mollusk
zooillogix | March 26, 2009It might not seem like the an 8 inch long leopard slug could put on an amazing sex show. After all, they can be real slimeballs. But actually, these hermaphroditic gastropod mollusks' sexual behavior is quite... well... beautiful.
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The foreplay for the fertilization, which consists of a lot of licking and nibbling, can last up to 2.5 hours. That's about 793 days in slug time. And when it's all over with, both slugs (slowly) retreat to cold and damp hideaways in order to lay their respective sets of eggs.
If you're thinking about eating these monster slugs, please don't.…
zooillogix | February 9, 2009A small floating sea slug, clionidae or "sea angels" are ferocious little predators that hunt the "sea butterfly," Limacina helicina.
When tasty sea butterflies get close, sea angels shoot out tentacles, grasp the prey with hooks and extract the body completely out of the shell to swallow it whole. Incidentally, this is also how my brother Benny feeds.
A clione shows a limacina what's what.
Two clionidae try to pretend that they are not mucus hungry snail murderers.
zooillogix | August 21, 2008There's no interesting news. It appears all the world's animals have finally been discovered, their strange mating behaviors documented, and their interest in acting all crazy for YouTube evaporated. But we are undaunted. We will make the logical transition and become a knitting blog.
Once again, we bring you critters from Mochimochi Land complete with their creator's commentary. Past installments here and here.
Evolving Punk
Evolution is still a pretty radical idea - just ask this little Evolving Punk. He recently made the big step onto dry land from the primordial ooze of a dirty toilet.…
bleimanb | August 4, 2008A husband and wife scientist team in England has devised a titillating means of identifying oncoming illnesses in patients by using a bioluminescent mollusk called a piddock. Dr. Jan Knight and Dr. Robert Knight have already started using their method on the English Olympic sailing team to help monitor their health before the impending games.
Here's what piddocks look like, glowing and in someone's hand.
The process works like this: Piddocks let off a blue-green glow when a protein they contain called Pholasin comes into contact with free radical chemicals. Free radicals are also produced…
zooillogix | June 3, 2008In 2006 two eager shell collectors hauled in some small but strangely shaped mollusks in deep water off Key West, Florida. Like the good animal nerds they were, they brought their findings to a shell collectors convention in Mobile, Alabama where the Director of the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum on Sanibel Island, Jose H. Leal, took up the challenge of identifying the critters.
Two years later, Leal finally published his findings in the May 7th edition of Zootaxa, announcing that the heart-shaped bivalves were an entirely new genus. As explained to Florida's News-Press by Leal, "This…
zooillogix | March 27, 2008We have brought you the outstanding time lapse photography of Mochimochi Land in the past, but these new works are breathtaking.
No-holds-barred snail on slug rumpus!
"The Great Foot Race!"
Friends below the fold
Reversible chicken and egg. If only life were so easy.
"Beware the Ninjabun...He's covert, sneaky, and hungry!"
"The world's fattest butterfly thinks it might be time for a diet. The flowers agree."
zooillogix | January 14, 2008This sexy mussel is burning up the web right now. Totally free and posing just for you, watch in real-time as this flirty bivalve does its thing.
Riveting live feed courtesy of Flex Mussels restaurant on Prince Edward Island.
zooillogix | November 25, 2007Way down apparently. Video editor Tyler Helms has taken footage from the stunning Microcosmos and paired it with the Radiohead's track "All I Need." Kind of like Animal Planet meets MTV.
zooillogix | October 10, 2007The Qatar National History Group, a Qatari (Qatarian, Qatarese?), nature outing group, recently discovered what is believed to be a new species of sea slug. The pictures of the colorful critter were reviewed by Dr. Bill Rudman, head of the Sea Slug Forum, and he believes it bears resemblance to a sea slug last seen in Pakistan a century ago. Perhaps more even more interesting, was Zooillogix's discovery of the existence of the Sea Slug Forum, which has an exhaustive collection sea slug pictures and aqua-slug related links. Spend a few minutes perusing this awesome collection and make your…
zooillogix | March 22, 2007Fisherman hauled the world's largest squid ever caught out of the icy Antarctic waters last month. Since then, it has been kept on ice while scientists ponder how to prepare it for permanent display at the University of New Zealand. Larger than giant squid, colossal squid range from 40-65 feet long. This specimen weighed 1,090 lbs and was 33 feet long. Now the scientists have run into a problem: the frozen squid is so large that by the time the center of the beast defrosts, the outer flesh will have rotted.Colossal squid captured, mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni
The logical solution? Throw the…
zooillogix | March 16, 2007You probably know octopuses can change their color and appearance but this footage is unbelievable. Before you harass me, it is "octopuses" and not "octopi."Disclaimer - actual adorable octopuses featured above may not berepresentative of much less adorable octopuses in video. Sepiadarium austrinum