What better way to console ourselves in Times of Trouble than to look at animals? Here, from biologist/photographer Piotr Nackrecki’s Facebook page (his website is here), is a gorgeous beetle with a political caption:
We are only hours into the new presidency and I have already been attacked for merely documenting how the nation reacts to this new reality. To lighten the mood, here is a beautiful rhinoceros dung beetle (Coprophanaeus lancifer) from Suriname.
Magnificent.
Not something I’d ever want to sit on. But, it’s a beautiful specimen and a great diversion from the politics in Washington. Entomology as safe-space.
That picture of the ‘orangutan’ spider he has up on his Facebook page in incredible.
It looks like an eight-legged Wookie.
Beautiful!… for a dung beetle!
How appropriate, we celebrate the ascension of a dung beetle with a picture of a dung beetle.
Good one…though I will state the obvious and say that comparing Trump to a dung beetle does the beetle a disservice. 😉
An excellent picture, and a reminder..
The sun will come out tomorrow…
Come out? Not in our forecast. We have nothing but clouds and rain until Tuesday. Wednesday will return to rain.
Don’t let me be a wet blanket, though. Wouldn’t want to rain on anyone’s parade.
That’s a beetle. More fun than political news
Oddly, the Rhinoceros dung beetle has nothing to do with rhinoceri, and doesn’t even eat dung… As I recall, this and some of its kin feed on carrion, burying brood balls under a carcass, much as its forebears processed dung.
The large mammals of the Americas, and in particular South America, were decimated first by the Great Interchange and then by humans.. One can only imagine the magnificent scarabs that passed with their provendors.
Reason #23453 why I’m grateful for this site and my daily read. I was ignorant of the term Great Interchange and you sent me to Wikipedia to look it up. I’ve had a delightful half-hour exploring it.
That it dates to 15,000,000 years ago, and America just elected a YEC Vice President who would have to willfully ignore that evidence added to my interest.
Thanks to you, and to PCC(e).
By the way, this picture has a bonus: Find the mite! Easy this time, the amber thingie near the beetle’s eye is a predatory mite that pickabacks with the beetle from dungpat to dungpat. Or in this case from carcass to carcass. Just about all dung and carrion beetles give free rides, and beneifit from their little friends. The mites attack fly eggs and larvae in these foul habitats and sogive the beetles’ brood a fair start in life.
An interesting thing about this ‘dung’ beetle, according to the link is that it prefers to eat carrion rather than dung. That is different!
Magnificent beastie.