#barrel bug

[ocean-sunfish-hater]

Parasitoidism and Deep Sea Mechs

ID: A white/ transluscent crustacean inside of a barrel-like jelly structure that is transparent. They are set against a black background.

This shrimp-like creature is a type of deep sea amphipod called Phronima, referred affectionately by some as a barrel bug. Look! It's got a little house for itself! How did it get there? Why is it doing that? Oh god, what does this have to do with the title of this post?

Parasitoidism is an extreme form of parasitism where the host will eventually die. This is different from the other types of parasitism where there may be detriments to the host, but they rarely die as a direct result of the parasitism. Think of a flea - they might suck their host's blood and they may cause damage to it, but one flea will never suck so much blood as to kill the host (of course, it may later die of a disease transmitted by the flea). For a parasite killing the host isn't the best strategy, because then you are essentially destroying your home, your restaurant and your social life all at the same time.

ID: An orange parasitoid wasp sits on top of a bristly caterpillar, with its sting buried inside its victim. They are both sat on a leaf, and the picture is taken close up so that the finer veins of the leaf are visible.

Parasitoidism, on the other hand, eventually results in the death of the host due to the extreme amount of resources taken from it. Most famously, parasitoid wasps lay eggs inside a paralysed host, keeping it alive long enough for its offspring to hatch and consume it. Some larvae even eat non-essential organs first to keep their hosts alive for as long as possible as they grow. Apparently Charles Darwin thought this was so fucked up he questioned whether his God was truly omnipotent or benevolent if such a creature existed.

ID: A picture of a sea salp, a type of marine invertebrate. It has a transparent, jelly-like body that is somewhat tube shaped. Inside the body are two major structures: an orange, spherical mass to the right hand end, and an opaque, white rod-like structure that runs along the body (right to left in the picture). It is set against a dark background.

Anyway, that jelly-like structure that the Phronima is sitting in, it's not something that it made itself through some bodily secretion or scavenging. It's actually the hollowed-out body of an animal called a salp, which is a type of tunicate (these can sometimes form massive colonies, hopefully have a post coming about that at some point).

The Phronima eats the inside of the salp then climbs inside the remaining tunic, in which it makes its home and lays its eggs. It then proceeds to pilot the carcass around like a fucking mech, steering it through the deep sea. Moving its new mobile home round like this allows fresh water and food to flow in through the front, nourishing the happy new homeowner and eventually its larvae once they hatch.

Of course, at this point the salp is likely dead and has been for a while, which is what makes this parasitoidism.

Hope you enjoyed! Have excellent nightmares.

[worm-wifeguy]

Encountered another bug that I thought was pretty funny

Franco warning btw for one mutual in particular 💗

He got stuck in a hiding spot, then Franco got stuck trying to kill him, they were both there for the rest of the trial

Bless his soul for staying he's stronger then me 🙏

[the-bug-bl0g]

The bees LOVE this fountain my mom put in every time I look at it there’s at least 10 guys there

[vampiric-stims]

Dr Wernicke Stimboard for @karangellc !!

I have decided that he is a wasp AND a mantis

“That fucking bird that I hate! That fucking bird that I hate!”

[shanxpennywise]

I was stuck in the bed when facing Franco, then baby boy Franco was staring at me like I'm a bottle of milk. 😂😭

(Reupload.)

[luckylolabug]

Shamelessly promoting my 1920s prohibition era fic (found here) by sharing my scribbles of George and Flo to go with it.

[acmeoop]

Look What Crawled Out Of The Woodwork “Hillbilly Hare” (1950)

[conkreetmonkey]

i completely forgot whether i actually sent these to you so my apolocheese if you're getting jumpscared by these again,.,,, Conky featured in random daily doodles

"I'd never kill you Buggsy! Why would I do that? We're friends!"

"You're so silly, Bug. These are going on the fridge!"

*sticks your drawings on my disgusting rusty refrigerator with letter magnets, a B and a C to represent our friendship*

*moves in for a hug, reeking of something between burnt hair and blue chemical toilet, various foul oozes smeared across my body*

[circuswallaby]

My Earthen ladies!

Eostre is a very ancient tender from Sholazar Basin who's fiesty and fun loving! She goes dormant for a few thousand years here and there no big deal. It's her beauty "sleep".

Djarfr is remnants of Loken's betrayal in Storm Peaks, and found herself a member of the Frostborn clan upon her exile from Ulduar. She does not get beauty "sleep" and has many cracks along her form from past battles.

[redwylde]

Was really struggling to defeat Myrkul on Tactician mode last night, spent a good 3 hours on it. After about 13 reloads he took pity on me and blew himself up. Not.. sure how.

Went back to look at the combat log to see if I could figure it out but uhhhh.. yep! Just blew himself up!

[mariana-oconnor]

Really love how sometimes in Dragon Age: Inquisition you go to the quest marker and there's nothing there, so you wander around looking for things and nothing happens, and you explore the whole area and nothing happens and still there's a quest marker and you know there must be something you need to do or find but there's nothing.

Also how that Special Shipments quest exclamation mark pops up every time I go to Haven and then if I go and click on the box nothing happens except the exclamation mark disappears. Also the exclamation mark near the Astrarium south in the Hinterlands where there is nothing there to start the quest that I can see. Am I blind? Am I stupid? Is this really obvious to everyone else? Starting to play more video games has taught me that I am a completionist. That exclamation mark nags at me like a hang nail. WHAT IS THE QUEST? WHY CAN I NOT GET IT? There's a giant statue thing nearby, but I can't interact with it. There's the Astrarium, but I've done that. LET ME GET THE QUEST!

[worm-wifeguy]

I discovered a rlly strange bug I haven't seen before in outlast today + neat pitcher shot

Eye strain warning below cut ig

My bae first tho 👅

Idek how this happened 😭

Has anyone else seen this before xd

[sad-zombie-boy]

I broke the screamer

I love this game

[shanxpennywise]

Alrighty then!...😂

(Reupload.)

[luckylolabug]

Teaser for chapter 7 of my 20s AU. Oops.

Also reminder my commissions are open!

[jesterificart]

its that time of year again time for... MORE BUGS!!!