#ants tending aphids
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Ants in the genus Formica defending their aphid farm on the underside of some wildflowers in Tahoe National Forest (Sierra Mountains), California.
Many ants in this genus feed primarily on honeydew, a sugary substance excreted by aphids. The ant colony takes care of their livestock, moving aphids to new locations if they need more food and protecting them from predation. Outside of humans, ants are some of the only animals that grow and tend their own food.
And here's a slightly better photo of the aphids:
#ants#aphids#ant farm#ants tending aphids#nature#bugs#nature photography#biodiversity#animals#inaturalist#arthropods#bugblr#entomology#insect appreciation#hymenoptera#formica#hemiptera#farming#good shepherd#livestock#homesteading#agriculture#wildlife#sierra mountains#tahoe national forest#high sierra#wildflowers#macro photography
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Wait, which animals raise livestock?
Several species of ants will 'herd' aphids around (a type of plant lice)- even picking them up and putting them back with the group if they wander off. The ants will attack anything that approaches their aphid herds, defending them. The aphids produce a sugary excretion called honeydew, which the ants harvest and eat.
Some ants will even 'milk' the aphids, stroking the aphids with their antennae, to stimulate them to release honeydew. Some aphids have become 'domesticated' by the ants, and depend entirely on their caretaker ants to milk them.
When the host plant is depleted of resources and dies, the ants will pick up their herd of aphids and carry them to a new plant to feed on - a new 'pasture' if you will.
Some ants continue to care for aphids overwinter, when otherwise they'd die. The ants carry aphid eggs into their own nests, and will even go out of their way to destroy the eggs of aphid-predators, like ladybugs.
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Microhylids – or narrow-mouthed frogs - have an interesting symbiosis with Tarantulas.
While the spiders could very easily kill and eat the much-tinier frogs, and DO normally prey on small frogs, young spiders instead will use their mouthparts to pick up the microhylid frogs, bring them back to their burrow, and release them unharmed.
The frog benefits from hanging out in/around the burrow of the tarantula, because the tarantula can scare away or eat predators that normally prey on tiny frogs, like snakes, geckos, and mantids. The tarantula gets a babysitter.
Microhylid frogs specialize in eating ants, and ants are one of the major predators of spider eggs. By eating ants, the frogs protect the spider's eggs. The frogs can also lay their eggs in the burrow, and won't be eaten by the spider.
So it's less 'livestock' and more like a housepet - a dog or a cat. You stop coyotes/eagles from hurting your little dog/cat, and in return the dog/cat keeps rats away from your baby.
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Damselfish grow algae on rocks and corals. They defend these gardens ferociously, and will attack anything that comes too close - even humans. They spend much of their time weeding the gardens, removing unwanted algaes that might overtake their crop.
The species of algae that they cultivate is weak and and sensitive to growing conditions, and can easily be overgrazed by other herbivores. That particular algae tends to grow poorly in areas where damselfish aren't around to protect and farm it.
Damselfish will ALSO actively protect Mysidium integrum (little shrimp-like crustacians) in their reef farms, despite eating other similarly sized invertebrates. The mysids are filter feeders, who feed on zooplankton and free-floating algae, and their waste fertilizes the algae farms. Many types of zooplankton can feed on the algae crop, and the mysids prevent that.
While Mysids can be found around the world, the only place you'll find swarms of Musidium integrum is on the algae farms that Damselfish cultivate.
Damselfish treat the little mysids like some homesteaders treat ducks. Ducks eat snails and other insect pests on our crops, and their poop fertilizes the land. The ducks can be eaten, but aren't often, since they're more useful for their services than their meat.
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There are SEVERAL species of insect and animal which actively farm. They perform fungiculture and horticulture: deliberately growing and harvesting fungus and plants at a large-scale to feed their population.
Leaf-cutter ants and Termites both chew up plant material and then seed it with a specific type of fungus. The fungus grows, and the termites/ants harvest the mushroom as a food source.
Ambrosia beetles burrow into decaying trees, hollow out little farming rooms, and introduce a specific fungii (the ambrosia fungi), which both adults and larval beetles feed on.
Marsh Periwinkles (a type of snail) cultivates fungus on cordgrass. They wound the plant with their scraping tongue, then defecate into the wound so their preferred fungus will infect it and grow there. They let the fungus grow in the wound a bit, and come back later to eat.
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The Queen is Dead!
There is this tiresome old trope in any science fiction that deals with ants, (or aliens that are stand-ins for ants or termites or bees or any other eusocial insect,) where the queen dies and then, suddenly none of the workers can function anymore.
The workers in this theory of what a "hive mind" is are all just automata that extend the body of the queen. This is, of course, totally backwards.
It's the death of human queens that leaves their subjects disoriented.
We misperceive the order and smooth functioning of eusocial colonies for authoritarianism. No society could function so well without a tyrant, a single central mind, we assume. A great man or woman who drives their history must exist.
This is all human mythology applied to the alien world of ants.
What happens when the queen dies? Well let me tell you, because I've seen it happen... sadly.
Queens are the longest lived members of ant colonies. So, naturally if you keep ants, you grow attached to the queen. And it's true that without her the colony has no future in the long run for most species of ants (there are exceptions, who can gain new queens, or who have multiple queens... but most ant colony have but one) So, when the queen dies it's sad.
But, when she dies the workers ... keep going. You see the advantage of a "hive mind" isn't that there is one central node doing all the thinking, no, the colony is a distributed organism. And when the queen dies it's like menopause for a human body. There will be no new children. (though all eggs and larvae alive when the queen dies will be raised fully.) The ants without a queen continue to care for each other, continue to grow their fungus gardens, or heard aphids, they keep storing seeds and feeding the young.
With time, the last of the eggs and brood are raised to be adults. The nest is cleaned and tidy, everyone is fed, with all these tasks done the ants huddle together to conserve energy. They will keep tending the nest and eating when they need to... possibly for years. Menopause isn't the end of an individual life, it's just the closing of a particular door.
I do think ant colonies like this, like my own queen-less colony can seem a little sad. Eggs and larvae and pupae are such joys for ants. They lavish food and attention on their little sisters. No more little sisters means a less active colony, it's like winter has set in permanently. But ants live through winters. Sometimes many winters.
If you give a colony in this state brood from another queen they will raise them with great excitement. But there is no peaceful way to move the workers to a colony with a living queen.
This situation happens rarely in the wild. There are so many other things that can kill a colony long before a queen lives so long that she dies of old age.
In the wild there are also parasitic species of ants that look for colonies without a queen, or with a queen that is weak and easy to kill. These sneaky queen ants will "steal" a colony. Though, from the perspective of ants without a queen, this is almost a mercy.
But, there is none of this... everyone falling over and dying or everyone going crazy you see in stories about hives. The queen is just one part of the colony... a critical part... but still only a part.
And each individual ant still has her own life to live.
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I bestow:
Different ants tending to different aphid flocks, on different pastures! It always makes me happy to see them. I can't wait to hear about Lasius species and rove beetles.
thanks for creatures!
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Ant tending aphids and an assassin bug hiding on a sunflower
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Tinytopia Chapter 9: Bloodthirst (Part 1)
Story Masterpost
On AO3
Thanks to my beta/sensitivity reader @appelsiinilight and my bonus beta reader for the next two chapters, @whumpsday!
In this chapter: Thistle indulges in getting cozy, but finds the house disturbed by yet another new arrival.
With respect to @whumpsday, the og of hungry vampire sadbois, and @entomolog-t, the og of tiny vampires.
***
There were now enough pixies for a pixie pile.
Thistle was ecstatic. He’d grown up sleeping in a pixie pile, and he’d missed it, longed for it, ached for it ever since his separation from his family.
Sleeping on top of Moon was nice enough, but he wasn’t a pixie. And with Marigold here, there were two pixies. Not enough for a pile.
But Jax had a pixie incarnation now. There were three pixies, which met the minimum number needed to be a proper pile.
Moon would be included, of course, even if he wasn’t a pixie. The pile would simply go on top of him.
Thistle made sure everyone had a nice, soft pair of pajamas. Enough thick, fuzzy socks. Enough blankets and soft pads to sleep on. Hot, sweet drinks to sip in the evening before falling asleep.
Oh, yeah. This was going to be perfect.
Thistle cleared enough space in his wooden castle–for once, he was worried he might not have enough room in there for something. He arranged everything just right, plumping pillows and layering blankets and smoothing out sheets. He wove small animals out of plant fiber–such toys weren’t out of place in pixie nests, quite similar to humans’ stuffed animals. They didn’t usually make them bears or cats or dogs, though–pixies had a completely different array of animals that were culturally important.
Thistle remembered his Mother’s Mother’s hive having a nest of ants in the bottom of the structure, tended to like a herd–he couldn’t remember if they’d done anything besides occasionally eating the larvae. It’d been such a long time ago that all he remembered was that they tasted quite good. Before Thistle had left, Mother had been in the process of trying to make space in their tree for clusters of honeydew-producing aphids. She’d also told Thistle that some hives knew how to rear moths or spiders for their silk, which Thistle had always longed to see, but she’d said moths were more complicated than aphids and spiders had a safety risk.
There had been that one time his older brother Oak had brought home a disfigured moth which would have died without help–its wing had gotten caught in its cocoon while trying to emerge, and now it was wrinkly, tiny, and useless for flying. Mother let Oak keep the moth as a pet, even though it had no practical use. It was fuzzy, nice to hold, and pretty to look at. Oak had named it Cattail.
He lovingly traced the memories as he wove, imagining himself making a toy for Dewdrop. Aunt Winter’s new baby, Dewdrop. He wanted to meet Dewdrop so badly. Thistle was really the only one in the hive good enough with his hands to make toys without using magic. He would have been making all the toys for Dewdrop. Had someone else been making them? Was Dewdrop wanting for toys?
He suddenly realized he’d begun crying when a tear dripped down onto the moth doll he’d been making. He slowly wiped his eyes on the back of his hand, then sniffled and straightened himself up.
There was no need to be sad. He was going to have a pixie pile again. Dewdrop was fine, and so was he.
He arranged a moth doll and an aphid doll so they were nicely on top of the covers, then stood back to examine his work. I should sell those on Etsy, too. Everyone would go wild for them. He started writing the listing title mentally. Miniature insect bug arthropod crochet doll lifelike fidget toy Micro realistic choose SET or INDIVIDUAL made to order. He could sell one for $20 or a set of three for $50. Yeah. That would be good.
He walked out and pushed Marigold’s wheelchair to the entrance of his wooden house. “Are you ready for bed, Marigold?”
He nodded.
Pixie-Jax flitted on the roof of the house, jumping down onto the ground. “I am too!”
“Shh,” Thistle said. “Speak quietly. We’re supposed to be calming down now.”
Jax nodded, looking very serious in his oversized pajamas that swallowed his hands.
Moon arrived five minutes after the agreed upon time, as always. He had an eye mask on his forehead and an extra pillow under his arm. “I stayed up late so that I could be tired precisely for this slumber gathering,” Moon declared. “Let us commence.”
“Okay,” Thistle said, trying not to get excited. He was supposed to be calming down. “Moon, you go in first, and then we’ll all get on top of you.”
Moon ducked to go into Thistle’s house. “Good Heavens! It’s a proper cornucopia of comfort in here.”
Thistle poked his head in and watched as Moon arranged himself, pulling the covers back. Moon held his arms up. “I’m ready for dogpiling, boys. Have at me.”
“Okay, Jax next.”
Jax dashed into the wooden structure and snuggled up under Moon’s arm. “Like this?”
“Yes, perfect. Okay, now Marigold.”
Thistle lent Marigold a hand to stand up out of the wheelchair. He supported him by the elbow to help him inside. Marigold’s face twinged with pain as he went down into a kneeling position.
“You all right?”
“Yes–just a moment.”
He shifted to a position that apparently lessened his pain, then gingerly lay down under Moon’s other arm, head on the crook of his elbow.
That just left Thistle. He crouched down and situated himself on top of Moon, so Moon’s chest fluff was his pillow. “Everybody comfy?”
There was a round of assenting sounds.
Thistle reached down and pulled the blanket up, swathing them all, and turned off the light. “Good night, everybody.”
“Thistle my boy, would you pull down my eye mask? My hands are quite full.”
Thistle reached up and pulled the mask over Moon’s eyes.
“Perfect, thank you.”
“Good night.”
“Good night, Thistle.”
“Good night, Jax.”
“Good night, Thistle.”
“Good night, Marigold.”
No response.
“Marigold?”
“Good night, Thistle.”
“Good night, Marigold.”
“Good night, Jax.”
“Good night, Moon.”
“Is this really quite necessary?”
“You’re supposed to say good night.”
“...Good night, Jax.”
“Marigold?”
No response.
“Marigold, you didn’t say good night to anyone.”
“Good night Thistle, Jax, and Moon. There.”
“Good night, Marigold.”
“Good night, Marigold.”
“Moon? You didn’t say good night back to Marigold.”
“Good night, Marigold. Are you quite satisfied now? Have we somehow missed a possible permutation here?”
Thistle snuggled closer to Moon, and Jax copied his motion. “No,” Thistle said contentedly. “I think that’s everyone. Thanks. Good night. I love you all.”
“I love you, Thistle.”
“I love you, Moon-”
“We are not doing all that again. I would like to go to sleep sometime in the next twenty-four hours.”
Thistle tugged on the sleeve of Moon's silken pajamas. “Just once? Just one, Moon? Please?”
Moon sighed. “I love you, Thistle.”
Thistle happily flicked his ears and settled in. It seemed like Marigold had already fallen asleep.
They dozed like that. Thistle could hardly get sleepy with how happy he was. It was so warm and fuzzy, and a soft glow of magic welled up inside him. He just lay there enjoying it.
It was a while later, after he’d finally managed to fall asleep, that he woke up. He wasn’t sure why. But-
Oh.
Oooh.
Marcy’s necklace.
It was sitting on the table–Marcy had left it there today. It was glowing. It’d been soft white all night–but now it was bright yellow.
Yellow. Yellow. What had yellow meant?
Thistle disentangled himself from the pile and snuck over to the door, peeking his head out. He didn’t see anybody.
“Hello?” he whispered. “Is somebody there?”
There came a sound, then–a sort of tittering, accompanied by light flapping. He turned his attention upwards and saw some small fuzzy creature way, way high up near the ceiling. It frantically dashed into the room and smacked into the wall, then tumbled down. When it finally stopped its erratic movements, Thistle saw it was a bat with tawny red fur.
No, not a bat–the real creature emerged from the form of the bat as soon as it touched the ground. It was a fuzzy humanoid with protruding fangs and triangular ears.
The fish tank flipped open. “Yo, Thistle!” Jewel shouted. “Are you gonna wake anyone else up and tell them there’s a fucking vampire in the house or do I need to do it?”
“A vampire?” Thistle squeaked.
“Gotta be. I mean, just look at him. Right?”
The new arrival flipped himself upright from where he’d fallen on the ground, still on all fours, ears pinned back against his head nervously.
“Thistle?” said Moon’s sleepy voice, and his head appeared out the door, eyes still half-closed. “What are you shouting about?” His eyes widened as he saw something was up. “Oh?”
“It’s a vampire,” Thistle said. He looked over. “Right?’
“Well yes but, I’m not–I don’t want to hurt you,” the creature said. His ears were still flat and his voice trembled, as though not entirely sure he would be believed.
Oh, he was speaking Pixish. The language a predator would typically speak if their primary prey was Pixies.
“I’ll go get Marcy,” Thistle said. He looked behind him and saw Marigold stirring in the bed, with Jax not far behind. “...I’ll stay here with Marigold. Moon, you go get Marcy?”
“Am I your messenger?”
“...Yes?”
“...All right.” Moon drew himself out of the house and spread his wings, then took off upstairs.
The new arrival watched him with wide eyes. Clearly he’d never seen one of Moon’s kind before.
“Thistle, who’s that?” Jax whispered.
“Just stay inside. I’ll handle this.” He gave a nervous wave to the creature. “Hi. I’m Thistle.”
“I’m Auburn,” he said. Pixish actually had more words to describe colors than English, with Pixie’s sensitive eyes able to see more with minute differences. He wasn't sure if vampires could see the same way, but the word he gave as his name, Kasabrua, the closest translation of which was Auburn, actually referred to the very specific shade of red in the coat of a fox’s fur. That was exactly the color his fur was, so it was fitting–it was basically the equivalent of calling him “Foxy” or “Vixen,” although Thistle knew those two words had…. connotations in English that they wouldn’t have in Pixish.
“Hi, Auburn. It’s nice to meet you. My friend Marcy is coming downstairs. She’s a human. Is that okay?”
Auburn hugged the wall, like he was afraid Thistle was going to attack him. “Yes. Yes, please, I’d like to meet her.”
Thistle and Auburn kept tense eye contact with each other as Moon came back down, followed by Marcy, still in her pajamas. “Oh my gosh, hi!” she said with restrained enthusiasm. She knelt down beside Thistle, who fluttered onto her lap.
Auburn kept his eyes on Marcy, body tense. He was clearly terrified, but he made no motion to leave.
“He speaks Pixish,” Thistle said.
“Hi,” Marcy said gently. “I’m Marcy.”
“I’m Auburn. You’re really big.” He swallowed. “Sorry, um… I'm not supposed to be seen, and I’ve never met a human before. So, so it’s a little scary.”
“She is pretty big,” Thistle said. “But she’s nice. Do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself?
“Well, um… I heard that all kinds of creatures live here together in peace, even predators. So, so I’m interested in. That.” He flattened himself against the ground, as though to disappear. “If that’s okay.”
“Of course that’s okay,” Marcy said. “Where did you hear it? Who?”
“A, um. A tree creature told me. A dryad.”
Marcy and Thistle looked at each other.
“Could it be the same dryad that told Jax?” Thistle poked his head into the house. “Jax?”
Jax crawled forward, just peeking out. “The dryad that told me was a big tree.”
Auburn shook his head. “The dryad that told me was a holly bush.”
Okay, they were definitely going to have to coerce Trilloras to come out and answer questions. They’d already tried every combination of begging, coaxing, and threatening they could think of to get her to come out, yet her sapling remained totally inert. They were starting to think that maybe she was asleep or unconscious and couldn’t hear them.
“It sounds like they’re different dryads,” Marcy said. “But that’s okay. We don’t have to talk about them. Let’s talk about you.”
Auburn nodded nervously. “Right, right. Um. I just want to live in peace. So, so if this is a place where I can do that. Then I want to stay here. If that’s okay.”
“Sure!” Thistle said brightly, absolutely delighted. “Sure, we’ll figure out a way you can live here.”
Auburn drew forward slightly. “Real, really? Um, mostly I was worried about…where I would hunt. Um, since–if–it seems like everyone here–”
“We can figure that out,” Thistle said. “We have a trick.”
“Can we talk about it in the morning?” Moon said. “I’m not ready to be awake yet.”
“Right!” Auburn squeaked. “Sorry, sorry for interrupting. Um, you can, you can go back to sleep.”
Marcy looked from Auburn to Thistle, then sat on the couch. “I’ll stay down here.”
“Okay,” Auburn said bashfully. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. It’s just to watch things. You’re probably not tired because it’s night, huh?”
“I’m… tired. I could sleep.” He sounded dejected.
“Okay. Um. How do you sleep?”
“On the ceiling.” He looked morosely up at the ceiling. “But there aren’t any footholds.”
Marcy tapped her chin. “Oh! Hold on, I know.” She went into the next room and retrieved Colin’s pullup bar, mounting it in the doorway. “There, like that?”
Auburn clung to the wall with his creepy little hands, shimmying up it until he was far enough to push off and jump into the air. His arms transformed into wings as he flapped them, and he propelled himself up to take hold of the bar.
He hooked his feet around it and hung upside-down, ensconcing himself in his wings like a blanket. “This, this is wonderful. Thank you. I can stay up here?”
“Yeah,” Thistle said. “That’s okay.”
“Thank you.”
Auburn seemed peaceful enough, but Thistle was still glad that Marcy was nearby.
Despite being too tired to function, he wasn’t sure if he would sleep much with a vampire hanging over the room.
***
The pixie pile did manage to get a decent amount of rest in the end. Thistle woke up feeling recharged and energetic–ready for a day full of art. Because that would be step one to welcome a new resident: it was his responsibility to befriend Auburn so he wouldn’t have to hunt. Now that he’d already done it with Severa and knew it was possible, it didn’t seem so daunting. If anything, it was exciting.
True, Auburn was scary. He was almost as tall as Moon. His fangs poked out of his mouth. He clearly was a lot stronger than Thistle. He slept overhead, hanging menacingly. And he drank blood–probably, they hadn’t seen that yet. He’d probably attacked and maybe even killed people. But he was already here peacefully and seemed willing to do what they asked. This couldn’t be harder than Severa, surely.
Auburn was still in the same place hanging from the pullup bar in the morning–true to his word, he was fast asleep and looked exhausted when everyone else was stirring. Teddy and Colin came down, and more introductions were had. Teddy very valiantly hid her disquiet at seeing Auburn, while Colin was concerned about rabies. Marcy reassured them it was safe and that she would handle it, although privately she was also a little bit worried about rabies.
Thistle made the rounds to gather a group for a painting session. Marigold, Jax, and Severa were on board without needing any cajoling. Moon declared he was going to try it, since he was warming up to Thistle’s silly projects. Jewel said he didn’t want to do anything involving paint, since it got all over his skin and felt bad in the water, even if it was nontoxic. Violet couldn’t be coerced to come out even though Petunia definitely would have enjoyed it, but whatever.
“Art is a great way to bond,” Thistle said, laying out his paints. He had Marcy lay out some canvases for them to paint. “It’s a great activity to do together, and you can talk while you do it. This will be a great way to get to know each other.”
“I admit I thought it quite useless at first,” Severa admitted. “But I am starting to enjoy it more.”
“It’s growing on me, too,” Moon said.
Auburn knelt next to the paints, touching one of the tubes. “Great! Um, so, what, what do I do?”
“You, um…” At this point Thistle noticed that Auburn’s hand was shaking. “Hey, are you okay?”
Auburn drew his hand back, then gave a pained smile. “Oh, sorry. Um, I haven’t, um, I’m pretty hungry, that’s all.”
Thistle felt like he’d been smacked in the face. That was why Auburn was tired enough to go to sleep last night? He simply hadn’t eaten and therefore had no energy? He’d been sitting there hungry enough to start trembling and didn’t say anything?
“Hey, we can’t have fun and bond on an empty stomach,” Thistle said gently. “Come on, let’s take care of that first.”
“I don’t want to be a burden,” Auburn said quickly. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“We want to, though. We wouldn’t tell you to stay here and then make you starve.” Oh whoops, Thistle had said that and then remembered that Auburn would presumably have to drink someone’s blood. Thistle certainly wasn’t eager to volunteer himself for that.
Fortunately, Severa spoke first. “I will help you. You drink blood, yes? I have plenty of blood, and my magic is strong.”
Auburn practically wilted with relief. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Severa reached down and pried one of the scales on her abdomen back, exposing vulnerable, soft flesh. Auburn crept near. “It’s really okay?”
“Yes.”
Auburn leaned over, shaking, and gently made a soft cut with his fangs, then clamped his mouth over the wound, taking small sips.
Severa put her hand on his head. A tear leaked from his eye.
After a moment, he drew back, wiping his face. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Severa pushed the scale back down, wincing but not complaining.
“There,” Thistle said. “Everyone is okay and feels good. Right?”
Severa and Auburn both nodded.
“Good. Now let’s get painting.”
Thistle guided Auburn, Severa, Moon, Marigold, and Jax through laying out their canvas and starting to apply the paint to it. Marcy participated too, sitting on the floor with a proportional paper.
“So,” Thistle said conversationally as they worked. “Auburn, can you tell us a bit more about yourself? What made you decide to seek us out? Why did the dryad tell you to come here? If you know.”
“Oh, um.” Auburn had red paint all over his hands and was putting paw prints all over his canvas. “Well, my family kicked me out of my colony. So, so I didn’t really have anywhere else to go.”
“That’s horrible!” Jax cried. “I can’t imagine if Thistle kicked me out! Why would they?”
Auburn’s ears drooped, and the motions of his hands became slow and unenthusiastic.
“Jax, he might be sensitive about it,” Thistle chided. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, Auburn.”
“No, it’s okay.” He dipped his hands in yellow and started making yellow pawprints. “Well, I’m, um, I’m a Worthless, so when things got tight, I was the first to go.”
The exact word he used was Struntajo, which meant roughly worthless, but he said it like it was supposed to mean something more. Thistle had never heard anyone use it that way.
“What’s that mean?” Jax said, once again failing to understand what a sensitive topic is.
“We can talk about it later if you want,” Thistle offered, wincing.
“No, it’s okay. I didn’t realize you’d have no way to know what that is, I guess.” He clasped his paint-laden hands together. “Um, when prey is plentiful, vampires will sometimes have an extra pup in their litters that’s small and weak. If there’s enough to go around, the runt gets enough food to grow up strong. But, but if there isn’t, then the runt is there to take the hit when they have to make sacrifices if things get worse.”
“Sacrifices?” Severa said.
Auburn shuffled his feet. “Leave it to die, usually.”
“That’s horrible,” Severa said, utterly horrified. “They have an extra baby on purpose for the sake of having something to sacrifice if their gamble doesn’t pay off?”
“I mean, it makes sense if you think about it. At least, I mean. My siblings all contributed more to the colony than I did. So, so when resources started getting scarce, it’s better that they could cut me off rather than someone who actually helped. You know? As soon as I became an adult they made it clear I had to leave if I didn’t contribute more. It wasn't a surprise or anything.”
Severa clenched the paintbrush she was using so hard that it snapped in half. “That is a horrible way to think about it. I could never dream of even considering sending someone I’d raised from a little baby out to die just because they weren’t useful enough.”
Auburn shrunk away from the anger in her voice. “Er, well, if there isn’t enough to go around…”
“Then you get more, or you yourself go hungry. That’s what being a mother means, not this- this perversion where children are seen as an investment you expect returns on in the future.”
Auburn rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, well I’m not a parent, so I guess I wouldn’t know.”
“You’re right,” Severa snipped. “You wouldn’t know.”
“I’m sorry,” Thistle said, trying to rein the conversation back in. “That sounds very difficult. So that’s why you were looking for somewhere else to go?”
Auburn nodded. “I’m bad at hunting. I’m small, weak, not a strong flier, and not good at magic. My family got tired of helping me, so I haven’t been back to the colony.… I’ve been.” Tears welled up in his eyes again. “I’ve been just barely hanging on. You’re the first ones who have been nice to me.”
“I’m sorry,” Marigold said. “I’m surprised to find myself sympathizing with a predator at all, but I truly can’t imagine what I would do if my family were like that.”
Thistle was intimidated to think about Auburn being a runt, considering how very large he still was. Thistle very bravely stood near him. “Do you want a hug?”
Auburn nodded miserably.
Thistle wrapped his arms around Auburn’s midsection, and Auburn’s arms came around him gently.
“Ooh, you’re soft,” Thistle said into his fur.
Auburn chuckled. “Glad there’s something good about me, at least.”
“I am not jealous,” Moon announced mechanically. “I am also soft, and it’s fine that there are multiple soft people in the house that Thistle likes to touch. It does not reflect on my worth as an individual.”
Thistle sighed and looked over his shoulder. “Good job, Moon.”
Moon gave him a thumbs up.
***
@static-stars
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please do dump about your watcher au as much as you want!! I'd love to hear about it!!
YAYYYY THANKS FOR ASKING its autism time
Basically um. You know how most the watcher!grian hcs/interpretations have him as an unwilling participant in all this ? Uh, yeah ! Not this grian:3 Well. Kinda. But. Im a TMA Fan and I love FUCKED UP guys so !!!!
Watchers feed off emotions. All emotions, but they're especially known for finding fear or grief or other negative emotions the most nutritionally filling/benefital to their health.
However: They can't just sit there around someone whos very happy, sad, angry, ect, and then get fed from that. They have to- uh, for lack of better word- latch onto a players "soul," and tear chunks of that from them, dig into their mind and bite into whatever makes them feel and then tear that away. Sometimes, a feeding will cause the victim to be unable to feel anything at all after the feeding, if a Watcher gorges themself solely on them. Most often, when they use restraint while feeding, the victim will loose all feelings they'd had about the previous days, weeks, or even months, and might feel like everythings "dulled down" for some time while they recover.
(Younger Watchers usually have to have physical contact with the victim to feed, older or more powerful Watchers can feed without even being on the same plane of existence as their victim, only needing to be able to See them.)
Now, that's all kind of similar to a lot of headcanons about Watchers already, and I pulled the "eating emotions" thing from Martyns Eyes & Ears AU (altho in that its JUST fear), but uh... Heres where it differs:
The Watchers aren't sentient. Not really, anyway. They're...predators, beings that know they need to feed and will go to great lengths to do so, survival their greatest worry above all else.
Think of them like... Smart animals. Corvids, for example, crows especially- they will investigate their own dead to figure out what killed the other bird so they can avoid it, and are extremely good puzzle solvers. Prairie dogs have an incredibly advanced verbal communication system- able to even denote the speed of which a predator is approaching their den (probably the closest we could get to an ""language"" in the animal kingdom). But neither of those animals, as smart as they may be, are considered sentient.
Its the same with Watchers.
Watchers CAN communicate, they can understand eachother, they can achieve a certain amount of planning, like how squirrels can count what nuts they have & deduce how many they need, or how whales and other marine life are especially prone to being able to plan & use logical reasoning...
They can understand the concept of death and... the concept of keeping their food alive for delayed gratification and a continued food source, instead of just going out and feeding on someone until theyre a husk of themselves, unable to provide more food.
How, exactly, they got all the players into the life series/how they made the games IS something im working on, but the point im getting at here is that theyre basically like ants farming aphids, except the aphids are sentient people..? yay..?
Ah, and Watcher cant reproduce normally. They have incredibly long lifespans, but when a Watcher does come to its end, they... Well, theyll find an player to bite into the soul of, and instead of feeding, they basically do the reverse- shoving all their energy into that being and becoming a parasite that will eventually take over the host and make them a Watcher, similarly without much sentience.
Thats what happens to Grian. :3 The exact process of turning is also in the works but basically it starts by becoming unable to eat regular food, slowly focusing all the players willpower into wanting to eat, before they develop the ability to feed from other players. At this stage they might still be able to feel themself, however after feeding from another you tend to loose your own emotions amongst the ones youre feeding off of, and at some point, any remaining emotions the "player" has, is consumed by them for extra nutrition, and in turn they officially become a Watcher.
UMMMM YEAH!!!! Thats all the worldbuilding I have :3333 Theres uh- a story in my mind, but its not as fleshed out? I also MIGHT make it a fic (heavy on the might) so idk how much i'd wanna spoil. But uh, yeah, Grian'll be a bit of a special case in that his turning takes... a lot longer than normal. ^_^ I put him in the torture world sorry
#evo watchers#watcher grian#watchers#grian#hermitblr#trafficblr#im So Normal#you can also tell ir eally like animals from thius post i didnt mean to talk so much abt actual animals i just think they cool
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Ants are like the most interesting creatures ever. There are ants that cultivate fungus they fertilize with leaf clippings and they eat the fungus. Some ants guard and tend to aphids and eat the sugary secretions the aphids produce. Some ants have individual members that store all the food and become huge and bloated and stationary and serve as like a living pantry that other ants can withdraw from. There are ants with circle shaped heads specifically designed to plug holes. There are ants where some members grow giant and the smaller ants pile up on their backs and get rides around. There are ants that build nests using the silk produced by their larvae. There are ants that kidnap brood from other ant species to add to their own worker force. There are ants that clear away circles of vegetation from around the trees they live in so that wildfires do not easily spread to their trees. There are ants that
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Jam packed little facts about Liam (their times as a human that is)!
My hand writing can be pretty hard to read- so I'll have text format underneath the readmore :)
(Going from top left to right)
Human Liam Trivia
They/Them
5'2"
"Hehehe!"
[10 Year Old Trouble Maker]
"Ah, great. Gotta deal with another growing in."
Liam's teeth regrow whenever they're knocked out. Abegail had to explain to Finn, that no, he doesn't have the same ability, humans don't usually work that way. It's just a weird Liam thing #1.
Both Finn and Jake have a necklace made of the fangs that have gotten knocked out. Liam likes gnawing on things when a new tooth is growing in.
"Careful now." "Chirp."
[20 Years Old (Jake Hatches)]
"Congrats Lil Bro!" "Hehe!"
[25 Years Old (Jake Pupates)]
"This is an actual human baby!?" "Pffbt" "Yes- now be careful with him."
[30 Years Old (Vera and Gemma find Baby Finn)]
[35 Years Old (Start of Journey & Meets Scarab)]
*Infodumping about the Hive Cities
"Ah, I see. That sounds efficent." "It is!"
[36 - 37 Years]
"I missed you too Scarab." *Trills
[38 - 39 Years]
"Make sure not to give our moms too much trouble." "K…" "Mkay…"
Liam used to dye their hair with plants that used to grow near their old hive. The dye sticks in the roots for ages and makes the hair smell like a plant. Most humans living outside bunkers or the Islands tend to dye their hair for camouflage.
Liam just did it because they wanted to look like their moms colors. Liam doesn't dye their hair anymore during their journey because their new Hive doesn't have any of the plants near it. They also just got tired of dyeing it.
"EEWWW"
Liam really loves the taste of Aphids. (They weren't affected by the mutations like the other insects, they're the equivalent of cows in Bug World AU) Finn isn't a big fan of them, but they're a common food source.
The Ant Farm Liam gets them from had to deal with little Liam snacking on them without permission. They behave themselves now.
"Is something wrong?"
Throughout their entier life, Liams eyes glow in the dark and they can see in the dark too. The intensity of the glow only increases as they get older.
It surprises Scarab when he finally notices the glow. Yet another weird Liam thing #2 that Finn wishes he could do too.
"Want some?" "…" Munch Munch Crunch Munch Crunch Crunch "Taste Good?" "It's good."
Liam shares their snacks a lot. They also like having Scarab try out their world's foods. He insists that he doesn't need any, but indulges when they ask.
It's also partially because Liam really likes seeing his face.
"Big Bro, Li could probably bit through your exoskeleton."
"What?"
"They accidently bit Gramps during training and made him bleed. He was really proud of them fighting back like that."
"Li! Li!! Come bite Scarab for me!"
"Huh!? What, why!?"
"Well? Go on."
"I can't believe you two made a bet…" 'Why do my teeth have to be on the line?' "Fine."
"Bite! Bite! Bite!"
"Alright then." Chomp
"Hmm."
"See, couldn't bite through." "Aw dang." "Now you can't stay up late for a month, got it?" "Kaaay."
"No, only a week." 'Interesting.'
"Woohoo!"
"Huh? Why?" "You managed to scratch the surface."
Liam's teeth can pierce through some insect's carapaces in their world. They don't like doing it though. If surprised or scared enough, they'll do it out of reaction. That, or they'll hiss and occasionally growl without meaning to. Both Finn and Jake copy how Liam hisses and growls.
#bug world au#liam#scarab#adventure time oc#fionna and cake oc#jake the bug#bug world finn#adventure time#fionna and cake#insects
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@183degreesbelowzero submitted: a spider i found on my chili plant! and two colonies of aphids (?) also on the same plant but with different species of ants tending to them. is this going to be a problem for the (pretty young, about four months old) plant? ([removed] (please remove location!))
Aphids can absolutely kill a plant either directly by sucking out the liquids or by causing disease from piercing the stem and leaves and excreting honeydew onto the plant that then causes things like sooty mold to grow all over the leaves. But usually unless the plant is absolutely covered, it won’t kill it, maybe just stunt it a bit.
Hopefully the spider and other garden friends will help hunt some of them down! Otherwise you can always manually remove them which is obviously preferable to using any kind of pesticide.
You didn’t ask for an ID on the jumper, but I don’t recognize it anyway! It’s very pretty, though and probably would be easy enough to find on iNaturalist if you wanted to.
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August 11th, 2022
Harvester Butterfly (Feniseca tarquinius)
The harvester butterfly is a small, uncommon species found most often in swampy areas and woodlands, native to the east coast of North America. This species is highly localized, preferring to remain close to wooly aphid colonies, often in the periphery of alder trees.
This dainty yellow butterfly is unique in the fact that it is the only carnivorous butterfly species in North America. To be more precise, its larval form is insectivorous; it feeds on the flesh of wooly aphids, which are tiny, sap-sucking insects of the sub-family Eriosomatinae. Unlike most other butterflies, adults do not feed on nectar; they are instead known to feed on the honeydew of aphids, as well as sap, dung and mud. Single eggs are laid on leaves near wooly aphid colonies, and thanks to a high-protein diet, larvae develop very quickly. Due to this rapid life cycle, harvester butterflies can produce up to six generations per year!
There is an important obstacle in the path of the harvester caterpillar's goal of stuffing itself with an aphid buffet, however: ants. Many ant species are known to protect and tend to their own aphid colonies with the goal of collecting the honeydew they produce, which these ants feed on. In order to infiltrate the colony without rousing the ants' suspicions, the caterpillars use a clever disguise: they attach half-eaten aphid carcasses to themselves to conceal their presence from the ant protectors. These caterpillars have the capacity to imitate aphids' chemical signature, called a cuticular hydrocarbon profile; these are individual-specific signaling molecules produced by the epicuticle of certain insects, used primarily for identification between members of a species.
#fun fact: i wrote a semestrial research paper about cuticular hydrocarbon signaling. its such an interesting phenomenon#today's bug#entomology#insects#butterflies#caterpillar#biology#bugs#ecology#nature
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(Image tw light trypophobia) I was hoping a tumblr scientist or entomologist could help me get a better idea of what’s going on here. I started trying to grow native virginia wildflowers a while ago (some of the ones that said they were native were not but i guess that’s how it goes), and i started noticing a colony of ants in my deck containers that were tending to yellow aphids. A little later, i noticed a larger species of ant tending to small little black dots on my tallest plant (first picture). A little later and they look like this, incredibly tiny little spiky bugs (second picture). Does anyone know that these might be?
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Carpenter ants tending to their aphid herds
By: Lynwood M. Chace
From: Natural History Magazine
1951
#carpenter ant#ant#hymenopteran#insect#arthropod#invertebrate#aphid#true bug#1951#1950s#Lynwood M. Chace#Natural History Magazine
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Can you tell me any interesting things. Literally anything.
Have some nature facts!
Nectar can ferment and it makes bees drunk. The hives act as bouncers and basically lock their sisters out of the house until they sober up.
Bison are easy to hunt and can be taken down with relatively small arms because their lungs share a cavity (the pleural sac) and aren't separate. In most animals we have two separate lungs and can survive the loss of one lung. If you're shot in the lung and keep pressure on the hole you often won't die and your primary concern is blood loss. (Uncovering the hole causes a sucking chest wound which can affect your other lung's ability to expand however, which can be fatal.) Bison however have one pleural sac that contains both lungs, so shooting one lung causes the collapse of the other and death is immediate and much quicker than it would be in humans or deer for example.
Ants have domesticated aphids and tend to them as livestock. They've also domesticated fungus.
Cheetahs suffered a genetic bottleneck during the last ice age so they're all massively inbred with very little genetic difference between them. The plus side is that this means you can freely transport organs between cheetahs without the need for immunosuppressants.
Some squids and octopus have ring-shaped brains, and their oesophagus passes through the centre of the ring. If they eat too big a meal they can give themselves brain damage.
Crows have societies. They will punish elder crows who steal food from younger, inexperienced crows, and especially for killing a young crow during a scuffle over food. This includes witchhunts through the skies where you get sometimes upwards of a hundred crows pursuing the accused and then striking him down to earth like god's smiting hand. They'll then all gang up on said crow and beat the living shit out of him. Sometimes that includes holding said crow down and five or six other crows gathering together and ritualistically ripping out his flight feathers. They literally condemn a crow to flightlessness--and death--for theft and murder. They perform "funerals" and don't caw during them. Elder crows will gather around the body of a dead crow and inspect it to determine how it died. Literally crow detectives. Crows understand the concept of death, fear death, and will avoid it all costs.
Ostriches are more attracted to people than other ostriches. Thank god emus aren't the same way.
Tasmanian devils have contagious cancer that nearly wiped out their species. In 2017 scientists created a successful vaccine.
Opossums are immune to the rabies virus because their internal body temperature is too low for the virus to survive. The only way an opossum can get rabies is if it already has a fever at the time it's bitten, and it must then maintain that fever for the (at least) two weeks it takes for the rabies virus to leave its incubation period and begin showing symptoms.
Dolphins harass pufferfish to get them to release poison that the dolphins then get high on.
Cattle, cetaceans, hummingbirds, and bats are all documented to have regional accents like humans do.
Coral isn't a plant, it's an animal. Sea anemones are also animals.
Wombats shit cubes. Scientists think they do this so the cubes don't roll downhill and can be used to mark their territories and common foraging paths.
The echidna reproductive system is really fucking weird, both in males and females.
We literally have no fucking idea what fungus are. They aren't plants. They aren't animals. They're some secret third thing that we can't explain and don't even get me started on lichens.
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Checking for a lost member of its flock of aphids. Ants will carry their aphids to new pastures, since they don’t climb well themselves. They will defend them from predators, since they are helpless little honeydew nuggets. They will pet and tend them as gently as a good shepherd should. What a fascinating relationship.
#bugs of tumblr#bugs#bugblr#original photographers#original photography on tumblr#nature#nature photography#flowers#landscape#ants#animal photography#animals#aphids#symbiosis
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Eh why not two posts in one day while we're at it:
Look, I don't care if dragons don't think humans are as smart as them since they can't understand them the same way. Humans do that all the time.
But it's not like humans are oh so especially strange. There's a species of ants that raises insects for meat, another species of ant that farms aphids for honeydew liquid as food, beavers stop the flow of rivers with dams, herbivorous animals will eat meat if given the chance.
I'm saying humans keeping pets is not up there in odd things. However, dragons don't often keep pets. If anything the keeping of animals should be strange enough that of course a non-dragon species would do it.
Jambu: We live in a place with a huge amount of food, so we don't usually feel the need to hunt down a meal when we can get more calories for less energy. We never go hungry.
Glory: Vegetarian = Lazy.
I'm gonna stop commenting on every out of pocket thing Glory says because we're not going to get anywhere at this rate
Would love to see more of this and less of "Glory is more beautiful than all other species of dragon because she's the closest thing to human feminine beauty standards a dragon can get to"
Babes, all the other queens you've met are Coral, Scarlet, Burn, and Blister. All of whom are their own forms of evil and cruel. I think Rainwings are doing something right actually. I mean they're careless, sure, but they haven't killed any children or locked them up in a prison for existing so... And bonus, no matricide, which can do wonders for one's mental health.
On the other hand, why would Rainwings do "queens" if they don't do families? Why not have a council of elders or elected leaders instead of a singular person every month? Something that reflects their highly communal society.
God forbid any dragon society isn't explicitly racist.
I do honestly love how accepting Rainwings are. Unfortunately this is attributed to them being lazy and careless so...
AKEJRA;KERJGN;A!! YES LIANA
YES? Just a SMIDGEN? Didn't she leave you to die, then imprison all of you along with her daughter in a place where you'll die if you touch the water? And threaten to kill Tsunami when she wanted to protect her younger sister's egg?
If you're communally raised there should be no reason why you can't punish that dragonet yourself. There are communities raised far less...together(?) like this, but your neighbor can punish your kids if they act out.
I think there are more pressing issues, even in time of peace, than bringing up every kid who's acting a fool. Because then like half of the queen's job would be dealing with annoying kids.
-
-
Alright, there's quite a bit here so I'll just put them all together so I can talk about them as a whole. Because boy do I have words:
Let's start with what we know. Rainwings are communally raised. Everyone is expected to aid in either raising children or providing for the tribe as a whole in some way (and possibly both at times). Animals that communally raise their children like this tend to have a very strong parental instinct towards young. Which also leads them to easily adopt into their groups (even from species not their own), which is possible reason why Rainwings can keep sloths as pets.
There is no class divide that we can see, and in general dragons seem to get along well with each other and are extremely friendly, even towards strangers. One would assume there'd be a very strong sense of community here.
So I ask this: Why would no one care about 12 missing dragons? From everything we know about Rainwing society, all the dragons should be very shaken and concerned by this. Those are their children, their parents, their friends, their family.
This is not laziness, this is apathy. You can be the most lazy person on the planet, but the moment someone you truly care about is in trouble that tends to go away quick. This does not show that Rainwings are lazy. This shows that they're uncaring and selfish.
The reaction Queen Magnificent gives is one of going up to an actual high queen and telling her 12 peasants are missing. Okay, fine, as cruel as it seems, we'd at least get why she wouldn't care. But this? It's not like she's being paid to be queen. She doesn't even seem to enjoy doing it. Why not just leave it to someone who actually cares?
And Bromeliad talks of Kinkajou as being "no one's favorite dragon," when Kinkajou is equally as friendly as the Rainwings have been shown to be. They clearly don't appreciate grumpy or downer dragons, so why would they hate Kinkajou who hasn't shown any of those traits? She's talkative sure, but that's not unusual. At worst, she just acts like a kid, what should be a normal Rainwing kid tbh. And there honestly shouldn't be anything stopping Bromeliad from changing her assignment and giving it to someone who like dragonets more than she. Again, it's not like they're paid to do this.
ERRGGGHHHH
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