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

LICE

 <--- lookin good

This is the tongue-eating louse (Cymothoa exigua). They eat fish’s faces and they even inspired a horror movie, “Bay.”

Not watching that

They live in tropical seas and as you can sea (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA) they eat fish tongues. So do some people who like weird sushis

Said people also eat horses O_O

me --->

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

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

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.

Hands—er, Wings—up!

This is the tiny little rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris), also known as the titipounamu, chloris wren, military wren, and New Zealand wren. It is from…

New Zealand. *Gasp!*

Though called wrens, riflemen are actually not related to either common wrens (Troglodytidae) nor the fairywrens (Maluridae).

New Zealand’s smallest endemic bird, the rifleman is a tiny creature, growing to a “measly” 3.14 (not π!) inches (8 cm). It lives all over the place (yay!) in New Zealand (nuuuh, better plan a move there) and they eat yummy things like ice cream like worms.

They live in lush, lowland forests full of podocarps (Podocarpaceae), a type of Northern Hemisphere conifers, comprised of 156 species and 19 genera! Yay!

The &.

KoC Fact: Nature is DUMB

Meet the absolutely amazing variable beautymark (Rhetus periander), also known as the periander metalmark. It’s lovely and beautiful and extremely colorful. It is from the Riodinidae family of butterflies.

The variable beautymark’s range is found in much of Central and South America, from Mexico down to Brazil and Argentina. Its habitat is lush, wet rainforests where it eats the rotting carcasses of dead tarantulas.

Wait. What was that last bit?

Yep. It’s true. Variable beautymarks absolutely guzzle dead tarantulas, which is extremely disgusting and depressing. :(

PS: 40th post already, and I published the 30th just four days ago. WHAT.

The Piggies of the Deep

This hilarious-looking animal is the globose sea pig (Scotoplanes globosus), and I’m seriously obsessed with them. From the time I saw my first sea pig, I was like “AWWWWWW!”

Look at them! They’re so adorable! I love them. I think they’re very chibi. (Well, maybe not that chibi.) Not only that, but…

THEY ROLL IN THE MUD.

OH. MY. YES. THESE. ARE. #awesome

(Hashtags again…ugh.)

They sift through the mud—which is actually ooze made up of dead sea angels and other planktonic organisms—and EAT EDIBLE STUFF!

Last thing: Watch this video and you’ll REALLY like sea piggiez :3

Admit it. You love them :3

Scary Colorful Worms.

This slightly beautiful worm is a bearded fireworm (Hermodice carunculata). It’s so pretty, right? I agree. It’s a worm from the order Polychaeta that lives in Caribbean reefs across the Antilles, the Maltese archipelago, the Mediterranean, and the waters of Cyprus. Its habitat is mostly on reefs.

Now, what’s so horrible about that?

Look out, world—the bearded fireworm is DESTROYING REEFS!!

They eat all sorts of corals, and, to make it worse, they have a sting that—well…stings?

Bearded fireworms are very slow animals, but don’t be like, “Omg haha it #canthurtme.” A) Why are you doing hashtags?; and B) YOU IDIOT IF ITS BRISTLES TOUCH YOUR SKIN THEY INJECT A NEUROTOXIN INTO YOU WHICH CAUSES BURNING AND NAUSEA!

Here’s the nice, kawaii, awesome part. The sting symptoms clear up in just about thirty minutes, and, at worst, a few hours. AND, many fish are currently doing their part to control the bearded fireworm population. These include the creole fish (Clepticus parrae, which, as a bonus, is absolutely beautiful):

the pineapplefish (Cleidopus gloriamaris)—these things are adorable, by the way; “gloriamaris” means “glory of the sea”:

and the absolutely beautiful French angelfish (Pomacanthus paru):

By the way, young P. paru look way different. I’ll save that as a surprise in a later post…