Creature 182: Armillaria solidipes

The biggest living thing

Description:
Armillaria solidipes has the title for the largest living thing on earth. If you haven't heard of it, you are probably thinking it must be some sort of whale of giant tree. If so you are wrong. It is a fungus.

Like many fungi Armillaria solidipes is mostly made up of an enormous underground network of joined filamentous hyphae. The mushrooms are reproductive bodies they produce when conditions are right for a new fungus to grow. The largest individual Armillaria solidipes alive is in Malheur National Forest in Oregon U.S.A. it is believed to cover an area of 880 hectares underground with an average depths of 1 m. In some areas the fungal hyphae may be very sparse, while in other they form a thick mat under the ground.

The fungus is essentially parasitic deriving nutrients from the roots of the trees growing in the area. They can infest and eventually kill tree stumps and remain viable in a dead stump for up to 50 years.  They are incredibly difficult to eradicate. Due to their ability to continue growing from even a small branch they can live a very long time. The largest individual is believed to be 2400 years old.

Distribution:

Armillaria solidipes is found in throughout the northern temperate region.

Classification:
Armillaria solidipes has also been known as Armillaria ostoyae.
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Agaricales
Family: Physalacriaceae
Genus: Armillaria
Species: Armillaria solidipes

Image Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria_solidipes
http://www.lindazurich.com/mycelium-underground-forest-steward/

Creature 181: Sphyrna

But did you know they could tan?

Description:
You can't have a bizarre creature blog without, at some point, including Sphyrna, the hammerhead shark.

Hammerhead sharks earn their name because their head has been laterally elongated to create a wide gap between their eyes. This gives them several sight related advantages including the ability to see 360 ° along the vertical axis.

Like other sharks they are capable of detecting electromagnetic fields. They use this ability to hunt animals living in the sand on the ocean floor.  They sweep their head from side to side along the ocean floor in order to detect any prey which might be hiding.  Apart from that, they are capable of getting a tan if they are exposed to a lot of sunlight.

Distribution:
Hammerhead sharks are known from shallow coastal waters all over the world.

Classification:
There are 9 hammerhead shark species in the genus Sphyrna.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Carcharhiniformes
Family: Sphyrnidae
Genus: Sphyrna

Image Links:

http://www.adventureaquarium.com/What-to-do/Aquarium-animals/Great-Hammerhead-Sharks.aspx

http://cmsdata.iucn.org/img/original/hammerhead_party_simon_rogerson.jpg

Creature 180: Opabinia

This animal made zoologists laugh

Description:
Opabinia is a recognised genus of .... something. From Earth.

This was one of those bizarre experiments of evolution which was performed during the Cambrian explosion. You probably noticed the five eyes. I guess they needes the depth perception for handling things with that claw. That claw looks to me as though it might be homologous with some mouth part structures in living arthropods. But I'm guessing. Apparently when Whittington first presented this fonding to the zoological community the audience laughed at how weird it looked.

They had a tough segmented exoskeleton. Each segment was probably capable of independent movement allowing the creature to propel itself through the water by moving then in a wavelike motion. These segments are (hopefully) homologous with the segmentation present in all modern arthropods.

Distribution:
This genus is recognised from several fairly well preserved fossils from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia.

Classification:
Opabinia is probably an arthropod, or is at least a close relative of the Arthropods. It does not belong to any living Class, but it is probably related to Anomalocoris and has been placed in the same class along with several other bizarre creatures.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Dinocaridida
Order: Radiodonta
Family: Opabiniidae
Genus: Opabinia

Image Links:

http://facweb.furman.edu/~wworthen/bio440/evolweb/cambrian/opabinia.htm

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opabinia_regalis#/media/File:Opabinia_smithsonian.JPG

Creature 179: Dynastes hercules

The strongest animal in the world

Dynastes hercules is rather appropriately known as the Hercules beetle.

It is the strongest animal in the world, or at least it can lift the most weight relative to its own body weight. They have been known to lift objects 85 times their own body weight. That is about the equivalent of a 70 kg male lifting a large African bull elephant. A truly Herculaen fete.  It may surprise you to learn that these monsters are weight quite a lot in the world of insects. Males can grow up to 17 cm and weight 100 grams and have been known to lift weights over 8 kilos.

They also have a really cool horn which the males use to fight off other males while competing for females.

Distribution:
Hercules beetles are known from Central America.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Scarabaeidae
Genus: Dynastes
Species: Dynastes hercules

Image Links:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8691006

http://kabukuwa.blog.com/dynastes-hercules/

Creature 178: Trilophosuchus rackhami

A (thankfully) extinct crocodillian

Description:
Trilophosuchus rackhami is a member of an extinct group of crocodiles.

Crocodillians are probably some of the scariest ambush predators in the world, they are very efficient killers and have had the same basic body plan and hunting strategy for hundreds of millions of years. Fortunately all living are aquatic, and avoiding them is a simple matter of avoiding the water in which they live. Image, however that there was a crocodillian that lived in trees. Certain aspects of the skeleton of Trilophosuchus rackhami indicate that it was terrestrial, and possibly even arboreal, all though not all paleontologists agree. Walking through a dark forest would be a lot more scary if there were crocodiles in the trees waiting to spring out and ambush you on the ground.

Distribution:
Trilophosuchus rackhami is only known from the Riversleigh deposits in North Queensland and are Miocene in age.

Classification:
Trilophosuchus rackhami is the only member described in the genus Trilophosuchus.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Crocodilia
Family: Crocodilidae
Genus: Trilophosuchus 
Species: Trilophosuchus rackhami

Image Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilophosuchus

Creature 177: Epioblasma triquetra

Parasitic biting mussel
Description:

Epioblasma triquetra is a fairly ordinary looking mussel which is referred to as the snuffbox mussel.

Juvenile snuffbox mussels are parasitic,  living inside fish and feeding off their skin and gills. When they are ready to become adults they leave the fish and grow a shell. This shell has a line of nasty looking teeth. Females use these teeth to infect suitable fish with the next generation of parasitic mussels. She wait until a small enough fish approaches and they snap shut around the fish's face. She then proceeds to inject juvenile mussels into the victim. in most fish of the appropriate size this process is fatal, which is why the parasites are almost always found in one particularly tough species known as the common longperch.

Distribution:
Epioblasma triquetra lives in the great lakes and the Mississippi river system.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Unionoida
Family: Unionidae
Genus: Epioblasma
Species: Epioblasma triquetra

Image Links:

http://wwx.inhs.illinois.edu/collections/mollusk/publications/guide/index/162

http://www.emporia.edu/ksn/v53n2-december2006/

Creature 176: Physarum polycephalum

Can solve mazes without a brain.

Description:
Physarum polycephalum is a slime mold, much like Fulgio septica or Stemonitis fusca.

Like other slime molds, it has a mobile plasmodium phase in its life cycle which it enters when it is searching for food. Despite the fact that they have no brains or nerves or no cellular specialisation, these slime molds are capable of solving maze problems. Several experiments have been done showing their ability to arrange themselves in the shortest shape between 2 food sources. They have also been shown to solve networking problems between as many as 36 points with comparable efficiency to humans. We are not entirely sure how they manage to achieve this.

Physarum polycephalum can also survive in a dormant phase as a dried out husk.

Distribution:
Physarum polycephalum can be found all over the world in cool moist areas with low sunlight.

Classification:
Kingdom: Amoebozoa
Phylum: Mycetozoa
Class: Myxogastria
Order: Physarida
Family: Physaridae
Genus: Physarum
Species: Physarum polycephalum

Image Links:

http://genome.wustl.edu/genomes/detail/physarum-polycephalum/

Video Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czk4xgdhdY4

Creature 175: Anthonomus grandis

A weevil with a statue in its honor

Description:
Anthonomus grandis is a weevil, as discussed in an earlier post weevils are the most speciouse family of all living things on Earth. Anthonomus grandis is usually known as the boll weevil or the cotton weevil.

It is fairly normal looking for a weevil, which means there are a lot of species which look very similar to it. It also happens to be a major economic pest of cotton. Like most weevils they are highly specialized and will pretty much only eat a single species of plant. In their case that plant happens to be cotton. As a result they are very good at eating cotton. In agricultural environments with lots of cotton growing in close proximity they can quickly become massive, highly destructive swarms. They can lay up to 200 eggs per generation and during a good cotton season they can experience up to 10 generations. If left uncontrolled they can devastate cotton monocultures.

So, you might ask, why is there a statue of a boll weevil in Enterprise,  Alabama, a part of the U.S. which traditionally depended on cotton for its economy? In the early 20th century there was an huge outbreak of boll weevils in the southern states of the U.S.  Farmers were forced to abandon cotton crops and plant other things. This meant they were forced to experiment with new crops, and discovered that they could make even more money. Those few whose cotton survived the weevil plague were getting far better prices for their cotton due to the short supply. Apparently the Farmers around Enterprise,  Alabama were so grateful they decided to erect a statue.I had to include this species because not many insect species have statues erected in their honor.

Distribution:
The boll weevil is found anywhere where cotton grows. It is probably native to Mexico although cotton has been cultivated for so long over such a large area that it is difficult to determine which areas it is native to and which areas it has been introduced into.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Curculionidae
Genus: Anthonomus
Species: Anthonomus grandis

Image Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boll_weevil#/media/File:Cotton_boll_weevil.jpg

http://www.extension.org/pages/9847/cotton-insect-pests-gallery#.VQRt9o6Ufhs

http://jasonb42.ontheroad.to/show/boll-weevil-monument-beetle-statue

Creature 174: Theloderma corticale

A good impersonation of moss

Description:
Theloderma corticale is a frog. You may know it as the Vietnamese mossy frog.

If I had to give an award for the best plant impersonation by an animal, this animal would probably win. When I first saw a picture of these guys I remember looking for information about weather that was actual moss growing on it or just its skin. It turns out that it is just skin. They will often use their sticky foot pads to attach themselves to rocks just above the water level.

Distribution:
Unsurprisingly,  the Vietnamese mossy frog is known from Vietnam.  It is endemic to jungles in the North.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Rhacophoridae
Genus: Theloderma
Species: Theloderma corticale

Image Links:

http://amphibianrescue.org/tag/theloderma-corticale/

http://www.exo-terra.com/nactus/nactus2009-2010_nominees/cat3_4.php?lang=en

Creature 173: Archaeidae

This spider only eats other spiders.

Description:
Archaeidae are a family of spiders which are commonly known as assassin spiders or pelican spiders.

Their fangs (actually Chelicera) have been grossly elongate and there is a large neck like elongation on their cephalothorax which give them their weird pelican like look. These adaptions are specifically designed to give then a fast strike with a long reach, a huge advantage when they are hunting the particular prey that they specialize on. The victims of these bizarre species are, in fact, other spiders. They hunt other spiders by following the web trails that spiders leave behind as they walk around. They are able to move across the web of other spiders without being detected or to pluck the web to coax the other spider to attack them. They impale their prey on one of their massive fangs and let them slowly die on the end of the fang before they eat them.

Distribution:

Archaeidae are found in South Africa, Madagascar in various disjunct regions of Australia. They are an ancient taxon with the fossil record going back to 40 million years age, and the age of the group probably going back much further than that.

Classification:

The family Archaeidae only contains 4 genera and  about 20 known species.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Archaeidae

Image Links:

http://www.zoopicture.ru/archaeidae/

https://pbertner.wordpress.com/spider-assassins-archaeidae/

Creature 172: Lophorina superba

That bird can dance

Description:
Lophorina superba is commonly called the superb bird of paradise. This makes it sound pretty awesome.

Actually only the males can be considered in anyway superb, with the females lookimg drab in comparison.  This is fairly common in birds as the females are usually the choosy ones.

Unfortunately for the males of the species there are just as many females as males, which is not all that common for birds. This makes the females extra choosy. Females have been known to reject up to 20 male suitors in a row before deciding to mate. This has led to a bizarre mating dance ritual:

Distribution:
Lophorina superba are common on the Island of New Guinea.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Paradisaeidae
Genus: Lophorina
Species: Lophorina superba

Image Links:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/526076800194241073/

Video Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dx2CUMtZ-0

Creature 171: Idolomantis diabolica

You don't often get devil and flower in the same name.

Description:
Idolomantis diabolica is a praying mantis which is commonly known as the devil's flower mantis.

They are a large species of mantis with females reaching up to 13 cm in length. They are quite a bizarre looking mantis due to their adaptations both to mimic a flower when hunting their prey and to appear larger than they are when they are threatened. When hunting they remain perfectly still and hide the colourful flaps under their legs. When they are threatened they stick their legs in the air and reveal the flaps giving them the appearance of being larger than they are. They have very sharp and very efficient mandibles and are quite fond of using them to decapitate their prey.

In many species of Praying mantis, including the devil's flower mantis, the predatory instincts are so strong that males need to be very careful when they approach a female to copulate. The female will often decapitate the male before during or after copulation. Males have evolved a solution to this. If their head does happen to get severed from their body they are preprogrammed to run around in circles trying to find a female to complete copulation with.

Distribution:
Devil's flower mantis is endemic to East Africa.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Dichtyoptera
Family: Empusidae
Genus: Idolomantis
Species: Idolomantis diabolica

Image Links:

http://thedancingrest.com/2015/03/11/idolomantis-diabolica-aka-devils-flower-mantis-or-giant-devils-flower-mantis/

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/frupus/16234587557/

http://virginiainsects.org/?p=249

Creature 170: Oxudercinae

Fish out of water

Description:
Oxudercinae are a subfamily of Ray finned fish which bear the common name mudskippers.

These little fish are capable of spending days at a time on moist land. Contrary to common belief, most fish can respire on land, they just can't do it very well. Often their gills will collapse without the support of the water making them less effective. Their gills also become less and less effective the drier they get. Mudskippers are no exception here, but in a similar way to amphibians they have developed a method for breathing through their skin, provided it remains moist. Unlike most fish they are adept at walking around on the land and can even jump up to 2 feet in the air. Like other true fish they are adept swimmers.

Mudskippers are very territorial and highly aggressive towards each other. But their fights don't look so intimidating:

O.K. so maybe those noises aren't real.

Distribution:
Mudskippers have an Indo-pacific distribution but are restricted to moist habitats.

Classification:
As mentioned above, mudskippers are ray finned fish, which means they are not closely related to the group of fish which eventually evolved into land animals. The amphibious lifestyle is convergent. They are in no way part of the amphibian group.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Gobiidae

Image Links:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_7/volume_7_1/mudskippers.html

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flying_fish_mudskipper.jpg

Video Links:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ljv1fO4qrIw

Creature 169: Archaeoglobus

These guys can eat rocket fuel

Description:
Archaeoglobus are a genus of archea, which are the most primitive branch of living things in the world, as we have discussed earlier.

Some of the species in this genus have evolved the ability to break down almost any source of carbon and use it to grow. It can even carbon based materials like oil and rocket fuel for energy. They have been known to eat sulfur compounds as well as complex plastics and many other things. They can cover themselves in a biofilm which makes them very difficult to destroy with conventional methods.

So you are probably wondering why these guys haven't spread and consumed the whole world yet. The truth is that they have some pretty severe weaknesses.  First of all they don't survive well at low temperatures, and when I say low I actually mean less than 60°C. These guys are perfectly comfortable at temperatures less than the boiling point of water. Once the water starts boiling they begin to struggle. This is bizarre in itself because DNA will usually start to denature at 60 to 70°C, so as a general rule these are not good conditions for life as we know it. Probably their biggest weakness in an Earth like environment is that they can't tolerate atmospheric Oxygen. It is a deadly poison to them.

Distribution:
Archaeoglobus are found in hydrothermal vents and in various underground habitats such as warm oil fields all over the world.

Classification:
Don't ask me about Archean Classification. 
Kingdom:Archaea
Phylum:Euryarchaeota
Class: Archaeoglobi
Order: Archaeoglobales
Family: Archaeoglobaceae
Genus:Archaeoglobus

Image Links:

https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Archaeoglobus

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archaea/archaeamm.html

Creature 168: Crysomallon squamiferum

A snail with iron armor

Description:
Crysomallon squamiferum is a recently discovered (2001) snail which has been given the rather boring common name of scaly foot gastropod.

It is a deep sea snail that lives around hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean. Their shell has been modified to easily resist the pressure of the deep ocean. As well as an inner layer of calcium carbonate and a middle layer of tough but flexible protein they have a reinforced outer layer of iron sulfides. Most snails, like dragons, have a soft underbelly which is a weakness that these ironclad snails have managed to circumvent. Like Smaug they have coated their underside with toughened scales. These scales are also made of iron sulfides.

Distribution:
The scaly foot gastropod was found in a hydrothermal vent on the Central Indian Ridge in the Indian Ocean.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Neomphalina
Family: Peltospiridae
Genus: Crysomallon 
Species: Crysomallon squamiferum 

Image Links:
https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/tag/crysomallon-squamiferum/
https://www.esa.org/esablog/research/iron-plated-snail/

Creature 167: Dorylus

Ants that really hold a grudge.

Description:

Dorylus is a genus of army ants which are commonly called driver ants.

They are omnivorous,  highly aggressive and highly territorial. If you ever disturb one of their nests, run. I mean it. They will quickly swarm anything which they percieve to be a threat and will tear it appart and eat it. Driver ant colonies can contain literally millions of individual ants, so don't assume you are safe just because they are tiny. They are also very deternmined and when they bite a percieved threat they can lock their jaws. When they do this they are very hard to remove and their jaw will remain locked even if you tear ther thorax off the head. This bite is so strong that some indigenous peoples use them to suture wounds.

When their colony is running out of food they form large swarms which sometimes contain tens of thousands of ants. Theae swarms slowly move away from the nest devouring everthing in their path before returning. A single driver ant has nothimg on a fire ant or a bullet ant in terms of the pain and damage they can inflict, but their entire colonies are so quick to respond to any threat that they arw probably the most dangerous ants on earth.

Distribution:

Various species of driver ants can be found in Tropical Africa and Asia

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Genus: Dorylus

Image Links:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/science/131206/ants-underrated-amazing-animals
http://creepycrawlieslove.tumblr.com/image/53041778319

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

Creature 166: Tyrophagus casei

Gourmet mites

Description:
Tyrophagus casei is a species of mite referred to as a cheese mite, although it is not the only mite to carry this common name.

This creature is not really all that bizarre,  but what we do with them is. These little mites are well adapted to survive in domestic environments.  They are scavengers and will eat a lot of what we eat such as cheese, smoked meats and flour. It is their taste for cheese which makes them of particular interest. 

They are not called cheese mites simply because they like to eat cheese but because they are uses to produce cheese, specifically a gourmet German cheese known as Milbenkäse. The cheese mites will rapidly colonize the outer layer of the cheese. As they eat, they defecate and they grow shedding their tiny exoskeletons along the way. As a result of these activities a very fine dusty layer of mite debris forms on the outer layer of the cheese. This gives the cheese its distinctive flavor. There are other mites which are used to produce other cheeses. If you want to see what it looks like check this out:

Technically I think this makes them some of the few arachnids that is regularly used as a food source,  although I have heard of people eating fried tarantula in South East Asia.

Distribution:
Tyrolichus casei is one of those species which has probably been introduced all over the world by humans.

Classification:
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Sarcoptiformes
Family: Acaridae
Genus:Tyrophagus
Species: Tyrophagus casei

Image Links:
http://progenes.livejournal.com/159746.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrophagus_casei

Video Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM11sfw-SrM

Creature 165: Ophrys apifera

Another orchid day.

Description:
Today's bizarre creature is Ophrys apifera. Some of my regular readers might recognize the generic name Ophrys, a genus of orchid. That's right today is an orchid day!

Ophrys apifera is commonly known as the bee orchid as it mimics bees. If you don't know what I mean by that check out my other orchid posts here. It emits a smell which mimics female pheromones of the bee genus Eucera.

Despite all the effort it has gone to in order to attract pollinators,  the bee orchid is mostly self pollinating.

Distribution:
The bee orchid can be found in Europe,  North Africa and the middle East.

Classification:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Angiosperms
Class: Monocotyledon
Order: Asparagales
Family: Orchidaceae
Genus: Ophrys
Species: Ophrys apifera

Image Links:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ophrys_apifera_(flower).jpg

http://iberianature.com/lucyblog/2010/06/

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/399055

Creature 164: Petromyzontiformes

Not a Goa'uld

Description:

Petromyzontiformes is an order within our own Phylum, the Chordata. Saying Petromyzontiformes is a bit of a mouthful so most people just call them lampreys.

Speaking of mouthfuls, check out all of those teeth. Lampreys lack jaws and skulls despite the fact that they have a spinal chord and a vertebral column, although their vertebral column is quite different from that of any other member of the Vertebrata.

So you are probably looking at this thing and wondering if it is related to the gua'uld and what those teeth are for. The answers are probably not and those teeth are for sawing into and latching onto their hosts. That's right they are ectoparasites and love to suck blood. Don't worry,  they are only really interested in fish, and I don't think they ever attack humans. I might have been a little dramatic there,  most Lamprey species are not parasitic. These species are boring filter feeders as juveniles. As adults they don't eat at all, which is even weirder than being a weird looking parasite.

Distribution:

Lampreys are found in fresh water or coastal areas in most of the world tempereate regions, however they are curiously absent from Africa.

Classification:
Lampreys are  the only living members of the class Hyperoartia, which is the basal group of the Vertebrata.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Hyperoartia
Order: Petromyzontiformes

Image Links:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112795094/sea-lamprey-genome-completed-by-geneticists-030213/
http://woodsperson.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/wisconsin-walleye-initiative.html
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/basalfish/petro.html

Creature 163: Pomphorhynchus laevis

A worm that wants to be eaten.

Description:
Pomphorhynchus laevis is a parasitic worm with multiple hosts.

It has an intermediate host the fresh water amphipod Gammarus pulex and and many possible bony fish as a definitive host. They need to reach the definitive host to undergo the final stage of their life cycle in which they are capable of sexual reproduction. Gammarus pulex quite commonly ends up getting eaten by bony fish, and as you can imagine they try to avoid it if they can. They can smell their predators coming and take evasive action. Pomphorhynchus laevis on the other hand wants to get eaten so it can infect its hosts intestines. In order to increase the chance of this they alter the mind of their intermediate host and make them much less responsive to the smell of a predator. This strategy is similar to that of Toxoplasma gondii, which we discussed in an earlier post.

But they don't stop there.  The orange colouration in Pomphorhynchus laevis is visible in its intermediate host while it is infected, and makes them more noticeable to the predators.

Distribution:
Pomphorhynchus laevis are endemic to the Palaerctic region.

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Acanthocephala
Class: Palaeacanthocephala
Order: Echinorhynchida
Family: Pomphorhynchidae
Genus: Pomphorhynchus
Species: Pomphorhynchus laevis

Image Links:

https://biomesfourth08.wikispaces.com/Temperate+Rainforest+facts

Creature 162: Ambystoma mexicanum

The amphibian that never grows up

Ambystoma mexicanum is a salamander commonly called the axolotl or the Mexican walking fish. They are always smiling.

The reason they are always smiling is they never grow up. Well almost never anyway. As with most amphibians the Juveniles live in the water, but the axolotl becomes reproductively mature before its body undergoes metamorphosis in order to leave the water. This state is known as neotony. Most axolotls will never begin the process of metamorphosis and will remain in the aquatic phase their whole life. It is possible to induce metamorphosis in a Mexican walking fish by adding iodine to their water. This stimulates the production of thyroid hormones which triggers the metamorphosis.  In nature this usually happens when axolotls are forced to resort to cannibalism as a food source. It may be an evolutionary response which gives the axolotl an alternative habitat when the water they live in dries up.

The axolotl also has the amazing ability to regrow its limbs if they happen to get severed. This only works if they have not undergone a metamorphosis. 

Distribution:
Axolotls are endemic to various lakes in Mexico. They are kept as pets all over the world but their numbers in the wild are declining.

Classification:
I feel like I am stating the obvious here but the axolotl is not a fish. It is a salamander.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum :Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Ambystomatidae
Genus: Ambystoma
Species: Ambystoma mexicanum

Image Links:

http://southerncrossreview.org/73/axolotl.html

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-beginner-newt-salamander-axolotl-help-topics/f48-axolotls-ambystoma-mexicanum/f57-axolotl-general-discussion/69534-i-have-truly-metamorphosed-axolotl-i-need-advice-pictures-inside-2.html

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

Creature 161: Reduvius personatus

The masked hunter.

Today's creature, Reduvius personatus, is an assasin bug which are one of my favorite families.  They are called assassin bugs because of their cool tricks for hunting and killing their prey. A lot of all the assassin bugs in my blog should be included under the Hemiptera label.

Description:
Reduvius personatus are commonly known as bed bug assassins, masked bed bug hunters or masked hunters, which is a really cool sounding name. And they earned it.

Masked hunters hunt small arthropods, mostly insects. They are quite versatile in their prey selection and in the environments in which they hunt. This is because of their cool camouflage.  Many insects and spiders camouflage well in a particular environment or on a particular plant because they have evolved to blend in with those particular surroundings. This strategy works for specialist predators,  but if you want to hunt a variety of prey like the masked hunter does you need something more generic. Juvenile masked hunters excrete a glue like substance, much like Acanthapsis petax. This causes the dirt and dust from the surrounding environment to stick to them, forming a 'mask' and camouflaging them in whatever environment they are in.

The association with bed bugs in some of their common names is no coincidence. They are often seen in urban environments hunting bed bugs and while they are not bed bug hunting specialists they are very good at it. Masked hunters will bite humans if they are handles. Their bite is painful but harmless.

Distribution:
Masked hunters have a Holarctic distribution but their presence in North America is a result of a human introduction.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Reduviidae
Genus: Reduvius
Species: Reduvius personatus

Image Links:

http://www4.uwm.edu/fieldstation/naturalhistory/bugoftheweek/the-porch-at-night.cfm

http://www.pestid.msu.edu/insects-and-arthropods/masked-red-hunter/

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2011/04/03/masked-hunter-17/

Creature 160: Rhincodon typus

There is not always a bigger fish

Description:
Rhincodon typus is the largest living shark, and the largest animal that is not a whale.

They can grow over 12 m long and it has an enormous mouth, but on average are probably only around 10 m long. Their mouth can be 1.5 m wide and contains 300 to 350 rows of teeth. Despite this, the whale shark feed mostly on microscopic plankton and krill, which they harvest with 10 filter pads in their mouth. They swim along with their  mouth open filtering small organic material out of the water and digesting it.

Distribution:
Whale sharks are found in all the worlds oceans.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Orectolobiformes
Family: Rhincodontidae
Genus: Rhincodon 
Species: Rhincodon typus

Image Links:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/swimming-with-whale-sharks-160147604/?no-ist
http://www.earthrangers.com/wildwire/omg_animals/now-thats-one-big-fish/

Creature 159: Umbonia crassicornis

A colorful thorn-like bug

Umbonia crassicornis is a trehopper which is commonly known as a thorn bug, because of its thorn-like pronotum.

Their thorn like projections are probably for defensive purposes. They tend to swarm in large clusters which gives the impression that the plant they are feeding off is densely covered in thorns.

You might think that the plant derives some benefit from this, but damage done by large clusters of these bugs feeding and laying their eggs inside the plants can cause severe damage and sometimes even kill some plants. They are a garden pest in some places.

Distribution:
Umbonia crassicornis is found throughout South and Central America as well as some of the warmer parts of the United States.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Membracidae
Genus: Umbonia
 Species: Umbonia crassicornis

Image Links:
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/thorn_bug.htm
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Umbonia_crassicornis_(F._Membracidae)_(2532975946).jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Umbonia_crassicornis_(F_Membracidae).jpg