Fauna Fabula: Unreal Animals in the Real World

allcreatures:

Flapjack (or pancake) devilfish (or octopus) are rarely seen swimming in open water, preferring to flatten themselves on the bottom, when the reason for their name becomes apparent.

Deep sea wildlife photo gallery by Lia Barrett

tiny-forest:

Red cage fungus

mushroom blog 

(via princeofmayfair)

animalworld:

GIANT REDHEADED CENTIPEDE
Scolopendra heros
©TL McCormick

The Giant Redheaded Centipede is a species of centipede found in North America. It has an average length of 6.5 inches (170 mm), but can reach up to 8 in (200 mm). Its trunk bears 21 or 23 pairs of legs. It is aposematically [brightly] colored, to warn off potential predators, and a number of color variants are known in the species.

S. heros is found in northern Mexico and the southern United States, from New Mexico and Arizona in the west, to Arkansas and Missouri in the east. It remains underground on warm days, emerging in cloudy weather. Source

Other posts you may like:

Purple Long-Legged Centipede

Two Pink Dragon Millipedes

Onychophora spitting goo

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winsect:

Scolopendra heros, Giant Redheaded Centipede

North America

(Source: )

allcreatures:

Won’t Lose Her Marbles. Photograph courtesy S.D. Biju.

A previously unknown caecilian from India watches over her clutch of eggs in the lab of University of Delhi amphibian biologist Sathyabhama Das Biju. Biju and his team were surprised to discover that females of this newly named species, Chikila fulleri, remained protectively coiled around their developing offspring for up to three months. “The mother is guarding the eggs for almost 95 days without eating anything,” Biju said. “Always the mother is with her eggs.” Such levels of maternal care are rarely seen in amphibians, the study team noted.

Pictures: New Amphibians Without Arms or Legs Discovered

parasitize:

Hopper (sp. Phrictus quinqueparitus) with wings open.

(via entomophilia)

insectlove:

fuckyeahbeetles: Darwin’s beetle (Chiasognathus grantii) is a Chilean beetle of the Lucanidae (stag) family. When it was collected by Charles Darwin on his Beagle voyages, he noted that the fearsome mandibles were “not so strong as to produce pain to finger”. Instead, these huge structures, only found in males, are used for wrestling over females. Due to their arboreal lifestyle these wrestles often result in the loser being thrown from great heights, back to the bottom of the tree.

natureofnature:

Phyllosoma larvae of coral lobster

(via oceanstuff)

animalworld:

KING RAGWORM
Alitta virens
©Alexander Semenov

Another great shot by Alexander Semenov!

Alitta virens is an annelid worm that burrows in wet sand and mud. It is classified as a polychaete in the family Nereididae .

Sandworms make up a large part of the live sea-bait industry. “Sandworming”, or the harvesting of sandworms from mudflats, employs over 1,000 people in Maine. As of 2006, the population of sandworms had diminished greatly over the preceding years due in large part to overharvesting before the worms are mature and able to reproduce.

Sandworms eat seaweed and microorganisms. They have distinctive traits, including:

• often reaching great length, sometimes exceeding four feet
• numerous, highly vascularized parapodia* along both sides of their bodies
• blue heads with two large pincer teeth

*The parapodia function both as external gills (the animal’s primary respiratory surfaces), and as means of locomotion (appearing much like short legs). Source

Other posts:

Solar-powered Sea Slug

Oceanic Carpet Worm

Pompeii Worm

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rhamphotheca:

animalisticos: Alitta virens by Alexander Semenov on Flickr.