#moulting — Public Fediverse posts

Moulting Season

I’ve mentioned several times on this blog that there are many crows in Maynooth. By “crows” I mean members of the family Corvidae, including rooks, jackdaws and magpies as well as crows themselves, of which the hooded crow is the most common around these parts. I find them all fascinating, as they are remarkably intelligent, playful and full of mischief, though they can be a nuisance at times. The sound of crows clattering about on the roof can be quite distracting, and their cawing and chattering is hardly musical. I’m used to them now, though. I often watch them with suspicion, wondering what they’re up to, but don’t try to scare them off. I would miss them if they went away.

At this time of year the crows are moulting, and I regularly have to pick up discarded feathers here and there:

I noticed some rooks and jackdaws starting to moult a few weeks ago, actually. The usual season is “late summer”, i.e. after the beeding season, but I suppose the precise timing of the onset of moulting depends on the weather. It does seem a rather uncomfortable time for these birds. Their new feathers have to grow out through their skin as the old ones are discarded which can’t be a pleasant experience. I imagine they feel quite itchy while it’s going on. They also look very dishevelled and grumpy; sometimes even embarrassed. Some look sick or diseased, but they’re quite healthy really. It’s just a natural phase they go through once a year. Soon they will emerge with shiny new feathers, ready for fresh mischief.

All this this reminded me of this famous excerpt from a letter written by the artist Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo in 1880:

What the moulting season is for birds – the time when they lose their feathers – setbacks, misfortune and hard times are for us human beings. You can cling on to the moulting season, you can also emerge from it reborn, but it must not be done in public.

It echoes one of the themes of yesterday’s post.

Mue de sauterelle

#photo #insect #insecte #sauterelle #grasshopper #Moulting #mue #insectodon

🚀 MoultDB is now featured on Expasy!

The database has been highlighted by the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics @SIB on their bioinformatics resource portal

🔗 https://www.expasy.org/
🔗 https://moultdb.org

#Arthropods #Moulting #Bioinformatics #OpenScience

🚀 We’re live!

🌐 Moulting.org – a hub for knowledge and resources on arthropod moulting

📊 MoultDB – the first database integrating data from fossils, field observations & genomics

Our goal: make moulting research open, integrated, and accessible.
Follow for updates, images, and stories about arthropod moulting 🦀🦋🕷️🦗

#Arthropods #Moulting #Biodiversity #Bioinformatics

Nice update of the @moultdb database, with iNaturalist observations integrated with genomic data and scientific observations from extant and fossil species!
https://moultdb.org/species/ncbi/7130 #Arthropods #Moulting #Molting #EvoDevo #CitizenScience

Ever seen a woodlouse shedding? It splits directly down the middle, the front falls off forwards and it walks out of the tail. Or, in this case, sits and eats the front first. The moult looks like a little, white ghost of a woodlouse.

#photography #MacroPhotography #wildlife #nature #woodlouse #woodlice #moulting

We do zoology! New preprint on staging the moulting of shrimp Palaemon varians led by @nextstrain.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.23.609361v1 #Moulting #Molting #Arthropods #Crustacean

Dear Friends of #moulting,
As we know lobsters 🦞 and snakes shed their skins, shells. Politicians #shed their #words as soon as elected. Spooks kick everyone out of the #cuckoo #nest... And everyone is likely to #change their #favourite [insert 'immutable' choice]

We are a strange bunch of coconuts. ​:dopefish:​ Some green. Some brown on the outside. Sum... don't add up.

#Fortunately there is a #solution. Come to #think of it, many solutions. For example:

- Principals are for #schools, not strangulation
- ​:anarchy:​
- Consider the grass of the fields, how they get munched to make room for milkers and honey space. Bee Power!
- Romans, Nazi and Empires. Fall. (you knew right?)

In other words, #step #aside and #find the #happy #place. Mine is in my head, #heart and Yummy #Tummy. Today I am having a day of #restitution. Went for a lovely #walk. Had a #shower. Gonna have #Pastafarian for lunch. Like a mama used to make. With fresh 'erb. Aye, aye, I an' I, an' a tooth 4 a #truth for the #fairies... and #pirates
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

Have a wondrous day. Because you are worth it 🦋

Updated preprint of momentous review of arthropod moulting led by Giulia Campli and @rmwaterhouse: https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/6538/ #EvoDevo #ArthropodEvolution #arthropod #molting #moulting #ecoevorxiv

Cryptops sp. in the process of moulting. The large rear (ultimate) legs can apparently be jettisoned (autotomized) to confuse predators. Eyeless. Swarthmore, PA, USA. #centipede #nature #chilopoda #ecdysis #moulting #arthropod

Lua: "My plan for bunny assexual reproduction has been discovered! Daddy removed most of my moult!"

#bunny #bunniesOfMastodon #moulting #moult

Throwback to half a year ago, right in the middle of #moulting season. Some #crows rock the "worn out and burst sofa cushion" with more dignity than others.
I think Kräkrä wore a quite fashionable grunge look last year. Don't you think, too?

New preprint by @moultdb project member Harriet Drage: Trilobite moulting behaviour variability had little association with morphometry https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.12.520015v1 #trilobite #paleontology #moulting #ArthropodEvolution #UNIL

It’s been a while since I was kept up by a #moulting #tarantula. Just caught the tail end of one of my #Lasiodora parahybana females. Not long now.