Posts tagged animals
vet student - microbiology maniac
“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans" (James Herriot)
The tip of a butterfly’s tongue.
African Masked Weaver (Ploceus velatus)
Weaver birds, as their name suggests, weave intricate nests out of reeds and grasses. Nesting in colonies, males have several female partners and build around 25 nests every season.
Derek Keats on Flickr
Chris Eason on Flickr
Assassin Bug Trophies
A second set of armor
assassin bugs are insects of the family Reduviidae and while Reduviidae is a large family one species (Acanthaspis petax) from Malaysia does something extraordinary, when the assassin bug attaches its prey it injects it with a enzyme that liquefies the its innards so the bug can easily suck them out leaving the prey as an empty husk of an exoskeleton. The assassin then takes the empty shell and attacks it to its back using a sticky substance to keep them in place, the bug will pile these carcasses high making a mound of twenty or more exoskeletons. These trophies provide the bug several benefits as the mound of dead prey will make any predator think twice before attacking the assassin bug, and if a predator does attack the expendable mound of husks will serve as the first line of defense so the bug can escape.
A section through a female Ascaris, a parasitic intestinal worm, at 150-times magnification.
Image by Massimo Brizzi.
The nervous system of an adult fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.
Image by Dr. Jana Boerner, Florida Atlantic University.
Veterinary school and hospital, interior; surgeons and students in horse operating area; 1908; Haeseler, photographer.
(via siber-i-a)
Sea lion (by dralliv)
(via)
Jellyfish by Alexander Semenov
