#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.

[luckylolabug]

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

[greypetrel]

"I don't understand, Chuckles, why is Sparkler scared of the outside and Pikachu isn't?" "A mistery for the ages."

It had to be done. (Dorian survived the experience, Varric just did what the Hawke kids loved. Except he's not a panzer-like child like the Hawkes, and wasn't as appreciative.)

You're welcome about Varric.

One year later, I coloured it!

[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.

[jesterificart]

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

[starjumpingpanda]

You know what's been bugging me?

Lucy said to Tim that her and Chris "never fight"

Before Tim arranged for Chris to be Lucy's date at the Double Date of Infamy, Lucy and Chris weren't quite so friendly.

Either they got together and it was all puppies and rainbows because fighting wasn't worth the effort, or Chris really is evil and he was trying to be the perfect boyfriend...

[box-of-chaooos]

Barrel rock art!!

Inspired by sparklywinona’s on Instagram makeup look of rockstar barrel.

[icewindandboringhorror]

maybe we should bring this back

[mercuryislove]

just guzzled some pepto and saltines and I've got a xanax and a sleeping pill waiting for me. if I don't sleep tonight then there truly is no hope

[cluepoke-archive]

One day... one day I'd like to do puppet comissions.... when I have the money to get all the materials for said puppets

[constancelyobsessed]

John Doe Appreciation Post!

Open this post if you’re not having a great day and your fav is John Doe!

[luckylolabug]

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

Also reminder my commissions are open!

[bludraws094]

woo gardening

the dish in the middle is for bees. im gonna put blue marbles in it and then fill it with water. the water is so they dont die of thirst (which is apparently a common thing to happen to bees?) and the marbles are so they dont drown

i have extra marigolds along with some seeds and bulbs that i didnt get to fit in there (its also bcus i had an odd number of each type of marigold and i for some reason felt the need to make this somewhat symmetrical)

i didnt get to use any of my bachelors buttons seeds. of which i have a shit ton. hopefully my mom figures out a good spot for me to plant everything else bcus i want to plant the fucking bachelors buttons

[femmefaggot]

hmm

[toomuchdickfort]

First run where I attempt to use barrelmanxy, and it’s forgetting my explosives until I reach a fight that sucked the first run, and then I’m emptying out my inventory to bring out as much of my hoard as possible straight before going ‘oh shit I didn’t expect that to work’