Animals

[Guybrush]

Nice, it just got its ass sucked on. Probably really scary, though.

[Psy-Fi]

A chipmunk holding onto a piece of a dead vine lodged between my foundation and siding...

And the reason it was holding onto a piece of a dead vine between my foundation and siding...

Spoiler

[close]

[Psy-Fi]

Wolf spider lays eggs in man's toe, baby hatches inside: 'Eating its way out' 

[Guybrush]

Wolf spider lays eggs in man's toe, baby hatches inside: 'Eating its way out' 

Immediately when I saw this, I thought that can't possibly be true 😄

Why? How? It doesn't fit with wolf spider ecology at all. A baby spider can't eat human meat etc.

I had to Google a bit and found a lot of reporting of this. In the middle of the noise was this article:

https://www.nationalworld.com/health/did-wolf-spider-lay-eggs-in-mans-toe-causing-it-to-swell-experts-wade-in-on-gruesome-claim-4426680

As the late sir Terry Pratchett said: A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on 🙂

[Psy-Fi]

Immediately when I saw this, I thought that can't possibly be true 😄

Why? How? It doesn't fit with wolf spider ecology at all. A baby spider can't eat human meat etc.

I had to Google a bit and found a lot of reporting of this. In the middle of the noise was this article:

https://www.nationalworld.com/health/did-wolf-spider-lay-eggs-in-mans-toe-causing-it-to-swell-experts-wade-in-on-gruesome-claim-4426680

As the late sir Terry Pratchett said: A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on 🙂

There goes another good urban myth up in smoke.

[Psy-Fi]

An American Tree Sparrow on the ground by my porch, blending in with the surroundings...

[ribbons]

^ Psy-Fi, as a bird lover I have to say this photo makes me melt!  Lovely.  You're a great photographer, too.  Thanks for sharing!   

[Psy-Fi]

^ Psy-Fi, as a bird lover I have to say this photo makes me melt!  Lovely.  You're a great photographer, too.  Thanks for sharing! 

[Psy-Fi]

Mystery tire slashings had tiny Italian town fearing the Mafia — but it turned out to be a dog with gingivitis

[Psy-Fi]

A pic of my cat enjoying a siesta on top of my truck on a sunny day...

[Psy-Fi]

Some photos of a Spiny Flower Mantis which I stumbled across online while I was looking for something else. It makes the green type of Praying Mantis that we see around my yard look boring in comparison...

Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii

[grindy]

Few know about Marky Mark's entomological endeavours.

[Guybrush]

Yes, some funny species names out there. One I remember well, and which some conceivably could consider racist, is Villa hottentotta, a fly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hottentot_(racial_term)

In Norwegian, the common name for this is still Hottentot bumblebee fly. I've no idea why.. it's not like it lives in Africa 🤔 its distribution is European.

Who knows what Carl Von Linné was thinking back then.

There's also a Villa occulta, like a house of witches or something.