Pill bugs (aka roly polies or doodle bugs)
aren’t bugs at all. Though commonly
referred to as such, pill bugs are actually
land-dwelling crustaceans that are much
more closely related to shrimp and
crayfish than to any kind of insect. SourceSource 2
Today the Department of Awesome Camouflage is wondering if there’s any creature more impressive than the Lichen Katydid(Markia hystrix), an insect that looks like it’s actually made out of delicate lichen. It looks more like something out of a fairytale than a real-life insect, but that’s simply because the natural world is so freaking awesome!
Lichen Katydids are native to Central and South America. Wildlife photographer David Weller captured this mesmerizing footage of a Lichen Katydid somewhere in the Cartago Province of Costa Rica carefully making its way across some vegetation that looks like it might’ve grown from its own body :
Great shots of Cepahalotes clypeatus, the golden turtle ant, taken by Alex Wild. Turtle ants have a special subgroup of workers with broad flat heads which can be used to plug nest entrances. Some species of Cephalotes are also called glider ants and can use their flattened bodies to glide through the air and return to the trees they dwell in should they take a tumble.
As far as I could find any informations it seems to be like this: male ants (which are only born to reproduce and than be eaten by the ladies) do have two testicels and two deferent ducts in their abdomen, but they dont have a penis. It´s more like they let the sperm out through the abdomen as a drop and the female ant, which is almost always the queen, takes in the drop through her abdomen.
Old but gold!
Little correction:
The male ants dont get eaten after mating. However there are several reasons why the male ants die after the mating ceremony. First of all, male ants are born from unfertilized eggs, and
are homozygous. There is thus, a small genetic disadvantage that male
ants have. The lethal and sub-vital alleles (which are recessive) have
higher chance of being expressed in them. This means they are born with a higher mortality rate. Some also die of hunger because their colony doesnt take care of them after they fulfilled their task.
However, there are several ant species that act differently (army ants for example). Thats what I found out after some research. If somebody would like to add something or found a mistake, just tell me. :)
A really great and more detailed explanation about ant penises you can find in the comment from Sacculetta! Who knew ant sex can even be dramatic?
Bumble bee mimics have become a secondary fascination of mine as I study real bumble bees. These robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) are fantastic mimics that go so far as to mimic color patterns of endemic species across their geographic distribution!
I wonder how many “bumblebees” I’ve seen have really been just very clever robber flies
