The Unstartled Steppes of Dream
I am Ashley.
This is my personal blog. If you want just marine biology, go here.
I love the world; I really don't like people.
I balance all this animosity towards the human race with being an almost always kind and gentle being to all creatures.
I'm highly introverted and nature is my primary escape from people.
Creepy-crawly-slimy things are my favorites. Dinosaurs are fantastic.
Future marine biologist; presently an amateur entomologist, ichthyologist, artist, biologist, and writer.
Literature, video game, and music connoisseur.
I'm so full of passion for the world that it hurts.
I think a lot, I laugh a lot, I love a lot.
Almost none of the photos are mine and only some of the drawings are mine.
Listen in.
Erotylidae Beetle on Flickr.
Individuals of this family have the body usually oval, smooth, polished and dorsally convex. They are found in damp places such as rotten logs, often accompanied by others of the same species and larvae. When they are threatened they exude a substance smelly, which helps protect them from predators, because their movements are very slow.
Both larvae and the adult insect feeds on decaying matter.
The ornate cowfish (Aracana ornata), like all cowfish, has a skeleton made of fused bones, essentially trapping it in a barely-flexible box. For this reason, these fish are typically slow movers; however, it does have an advantage: few other fish are able to eat adult cowfish.
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Among the most interesting predators are poisonous cone shells, which feed on vertebrates or other invertebrates (depending on the species). When Conus senses presence of its prey, a single radular tooth slides into position at the tip of the proboscis. When the proboscis strikes prey, it expels the tooth like a harpoon, and the poison tranquilizes or kills the prey at once. Some species can deliver very painful stings, and the stings of several species are lethal to humans. The venom consists of a series of toxic peptides, and each Conus species carries peptides (conotoxins) specific for the neuroreceptors of its preferred prey.
Pictured is Conus milneedwardsi, commonly known to collectors as the Glory of India.
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#this technically wasn't today
#but it was a gorgeous sunset
#sunset
#horizon
#clouds
#silhouette
#beautiful
#sky
#sun
#light
In honor of Earth Day, I went nature hunting in this gorgeous weather. Because I love you all so much, I’m going to share some of my findings. Which will mostly end up being spiders and dead things. :)
Coral Garden by Jan Messersmith
Barracuda art by Jan Messersmith
This feather star, Comantheria briareus, is found on coral reefs in the Pacific. Their long arms stretch up into the water to catch food particles both during the day and at night. Their arms are sticky, like velcro, and will attach to just about anything that brushes up against them. Unfortunately for this crinoid, that means its arms are often accidentally ripped off as they are quite delicate and easily detached.
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