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This beetle is named Onymacris unguicularis, or the ‘tok-tokkie’ beetle. Why does he look as if he’s trying to stand on his head?
He’s developed a rather nifty way of getting a drink. As a sea fog rolls in of a morning the beetle presents himself to it. This is where things get clever, his carapace is made up of a series of peaks and troughs. The peaks are very attractive to water and the fog settles on them, the troughs however are waxy and hydrophobic and the water rolls off the trough and begins to form droplets. The water naturally runs down the inverted beetles body and into his mouth, smashing!
The beetle derived its English name from his drinking habits. Read more at Ever So Strange. Link -Thanks, Danny!
The Lesser of the Two Weevils – $9.95
For entomologists, the choice is clear: always pick the lesser of the two weevils. This clever design by Chris Murphy is my current bug T-shirt favorite! Link | More Science T-Shirts
Trivia for you: the word weevil comes from an Old English word "wifel" meaning "small beetle." We won’t go into the philosophical matter of whether a bug can be evil, but the destructiveness of certain kinds of weevils is well established: the boll weevil devastated the US cotton industry in the 1920s.
It doesn’t get much more random than this, Neatoramanauts! College Humor presents: a chameleon eating a cricket off a sumo wrestler’s face, captured in super slo-mo goodness.
Hit play or go to Link [College Humor] – Thanks Sparks!
‘Actually,’ says Jessica, ‘it’s easier to get her in the right position than you’d think. I just wait until it’s late at night and she’s really sleepy so can’t be bothered to scurry away. Then I just follow her round with my camera until I get a good shot.’
Link to story. Link to Bug’s Flickr set. -via Unique Daily
(image credit: Jessica Florence)
I mean, if you find cockroaches cuddly. Or is it a roly poly? I don’t know what this thing is supposed to be, and I can’t find it on the IKEA site. All I know is that I was simultaneously repulsed and amused when I saw a big bin of these at IKEA the other day, so I snapped a picture. His mouth zips open, so he can be used for storage or as a purse or something. I thought about getting this for a friend’s upcoming baby shower, but then decided she probably wouldn’t appreciate the gesture.
I’m torn. What do you guys think – funny? Creepy? Or both?
