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#arthropods β€” Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #arthropods, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Here's a head scratcher. I have this unidentified beetle that seems to closely resemble some Vexing Rove Beetles (Atheta sp.)

    It really looks to me to be eating this leaf. There was a similar track in the same leaf with two of them in it. I couldn't get my camera in close enough to get pictures though. The problem is, I have never heard of rove beetles being herbivores. What gives? Are they eating mold?

    #Insects #Beetles #Entomology #Colombia #Arthropods #Herbivory #InsectInteraction

  2. The final pic relating to this slime mold scene is of a bristly millipede (Polyxenus lagurus, I think), a group I had never heard of before. They have detachable rear bristles that apparently function like grappling hooks and can be deployed against ants and spiders. Details of that in linked paper if you need more. #millipedes #Diplopoda #Polyxenidae #arthropods #nature #biology
    pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas..