Invertebrates

tags: invertebrates, comedy, humor, bentekr, animation, streaming video I absolutely love this video. It features an ant discovering a lollipop in the road and the battle that ensues between the ants and the flies over possession of this food bonanza. The end of this video is truly hilarious.
tags: insects, comedy, humor, bentekr, animation, streaming video A Ladybug family goes out for a Sunday flight with their three offspring. One of these youngsters is a wee bit hyperactive and sets out on a series of adventures of her own, as detailed in this video.
tags: insects, comedy, humor, bentekr, animation, streaming video A Ladybird educates her youngsters into the challenges and pleasures of life.
tags: insects, comedy, humor, bentekr, animation, streaming video What happens when a grasshopper gets the hiccups? How does a grasshopper get hiccups? This video explores these important questions.
tags: insects, comedy, humor, bentekr, animation, streaming video I've watched this video several times and it is hilarious and well-done and will likely give you a smile too.
tags: insects, comedy, humor, satire, bentekr, animation, streaming video If the previous video wasn't enough to make you laugh, then this one will do the trick. Silly, funny, fun, but .. is there a meaning to this? Or maybe I should instead have entitled this "Ladybug pwns Dragonflies"?
tags: insects, comedy, humor, satire, bentekr, animation, streaming video This is a silly video that will make you smile.
The female case-bearing leaf beetle Neochlamisus platani tries to give her children a head-start in life, but most mothers might not be keen on how she does it - encasing her young in an armoured shell made of her own faeces. After she lays her eggs, she seals each one in a bell-shaped case. When the larva hatches, it performs some renovations, cutting a hole in the roof and enlarge the structure with their own poo. By sticking its head and legs out, it converts its excremental maisonette into a mobile home, one that it carries around with them until adulthood. All leaf beetles do this, but…
Walk through the rainforests of Ecuador and you might encounter a beautiful butterfly called Heliconius cydno. It's extremely varied in its colours. Even among one subspecies, H.cydno alithea, you can find individuals with white wingbands and those with yellow. Despite their different hues, they are still the same species... but probably not for much longer. Even though the two forms are genetically similar and live in the same area, Nicola Chamberlain from Harvard University has found that one of them - the yellow version - has developed a preference for mating with butterflies of its own…
tags: Phidippus putnami, Jumping Spider, macro video, animal behavior, streaming video This remarkable video is of (probably) a sub-adult female Phidippus putnami Jumping Spider .. Video: Thomas Shahan [Thomas Shahan's photostream]
tags: Paraphidippus aurantius, Jumping Spider, macro video, animal behavior, streaming video After taking the video of an adult male Paraphidippus aurantius eating a cricket and waving his arms threateningly at the videographer's finger, both the male and an adult female P. aurantius were released on a nearby plant. As stated in the video, the videographer did not intentionally cause the female to kill the male. The videographer says, "I was actually a little concerned that the female might try to get him, so I put them about three or four feet apart and went back inside for a little bit to…
tags: Tutelina species, Jumping Spider, macro video, animal behavior, streaming video Here is some video (and stabilized from some really shakey footage using Deshaker, a plugin for Virtualdub) of male and female jumping spiders from the genus Tutelina. Not sure on the species, but the videographer's best guess is Tutelina elegans. The female could be mimicking the antennae movements of an ant. The music was recorded by the videographer. Video: Thomas Shahan [Thomas Shahan's photostream]
In East Africa lives a species of spider that drinks mammalian blood. But fear not - Evarcha culicivora is an indirect vampire - it sates its thirst by preying on female mosquitoes that have previously fed on blood themselves. Even though its habitat is full of non-biting midges called "lake flies", it can tell the difference between these insects and the blood-carrying mozzies it carries. Robert Jackson from the University of Canterbury discovered this behaviour a few years ago and one of his colleagues, Fiona Cross, has now found that the blood isn't just a meal for the spiders, it's an…
tags: Phidippus princeps, Jumping Spider, macro video, animal behavior, streaming video A nice little Phidippus princeps "chewing" on her (his?) feet, cleaning her eyes, and her fangs. Lots of fun palp movement, and a few glimpses of fang. Video: Thomas Shahan [Thomas Shahan's photostream]
tags: ant mimic, Jumping Spider, macro video, animal behavior, streaming video Unfortunately, no species ID yet (can you ID this spider?), but the mimicry in both form and behavior is truly beautiful, astonishing, really. Video: Thomas Shahan [Thomas Shahan's photostream]
The most incredible eyes in the animal world can be found under the sea, on the head of the mantis shrimps. Each eye can move independently and can focus on object with three different areas, giving the mantis shrimp "trinocular vision". While we see in three colours, they see in twelve, and they can tune individual light-sensitive cells depending on local light levels. They can even see a special type of light - 'circularly polarised light' - that no other animal can. But Nicholas Roberts from the University of Bristol has found a new twist to the mantis shrimp's eye. It contains a…
tags: Phidippus audax, Jumping Spider, macro video, animal behavior, streaming video A macro video of a very large (15mm or so) adult female Phidippus audax jumping spider that the videographer found in a light fixture. Set to a recording he made in December with a vintage Japanese Alvarez classical acoustic and a Kay Swingmaster hollowbody electric. Video: Thomas Shahan [Thomas Shahan's photostream]
In the forests of South Africa lurks an arachnophobe's nightmare - Nephila kowaci, the largest web-spinning spider in the world. The females of this newly discovered species have bodies that are 3-4 centimetres in length (1.5 inches) and legs that are each around 7.5cm long (3 inches). This new species is the largest of an already massive family. There are 15 species of Nephila - the golden orb weavers - and at least 10 of them have bodies that are over an inch long. Many spin webs that are over a metre in diameter. The first of these giants was discovered by Linnaeus himself in 1767 and…
tags: Phidippus apacheanus, Jumping Spider, macro video, animal behavior, streaming video There's a chance he could be a male Phidippus cardinalis -- a bit of research reveals both P. apacheanus and P. cardinalis are found in this area of Oklahoma. Video: Thomas Shahan [Thomas Shahan's photostream]
This article is reposted from the old Wordpress incarnation of Not Exactly Rocket Science. Imagine you get a bad cold, but you decide to put on a brave face and go into work anyway. Instead of jokingly covering their mouths and making jibes about staying away from you, your colleagues act perfectly normally and some even and start rubbing up against you. It's a weird scenario, but not if you were an ant. With their large colonies and intense co-operation, ants are some of the most successful animals on the planet. But like all social insects and animals, their large group sizes make them…