles, and amphibians), insects, and eggs stolen from birds’ nests…

(read more: Wikipedia)      

(images: T - unattributed; R - by Hectonichus; L - by Rbrausse)

Thanks dude, you’re the best :3

squeedge:

danhallett:

Hemikyptha marginata. Photos by Didier Descouens. 

Treehoppers are amazing.

bullshit-bullsharks:

This bloody mess of a Horned lizard (genus Phrynosoma) isn’t in pain from an attack. Chances are he was feeling extremely threatened, and unleashed a defense mechanism nobody would see coming. The first thing this reptile does when threatened, besides camouflaging anyway, is to stay completely still. If the predator proceeds approach, they’ll alternate between short bursts of running and abruptly stopping to confuse the attacker. If this isn’t successful, they’ll resort to swelling up a bit in size to appear larger and more ‘horned.’ If anything, it just makes them more intimidating and harder to swallow. When all else fails, they shock the threat by spurting blood out of their eyes. It’s a grotesque tactic caused by thin-walled, blood-filled spaces called sinuses found within their eye sockets. In case of emergency, they’ll cause blood pressure in their eyes to rise which, in turn, leads to the sinus walls breaking suddenly. Blood erupts from the eyes in a nicely aimed stream of crimson red, reaching up to 4 feet (1.2 meters). A distasteful chemical combined with multiple bursts of these streams is enough to deter any predator..Or unsuspecting human.

Photo credit: randomtruth

Galerie de paléontologie et d’anatomie comparée, Paris

feeols:

feeols:

Just look at it
Possibly my favourite animal 

Everytime I see this fucker I will reblog.

fortheloveofherpetology:

Parthenogenesis in whip-tail lizards

Parthenogenetic species reproduce asexually, without need of a male, mating or pollination. In parthenogentic animals, the offspring are usually all female, and in certain types of whip-tail lizards, the entire species is female. Parthenogenesis often happens where there are no males of a species in the vicinity. In some cases, should males make a reappearance, the species can switch back to sexual reproduction. Recently in zoos, komodo dragons were discovered to be capable of this reproductive trick.

(taken from BBC nature)

Here’s another group of animals I never shut up about.

Certain species of whiptail have ALL-FEMALE populations! No males in existence.
I find that really fucking cool.

Strong contender for my favourite species.