Question time! What's an animal you feel more folks should know about? Some absolute weirdo or wonder of a critter that doesn't get its due.
I will never not stump for the leopard slug.
Bioluminescent flower schlongs, baby!
What've you got? 👀 #Nature
@MLClark The #Florida lovebug. Our semi-annual equivalent of the plague of locusts.
They're called lovebug because they fly in the air while mating.
A ltitle over a decade ago, it was so bad we were driving down the streets through swarms that looked like the biblical myth.
During lovebug season, you have to wash your car immediately, otherwise the acidic residue will damage your car paint.
@MLClark Well, they're not native to #Florida, so there's that ... I used to tell my audience not to squish the lovebugs on their clothing or skin, because it would leave a brown spot. Just flick them off.
My joke was, "After they mate, the male dies but remains attached to the female. Ladies, fill in your own punchline." Which typically got a laugh from half the audience.
It also happens to be untrue, but anything for a laugh.
:) Just like the male in some anglerfish species: little more than swimming sacks of gonad that bite into the giant female to mate, and eventually fuse to the whole.
Nature is pretty lazy when it comes to its post-procreation components!
@WordsmithFL
Huh! Since they didn't evolve for cars and asphalt, I wonder what that acidic residue does for any soil they'd have otherwise mated over. What richer ecosystem cycles did we disrupt by getting in the way of so many frottingly airborne lovebugs? 😬