Creature 151: Apocephalus borealis

Maggots which turn bees into zombies

As I was writing this I realized that after 150 days this is the first Dipteran (fly) that I have done! That is a little weird considering flies are one of the 5 super massive insect orders with over 100,000 known species. There are a fair few cool flies on my list, I guess I have just overlooked them.

Description:

 Apocephalus borealis is a tiny North American fly which is commonly called the zombie fly.

These little flies don't grow more than a few millimeters long and have  fairly boring coloration. It may look pretty innocent and harmless at first glance but to various flying Hymenopetans, this fly is more like something from a horror/sci-fi movie. Apocephalus borealis are a parasitoid fly, which means they lay their eggs inside other animals and their juveniles feed off the host. The females are incredibly aggressive towards potential hosts attacking them on the abdomen. It only takes a few seconds for her to lay her eggs inside the poor bee and then the horror begins. After the eggs hatch the maggots will make their way to the bees brain where they proceed to alter its mind. The bee then stop leaving its nest during daytime, and only leave at night. Its flight becomes erratic in their flight and their walking staggering around and will sometimes end up walking around in circles. They sometimes lose their own hive and end up travelling large distances away. They will eventually die either of damage done by the maggots eating their insides or from erratic behavior getting them killed. All this serves to disperse the new generation of flies away from the site of infection increasing the geographic spread of the zombie flies. The maggots will leave the fly only when they are ready to pupate and become adult flies.

Their preferred host are various native North American bees and wasps, but it has been shown that they have taken to infecting European Honey bee colonies in North America, causing significant economic damage. Bees infected by Apocephalus borealis are often referred to as Zombees.

Check out other species which control the minds of animals here.

Distribution:

Apocephalus borealis are found throught the Nearctic zone.

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Diptera

Family: Phoridae

Genus: Apocephalus

Species: Apocephalus borealis

Image Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocephalus_borealis

http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/6756/20140129/apocephalus-borealis-fly-zombie-bees-honey-bees-east-coast.htm

http://www.honeybeesuite.com/zombees/

Creature 150: Monoblastozoa

The lost Phylum of Animals

Today I have as many Bizarre creatures on my blog as there are 1st generation Pokemon. If today's creature was a Pokemon, it would have to be Missingno.

Description:

Monoblastozoa is a recognised phylum of Mesozoan animals which is represented by a single described species, Salinella salve.

They are a very simple form of animal life with only a single layer of cells encompassing a digestive tract. They possess a mouth and an anus and the cells presumably excrete digestive enzymes into the interior. They posses a large number of cilia,  particularly around their orifices. Not much is known about these unusual animals for reasons I am about to explain. Some people consider them to be an important intermediate between single cellular and multicellular organisms.

They have only ever been collected by Johannes Frenzel in 1892, who claimed to have successfully cultivated them in laboratory conditions. Since Freznel, they have never been documented by science and we only have his original drawings and description to rely on. This combined with the fact that it is so unique has led many biologists to speculate that they may not even be real. 

Distribution:
The specimens were found in the Argentinian salt plains.

Classification:
The position of the mesozoa is very uncertain, but very important when piecing together the early evolution of Animal life. At the moment they are considered the basal group of Animals, but they could also be basal bilateria or a simplified sistergroup to the platyhelminthes. The monophyly of the group is still speculative. Most biologists would commit genocide for some Monoblastozoa DNA.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Monoblastozoa

Image Links:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoblastozoa

Creature 149: Hipposideros griffini

One ugly bat

Description:
Hipposideros griffini have been given the common name Griffin's leaf nosed bat, but I think this name is a little flattering.

When I look at it, I don't think 'Wow that bat's nose looks like a leaf'. Apparently the structure which makes it look so ugly helps it pick up sounds for echolocation a lot better, but it does make them very ugly. Luckily their eyesight is poor, so they don't throw up every time they see each other's faces.

The funny thing is that this bat can apparently be confused with other, equally hideous species in the genus Hipposideros.

Distribution:
Griffin's leaf nosed bat is known from Vietnam.

Classification:
The genus Hipposideros is a large bat genus with over 70 species. Many of them look quite bizarre.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Hipposideridae
Genus: Hipposideros
Species: Hipposideros griffini

Image Links:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/01/new-bat-species-hipposideros-griffini-picture-photo_n_1314973.html

http://www.coolweirdo.com/ugliest-animal-on-earth-griffins-leaf-nosed-bat.html

Creature 148: Parectatosoma hystix

That stick has thorns.

Description:

Parectatosoma hystix is a stick insect which has decided that it will not only mimic a stick, but it will mimic a stick you don't want to touch.

If the thorny stick trick doesn't work they have a gland which excretes a liquid irritant to deter predators.  As a last resort the bright red patches under their wings look alarming to some predators and they can move their wings to quickly to make a scary noise.

There males and females vary dramatically in size with males only growing to 6.5 cm long while females can grow to 9.5 cm long. They are sometimes raised by breeders and sold as pets

Distribution:

Parectatosoma hystix is endemic to Madagascar.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Phasmatodea
Family: Anisacanthidae
Genus: Parectatosoma
Species: Parectatosoma hystix

Image Links:

http://www.phasmatodea.com/web/guest/parectatosoma_cf_hystrix

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/424745808580350412/

Creature 147: Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

Pretty sea urchin

Description:
Strongylocentrotus purpuratus is known as the purple sea urchin,  probably because it is purple and it is a sea urchin.

Like all sea urchins their body is radially symmetrical but this in echinoderms this is a derived state with bilateral symmetry being primitive. Radially symmetry in this case is not the same thing as radial symmetry in Cnidaria or Ctenophora. Their body plan and things tend to develop in groups of 5 with one medial axis and two lateral axes on each side, think of a star fish here. This is why it has precisely 5 teeth in its ventrally oriented mouth which are used for grazing on kelp. These teeth take 75 days to regrow if they are lost. Contrary to appearances echinoderms have an internal skeleton rather than an external one. Their spines can be moved around by hydraulic pumps and are used for both defense and locomotion.

Strongylocentrotus purpuratus was one of the first species to have its genome sequenced and is considered to be an important point of comparison for human genetics due to the close relationship between the echinodermata and the chordata. They have also traditionally been used a a food source by native Americans.

Distribution:

Strongylocentrotus purpuratus is found off the West coast of North America and is an important member of the kelp forest communities.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Echinoidea
Order: Echinoida
Family: Strongylocentrotidae
Genus: Strongylocentrotus
Species: Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

Image Links:

http://eol.org/pages/598175/details

http://wiki.hicksvilleschools.org/groups/hsbiology/wiki/55f17/Purple_Sea_Urchin.html

http://war.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strongylocentrotus_purpuratus

Top 10 update

I have updated the top 10 most viewed creatures again and unfortunately Ophiocordiceps, the zombie fungus failed to regain its position as #1 from  Menura, the Lyrebird which has increased its lead since last time.  The corpse wearing assassin bug Acanthapsis petax has been overtaken by the giant worm Megascolides australis  and the inflatable frog Breviceps namaquensis has managed to secure its place as 5^th most viewed animal from outside the top 10 not too long ago.

Macrocheles rettenmeyeri, the parasitic mite that becomes a foot and Phengaris arion the butterfly who would be queen of the ants have made their way back into the top 10. They have knocked out the only plant Hydnora africana, the parasitic plant and the only crustacean Odontodactylus scyllarus who can literally punch so hard it tears water molecules apart. This last one is a bit of a disappointment for me as it is a really cool animal and it used to be in the top ten back when they were well above the rest of the pack. I considered those four to be invincible.

On the bright side there are now 3 insects in the top ten, Yay, go insects.

Creature 146: Berghia coerulescens.

Eat a lump of cold poison

This post was accidentally released early the other day, but there can't be 2 bizarre creatures of the day so it was taken down almost immediately and is being posted today. Today's creature is a Nudibranch, and is here  mostly because it looks weird.

Description:
I feel like I have talked about how weird Nudibranches are in my other two nudibranch posts but its bizarre appearance alone entitles it to a post on this blog.

Like Glaucus atlanticus this species eats Cnidarians, which are nasty poisonous stinging things in general. The poison they consume is stored in those spectacularly colorful finger like processes on their back and used as a defense.

Distribution:
Berghia coerulescens is found in the Northern Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean close to the shores and unusually less than 1 m below the surface of the water.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Nudibranchia
Family: Aeolidiidae
Genus: Berghia
Species: Berghia coerulescens

Image Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berghia_coerulescens#mediaviewer/File:Berghia_coerulescens_(Laurillard,_1830).jpg
http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall/bergcoer

Creature 145: Paratarsotomus macropalpis

The fastest land animal in the world (ish)

Description:
Paratarsotomus macropalpis is a mite, and not really a particularly interesting looking mite at that.

This little guy does not even reach 0.1 mm in length, which is not all that unusual for a mite. Mites are not the fist animal you think of in a discussion on speech, but these little guys are the fastest land animal on earth. O.K. I should probably qualify that statement.  It is the fastest land animal if you use body lengths per second as a measure of speed, in other words it is the fastest land animal relative to its size. If you're a physicist,  you are probably complaining that this is cheating and you cant have a unit of measurement which changes depending on what you are measuring.  I say that the physicists are being boring. So how fast is it? They have been measured reaching speeds of 322 body lengths per second taking up to 135 strides per second. This only equates to 0.225 meters per second, but a human travelling are 322 body lengths per second would have to be going around 2000 kilometers per hour.

This little mite doesn't mind the heat comfortably running on surfaces of up to 60 degrees Celsius. It is believed that it moves so quickly in order to hunt its prey, however we are not entirely sure what they eat as they are understandably difficult to observe in nature.

Distribution:
Paratarsotomus macropalpis are native to Southern California.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Trombidiformes
Family: Anystidae
Genus: Paratarsotomus
Species: Paratarsotomus macropalpis

Image Links:

http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-mite-paratarsotomus-macropalpis-fastest-animal-01887.html

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/6207/20140428/speed-demon-cheetah-youve-met-your-match-in-a-mite.htm

Creature 144: Hericium erinaceus

Just another weird looking fungus

Description:

Hericium erinaceus is a fungus which goes by many names. According to Wikipedia it can be called Lion's mane mushroom, Bearded tooth mushroom, Satyr's beard, Bearded hedgehog mushroom, pom pom mushroom, bearded tooth fungus. monkeys head mushroom or mountain priest mushroom. As you can probably gather from these names it is a very hairy looking fungus. 

It may not look mush like a mushroom, but it is the fruiting body of a fungus, so if you define a mushroom that way, it is a mushroom. At some point someone was either very brave or very hungry and decided to taste it. It is, in fact, edible and is sometime used in Chinese vegetarian cuisine. In Chinese medicine, it is considered to have positive effects on the nervous system. The mushroom contains high levels of Chitosan, a variation of chitin which may actually have positive benefits for the nervous system. Studies on its Neuroregenerative properties show that it does have some positive effects on peripheral nerves. 

Distribution:

Hericium erinaceus is found in Europe, North America and Asia.

Classification:

Kingdom: Fungi

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Russuales

Family: Hericiaceae

Genus: Hericium

Species: Hericium erinaceus

Image Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hericium_erinaceus

http://www.foodonthefood.com/food_on_the_food/mushrooms/

Creature 143: Therizinosauridae

Dinosaur, meter long claws, Vegetarian.

Description:
Therizinosauridae is a family of Therapod dinosaurs, meaning they were in the same group as the T-Rex or Velociraptor, a group which is mostly carnivorous.

These mean looking dinosaurs had scythe like claws that could get up to one meter in length. They could grow up to 10 m in length and some species had forearms which reached nearly 4 meters long. You might assume that these claws were used to tear flesh off their victims boat or to eviscerate them in order to kill them, but their denotation seems to indicate that they were primarily vegetarian. Like many other Therapods, there is evidence that at least some species of Therizinosauridae had feathers.

Distribution:
Therizinosauridae are found in mid to late Cretaceous deposits in East Asia and the U.S.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Saurischia
Family: Therizinosauridae 

Image Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therizinosauridae
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therizinosaur

Creature 142: Misumena

This species changes color to hide

Description:

Misumena is a genus of spiders commonly known as the flower crab spider. 

Spiders are the ultimate ambush predators, they are patient and don't need to eat very often. They posses sticky web to subdue their prey and potent venom which can knock out their prey quickly enough to prevent a fight. They just need a way of getting close. These spiders have used their preys greatest weakness to force them to get close. They feed on the insects that come to pollinate the flowers that they live on. Their spectacular coloration is a form of camouflage so their prey will never suspect that they are waiting in ambush.

There are many different species with various color patterns which are specifically adapted to blend in to the flowers with which they have co evolved. Some species can even change colors to blend into different flower species.

Distribution:

Misumena have a Pantropical distribution.

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Arachnida

Order: Araneae

Family: Thomisidae

Genus: Misumena 

Image Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_crab_spider

http://www.crabspider.org/camouflage-abilities-of-the-crab-spider.html

Creature 141: Brachininae

A beetle which boils it's predators alive.

Description:
Brachininae are a Carabid subfamily which is commonly known as a Bombadier beetle, however they are not the only carabid beetles to carry this name as discusses in the classification.

They bay not look too bizarre but they have a really cool defensive mechanism. They store two chemicals in their body, Hydrogen peroxide and Hydroquinone. These two chemicals react when mixed together. When they feel threatened they mix them together in a special chamber with a bit of water. The walls of this chamber are covered in cells which rapidly produce a catalyst which when mixed with the other two chemicals causes an explosion. Literally. This explosion is audible to the human ear and causes the liquid to heat up to nearly 100 Celsius.  Meanwhile the pressure in the chamber increases due to the release of gasses from the explosion and the boiling liquid and stinking gases are released. All this happens within a second. Bombardier beetles have directional control of the liquid spray. The spray can be lethal to other small animals including some of their predators.

Brachininae are carnivorous beetles and hunt mostly at night. Some species tend to congregate while hiding during the day.

Distribution:
Brachininae are a cosmopolitan subfamily.

Classification:
There are other carabid beetle which use the same defensive mechanism which are also called Bombardier beetles in the common tongue. They are in the family Pauchinae. They probably form a paraphyletic group with the Brachininae. I would consider this to be too complicated to have evolved the same way twice.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Carabidae

Image Links:

http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brachininae

https://bhutadarma.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/bioluminescent-beetles-worms-armed-and-zombie-ants/

Top ten update

People seem to like the top 10 most viewed creatures so I will continue to give these updates.

The zombie fungus Ophiocordiceps is trying to regain its rightful place as king and is currently only one page view behind Menura the pretender (pun intended).

Meanwhile the inflatable frog Breviceps namaquensis has swollen all the way to seventh place from its recent exile. A surprise new entrant into the to top 10 Hydnora africana the parasitic plant has made its way to the top ten as the only plant since Rafflesia arnoldii got knocked out. This is particularly surprising as it is coming from number 136, only a few days ago and we all know the older creatures have an advantage. It is not a particularly charismatic organism, I guess the whole root parasitism is appealing.

The two creatures which made way for these two are Phengaris arion, the parasitic butterfly that would be Queen of the ants and Macrocheles rettenmeyeri the mite that becomes an insect's foot. Two very high quality candidates in my opinion.  This

Epomis, the beetle that hunts its own predators has been hovering around the base of the top ten for ages, the last few times I have updated the page it has just missed out with enough page views to overtake some of the species which have been knocked out.

Creature 140: Chlamyphorus truncatus

A pink fairy with massive biceps

Description:
Chlamyphorus truncatus is known as the pink fairy armadillo which sounds like quite stereotypical girly to me, but to be fair it is actually pink.

As you can see, they appear to be pink. This is due to the proximity of their blood vessels to their semi translucent skin. The eyes are greatly reduced as they are nocturnal burrowing armadillos, so their eyesight isn't great and the coloration of their skin is not likely to mean anything to them. They are the smallest living armadillo measuring less than 12 cm in length when fully grown.

Despite the name and associated gender stereotype pink fairy armadillos are not wimps. Their forearms are reinforced with thickened bones and extra muscle to support their massive digging claws. It can dig through and compact the soil so quickly that they are sometimes called sand swimmers. It lives in arid ecosystems where temperatures fluctuate wildly. The upper surface of their body is covered in 24 tough but flexible plates for protection. However when it curls itself into a ball to protect it's head and soft underbelly it doesn't do any favors for its street cred.

Distribution:
Pink fairy armadillos are known from the arid regions of central Argentina.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cingulata
Family: Dasypodidae
Genus: Chlamyphorus
Species: Chlamyphorus truncatus

Image Links:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCrtelmull

http://www.indiaonrent.com/view/w/weirdest-animals-ii.html#

http://soncosasmias.com/2013/12/argentina-potencia-se-vienen-los-armadillos-rosas.html

Creature 139: Stemonitis fusca

No this is not an alien

Description:
Stemonitis fusca is a slime mold, and if you haven't heard of slime molds you should read my post on the dog vomit slime mold to learn a bit about this bizarre group of organisms. When it enters it's reproductive phase it looks quote bizarre.

Stemonitis fusca lives in rotting wood slowly consuming the decomposing plant matter. When conditions are right the form visible bubble like structures which fuse together. These the grow into elongate tubes. Then thin wiry stalks lift the whole structure up giving it as much height as possible so the slime mold can disperse it's spores. It will change color quote dramatically while reaching ripening. Watch it happen here:

Like most slime molds the individual cells are capable of living apart and then fusing together into a single multinuclear cell which forms the fruiting body.

Distribution:
Stemonitis fusca can be found on rotting wood anywhere in the world.

Classification:
It may look a bit like a mushroom, but I cannot emphasis enough that these arr not fungi. They were once classified as fungi, but have subsequently moved to the Kingdom Amoebozoa.

Kingdom: Amoebozoa
Phylum: Mycetozoa
Class: Myxogastria
Order: Stemonitida
Family: Stemonitidae
Genus: Stemonitis
Species: Stemonitis fusca

Image Links:

http://www.pouet.net/topic.php?which=1724&page=73

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/pictures/showphoto.php/photo/93656/size/big/cat/

Video Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUXrx7Fw6sg

Creature 138: Bocydium globulare

Hey, what's that thing on your pronotum?

Description:

Bocydium globulare are one of those insect species whose appearance alone earns it the title bizarre creature.

They are commonly called Brazilian tree hoppers, which I think is a disappointingly unimaginative name for such a weird looming insect. That hairy thorny structure growing out of their pronotum is just a part of their exoskeleton and contains no internal organs.

I guess at this point you want me to tell you what it is for. Unfortunately I can only speculate, because we don't actually know. One imagines that those thorn like spines are probably defensive but looking at the whole structure I think we all know that there is more to it than that. The structure is present in both males and females and does not display sexual dimorphism which makes it unlikely that it is part of some sort of mating display.  The Brazilian tree hopper is host specific and will almost always be found on glory bush. The structure may be partially a result of evolving for living on that particular plant.  The setae on the structure do sort of remind me of the vestiture of the glory bush seeds, but I am speculating again.

Distribution:
Brazilian treehoppers are known from tropical South America.

Classification:

Treehoppers belong to a Hemipteran group called theAuchenorrhyncha, which I like to refer to as the orcs, as it is easier and they do sort of look like orcs.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Membracidae
Genus: Bocydium
Species: Bocydium globulare

Image Links:

http://naturecloseups.com/posts/subjects/treehoppers/page/2

http://one360.eu/blog/archives/19253

Creature 137: Geobacter

A bacteria that eats electricity for breakfast.

Geobacter is a genus of  soil dwelling bacteria first noticed in 1987. They are mostly known for their ability to eat electricity.

They can quite literally harness the energy of an electrical current and use it as metabolic energy. They can also transmit electricity to other individuals around them if they have an excess via tiny connections they can build between themselves.  Watch it happen here:

Electricity is not all they eat, they are capable of eating several different types of environmental pollutants such as oil and radioactive waste. They can even tear the oxygen out of rusty iron. The ability to consume and transfer electrical energy enables a group of these bacteria to break down mixtures of compounds which they could not possible manage to break down individually.  One bacteria can begin a chemical process that which results in an excess of electrons,  but these can be transferred to a neighbor who is specializing in a process which requires electron input. Allowing them to consume the mixture together.

Distribution:

The genus was first discovered in the sediment of the Potomac River in Washington D.C. but has been found at several locations since. They are probably cosmopolitan.

Classification:

Bacterial classification is the reason they invented Wikipedia.

Kingdom: Bacteria
Phylum: Proteobacteria
Class: Deltaproteobacteria
Order: Desulfuromonadales
Family: Geobacteraceae
Genus: Geobacter

Image Links:

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/electric-bacteria-eat-electrons

Video Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j_gJ2teK5E

Creature 136: Hydnora africana

A parasitic plant worthy of sci-fi.

Description:
Hydnora africana is weird looking parasitic plant.

Hydnora africana flower

The plant lives underground for the majority of their lives. They don't photosynthesize and they don't produce chlorophyll and they rely entirely on other plants for their own energy. The plant sends out roots which attach themselves to the roots of another plant. They have specifically evolved to target plant species in the genus Euphorbia. They have evolved an acid which wears away the outer layers of the roots and steal the nutrients from the roots of other plants. When it rains heavily, the plant grows flowers from the roots. Their fruit also grows underground and is eaten by animals which disperse the seeds through their feces. The fruits can contain up to 20,000 seeds each.

Hydnora africana root infecting its host

Hydnora africana is mostly pollinated by carrion beetles which feed off decomposing bodies.  As a result they give off a chemical which mimics the smell of rotting ruminate mammals.  This strategy is unusually common in parasitic plants. Cultivated plants usually take around 5-6 years before they produce flowers.

Hydnora africana fruit

Distribution:
Hydnora africana is native to southern Africa, particularly in the Arid regions.

Classification:
The Magnoliid clade are one of the basal Angiosperm clades which branch off before the Monocotyledons split from the core Eudicots. The Order Piperales includes the commonly known plante genus Piper (peppers).

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Angiosperms
Class: Magnoliids
Order: Piperales
Family: Hysnoraceae
Genus: Hydnora
Species: Hydnora africana

Image Links:
https://ww2.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/parasitic/hydnora_haustoria.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydnora_africana
https://ww2.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/parasitic/hydnora_winter2002.php

Creature 135: Mastigoproctus giganteus

Acid spraying scorpion-like predator

Description: 
Mastigoproctus giganteus  or the giant Vinegarroon is a species of whip scorpions, with a rather frightening appearance:

It is the largest whip scorpion, growing up to 85 mm long. Like other whip scorpions their front pair of legs has been modified into a long and slender jointed appendage which is very sensitive. They use them to feel their way around like a pair of antennae. Their whip like tail is mostly for sensory purposes, they use a different method to kill their prey. The base of their tail sprays vinegar over their prey in order to disable them. Only this vinegar is far more concentrated than normal vinegar with concentrations reaching 85% acetic acid.

The females lay large eggs (for arthropods) in a sealed egg sac which they carry with them. When their young hatch they carry them around on their abdomen. They are slow growing organism, taking around 2 years to reach maturity.

Distribution:
The giant Vinegarroon is found in Mexico and Southern United States.

Classification: 
Whip scorpions are arachnids but are neither spiders or scorpions. Their tail is homologous with the stinging tail of a scorpion. Their closest relatives are the camel spiders, which are also arachnids, and also neither spider or scorpions.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Thelyphonida
Family: Thelyphonidae
Genus: Mastigoproctus
Species: Mastigoproctus giganteus

Image Links:
http://www.thedauphins.net/rgv_arthropods.html
http://madrean.org/symbfauna/collections/individual/index.php?occid=252912
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastigoproctus_giganteus

Creature 134: Stemmocryptidae

A very mysterious bug

Description: 
Stemmocryptidae is a family of Heteroptera which has no common name, as it is not commonly known of.  There is only a single species and a single genus, Stemmocrypta antennata. To add to its rarity this species is known from only a single collection event in Liang Island, Papua New Guinea. The collector was the renowned heteropterist Pavel Štys. No other specimens are known. The specimens from this collection event were collected in leaf litter and at UV light. They Family was first described by Štys in 1983, in Acta entomologica bohemoslovaca, not the most readily available of journals. I can't even find photos of the specimens, all I have seen of them is a drawing from the article which described them reprinted in a book by called true bugs of the world by R.T. Schuh and J.A. Slater (1995).

They may only be a few specimens from a single locality but their unusual combination of characteristics confuses the classification of  heteropteran groups. Their genitalia and forewings share similarities with the Dipsocoromorpha, while their antennal segmentation and their overall appearance more closely resembles certain land bugs in the Cimicomorpha. Just to add an extra bizarre twist, they are the only species of true bug to hold their rostrum forward at rest.

Distribution:

Stemmocryptidae are only known from Liang Island, Papua New Guinea.

Classification: 

The Stemmocryptids have been tentatively placed in the infraorder Dipsocoromorpha. However there is a possibility that evidence provided by Stemmocryptidada will split the infraorder into different groups.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Hemiptera

Family: Stemmocryptidae

Image Reference:
 Štys, P. (1983): New family of Heteroptera with Dipsocoromorphan affinities from Papua New Guinea Acta entomologica bohemoslovaca.

Updated the top 10.

It's been 10 days since I updated the top 10 most viewed animals and there has been a chaotic movement. Last week was a good one for old posts in the blog. The top 4 has been breached by a giant worm, and the ugliest animal in the world Psychrolutes marcidus has come back with a vengeance. Also everyone's favorite frog Breviceps namaquensis has scraped in the bottom. The creatures which have been knocked out are the giant flower Rafflesia arnoldii and the over rated big mouthed fish Neoclinus blanchardi .

Creature 133: Leptotyphlops Carlae

As small as a snake can get

Leptotyphlops Carlae may look a lot like an earth worm at first glance, but it is actually a snake called the Barbados thread snake.

The name says it all. It is a snake from Barbados,  which is as this as a thread. It belongs to the Blind snake infraorder Scolicophidia, and unsurprisingly is blind. It is the smallest snake known to science reaching a maximum length of 10 cm and very likely the smallest snake ever. Juvenile Barbados thread snakes would probably not survive if they were any smaller, and females produce eggs about as large as is possible for their size. This makes it difficult for these snakes to get any smaller without dramatically changing their morphology or life history.

Like most blind snakes they spend moat of their time in the soil. They feed mostly on small soildwelling insects like ants. Unlike most snakes they lack venom.

Distribution:
The Barbados thread snake is not endemic to Barbados but is found on several other Carribean islands and some coastal area of South America.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Squamata
Family: Leptotyphlopidae
Genus: Leptotyphlops
Species: Leptotyphlops carlae

Image Links:

https://adlayasanimals.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/barbados-threadsnake-leptotyphlops-carlae/

http://www.bizarbin.com/tiny-animals/

http://ianimal.ru/topics/barbadosskaya-uzkorotaya-zmeya

Creature 132: Lucihormetica luckae

 A glowing cockroach that lives on a volcano

Description:
Lucihormetica luckae is a cockroach, but unlike most cockroaches this one can glow in the dark:

I'm sure you are aware that most cockroaches hate light, they hide in holes and under tour floorboards during the day and scurry for cover when you flick the lights on at night. So why would they want to produce light of their own? Their is a type of click beetle known as Pyrophorus which lives in the same area as Lucihormetica luckae. It is poisonous and nocturnal and also glows in the dark. The wavelength of light given off by our cockroach and the click beetle are the same. This has led us to believe that the cockroach is mimicking the click beetle. Lucihormetica luckae was first described in 2012 although specimens are much older that that. They may be extinct as discussed below.

Distribution:
Lucihormetica luckae is only known from the Ecuadorian volcano Tungurahua. It is possibly extinct as no specimens have been found since the last major eruption of the volcano in 2010. It is not a good idea to jump to conclusion though official because sightings of most insect species are few and far between and 5 years without a sighting is a long was from assuming the worst.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Dichtyoptera
Family: Blaberidae
Genus: Lucihormetica
Species: Lucihormetica luckae

Image Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucihormetica_luckae

Creature 131: Amphicoelias fragillimus

The biggest dinosaur ever and we lost it!

Amphicoelias fragillimus is a very large dinosaur. Despite the fact that remains of this gargantuan beast are far from complete, we are fairly confident that it is the largest dinosaur we know about. By far.

Size of  Amphicoelias fragillimus compared to next biggest dinosaurs

It's estimated length is 58 m long and it's weight is estimated at 122 tonne. It was a big fella! These estimates are highly speculative as the species is known only from a single fossil of a part of an individual vertebra called a neural arch. However, this neural arch was 1.5 meters tall. The size estimate was made based of assumptions that this monster has roughly the same proportions as closely related species, an assumption which usually more or less holds true. The confidence that this is indeed the largest dinosaur we have discovered comes from the fact that the second largest,  Argentinosaurus huinculensis does not reach 40 m long at the most generous estimates. According to the field notes the tip of an enormous femur was also found just a few tens of meters away, which was probably from the same specimen, but we don't know much about that for reasons I will explain below.

This specimen was found with several other very large dinosaurs in the same deposit in the late 19th century.  You would think it is pretty hard to lose the largest dinosaur in the world, but somehow we did. That's right it's gone and hasn't been seen in over a century.  We have no idea what happened to it or who had it last. It's gone. We are working off drawings and descriptions done by the scientists who studied it at the time.

Reconstruction of the lost neural arch

Distribution:
The only fragments of this species to be found so far are from the Upper Jurrassic Morrison formation in Western United States.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Sauropoda
Genus: Amphicoelias
Species: Amphicoelias fragillimus

Image Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphicoelias

http://www.therideronline.com/our-picks/2011/09/30/the-6-greatest-dinosaurs-ever-that-ever-lived/

http://carnivoraforum.com/topic/9329460/1/

Creature 130: Oxyuranus microlepidotus

The most deadly snake venom in the world.

Description:

Oxyuranus microlepidotus is colloquially known as the Inland Taipan or the Fierce snake.

The Inland Taipan is the most venomous snake in the world. This title is somewhat hard to define, but this is number 1 in terms of the potency of its venom. The venom actually consists of several components which attack multiple organ systems at once and if left untreated will almost definitely kill a human.Despite its incredibly powerful venom there have been no recorded deaths since the advent of its anti venom. This is probably mostly because bites from these snakes are incredibly rare as they only live in the sparsely populated arid regions of North Eastern Australia. They are also fairly shy, spending most of their time in crack within rocks while waiting to ambush the small mammals they they typically prey on. 

Unlike most venomous snakes they will not chase their prey after they have bitten them while waiting for them to die. When an inland taipan strikes it wraps itself around its victim and bites it over and over. For this reason the Inland taipan often doesn't register as the most venomous if venomosity is measured as average venom per bite. This partially explains its need for such a potent venom as they need to kill their prey quickly to minimize the damage they might sustain in a struggle. They can grow up to 2.5 meters long and their coloration changes getting darker in the winter to absorb more heat while fading in the summer to reflect it.

Distribution:

The Inland Taipan is only found in arid regions of northern and central Australia. This is not surprising because Australia has 9 out of the top 10 most venomous snakes in the world and everything is venomous in Queensland.

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Squamata
Family: Elapidae
Genus: Oxyuranus
Species: Oxyuranus microlepidotus

Image Links:

http://www.tellyouall.com/10-poisonous-snakes-world/

https://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2013/greenup_juli/reprod/

Creature 129: Dracula simia

A flower that looks like a monkey's face

Today I don't really feel like writing,  which leaves me two choices.  I can post an Orchid or a Nudibranch, both taxa are so weird looking you will never get sick of seeing new species. They also speak for themselves with their weird appearance so I don't need to write much.

Description:
So this orchid is called Dracula simia the specific epithet simia meaning monkey. Their common name is the monkey's face orchid, and once you have seen it the etymology of it will be obvious:

The main pollinators of these are various butterfly, and if you look at them from the right angle you can kind of see how they might be mimicking a butterfly.

Distribution:
Monkey's face orchid is endemic to the Mediterranean region and Western Europe, but it is widely all over the world as an ornamental plant.

Classification:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Angiosperms
Class: Monocotyledon
Order: Asparagales
Family: Orchidaceae
Genus: Dracula
Species: Dracula simia

Image Links:
http://www.boredpanda.com/flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia/?image_id=flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia-7.jpg
http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/how-to-grow-monkey-face-orchids-from.html

Creature 128: Hymenopus coronatus

Mimicking a mimic

Description:
Hymenopus coronatus is commonly known as an orchid mantis. You have seen orchids that mimics
insects, now take a look at this predator which takes advantage of these relationships.

The strategy is ingenious. Orchids have spent millions of years evolving to be incredibly good at attracting their insect pollinators. I have posted about a couple of orchids, you can see them here. In the process they have inadvertently become the perfect place for an ambush predator. The Orchid mantis has modified its body so that it camouflages into Orchid flowers. They can wait for the flower to attract the pollinators and gobble them up. All the while their camouflage protects them from predators. They are capable of changing the markings on their body depending on the flower they are camouflaging against.

Male orchid mantises can be less than half the size of Females, and considering that female mantises tend to eat the males after mating this is very bad news for the males. The juveniles resemble juvenile assassin bugs, which are not palatable to most predators and can use their tubular rostrum to inflict pain on their predators (Or entomologists who try to catch them). If you want to know more about assassin bugs you can read about a couple of species here and here. There are more coming.

Distribution:
Orchid mantises are endemic to the Oriental bioregion.

Classification:
I use the modern classification of Dictyoptera for the old orders Mantodea, Isoptera and Blattodea as recent analyses have shown that Isoptera are nested within Blattodea, and while Mantodea and the Blattodea-Isoptera complex are considered to be monophyletic the strength of these relationships are not particularly strong, although they certainly all form a monophyletic group together.

If this is all gibberish to you and you have a few minutes you can read this page. Or you could just look at the pretty pictures of the Orchid mantis and not think about the possibility that they are closely related to cockroaches and termites.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Dictyoptera
Family: Hymenopodidae
Genus: Hymenopus
Species: Hymenopus coronatus

Image Links:
http://tulipsbreaking.blogspot.com.au/
http://photorator.com/photo/9118/blue-orchid-mantis-hymenopus-coronatus-
http://rhyssharry.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/mimic-spotlight-orchid-mantis-hymenopus.html