by Grania
To end off the day in style, Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal has gifted the world with a lurid but affectionate look at the reproduction cycle of one of nature’s critters.
This is a red velvet mite and he's here to teach you about love https://t.co/39chJkyvE4 pic.twitter.com/oqAyCMkhuM
— The Oatmeal (@Oatmeal) February 15, 2016
Check out the full cartoon here.
And here’s a taster.
Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody. Or not, if you are morally or ethically opposed to such things.
eww.
No. The sound is: ‘Awwww..’
Yes!
*Nitpick: mites are not insects, they are arachnids, so the experts who study them are arachnologists, not entomologists.
*nits are eggs of head lice.
How romantic!
I know this is not what the British refer to with the phrase – a sticky wicket.
Yeah, sounds like typical male behaviour to me.
cr
bowerbird with about a millionth of the computing power. nice!
Hey, who would have thought that the mating rituals of obese-looking, red velvety spiders (that do not bite or sting) would be so fascinating?
Carl Kruse
What are the traits of a creature that you would expect to have fascinating mating rituals?
I tend to think of songbirds, cranes, deer, lions. (Classism, maybe). Also of butterflies. Animals that appeal to our aesthetic sense.
Belatedly and to you all.
Ooh, a Rorschach Valentine. 😉
I can see… Batman in there, also… other things.
cr
In my wife’s school they have banned celebrations of Valentine’s Day … well, and just about anything else. Fun? We’ll have none of THAT!
Rationale: It will make the less well-off kids feel bad because they can’t afford valetines. Well, except that no one is required to bring them, many kids don’t, the teachers help them make them if they want to do that; and the teachers provide purchased ones* if they want those.
(* Just another example of costs of being a teacher. I’m sure almost all elementary school teachers spend $1000/year out of their own (generally meager) salaries on supplies (including back packs, clothing, food …) for the kids they teach, because the parents can’t or won’t. My wife and her colleagues regularly send kids home with food packages in their back packs.)