Bug-Lover's Club

[Byakugan01]

Yup. That's the genus Nephila alright. Neat little group, some of them can grow quite large.

[yuniorzack]

New Member!
Username:yuniorzack
Favorite Invertebrate: Cowkiller Red Velvet Ants

[badgeroverlord]

I want to Join
New Member: Badgeroverlord

Favorite invertebrate:Horse Shoe Crab

[TxCat]

Guess what we saw in the butterfly garden today?

This.

It was a mature zebra longwing, which is also Florida's state butterfly. They're supposedly common but we had never seen one here before.

[Yunyii]

New Member!
Username: Yunyii
Favorite Invertebrate: Lion's Mane Jellyfish

[Cassowary]

Adding everyone

I think I just eyegasmed:

[Yunyii]

Holy chiz the beetle looks like noodles. :0 That's interesting... c:

[Cassowary]

It's just a pupa, so it's forming itself :3

[Yunyii]

Oh. It's very cool. I know most of the common insects, but not many. Thus, I like jellyfish and underwater invertibrates like...
Giant Isopods. : D

[Byakugan01]

Neato. Those guys can get very big in arctic waters, as I understand it.

Anyhow folks, I know it's been a while, but I have another article for you all. Now folks, a show of hands, how many of you with the vampire squid? anyone? Well, up until now, we've known next to nothing about how this striking deep sea cephlapod lives, breeds and dies in the wild. Thanks to the work of a group of researchers, however, we at least now know what-and how-it eats.

The vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) earned it's name thanks to the cloak-like web between its arms the dark red color of its body. And like its namesake, the squid has little need for oxygen, able to survive concentrations at which most other organisms would outright suffocate at. And how it eats may be part of the reason why.

But first, I guess I should tell you how they found this out. And it's a treat too. In addition to looking at the stomach contents of museum specimens and reviewing archival footage of vampire squid (24 hours worth of footage), these researchers also kept and maintained vampire squid in the lab for their study (if that's what goes on in their lab, I want to work there). And what they found was surprising. Every single extant species of cephlapod is, without exception, an active predator. From squids to cuttlefish to octopi to nautili, they all catch and eat their own food, and many aren't particularly choosy about what they eat.

However, bucking the trend of all other cephlapod species, the vampire squid is pretty much the squid equivalent of a dumpster diver. Instead of hunting down prey, it hangs lazily in the water column with two filaments lined with sticky hairs extended. When something brushes up against them, like crustacean parts, larvae, or even feces, it gets transferred to the main basket of arms, which coats it in mucus and moves it toward the mouth, where the squid happily gobbles it all up. Since the squid doesn't need to move around much to get food, it doesn't have as high a metabolic rate as other squid, which in turn lowers its oxygen needs (it also has other adaptations to help it conserve and hold onto oxygen).

Ack, multi ninjaed. Nice pics there Cass. I especially like the one on the left.