bugtesting
he's trying so hard and he doesn't even know numbers
Orange Ater-group Arion slug, Arion sp., Arionidae
Photographed in Germany by emanon
last post for today... a rather bizzare spider (Talthybia depressa) i saw only because it chose an awful hiding spot. a very flat spider, you can see the simple eyes on its back if you look closely
Spined tessaratomid bug, Pygoplatys lancifer, Tessaratomidae
Found in Malaysia and Indonesia
Photo 1 by matthewkwan, 2 by bobzakaria, 3 by lars_fehlandt, and 4 (nymph) by budak
“Chironomid larvae are opportunistic omnivores (they can eat pretty much anything that can be eaten) but they are also classified by their main feeding modes; collector-gatherers, collector-filterers, scrapers, shredders, engulfers and piercers. Of course, one species can fit in multiple feeding strategies!
These larvae play an important role in aquatic ecosystems since they're a major food source for fish, frogs, birds and semi-aquatic mammals. They also are litter decomposers, rock cleaners and are important for nutrient recycling. Chironomid larvae are also very sensitive to polluants such as pesticides and are thus used as bio indicators of freshwater quality!”
My dad has bees. Today, I went to his house and he showed me all the honey he had gotten from the hives. He took the lid off a 5-gallon bucket full of honey and on top of the honey there were 3 little bees, struggling. They were covered in sticky honey and drowning. I asked him if we could help them and he said he was sure they wouldn't survive. Casualties of honey collection I suppose.
I asked him again if we could at least get them out and kill them quickly, after all he was the one who taught me to put a suffering animal (or bug) out of its misery. He finally conceded and scooped the bees out of the bucket. He put them in an empty Chobani yogurt container and put the plastic container outside.
Because he had disrupted the hive with the earlier honey collection, there were bees flying all over outside.
We put the 3 little bees in the container on a bench and left them to their fate. My dad called me out a little while later to show me what was happening. These three little bees were surrounded by all their sisters (all of the bees are females) and they were cleaning the sticky nearly dead bees, helping them to get all of the honey off of their bodies. We came back a short time later and there was only one little bee left in the container. She was still being tended to by her sisters.
When it was time for me to leave, we checked one last time and all three of the bees had been cleaned off enough to fly away and the container was empty.
Those three little bees lived because they were surrounded by family and friends who would not give up on them, family and friends who refused to let them drown in their own stickiness and resolved to help until the last little bee could be set free.
Bee Sisters. Bee Peers. Bee Teammates.
We could all learn a thing or two from these bees.
Bee kind always.
also: the bees aren't strong enough to pull the drowning ones out, and the humans aren't delicate enough to clean them off afterwards. helping takes a lot of forms.
Snootfly! 😍 I was very sad that no mourning scorpionflies (panorpa lugubris) appeared for me last year, but this boy chilled on my finger for a bit today, and that makes up for it. Thanks boo. 🖤
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