Hello Dark Mode Users :)

the dog from teletubbies. perfect creature

i will yell and cry and scream until my throat is raw and ragged

I WILL LOVE I WILL BE LOVED! I WILL HOLD MY ARMS OPEN FOR OTHERS AND THEY WILL FIND COMFORT IN MY EMBRACE!!! I WILL NEVER BE LIKE YOU! I WILL LOVE! I WILL LOVE!

Your stuffies wanted me to tell you that they love you and care about you. They'll always be there for you, no matter what! Don't worry, they forgive you for accidentally dropping them on the floor during the night while you were sleeping. They know it was just an accident, and that you love them too!

enamored lately with an asmr channel i stumbled upon on youtube that’s literally just a sweet korean lady pretending to give her enormous ragdoll cat (who she pretends is a famous and wealthy cat actress) extravagant spa treatments that are wildly, wildly overpriced (because the cat is rich)

Am I really the Last?

Moth Of The Day #272

Coenobasis amoena

From the limacodidae family. There is little to no information recorded about this moth.

Image sources: [1] [2]

Vida's Sheep Jumping Spider: researchers believe that these tiny spiders developed their "woolly" appearance as a way to mimic lacewing larvae or scale insects

The scientific name for this species is Oviballus vidae, but it has also been referred to as the "sheepy jumping spider" or "Vida's jumping spider." It was discovered in 2015, and first described (in a formal context) back in 2020.

As this article (PDF) describes:

Recently, two new salticids, R. legitima and Oviballus vidae were described from South Africa, and suggested to be mimics of either scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) or lacewing larvae (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), due to their white colouration and the presence of peculiar tufts of white setae on the body.

The possibility of [scale insects] being the model is supported by Oviballus vidae being regularly collected from plants with woolly scales, although the movements of O. vidae quite closely resemble those of chrysopid larvae.

In fact, a fourth species of possible scale mimic, a new Rhene species, was recently discovered in a collection of salticids from southern Mozambique, indicating that this phenomenon may be more widespread than has previously been known or even suspected.

O. vidae was named after Vida van der Walt, the photographer who captured some of the first images of these spiders back in 2015, just after the species was discovered by Dr. Galina Azarkina. Vida van der Walt also took the photographs that appear in this post.

Sources & More Info:

Arthropoda Selecta (scientific journal): Rediscovery and Redescription of Rhene cooperi, another possible mimic of scale insects (PDF)

Spider Club of South Africa: Two New Species Named After SA Photographer (PDF, with the relevant info on page 5)

Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa: Section on Vida's Sheep Jumping Spider

We will see you soon, Neighbor!

SOUND ON.

"Curiosity Killed My Beia" A comic I did for The Spinoff's Comic of the Month