SPECIAL NOSES!

At first glance this butterfly looks normal.

Then you realize it has a big nose. Which in itself is rather glorious but it’s a little bit scary as well. It reminds me of many people I have met.

It's called an American snout (Lybitheana carinenta), which is nice, because it has a snout. Snout is one of my favorite words

Disturbingly, the “snout” on this li’l guy is its mouthparts (boringly called its “labial palpi”). It’s found in both North and South America, so if you live in either of the two chances are you can find a few in the spring or summer (hooray! I’ll catch ALL of the snouts in New York. What sounded kind of strange…).

The caterpillars eat Celtis plants. I don't know what that is. It sounds BITT.

SMOL TODE

These are Kihansi spray toads (Nectophrynoides asperginis), and they are being captive-bred currently at the Bronx Zoo.

And oh, my gosh. They only grow to an inch. Compare that to cane toad (Rhinella marina), which grows to 15 INCHES and can weigh up to 5.8 POUNDS.

R U SAYING IM FAT??

Oh, hee hee…didn’t know one reads this blog. Moving on.


Toads really can't spell wow ^^^

So yeah.

The Kihansi spray toad is native to the Kihansi waterfalls in the southern Udzungwa mountains (betcha never heard of those!). The Udzungwas are in Tanzania. Because of the fact that the Kihansi dam was built, the Kihansi spray toad has become extinct in the wild. However, the Bronx Zoo has reintroduced 100 individuals back into the wild. They are faring fairly well, except that they have had outbreaks of chytrid fungus (Chytridiomycota). that sounds devastating ^_^

They are also found in the Bronx. (guess why1!!!111!!!)

SO…SPARKLY +3+

This is a splendid fairywren (Malurus splendens), which is great. It’s native to Australia, especially Queensland and New South Wales.

They eat bugs. If bugs make you this awesome-looking, I honestly will take to eating bugs.

Apparently crickets taste like apples! So it shouldn't be too hard to change my diet like that

FAMILY

This is a dawnray watchdog goby (Stonogobiops nematodes) and its friend, a Randall’s pistol shrimp (Alpheus randalli). They form a tiny family in a hole in the mud. Of course they can’t have children together. Then again that’s a good thing ’cuz their children would look like weird shrimp-goby-monsters with huge claws that make sonic booms.

Dawnray watchdog gobies live in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, in places like Seychelles, Bali, and the Philippines. And you know what? SO DO THE SHRIMP. I wonder why?

It's called a pistol shrimp because, when threatened, it blows a bubble and then pops it with its claw, creating a deafening sound that can be heard from up to six miles away! YAY!

Why is it called a watchdog goby?

Pistol shrimp are almost blind (like me!!!). So they live with the watchdog goby. If the goby senses danger, it warns the shrimp to retreat to their house, which is a tunnel in the mud (there's no accounting for taste, i mean some people live in houses shaped like toilets)

The shrimp builds the tunnel while the goby guards it so the shrimp doesn’t get eaten. I wish my friends were like that

The goby grows to 2.4 inches in length, while the shrimp grows to half that size, 1.2. (IM SO GOOD AT MATH)

TRIOPS VIDEO

Triops longicaudatus—aka the American tadpole shrimp—is a species of…thing from group of animals that are unchanged for 70,000,000 years.

Here are some of mine swimming.

They have since died. They're like fish lol

Who is the Fluffiest of us all?

Guess what! Those were rats!^^^^ GIANT EVIL RATS^^^ ("rats" spelled backward is "star")

It's a maned rat (Lophiomys imhausi)! It lives in East Africa and it is beautiglor. It's pretty small for a rat, growing up to 21 inches in length.

That's actually not small I was JOKING

But…but…here’s the scary part! These cuties smear their fur with poison from the bark of a tree called Acokanthera schimperi, which looks like this:

Thus they are poisonful

BUT THIS IS NOT A PLANT BLOG SO JUST ERASE THAT IMAGE FROM YOUR MIND!!!

They eat normal rat stuff ’cause they’re rats

Kawaii Katerpillar

MERRY CHRISTMAS LETS CELEBRATE WITH A CATERPILLAR

(Not a suckling caterpillar that would be gross)

I have found THE most adorable caterpillar ever. Meet Diadema charonda, the Japanese emperor moth! It’s also known as the great purple emperor, charonda emperor, purple crownfly, or oh-murasaki (オオムラサキ), which means "great purple" in Japanese.

And look at its little face!

They eat the flowers, leaves, and berries of the Jesso hackberry (Celtis jessoensis). They’re native to Japan (such as Hokkaido and Kyushu), Vietnam, Taiwan, China, and the Korean Peninsula. The adult males have a wingspan of 2 inches while the females top at 2.6.

And what beautiful butterflies they turn into...

It is asleep

This is called a sleepy pipistrelle (Pipistrellus nanulus).

Also known as the tiny pipistrelle and nanula bat (but those names are boring, also when I wrote "nanula" it autocorrect to annual so it said annual bat and I was like NOOOO), sleepy pipistrelles come from Uganda, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Gabon, Liberia, Kenya, and Benin.

They are often found in moist forests or savannas. They use echolocation to find prey such as moths and mosquitoes. Like all bats.

You know it's actually kind of average I just like the name

ITS LIKE A WORM

I only posted this one because I like the watermark! (not)

Meet the Bipes! (Bipes biporus)

The Bipes is also known as the five-toed mole lizard, Mexican mole lizard, and "ajolote."

Anyway, the Bipes is, as a matter of fact, NOT a lizard as its name suggests. Instead, it is an amphisbaenian (try saying that five times fast) just like the famously-weird slow worm (Anguis fragile).

Bipeses (is that the plural?) are pretty small, only growing to 7 – 9 inches. Oddly, it only lays its eggs in July, and only like four anyway so they're kinda rare but its fine cuz they're cute. (Wait, how is that fine?)

They’re from Mexico! And they only come out of their burrows at night or after a lovely cool reign. (I totally, totally spelled that right.)

This is an oppertunistic predator that noms all day on earthworms, ants, termites, larvae of insects, the insects themselves (haven't they suffered enough), and…lizards!!!

Cannibalism

Talk about Disproportionate

My cardinal tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi) is not the brightest. ;)

For a list of fish and plants in the tank and dimensions and décor, go to this link. NOW. (Please? :3)

Borderlining on Weird…

This weird-looking critter is the Brazilian treehopper (Bocydium globulare), and it seriously looks like a cute little thingy that just fell from space.

Guess where the BRAZILIAN treehopper lives, everybody? Brazil! I was so shocked when I found that out.

The Brazilian treehopper is usually found on glory bushes (Melastomataceae), which they nom on happily.

Sadly, I can’t find any further info on this weird insect, but I’m glad I found out about it!

KoC Fact: Caecilians are Cute in a Weird Way

The yellow-striped caecilian (Ichthyophis beddomei) is perhaps the weirdest amphibian you will see all day. It’s from the order Gymnophiona and is also called the Beddome’s caecilian and the yellowbelly ichthyophis.

Distributed widely in the jungles of the Western Ghats, I. beddomei is very cuddly and cute and deserves lots more attention. :) They are primarily aquatic though they do like to slither along land. They can be kept as pets (I WANT ONE OMG).

They eat all sorts of things and lay clutches of weird chickenlike eggs. Please do not fry these eggs, as I. beddomei is awesome.

It's a Little Lizard Doughnut!

When it rolls into an armadillo-y shape, it looks like a spiky lizard doughnut!

Meet the armadillo girdled lizard (Ouroborus cataphractus) from South Africa! When this cute critter feels upset, it rolls itself into a ball and bites its tail to hold that way. I’m not sure if it rolls around or not…but if so, YAY!

In 2011, it was moved into a separate genus of its own—Ouroborus—from another girdled lizard genus, Cordylus. Another species of lizard, the giant girdled lizard, was also given a new binomial name. J.R.R. Tolkien lovers will love this one: Smaug giganteus!

Armadillo girdled lizards are commonly sold as pets. They are very easy to breed in captivity, but their numbers are decreasing in the wild from collection. They can live up to 25 years in captivity.

It eats small invertebrates, such as spiders and termites, but also some plant material.

I WANT ONE! I’d want one even more if it didn’t harm the environment. :,(