Okay, But Hear Me Out…

Worked on a portrait of my barbarian and his baby in the Journey to Ragnarok campaign me and my friends are playing! His name is Iver, and his baby’s name is Ebbe, and he will bring the world to it’s knees if it will make the world safe for his little bear cub <3

Okay okay… so what I’m gettin from this is: nematodes and fungi are mostly uninteresting, but human body facts are.

I’ll be sure to tailor to your tastes next time :)

HIII!!!

I have more horrifying biology to share, if you’re interested? Today’s fun facts involve fungi and nematodes, so if anyone is squeamish about creepy mushrooms doing creepy things, or lots of little bugs everywhere, they should look away now

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Everyone who doesn’t wanna know gone? Good!!

oKAY SO

The world is covered in woerms. Nematodes are a phylum of animals that live in the earth’s topsoil, rivers, lakes, oceans and seabeds. They’re EVERYWHERE!! They’re even in the polar regions!!! These lil suckers’ estimated biomass is about 4/5ths of all humans on earth. And these are microscopic little worms! Nematodes are a pretty important kind of critter because they’re decomposers, so they cycle nutrients back into food webs by consuming dead things. They’re also parasites and predators. They wear a lot of different hats! So cool!!

But nematodes aren’t the star of today’s show. Let me introduce you to the nematophageous fungi: fungi that actively hunt nematodes! Similar to predatory plants like the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) and the sundews (Drosera genus) these fungi set traps for our wormy little friends. But these fungi take it a step further than the plants do, and here’s the part that’s disturbing: instead of luring their prey in with a sweet-smelling promise of calories, the fungi eavesdrop on the chemical communicators that nematodes use to talk to one-another and set their traps in areas of high comms traffic. The fungi are stalking their prey. HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT???? A living thing that is not an animal and has no central intelligence actively stalks prey!!!

AUGH I just can’t get over it!!!

So anyway, the fungi build three different kinds of nematode trap: your classic tree-spring noose, a glue trap, and an even scarier glue trap. Hyphal rings are a kind of hyphae (essentially the fungus’ body: think plant roots but if the plant is the roots) that end in a loop. When a nematode wriggles on through, the fungus pushes water into the hyphal ring, causing it to swell shut around the worm. Then the fungus pierces the nematode’s cuticle (it’s skin, but woerm skin) with its hyphae and eats the worm from the inside. Yum!!

Adhesive hyphae are exactly what they sound like: sticky mushroom fingers!!! These hyphae grow nodes or form nets that secrete a glue when they sense a tasty treat. The nematode gets stuck and the fungus can pierce it’s cuticle and eat the worm at its leisure.

The last kind of trap is exactly the same as the sticky fingers, but it adds a nematotoxic chemical to the glue, which poisons the unfortunate wormie so it doesn’t struggle and damage the fungus when it’s caught. It’s the same concept as venomous predators which envenomate prey so they don’t have to hold onto an animal fighting for its life.

I hope you’re having a lovely day, and I hope this knowledge brings a smile to your face the same way it does for me!! Actually… I squealed and wiggled with excitement when I first learned about these guys, so maybe don’t. That might be a bit embarrassing, since we all know Echo is Always Watching.

You can learn more about nematophageous fungi here and here!!

It appears that @imperial-strategist infiltrated my personal communication channel and took it upon himself, alongside his "assistant," to discuss these items with you whilst I was busy with my research.

Since they are such experts on the subject matter, I will leave this in their capable hands. Far be it from me to interrupt.

Except that you’re beating the hell outta yourself. Is that a compliment or an insult?

sigh… fine, I’ll do it myself

Tech is a Giant Schnauzer

This is a breed I didn’t know about before my discord friends suggested it. They’re very loving and playful. They don’t adapt to change terribly well, but they are very smart and trainable, since they are a working breed. It’s like these good doggos were made for Tech!!

He is a retired service dog, but you would never know it for how poorly-behaved he can be. He has a flagrant disregard for house rules such as no dogs on the furniture, and no being under the table during mealtimes. Tech knows how to open the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms, and the fridge door too! So Crosshair has had to childproof everything. For some reason Tech especially likes to steal strings. He doesn’t do anything with them, just hoardes them in his dog bed. He will take shoelaces off shoes if you’re not careful!

The reason Tech had to retire is because he has late onset PRA, and has been going blind for the last few years. He doesn’t let it get in his way, though! He relies more heavily on his hearing and smell, and he’s just as curious and excited to explore and cause trouble as he ever was.

@skellymom I hope you like him <333

In case you wondered, I haven’t suddenly become sensible since I last posted!

Introducing: König’s Oma!!!

Peggy loves her, but König sometimes isn’t sure it’s a good idea to leave Peggy with her on longer deployments…

Translation (again, google translate. Please don’t get me TOT)

Hello, my grandson (bübchen is a nickname that means “little boy”)

Hello Oma. Did you encourage my daughter to put a snake down her classmate’s shirt?

Yes, as a joke…

Alright pls reblog this and put in the tags what would be the stupid expensive and utterly self indulgent thing you'd have in your house if your were fuckoff mcmansion rich. Mine be a fully maintained indoor lazy river

I gave up on Omega’s bow after about three hours, so did the flats on a Cheyenne portrait I’ve been working on. Curly hair is so hard, but SO MUCH fun!

The sketches below the break, if anyone’s interested in the process!

Alpha’s littol ducklings <3

My friends and I have decided that the lil troublemakers worked their ways into Alpha’s heart. The cadet boys are @skeltrr and @squidbrain ’s ocs Hazard and Bren. They were Omega’s first family!

Poor, frightened little bean :(