Have a Hacky, Gaggy Thanksgiving!

Your guests will be sure to throw up in their mouths when they see the Thanksgiving feast you've laid out. After all, you're going to follow these serving suggestions from Discovery News, right? They include a delicious cranberry sauce that's topped with poached wax worms!

“A Thanksgiving Day meal with intentional insect ingredients is hardly the norm for most Americans, but it could be our future due to the cost, nutritional and environmental benefits of edible bugs.”

Do you know what a "wood louse" is?

Fine, I'll tell you. A wood louse is a small terrestrial crustacean with a grayish segmented body and seven pairs of legs, living in damp habitats.

But wood lice aren't always CALLED wood lice. Look at all the nicknames for them in the United Kingdom alone!

Yep, they're known as Chooky-pegs, Flumps, Monkey Peas, Cheeselogs, Chuggy Pigs, Woodwigs, Crunchy Bats, Nutbugs, Slatey Beetles, Chisel Bobs, and OgoPogo (!) among other things! (Via.)

Whose eyeball is this?

A giant eyeball was found by a man walking along the beach in Florida! Over at NPR, they asked the question, “Can you ID it?” Here’s what some wise guy said:

While E.T. and a hurricane are good guesses, I also like the guy who said, “Sauron.” (BTW, the eyeball HAS been IDed. It’s from a swordfish!)

Hey, want to see a starfish barf up its stomach to eat a mussel?

Meet the toughest animal in the world!

Via.

This is a “moss piglet,” and it's standing on some moss . . . because where else would you find a moss piglet? The animal’s a millimeter long, lives in the water, and is known scientifically as a Tardigrade.

And despite its size and name, the moss piglet is the toughest animal in the world. Want proof?

"They are found throughout the world, including regions of extreme temperature, such as hot springs. They can survive extreme pressure, such as deep underwater. They can also survive high levels of radiation and can live in the vacuum of outer space for several days."

Did you see that? The moss piglet can live in OUTER SPACE! 

This is the largest eye in the animal kingdom.

It belongs to a giant squid. Maybe it will be returned someday! Read more at National Geographic.

How to defend yourself: Use butt foam!

I just finished an awesome article about how an Asian ant defends itself by shooting foam out of its butt. Best of all, the foam comes out so fast, at first it looks like Silly String! Check it out at the Myrmecos blog.

Want to learn about tsetse flies?

Bug Mac!

Did you know you'll be able to buy the "commercially available bug sandwich" soon? Sweet!

I learned that while reading this NPR piece about a Dutch restaurant that serves dishes like the delicious insect crumble shown here.

Ever wonder how big Japanese giant hornets get?

About THIS big. These are Vespa mandarinia, a.k.a., Japanese hornets. Yikes! (Photo by Addicted2Hymenoptera.)

Guess where the Vampire Squid lives!

If you were to dive down to about 2,000 to 3,000 feet, you might disturb a vampire squid.

You’d know if you did, too, because when it’s upset, the vampire squid squirts glowing slime.

Even better, Its scientific name, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, translates to “vampire squid from hell.”  (Good thing it’s only six inches across!) Via.

Nature's Perfect Poop

Via.

At his blog, Thomas Hayden has a theory about the animal with the perfect poop: the copepod.

Copepods live in the ocean, where they drift around and eat plankton. But because the plankton is sort of spiky, copepods wrap their poop up so that it doesn't hurt hurt them on the way out.

Via.

So yes, copepod poop comes with its own wrapper. And after a copepod busts a grumpy, the grumpy sinks to the ocean floor, where it becomes food for other animals.

What if humans had a system like this? Thomas Hayden says we would poop something that looks like a "nicely wrapped burrito." Niiice!

Say hello to the "tree lobster"

That's one. Big. Bug.

Its scientific name is Dryococelus australis. Wait a minute, I'm being distracted by this brave gentleman's unibrow! (Read about the tree lobster at NPR.)

Meet the Bristle Worm

Lucky for us, it lives deep in the ocean. *shiver* See a horrifying photo series on bristle worms here.

This is a deep-sea siphonophore.

What, you've never heard of a deep-sea siphonophore?

Oh, and sorry about that music. Oy!

"Pss! Want to learn about the stalk-eye fly?"

Looking for a unique Valentine's Day gift?

The Bronx Zoo wants you to consider naming a Madagascar hissing cockroach in honor of your loved one! (Plus, if you name a roach, you get a cocoa-roach. Dee-lish!)

Headline of the Day

Yes, sea cucumber poo can save the Barrier Reef. This Australian Geographic article spells it out, but the basic message is that sea cucumber poo is awesome.

In other news, this website has a post up about books that were bound with human skin. It ends like this: 

“If you didn’t know better, you would think it was suede.”

Sheesh!