Fire Beetle

Art

carve rabbit

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ctam/ / CC BY 2.0

The fire beetle (Pyrophorus noctilucus) has the brightest bioluminescence of any insect. It is bright enough to read by at 45 millilamberts. Unlike a firefly it can not turn off it's bioluminescence but it can brighten and dim. The bioluminescent spots are on it's thorax and resemble LED's. It is native to Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.

sword-billed hummingbird

Art

Probably not much today studying for the Comptia Network +

Animal

Photo by Michael Woodruff

The sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is a South American hummingbird with the longest bill to body proportion among birds. It specializes in flowers with long corollas such as Datura, passionflowers and fuchsias. These hummingbirds are a very extreme example of coevolution between pollinators and the plants they pollinate. It's bill is so large that it can not be used in groom so the bird grooms with it's feet. It must hold it's bill at a certain angle to fly and perch. They are also among the largest hummingbirds at 12 grams.

Acteon beetle

Still strangely depressed. Network + studying is coming along.

Art

goal for the week 17hrs

Today

work on and hopefully finish sphinx

Animal

Photo by photo.gustavomorejon.com

The Acteon beetle (Megasoma acteon) is one of the world's heaviest insects. It might well be the heaviest but that seems to be open to debate. For example gravid giant wetas (really, really big crickets) are heavier, but does it count if it is only heavier when gravid... stuff like that. They are about 4 inches long and quite bulky. Acteon beetles are native to northwestern South America, and I've not found anything that directly says they are found in the rain forest but they seem to thrive in a deep mulch with 90% humidity so I'm guessing. They are carpusluar and mainly found in the evenings between January and November. Vegitation and rotting wood seem to be their main food sources. Males and Females differ greatly as the males have three prominant horns one on their head and two off their thorax. The females have no horns. They are very strong beetles and can easily rip through screen mesh and their exoskeleton is described as thick almost crab-like. Apparently if placed on their back on a smooth surface they can not right themselves and can die if left in that position. The larva which are also quite large and can weigh as much as 1/12500th of a ton, also the larval stage is much longer then the adult stage. The adults tend to live 100-150 days while the larva take 3 years to reach maturity. Even their eggs are quite large often exceeding 2 inches in lenght beforh hatching. The eggs have a very long incubation period for an insect taking up to a month to hatch.

Megasoma Acteon was described by Linneaus in 1758, and retains its original name. This is significant as Linneaus was the one that developed the basis of the taxonomic system used today. Carl Linneaus is known as "the father of Taxonomy" he developed the concepts of hiearchical classification and binomial nomerclature still in use today. He also under went the giant task of trying to classify all known life. Most of his of his original classifications have been disputed, further examined, and changed. So the Acteon Beetle has one of the oldest scientific names that is still in use. This beetle's name probably references mythology, Linneaus seems to have used a lot of gods and mythological figures in the names he gave. For example another beetle with a vaguely canine-like head in the genus Megasoma, that was named by Linneaus is Megasoma anubis. Megasoma acteon probably came from the story of Actaeon the hunter (Acteon in french), who came upon Diana goddess of the hunt bathing in the forest. Diana was angered that Actaeon had seen her and turned him into a stag, which was dismembered by his own hounds. The beetle was probably named Megasoma acteon to refer to the stag-like horns of its thorax.

Horned screamer

Art

goal for the week 18hrs

Work on sphinx

Animal

Photo by gennaropascale.com

The horned screamer (Anhima cornuta) is a relative of waterfowl that lives in tropical South America. It has a horn-like corneous that projects from the center of it's forehead and it has sharp spurs on its wings. The wing spurs are used in territorial disputes the spur break off frequently during these fights but will re-grow later. They are said to form monogamous pairs. Typically, they are not eaten by humans because their flesh is full of air sacs and considered unpalatable. 

Sounds of their calls 

The Golden Toad

Art

Goal for the week-not happening 

Today 

Work on the sphinx

Animal

The coming climate change is likely to be causing quite a few extinctions, the golden toad (Bufo periglenes) has the honor of being the first extinction definitely attributable to global warming. They bred in mass in small pools in the cloud forests of Costa Rica. The effects of an effects of El Niño-Southern Oscillation caused these pools to dry up for several years killing all of the toad's young. They have not been seen since 1989.

Glowlight Tetra

It looks like my parents will be coming to Champaign this Sunday.

Art

still off

Animal

Photo by gonzalovalenzuela

The glowlight tetra (Hemigrammus erythrozonus) is a small brightly colored schooling tetra from the Essequibo River in South America. They are reasonably popular as aquarium fish as they are brightly colored, hardy, unaggressive and breed readily in captivity. Interestingly they also have an alarm chemical in their body, so that when they are eaten by predatory fish the fish excudes pheromones that alert other glowlight tetras. This was tested using small shoals of glow light tetras and exposing them to Jack Dempsey cichlids with different diets. The tetras had a very different response to Jack dempseys that had not eaten glowlight tetras. Glowlight tetras that sensed these pheromones began flicking their fins to alert the shoal of the predator. In some cases it was found that the predators were also deterred by the fin flicking behavior.

Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman

Not feeling well tonight I think I'm coming down with something. Went to the goth event thing at c-street last night.  It was probably Greg's last time DJing in Champaign. They randomly had some guy eating fire and walking on broken glass it was a friend of Jill's I think. 

Art

Still off

Animal

photo by Grufnik

Cuvier's Dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus) is the smallest of the crocodilians only reaching a length of about 3 feet. This make them quite popular as pets as unlike other crocodilians they stay a somewhat manageable size. They tend to be very aggressive for crocodilians in captivity, but have bred in captivity and can live up to 40 years. They tend to live in rivers and streams in north eastern South America it is theorized that their small size helps them to navigate through faster running water. They have the most bony plates of any crocodilian and they have some of the strongest stomach acid found in any known vertebrate.

Picture of a skeleton

Falkland island Fox

Art

goal for the week 15.5 hrs

Today

work on the sphinx

Animal

While I'm on depressing island wildlife. The Falkland island Fox (Dusicyon australis) was the only native land mammal of the Falkland islands and the only member of its genus, it is also the first canine driven to extinction in modern times. It is thought that it may be related to the coyote and perhaps even could have been the coyote's progenitor. There are many theories as to how it got to the Falkland islands. They were noted to be tame and curious which may be why its genus name Dusicyon means "foolish dog" it was not uncommon for trappers to lure them close with a piece of meat and then stab them to death. Settlers regarded them as a threat to their sheep and began a campaign of poisoning and trapping which wiped all of them out. The last Falkland island fox was shot in 1876, they were completely extinct 169 years after their initial discovery.

Amazonian snail-eater

The cockroach living room disappeared. 

Art

Goal for the week 18hrs

Today work on the sphinx

Animal

Photo by James I Watling

The Amazonian snail-eater (Dipsas indica) is a small snake from tropical South America. They have unusual eating habits in that they specialize in slugs and snails. To find their mollusk they generally find a slime trail via chemoreception and follow it. The teeth on their lower jaw are long and well adapted to help them deal with viscous prey. For snails they will constrict the snail and then use their lower jaws to work snails out of their shells. They also have a serous gland in their lower jaw which may secrete a substance that helps them in removing snails from their shells. It is also thought that with their unusual jaw structure that they can triangulate their head to resemble a more dangerous snake like the pitviper Bothrops jararaca.

Red-tailed tropic bird

Today we went to see "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" as part of the EbertFest thing going on downtown. This particular movie was put on by the Champaign Mental Health board and somewhat loosely tied to the rest of EbertFest.  It was also the first movie I've ever been where it was announced they had counselors ready if you needed to talk to someone about the movie.

Art

work on the sphinx

Animal

The red-tailed tropic bird (Phaeton rubricauda) is an open ocean sea bird found in the Pacific Ocean. They are not terribly related to any of the other living birds though they look to me like penguins with all of the necessary changes needed to make them fly. The red-tailed tropic bird is the largest and rarest of the tropic birds. They generally only exhibit one red streamer feather at a time except during the breeding season when both are displayed. During their mating display they also appear to fly backwards. Their long red feathers were prized by the Maori and occasionally used as trade goods. In Hawaiian mythology the red-tailed tropic bird was the offspring of the gray migrating tern.

Photo of a very cute red-tailed tropic bird chick

Video about red-tailed tropic birds with an older chick

Vampire Finch

Wasn't up for doing the mythology article today I will do one tomorrow. 

Art

Goal for the week 4.5 hours

Today 

work on the sphinx

Animal

Photo by KathB

Re-run from livejournal 

On the Galapagos island, Wolf island, there is a small black and brown bird that feeds on the blood of sea birds, mostly boobies. The vampire finch (Geospiza difficilis septentrionalis) is highly endangered bird that is sexually dimorphic the males being mostly black and the females being brown with stripes like most other female finches. It has been theorized that they had originally been removing parasites from the sea birds and gradually came to drink their blood instead. The sea birds seem unfazed by this and mostly sit still for the finches. They also will eat the eggs of the sea birds, seeds, and the nectar of Galapagos prickly pear. 

Black-crested coquette

I got very strange looks at our local hobby store today when getting puppet supplies. 

Art

Goal for the week 19hrs

Today

assemble first bits of armature for the fingers of the first stop motion puppet

drill into Serenity's base add weights and re-seal.

Animal

Photo by Jerryoldenettel

The black-crested coquette (Lophornis helenae) is a crested hummingbird from forested areas of Central America and Hawaii. It is being considered for the red list as there is speculation that there may be less then 10,000 of them left. Oddly its markings look a great deal like a 2 inch nectar eating sphinx moth Aellopos titan even down to having an antenna like crest. I was not able to find any reason for the mimicry, such as the moth being toxic, so I guess that is a mystery. Here a link to a picture of the moth.

Man o' war fish

Last night the head fell off  the sphinx and got was fairly smashed so I spent most of last night doing reconstructive surgery.  

Art

Goal for the week 17.25 hours

today

do the initial sculpt on a new pair of hands for serenity

paint boxes

Animal

The man-o-war fish (Nomeus gronovii) is a small (8 inch) drift fish that forms a symbiotic relationship with siphonophores like the Portuguese man o' war. It is theorized that it is immune to the Physalia's stinging cells. The fish gains protection from predators by living among the deadly tentacles and it in turn lures other fish into the man o' war. They may also remove debris from the tentacles of the siphonophores and occasionally eat the tentacles. They may leave the man o' war when they leave the juvenile stage. It is the only member of it's genus Nomeus.

photo of the real fish

Crested Anole

Someone knocked over and broke one of the pieces I had at Cinema Gallery so I need to see what needs to be done to repair that. If I have to replace the hands on this one again it will be kind of funny and the fourth time counting on this piece. The first time I made the hands for the piece and they were probably the best hands I'd ever made I got the veins of the back just right and then I dropped them as I was loading them in the kiln and was just sick. I tried to fix them but putting greenware porcelain back together is kind of iffy and in this case it ended up a lost cause. The next set not nearly as good I dropped on the way out of the kiln. The third set broke as I was attaching the piece to the base and dropped the whole piece. This last set I had made a little bigger and fired a lot higher and they had been good for months then someone knocked it over at the Gallery. I'll try them in ceramic one more time but it happens again I'm going to cast the friggin things in metal.

Art

Goal for the week 19.25 hrs

Today

make clay

look at Serenity and access damage

work on sphinx

Animal

photo by alumroot

When Stuart and I went to New Orleans I kept seeing a type of anole I was not familiar with, along with all the green and brown anoles and blue tailed skinks. It was brown and had a large back crest, and I was really curious as to what this thing was, you'd think I'd have seen it in a petstore somewhere with as many as there were. I speculated on what this odd anole with a crest's name might be, perhaps it had been named after the researcher that discovered it, or any number of other things. I hopefully did not annoy Stuart to much fixating on a strange lizard. We finally found a few in a tank at the aquarium and they were in fact the crested anole, so much for creative names. The crested anole (Anolis cristatellus) is not native to the U.S., actually being native to Puerto Rico, but have been fairly successful in establishing themselves. The males have crests bright orange dewlaps but the females do not.

Human

 

Art

Goal for the week- some time

Animal

The human (Homo sapiens) is a large bipedal primate from east Africa, though humans have become invasive on all of the other continents. As an invasive species humans tend to out compete local predators and wreak havoc on the megafauna.  Like some corvids humans have the ability to alter tools to the purposes they are using them for. Due to a special setup of the larynx and hyoid bone humans have a large vocal range and can make a wide variety of noises. Humans tend to have elaborate social groups sometimes living in colonies of well over a million. Odd among mammals though not unlike sandhill cranes both male and female humans get involved in mating displays. Many other species also interact with humans in symbiotic ways such as the African wild cat and the jungle fowl. Humans oddly enough have the most reduced canines among primates, but tend to be quite omnivorous and often prey on large animals. In mythology humans are strangely prominent they are featured in the mythologies of most if not all cultures.

Video of a male human engaged in some sort of mating display

Giant squid

I think this is the 100th post. Having shifted my schedule it is a little harder to post in the morning so I may be posting at night more frequently.

Art
Goal for the week 14hrs
today
work on the sphinx

Animal
Mythology

It gets a little hard to do the mythology of specific invertebrate species past a certain point since most people generalize them into types that cover quite a few species. The giant squid of the Architeuthis genus (of which they estimate there are between 3 and 8 species) have generated quite a bit of mythology since they are essentially sea monsters. In Norway and Iceland they can probably be linked to the Kraken. The Kraken was often described as a giant squid or crab-like monster that resembled an island and attracted fish. It was said that fishing was good directly over a Kraken, though it was also said that they would occasionally attack and pull down ships. The giant squid may also be the source of the sea monk a really weird looking thing from Denmark. Another creature, a bearded whale reported by Olaus Magus a Swedish writer might have also been a giant squid, though it does seems to have a happy little dog/seal face and claws added. Giant squid are also said to be minions of Cthulhu at many of the conventions I attend.

Rubber eel

I talked to my roommates and I think we will be still doing the April fools party thing for Loki this year. I might end up having to do it the weekend after the day to get more people though.

 

Art

Goal for the week 20hrs

Today

make clay

poke the guy with the Anubis mask access what needs to be done

work on the sphinx

look into how ventriloquist dummy heads are put together

Animal 

photo by Brian Grandwicke

The rubber eel (Typhlonectes natans) is not a fish at all but is an amphibian from a group of amphibians called Caecilians. Caecilian are a somewhat poorly studied group as most members of the group live underground or are fully aquatic. In the case of the rubber eel, it is is fully aquatic. Rubber eels do much of their respiration through their skin, but also need to breath air.  Like other caecilians they have a second set of jaw muscles to help them keep their mouth closed while burrowing they also have a small tentacle between their eye and nostrils that acts as a chemical sensor. Their teeth are small and hook backward to help them grip their prey you can tell that they are advanced highly evolved caecilians as their mouth is below the center of their head. Earlier caecilians have a mouth that is centered at the terminal end of their head. Rubber eels give birth to live young and embryonic rubber eels have natal teeth that they use to bite the oviduct wall of their mother to cause them to secrete a nourishing substance. They seem to be not uncommon in captivity and I found quite a few care sheets while I was looking into them.

Somewhat long video about these caecilians that shows a variety of their behaviors

Eastern bloodsucking conenose

I'm having  hard time finding good blocks of time to work on art. I tend to get better results from longer blocks of time. I may start experimenting with new schedules. 

Art

Goal for the week 18.75 hours

Today

make clay

work on the guy with the Anubis head

Animal

Photo by Cotinis

The eastern bloodsucking conenose (Triatoma sanguisuga) is an assassin bug that ranges all over from the eastern United States to South America. Assassin bugs in general prey on other insects such as cockroaches and bedbugs and a number of the very beneficial north American assassin bugs also have the spots on side and that general body shape so one should take care not to jump to conclusions. The eastern bloodsucking conenose does feed on the blood of vertebrates particularly rats and mice though it is not completely unheard of for them to go after sleeping humans. When they do bite humans it is generally around the mouth. The nymphs have a sticky coating on their body that they use to pick up dust and debris to help camouflage themselves. They are long lived insects and can take 3 years to fully develop. Their feeding bite is generally painless , but they should  be handled  carefully as they also have a defensive bite that is very painful and can cause nausea and in some cases severe allergic reactions. 

A blood feeding assassin bug that looks sort of like the Eastern bloodsucking conenose but might be a different species versus an adorable baby vampire bat video

Odobenocetops

Art

goal for the week 12.75 hrs

today

work on the guy with the Anubis mask

Animal

drawing by Pavel Riha

Odobenocetops (Odobenocetops peruvianus) was a relative of modern Narwhals and Beluga whales. This very early member of the dolphin superfamily was found off the coast of Peru about 4 million years ago. While it has a very walrus-like head this is an example of convergent evolution it is not actually related to walruses.  It has been suggested that it sucked bivalves out of their shells in a manner similar to a walrus. Like a walrus it had tusks it is thought that the tusk were either some sort of sensory organ or that they were part courtship process. The tusks on either side of it's head were uneven the right tusk being twice as long as the left. It is not uncommon for toothed whales to have asymmetrical skulls this being just a very extreme example. It is thought that asymmetrical skulls were part of the development of sonar. Odobenocetops peruvianus did not have sonar so far as paleontologists can tell it was probably not needed to catch bivalves. 

Spix's Disk-winged Bat

We started Jenn's 3.5 D & D game last night, I felt a bit bad as my character was only half finished. I take a really long time making D& D characters.  I think Nick had decided to stop running his Lovecraftian game. 

Art

goal for the week 20hrs

today

make clay

work on the porcelain parts of guy with the Anubis mask

Animal

photo by Alumroot

Spix's disk-winged bats (Thyroptera tricolor) are  insectivorous bats that range from Mexico to southeastern Brazil. They tend to roost in curled leaves and are one of the few bats that does not sleep upside down. They stay upright with little specially muscled suction cups on the base their thumbs and ankles. Each one of these suction cups adheres with enough strength to hold up the whole bat, so if one comes loose during the day they don't fall out of the leaf.  To get the suction cups to better adhere to the leaf they do lick them, they also have special sweat glands in the suction cups that helps them to maintain the bond. They tend to roost in small groups containing one male and several females.