Creature 304: Myrmeconema neotropicum

Body altering parasites

Myrmeconema neotropicum is a parasitic nematode that speciealises on ants as an intermediate host and birds as a definitive host.

This is another one of those parasites which causes its intermediate host to get eaten by its definitive host in order to enter the definitive host's body. In this case the parasite infects the ant Cephalotes atratus. Ants are infected while they are still juveniles through collected for them. It causes the ants normally black abdomen to change color to red, similar to that of many of the berries in their endemic range. It also causes the ant to walk around with its abdomen in the air to become more noticeable. After they are eaten by the bird they reproduce and infect the next generation of ants through bird droppings.

Distribution:
Myrmeconema neotropicum is endemoc to South America.

Classification:
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Nematoda
Class:Adenophorea
Order:Mermithida
Family:Tetradonematidae
Genus:Myrmeconema
Species:Myrmeconema neotropicum

Image Links:

http://parasitophilia.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/myrmeconema-neotropicum_09.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmeconema_neotropicum

Creature 303: Dicranurus

Spiny trilobites

Dicranurus is a genus of 3 species of trilobites.

This genus is recognized by the large spine like structures protruding from its body, particularly the two big ones protruding from the back of the head. These were very likely some kind of defense mechanism.

Distribution:
These bizarre creatures lived in the early  Devonian period (around 395 to 420 million years ago).
Their fossils can be found in both Morocco and Oklahoma, which may seem strange under Earth's current configuration, but back then they were only separated by a body of water.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Trilobita
Order: Lichida
Family: Odontopleuridae
Genus: Dicranurus

Image Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicranurus

http://museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/discoverycentre/600-million-years/timeline/devonian/dicranurus/

Creature 302: Silene stenophylla

Frost resistant for 32 000 years

Silene stenophylla is a fairly ordinary small weedy looking plant which doesn't look very interesting.

Given its natural habitat is the arctic tundra it naturally needs to be fairly frost tolerant, especially the seeds. In fact one seed found in 32 000 year old Siberian ice was successfully germinated in a laboratory in Russia.

The seed was buried by an ice age squirrel,  much like in the the movie.

Distribution:
Silene stenophylla can only be found in the Russian far east and Alpine regions of Northern Japan.

Classification:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Angiosperms
Class: Dicotyledon
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Caryophyllaceae
Genus: Silene
Species: Silene stenophylla

Image Links:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/02/22/3436826.htm

https://ittakes30.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/paleolithic-park/

http://iceage.wikia.com/wiki/Scrat

Creature 301: Thwaitesia argentiopunctata

A reflective spider

Thwaitesia argentiopunctata is commonly known as the mirror spider.

It gets this name from the reflective patches on their abdomen, which resembles little mirrors. The little mirrors grow larger when they feel threatened.

Distribution:
The mirror spider is found all over Australia.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Theridiidae
Genus: Thwaitesia
Species: Thwaitesia argentiopunctata

Image Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thwaitesia_argentiopunctata
http://whatthefauna.tumblr.com/post/97884942339/the-sequined-or-mirror-spider-has-silvery

Creature 300: Ramphastidae

300 bizarre creatures

Every hundred bizarre creatures I chuck in a very colorful creature as a celebration. This time I have chosen the bird family Ramphastidae, commonly known as the toucans.

Those beaks are not only useful for picking fruit but they are also used to regulate their body temperature.  In some species the beaks are sexually dimorphic which probably means they have a role in selection.

Although these friendly looking birds eat mostly fruit, they are not above a little hunting. They often eat insects or small vertebrates, including eggs or chicks of smaller birds.

Distribution:
Toucans are found in the American tropics.

Classification:
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Piciformes
Family: Ramphastidae

Image Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toucan

http://www.dialaflight.com/blog/new-unesco-world-heritage-sites-for-2012_100667.html

Creature 299: Chelidonura varians

Not quite a nudibranch,  but still cool looking.

Chelidonura varians is just another cool looking sea slug, not quite in the nudibranch group but still pretty cool.

They eat flatworms and can be used to clean out flatworm infestations in aquariums.

Distribution:
Chelidonura varians can be found in Indo-Pacific tropical waters.

Classification:
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Mollusca
Class:Gastropoda
Order: Heterobranchia
Family:Aglajidae
Genus:Chelidonura
Species: Chelidonura varians

Image Links:

http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall/chelvar

Creature 298: Polypodium hydriforme

Weirdest parasite ever.

Polypodium hydriforme is a freshwater animal in the jellyfish group (Cnidaria) although this classification is not universally accepted.

There are not many cnidarian parasites, which makes it sort of interesting in itself. What is even more interesting is that it is one of the only animals which is an endocellular parasite, meaning it lives inside the cells of other organisms. They infect fish eggs where they live most of their life.

While inside the fish eggs they go through many fairly normal Cnidarian stages of their lifecycle, except they are inside out. What do I mean? Their gastrointestinal wall is on the outside while their epidermal cells 'skin' is on the inside. They slowly digest the nutrients inside the fish eggs and eventually emerge. Once they emerge they start to bud and quickly form a Medusa body plan like what you would think of normally in a jellyfish. In this stage of their life cycle they can reproduce sexually and infect new fish.

Distribution:
Polypodium hydriforme can be found in North America, Europe and Northern Asia.

Classification:
Polypodium hydriforme is so weird it has its own genus and family and even class. It has not been allocated an order as there is really no point. Their position within the Cnidaria is not universally accepted as some zoologists place it closer to bilateria (if you're not familiar with bilateria think of them as mainstream animals. Insects, mammals, snails, earthworms etc...). They posses the stimging cells which are characteristic of the Phylum Cnidaria and the methods which I favor place them in the Cnidaria, but some other methods contradict this placement.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Polypodiozoa
Order: see above
Family: Polypodiidae
Genus: Polypodium
Species: Polypodium hydriforme

Image Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypodium_hydriforme

Creature 297: Tornatellides boeningi

Bird's digestive tract. The only way to travel.

Tornatellides boeningi is a small terrestrial snail common on islands throughout the pacific ocean.

That may seem odd as a small terrestrial snail has no chance of migrating hundreds of kilometers between islands on its own. So how did they get to so many islands?

Tornatellides boeningi often get eaten by birds, but these guys somehow have an uncanny ability to shrug it off. That's right they are capable of surviving being eaten by birds. When they come out the other end they are often fine. This doesn't work all the time, but when it does they apparently suffer no ill effects. Presumably they are spread between islands by birds feeding on one island and then moving on.

Distribution:
Tornatellides boeningi can be found on various islands throughout the Pacific.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Heterobranchia
Family: Achatinellidae
Genus: Tornatellides
Species: Tornatellides boeningi

Image Links:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/07/110719-snails-birds-feces-animals-environment-weird/

http://www.themarysue.com/snail-poop-travel/

Creature 296: Lybia edmondsoni

Is it a cheerleader or a boxer?
Lybia edmondsoni is a crab which can either be called the pom pom crab or the boxer crab.

The confusion over its identity as a cheerleader or a boxer comes from the fact that it likes to pick up sea anemones in its claws. These can resemble pom poms, but the stinging cells on the anemones can come in very handy when warding off predators.

Without this unusual defensive strategy they would be pretty vulnerable as they have a much softer carapace than most crabs.

Distribution:
Lybia edmondsoni is endemic to the Hawaiian island chain.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Family: Xanthidae
Genus: Lybia
Species: Lybia edmondsoni

Image Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lybia_edmondsoni

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/262686590737924542/

Creature 295: Chaerephon chapini

Chaerephon chapini bears the common name Chapin's free tailed bat.

The main reason this species makes it to my bizarre list is because of the comb:

This bizarre structure is more pronounced on males than females. It is used as a mechanism to rapidly disperse pheromones.

Distribution:
Chapin's free tailed bat can be found throughout Africa's tropical region.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Molossidae
Genus: Chaerephon
Species: Chaerephon chapini

Image Links:
http://www.planet-mammiferes.org/drupal/en/node/38?indice=Chaerephon+chapini
http://animals.wikia.com/wiki/Chapin's_Free-tailed_Bat

Creature 294: Notaden bendetti

A frog without water

Notaden bendetti can be called the Crucifix toad or the Holy cross frog. It is a smallish frog with a cross like color pattern on its back.

Their endemic range is a classic boom/bust ecosystem. It is usually dry with occasional flooding rains causing living thing to spring into action and reproduce before their habitats dry up again. This type of ecosystem is problematic for amphibians, who rely of water for at least part of their life-cycle. These guys get around the problem by burrowing under the ground and building themselves a sort of cocoon in which they wait for rain. When it does rain they quickly emerge, breed and lay their eggs. The new generation grow to adulthood within a few weeks to take advantage of the short window of opportunity provided by rain.

These toads also produce a strong adhesive glue when threatened. We are not actually sure what this is for, but it is very strong.

Distribution:
The Crucifix toad is endemic to the eastern desert biological region of Australia.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Myobatrachidae
Genus: Notaden
Species: Notaden bendetti 

Image Links:
http://kadesscienceproject.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/vertebrate-amphibian-crucifix-toad.html
http://www.comicvine.com/forums/off-topic-5/impurest-s-guide-to-animals-58-crucifix-toad-1652015/

Creature 293: Fulgora laternaria

Fulgora laternaria is a lanternfly commonly known as the Peanut head bug, because its head resembles a peanut.

The peanut head is probably some sort of mimicry, although I just don't see it. It works in conjunction with the eye like markings on their hind wings which they display when they are threatened.

Distribution:
The peanut head bug is endemic to the Amazon.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Fulgotidae
Genus: Fulgora
Species: Fulgora laternaria

Image Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgora_laternaria
http://panama-wildlife.blogspot.com.au/

Creature 292: Holconia

An excuse to post some of my own photos. 

Holconia is a genus of huntsman spider.

Images in this post are my own. You can use them for whatever you want.

Actually I'm not 100÷ sure I got this ID right, but I'm pretty confident this I Holconia, probably Holconia immanis as I found it in Sydney.

There isn't anything that special about these guys, they are big and scary looking but I really just wanted to post some of my photos on the blog.

Distribution:
Holconia are found throughout Australia. The species H. Immanis is found on the East coast.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Section: Entelegynae
Family: Sparassidae
Genus: Holconia

Creature 291: Microceratus gobiensis

I want one as a pet!

Microceratus gobiensis is a ceratopsian dinosaur commonly known as the microceratops.

When people think of ceratopsian dinosaurs they usually think of the Triceratops or the Styracosaurus. I find the microceratops so cool because it looks like a mini two legged version of the horned giants. Microceratops only grew to around two feet long and less than one foot tall.

Distribution:
Microceratops is one of the oldest ceratopsians living from around 127 to 66 million years ago . It lived in the area which is now central Asia.

Classification:
The common name Microceratops used to also be the scientific name for the genus until it was discovered that this name was already taken by a genus of wasp.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Ornithischia
Family:Ceratopsidae
Genus: Microceratus
Species: Microceratus gobiensis

Image Links:

Creature 290: Mystacina miocenalis

I am batman

Mystacina miocenalis is a recently discovered extinct bat from New Zealand. It was described this year.

As some of may know there are no native mammals in New Zealand except a few species of bats. This had lead to the evolution of many flightless birds. Apparently there was a bat which may have been well on the way to flightlessness. The bat was three times heavier than its closest relatives and you would think that the whole point of being a bat is flying, but these guys apparently walked on their strangely modified limbs.  These characteristics have earned it the nickname batman.

Distribution:
Bayman is known from a single cave on the South Island of New Zealand (the batcave, obviously). It is about 17500 years old.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Mystacinidae
Genus: Mystacina
Species: Mystacina miocenalis

Image Links:

Creature 289: Janthina janthina

Mucous bubble rafts.

Janthina janthina is a snail commonly known as a violet snail or purple snail.

These marine snails are in a group which are mostly ocean floor dwellers, but this species lives on the ocean's surface, an unusual habitat for a snail. They create a raft of bubbles underneath them which gives them buoyancy to float upside down on the surface. These bubbles are made from mucus, like the mucus which forms snail trails in land snails. They eat various surface dwelling Cnidarians.

Distribution:
These snails can be found in any ocean anywhere except arctic or antarctic waters.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Hypsogastropoda
Family: Janthinidae
Genus: Janthina
Species: Janthina janthina

Image Links:

http://www.roboastra.com/Mollusc3/hppr656.html

http://www.livescience.com/16475-amazing-mollusks-images-snails.html

Creature 288: Antennariidae

Yes, it is a fish

For some reason I don't understand this family of fish called Antennariidae is referred to in the common tongue as frog fish.

Frogfish are related to Melanocetidae, the finding nemo style angler fish. Frofish also have lures to catch their prey. Some frogfish can swallow prey twice their size. Their body is covered with weird bumps and spines and some species will grow plants or animals on their skin to camouflage. 

Many frog fish posses the ability to change their color or even their shape to aid in camouflage. They don't swim very much, which is weird considering they are fish. They prefer tho use their fins to walk along the ocean floor.

The next  image is my own, do what you want with it.

Distribution:
Frogfish live in tropical and subtropical water all over the world. Unlike many related families they are usually shallow water dwellers often living in reefs. There are a few deep sea species.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Lophiiformes
Family: Antennariidae

Image Links:

http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/frogfish

Creature 287: Meloe

A beetle or an STD?

Meloe is a genus of beetle which can be called oil beetles or blister beetles.

These beetles can be considered parasitic, but really they are just very clever predators and scavengers. Each species of Meloe is highly specialized to hunt bees of a particular species or a few closely related species. Juvenile Meloe beetles form large clumps of worms which roughly approximate the shape of a female bee. They then all emit pheromones which mimic those of female bees of the particular species they are hunting. The unsuspecting males which fly by will approach and be disappointed, however unharmed. The juvenile beetles only want to attach themselves to the unsuspecting male bee. Hopefully he will then find a real female bee and the juvenile beetles will transfer over. When the female eventually returns to her hive the beetles will infest it and feed off the honey and the defenseless juvenile bees.

This site has a good video of the whole process:

http://www.arkive.org/blister-beetle/meloe-franciscanus/video-09b.html

As adults most species of Meloe are completely flightless. Despite the horror movie like childhood the adults live on flowers and only eat pollen. When they are attacked (or picked up) they drip a toxic oily substance which can cause blistering on the skin.

Distribution:
Meloe can be found throughout the Americas and the Palaerctic region.

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Meloidae
Genus: Meloe

Image Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meloe

http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/News/How_Blister_Beetle_Nest_Parasites_Cooperate_to_Mimic_the_Sex_Pheromone_of_a_Solitary_Bee/

Video links:

http://www.arkive.org/blister-beetle/meloe-franciscanus/video-09b.html

Creature 286: Geospiza difficilis

Run! They have acquired a taste for blood.

Geospiza difficilis is one of Darwin's Galapagos Island finches and it it commonly called the sharp beaked ground finch.

As its name suggests it has a rather sharp beak. Its diet is usually fairly  typical for a bird, comprising of arthropods and some from various plants, but there is one subspecies which has developed a rather disturbing habit.

The subspecies Geospiza difficilis septentrionalis will sometimes feed off the blood of larger birds, usually Boobies*. Their sharp beaks peck holes in their skin and they feed on the blood which comes out. Whats is even stranger is that the boobies don't seem to resist. Some Ornithologists believe that this behavior must have evolved from the finches picking small arthropods from the feathers of the boobies and occasionally accidentally breaking the skin. The boobies don't resist because historically they would have benefited from the finch picking them clean of parasites.

*Sidenote: before you get carried away by the fact that there are birds called Boobies, I should mention that there is also a group of birds called tits which includes the great tits. Both these bird groups will have posts of their own on this blog eventually.

Distribution:
Geospiza difficilis is native to the Galapogus Islands.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thraupidae
Genus: Geospiza
Species: Geospiza difficilis

Image Links:

http://carnivoraforum.com/topic/9779112/1/

http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/14/charles-darwin-finches/

Creature 285: Chaenocephalus aceratus

Bloodless fish

Chaenocephalus aceratus is a type of antarctic ice fish, a group that dominates the freezing waters off the coast of Antarctica.

All members of this group have to be fairly well adapted for the cold and you would think that they would have to be fairly warm blooded fish. Chaenocephalus aceratus is more of a no blooded fish. It is the only vertebrate to have lost its blood. It still has a sort of translucent liquid made of of plasma pumping through its veins, but it has no blood cells and not even haemoglobin is present. Haemoglobin is the molecule vertebrates use to carry Oxygen around the body. Plasma can carry a limited amount of Oxygen, but it is only 10% as efficient.  To make up for this Chaenocephalus aceratus has an enormous heart and a higher volume of blood. This raises the question as to why they would loose rid of their blood. It doesn't give them an advantage in surviving the cold. I can't really answer that convincingly.

Distribution:
Chaenocephalus aceratus is known from a southern ocean island called Bouvet Island and from the waters around the Antarctic peninsula.

Classifications
Chaenocephalus aceratus is the only member of its genus.
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Actinopterygii
Order:Perciformes
Family:Channichthyidae
Genus:Chaenocephalus
Species:Chaenocephalus aceratus

Image Links:

http://oikonos.org/apfieldguide/album/Chordata/Actinopterygii%20-%20fish/Channichthidae%20-%20ice%20fishes/index.html

http://phys.org/news/2009-12-pictures-reveal-rich-antarctic-marine.html

Creature 284: Pristionchus pacificus

Worm which changes personality

Pristionchus pacificus is a roundworm which is sort of half parasitic.

As juveniles they are free living soil dwellers which like nothing more than to munch on soil bacteria. If bacteria are plentiful and there are not too many competitors they will develop a small contracted mouth and continue to feed on bacteria, but of there are not enough bacteria around they develop a wider mouth with teeth equipped for tearing apart and eating other roundworms. This apparent hostility towards competition is nothing like the behavior they exhibit when they grow up.

When they are ready to become adults they will want to to a host. Their hosts are typically dung beetles. In order to maximize their chance of finding a dung beetle host these worms will go to extreme lengths to cooperate. A whole lot of them glue themselves together and form a moving stalk which wriggles around in the hope of making contact with a dung beetle.

But that isn't the end of their general goodwill, these sort of parasites will remain mostly inactive inside the beetle while it is alive. When the beetle dies it will eat the bacteria which grow from feeding off the decaying corpse of the beetle.

Distribution:
This roundworm has a cosmopolitan distribution.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Nematoda
Class: Chromadorea
Order: Rhabditida
Family: Diplogastridae
Genus: Pristionchus
Species: Pristionchus pacificus

Image Links:

https://tuebingen.mpg.de/startseite/detail/wie-der-modulare-aufbau-der-proteine-die-evolution-foerdert.html

https://acrobeles.wordpress.com/category/pristionchus-pacificus/

Video Links:

https://youtu.be/1Vadp_hjwXI

Creature 283: Avicularia versicolor

Big hairy tarantulas can be pretty too

Avicularia versicolor is a big hairy tarantula, but before you judge it as ugly take a look:

It is commonly known as the Antilles pink toed tarantula. It lives in deep funnel webs inside trees. The juveniles are born with a radically different coloration to the adults and colour changes gradually as they mature.

Distribution:
Avicularia versicolor is native to a few Carribean Islands.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Theraphosidae
Genus: Avicularia
Species: Avicularia versicolor

Image Links:

https://greatdesignerssteal.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/avicularia-versicolour-aka-antilles-pink-toe/avicularia-versicolor/

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/gallery/showimage.php?i=2861

Creature 282: Hesiocaeca methanicola

Evolution beats sci-fi again

Under extreme conditions methane and water can freeze together to form an unusual crystal. These crystals are rather unoriginally called methane ice or methane clathrate or sometimes given the more interesting name fire ice. Originally we thought methane ice only existed on the outskirts of our solar system, until we found out that there were natural deposits trapped under the sea floor.

You wouldn't consider these deposits as receptive environments for life in general, but in 1997 Hesiocaeca methanicola was discovered living on top of these crystal deposits in the Gulf of Mexico.

These little worms wander around eating bacteria that feed of the unusual chemical environments around the sea ice crystals. A lot of the water they live in lacks dissolved oxygen. These can survive without oxgen for up to 96 hours.

Distribution:
Hesiocaeca methanicola can only be found in methane ice deposits at the bottom of the ocean, but can probably occur anywhere where these are found.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Annelida
Class: Polychaeta
Order: Phyllodocida
Family: Hesionidae
Genus: Hesiocaeca
Species: Hesiocaeca methanicola

Image Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesiocaeca_methanicola#/media/File:Ice_worm_closeupNASA.jpg

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

Creature 281: Corythucha

A very lacy lace bug

Corythucha is  a the first of many bugs in the family Tingidae which will appear on my blog. The tingids are sometimes called lace bugs because their exoskeleton is covered in lace-like texturing. This texturing can get quite bizarre in some species.

Corythucha are extra lacy lace bugs with strongly explanate wings and paranota which makes the lace like patterning stand out even more. Some species also have pretty cool color patterns.

As with most tingids the juveniles have completely different texturing on their exoskeleton,  but I can't say they are any less bizarre.

Maternal care is known within the genus.

Distribution:
Corythucha is endemic to the Americas.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Tingidae
Genus: Corythucha

Image Links:

http://www.ozanimals.com/Insect/Sycamore-Lace-Bug/Corythucha/ciliata.html
http://bugoftheweek.com/blog/2011/10/10/links-the-bug-that-put-the-sick-in-sycamore-sycamore-lace-bug-icorythucha-ciliatai
http://www.depi.vic.gov.au/agriculture-and-food/pests-diseases-and-weeds/pest-insects-and-mites/sycamore-lace-bug