Gynandromorphism In Spiders

Chicago Tribune, Illinois, September 20, 1925

One of the best and most imaginative books ever written about science and science communication was “After Man: A Zoology of the Future” (1981), which guessed, based on what we know about the laws of evolution, what the future would look like millions of years from now when humans are extinct.

I would look at this one in the library, and just read it for hours. My favorite is the idea the humble rat would diversify into a thousand species, including huge predators, and that eventually, an island would be settled by flying bats, who then diversify into dozens of roles, including ground-walking echolocation predators. 

pothos fam 🍃💚

The Amazing Spiderman (2012) dir. Marc Webb + letterboxd reviews

biggest betrayal is when it’s supposed to thunderstorm and it doesn’t

Can i be completely honest?

I wasnt sure the display enclosures I built were the best choice. Even though i am pro enrichment and larger enclosures, i had my doubts that a ball python would use all that space.

The behavior im seeing is so awesome though. Like Khaleesi, who is 6-7 years old now, raised and bred entirely in a typical rack system for most of her life, is a very different snake. She would hide pretty much exclusively, even in my larger tubs. If you check the past posts- i believe i excitedly posted a photoset seeing her out for the first time ever a few months back. That alone was amazing to me. Now, my mind is blown. Youve seen the pictures, but im not sure you know how proud of her i am.

Look at that. Confidently chilling up top where the hotspot is about 95.

Part of me wasnt going to put her in a display. Not because ball pythons do poorly in large enclosures, but because i was certain she wouldnt use the space, whereas the animals i raised with enrichment would put it to better use. It sounds funny but i was scared i would find out animals treated like breeder would never take advantage of enrichment and thusly would not “need” it. That would make all of my efforts pointless.

Despite all that, I intuitively felt that she needed to be in the first completely finished display enclosure.

You can see, that was the right choice and she has expanded her behaviors.

I see her out and about, but shes also more confident. For example:

She started to periscope when the door was closed, and i was able to open the door and snap this picture without having her shirk away in fear or immediately seek a hiding spot to escape.

Watching her and the other females use their enclosures to perform different behaviors has encouraged me again.

And now, when i get responses like this:

I can smirk and laugh, because my animals are healthier.

Oh i also saw Asteria and Prometheus mating out in the open 🤷‍♀️

emo about lichens again

“What If Our Pets Were Bugs??”