Supposedly, at least according to something I read in the Britannica, if you get yourself a dragonfly, and arrange its body so that its tail end is in reach of its mouth, it will start devouring itself.
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I like praying mantises. Even the tiny ones have completely outsized titanium ballz, especially the females. I tried to move one about an inch long away from a large garden spider web, but she wasnât having any of it. Whenever I got close with a fingertip, she would threaten me with her itty-bitty forelegs.
This does not bode well if we ever find one bigger than a small dog, although I would totally root for it vs. the giant bird-eating centipede.
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this and the whole recent similar studies with animals really does complicate my vegetarianism, right on top of the buddhist guilt i was dealing with.
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After an exhaustive study (I searched Youtube for âdragonfly eating itselfâ and got no results), Iâm forced to conclude that this is not true.
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Thatâs why the only meat I eat is chicken.
Chickens are horrible, awful little monsters.
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I have a fond memory of a gay date I once went on with a SHARP, so . . . yeah, still donât like wasps.
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My mom always told me that dragonflies will sew my mouth shutâŚ
Then thereâs the recent evidence that manta rays can recognize themselves in a mirror, and theyâre not social animals at allâŚ
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2081640-manta-rays-are-first-fish-to-recognise-themselves-in-a-mirror/
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I think itâs very hard to go from behaviour to implied conscious thought - Iâm not convinced consciousness is necessary for a lot of things that people seem to think it is. Still, I the blowing bubbles bit makes me think theyâve got something going on in there thatâs looking for fun or trying to keep itself interested.
I think being social is probably a big game in getting smart and developing consciousness because itâs kind of like playing chess against opponents of equal skill vs. playing against yourself. Being social means you need to constantly exercise your ability to identify yourself and your interests vs. others and their interests. But thatâs just a pet theory.
Still, manta rays arenât totally non-social. Itâs not like the females lay eggs in the sand and the males come and fertilize them while the females are away, allowing the mantas to never meet another manta in their lives.
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âŚand the mantis says to the spider: âBad touch!! You try that again, and I will slap your head clean off your shoulders, all 8 of them!!â
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Paper wasps can recognize other individuals by their face markings, and all the wasps in a nest cooperate to raise the young of the dominant one, but they are all individuals jockeying for that position. Itâs not chosen by genetic or developmental determinism.
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Give me some sugar, baby!
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Octokitten reminds me of the mythical Octochicken created in the labs of Veridian Dynamics on the show Better Off Ted.
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There is always cannibalism.
So what Baron and Klein are saying is: because we landed a man on the moon, we can land a man on the sun.
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So now itâs more that youâre getting the bee out of focus on moving nectar and achieving full seasonal honey racks? Or you liked the story on spacefaring bugs from Starship Sofa (using its gullet as a wallet, etc.) some time last year and the independence they sought?
They mostly go around looking at mantabook ratings like: Best sand ever, it is making sac exchange great again, I have developed a new aesthetic of form that lets me fall like the Legion of Doom lamprey-risk free, and this is where I will be sharing it and chewing up things that could be me if they were not bite-sized. Let me know if you see any way to improve the processâŚ
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A long time ago, I deliberately got too close to a swarm of bees, just to see what would happen. Exactly two bees peeled off from the swarm, and like fighter planes, escorted me to a place farther away. I tried it again, and the same thing happened. I canât help but wonder if they were the same two bees! And how did they figure out how many girls to send out?
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