wormyorchids

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Brain School, 2023

#mental health #zine #mental health zine #mental health comic #comic zine #iop #php #brain school #ocd #anxiety #depression

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Overwintering, 2022

#climate change #adaptation #evolution #comic #comic zine

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You Gotta Let Me Come Back Inside! 2022

#the thing #the thing 1982 #comic #comic zine #the thing comic

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Morning Mail Walk, 2022

#comic zine #zine #comic #mail #sending mail #Chicago #spring

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Smol Trek, 2020

#zine #comic zine #roly polys #chosen family #bugs #bug comic

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Not to be a creep but whereabouts are you located ? There's a zine fair going on near me soon and they're looking for vendors

Hello!!! Oh cool! I am in Chicago :)

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New zine landed! SEA BABIES explores cute sea creature life stages 🦀🪼🐡 snag it in my sh0p or sign up for my mailing list before the end of the month!!

#illustration #drawing #art #creature #stippling #natural history #minizine #zine #marine biology #plankton #larva #life cycles #jellyfish #sea jellies #crab #meroplankton #zooplankton #barnacles #mola mola

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Insect wings. Martin Gerlach, photographer. Formenwelt aus dem Naturreiche. 1904.

Internet Archive

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Sometimes you just gotta draw a few alien heads

#orchids #illustration #drawing #orchid art

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Two days of renaming the Venus fly trap 💚🩷

#Venus fly trap #Garfield park conservatory

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i just feel strongly that work shouldnt be the Main Activity of five days out of the week

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I have to say that “warm gentle glow emanating from the shell of a turtle” is without a doubt my favorite genre of lamp

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Greenhound and tulip tree baby ✨🌿🐶

Soon to be stickers for my mailing list buddies! You can get a zine & a sticker each month for 5 bucks by hopping on- it’s patreon.com/wormyorchids 🐠

#illustration #drawing #my work #art #sketchbook #creature #natural history #plant creatures #greenhouse #fantasy #lil guys #creature design #lil guy design #tulip tree #chimera #sticker design

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Round bird zine has landed!!!

#illustration #drawing #my work #art #creature #stippling #natural history #round bird #round birds #round birb #round birbs #orb #Chicago wildlife #natural history illustration #minizine #minizine of the month #March minizine #mailing list #zine mailing list #borb #borbs

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Shellback Crabs: these crabs create their own shields out of clamshells; their semi-membranous bodies can be pressed into the contours of the shell, producing a suction mechanism that holds the shell in place

The members of this genus (Hypoconcha) have a series of unique adaptations that facilitate this kind of camouflage behavior. Many of the Dromiidae crabs (e.g. hermit crabs, sponge crabs, shellback crabs, etc.) are equipped with a specialized pair of legs that enables the crab to hold a shell, sea sponge, and/or ascidian against their body, but shellback crabs also have a flexible, semi-membranous body that can be tucked more firmly into the contours of a bivalve shell, producing a suction mechanism that keeps the shell firmly locked in place.

The body of the shellback crab is also covered in a very fine layer of hair-like structures called setae, and when the crab presses itself against the shell, these membranous "hairs" can take on an almost translucent appearance, particularly around the margins of the crab's body.

I recently posted some photos/info about some of the crabs in the genus Lamarckdromia (which belongs to the same family) and as I was doing the background research for that post, I was just kind of mesmerized by all of these weirdly adorable crabs that seem to exist within the Dromiidae family tree. Each genus has its own unique adaptations that allow the crabs to use specific materials for camouflage -- some of them use living sponges, clamshells, ascidians, etc.

And I could not stop laughing at the little faces on these crabs. They've all got the same bemused/indignant expression...as if some random asshole has just walked up to them, shoved them over, and announced to the entire ocean that there's a crab hiding beneath that disguise; as if that actually happens to them quite a lot, and they're getting really sick of it.

Sources & More Info:

Crustaceana Monographs: Comparison of the Shell-Carrying Behaviors of Desmodromia, Conchoecetes, and Hypoconcha (the relevant info is on page 191)

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources: Shellback Crabs and their Larval Stages (PDF)

South Carolina Public Radio: Shellback Crabs

Again, I don't normally feature crustaceans on my blog...but I really couldn't resist this one.

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A peek at my new zine, Why I’m Still Masking in 2024!

Listed on my Etsy or down to trade 🖤

#illustration #drawing #zine #minizine #Covid zine #Covid cautious #public health #masking #mask #2024 #community care