Stonetribe

Don't be silly, you didn't steal any spotlights. That kind of talk is actually encouraged, so feel free to speak your mind.

Oh right, you made a remark on centipedes. I am the biggest derp.

Insects have never been a part of my diet, no. Although, I do remember once as a todler I came across a cup of milk. Of course, at the time, I didn't question how fresh it was or how long it was out. (it was warm and must of been out for a while ) but of course, I was young and didn't know to check. Aside from it tasteing horrible, I felt something moving in my mouth. Both of these factors prompted me to spit the stuff out. Right there, on the counter, was a soaked cellar spider trying to figure out what in the world just happened.

Ha ha. it is true, there are thousands of known insect and spider species on this earth and probably millions yet to be discovered. In fact, let me show you guys a little something. This is an earth bio diversity pie chart. As you can see, Insects alone make up almost 75% of the entire chart. Now take a moment to locate mammals. That's us, humans. Actually, that's also including all mammals, such as dogs, cats, rabbits, and even elephants. So humanity is even smaller than that already insignificant fraction. Pour yourself a cup of tea and sit down for a bit to put all that in perspective. What does all this mean? That my thread will never go out of business OK, joking aside, this means that we might not be as dominant as we think. Most people would disagree, but in my eyes, humanity has a long ways to go before we can truly consider ourselves the most prominent race on the planet. Heck, according to these statistics, if we ever find any life on another planet, chances are, the will probably have six legs or more and will blow our freaking minds!!! To answer your first question, yeah, I could use a bit of a bug highlighting vacation. It probably won't be a long one but I do need to take a breather. So if you could hold up with the requests, I'd really appreciate it. Don't worry though, I'd still be happy to just discuss anything arthropod with you guys!

Yeah, I bet most people thought the bigger spider would be the last one standing huh?

Good to hear you liked it!

As requested by Dr.Maxwell, here is a highlight on Cellar Spiders. Cellar Spiders can be found in every continent bar Antarctica. Their definitely not big as their bodies are only a single centimeter, but have disproportionately long legs, granting them the nickname, "Daddy Long Legs". This name is also commonly applied to harvestmen (these are the true daddy long legs in my humble opinion) which actually aren't spiders at all, and an insect known as the crane fly. Cellar Spiders commonly inhabit cool, shady, and damp environments, such as in the corners of garages or sheds and, as the name implies, human basements. Like many others of its kind, the cellar spider preys upon small insects and other spiders and constructs a web to aid them in this endeavor. However, Cellar Spider webs don't function quite the same as other spider dwellings made traps. Firstly, Cellar Spider silk lacks the adhesive properties its cousin’s posses. Secondly is the design they take in constructing their webs. Instead of the elegant pattern that people are prone to admiring. Rather, their webs are an unpredictable tangle. This sloppy web work isn't unintentional though. Since they lack stickiness, Cellar Spider webs rely on the jumbled mess of their silk to tangle up anything that happens to fall in. While a bug is struggling to free itself, the Cellar Spider begins to wrap its soon to be meal in silk until its unable to fight back. It then proceeds with standard spider protocol and sucks up the innards or saves it for later if it’s not hungry at the moment. When threatened, A Cellar Spider will rapidly gyrate in its own web in an attempt to make itself appear bigger and scare of potential threats with the sudden movement. They may also do this, "web rocking" to help tangle prey that has gotten stuck in its web. They are also able to detach one of their legs if it is caught by a predator. There is an urban myth stating that Cellar Spiders and Harvest men posses the deadliest venom of all spiders, but have fangs that are to short to puncture human skin. It is true that their fangs very rarely pierce our skin, their venom is barely even remotely harmful, and at worst, will produce a short lived burning sensation. Here's a short video showcasing the Cellar Spiders web tactics in action. There you go Maxwell, hope you found it to your liking!

Hey there bud, welcome to canterlot! The ponies around here like to call me the "Bugmaster" because of my love of insects, spiders, and all sorts of arthropods. If you like to learn and find yourself a tad bored, come on down to my bug thread. I'm always doing little spotlights on all sorts of interesting bugs. I just recently did a highlight on Honeypot Ants.

I know, I just wanted it to be known

Don't think I'm not familer with the geneses gems! Sonics 2, 3, and knuckles were also ingrained into my brain.

Good to know. I'm not gonna drop any spoilers, but I'm sure the end of the main game will further encourage you to keep playing

I've always been a sucker for Sonic the Hedghog's cheesy rock/pop songs. It's not my fault, it was part of my childhood! Even still, I'm glad I was able to grow up to them.

Glad to hear that someone is enjoying nintendo's best franchise. Do you plan on 100% completing the game once hocotate is free of debt?

Check it out guys, here's a new little clip of gameplay for pikmin 3!

Hey pal, welcome to canterlot! I myself am also writing a fanfic so I suppose we both share that ground. The ponies around here call me the "Bugmaster" because of my love of insects and spiders and the like. If you like learning and find yourself bored, come on down to my bug thread. I'm always doing little spotlights on all sorts of interesting bugs. My latest highlight was an a kind of ant known as Honeypot Ants.

Hey there bud, welcome to canterlot. So you like fanfics too? I'm actually writing one of my own, but I'm having a few friends peer edit it to see if I can't get it on Equestria Daily. If you want to check it out, here's a link. http://www.fimfiction.net/story/24094/Born-to-be-%28not-so%29-Wild See ya around the forums!

It would depend on what they were fed prior. I actually found this little gem during my research on Honeypots.

Hey dude, welcome to canterlot. I hope you intend on sharing some of your animations with us, I'm sure we'd love em! The ponies here like to call me the "Bugmaster" thanks to my afinity to anything with six legs or more. If you like learning and find yourself a tad bored, come on down to my bug thread. I'm always doing little highlights on all sorts of interesting insects and spiders. My latest spotlight was the Honeypot Ant.

Hey there bud, welcome to canterlot! The people around here like to call me the "Bugmaster" thanks to my obsession with insects, spiders, and all sorts of crawlys. If you like to learn and find yourself bored, come on down to my bug thread. I'm always doing little highlights on all sorts of arthropods. I just did one on Honeypot ants 10 minutes ago.

Whoops. I already started on the Honeypot highlight while to ninja'd me. Oh well, no biggie.

As requested by Rosey, I welcome the Honeypot Ant to my threads list of bug stars! Honeypot Ants are found in dry areas worldwide, especially in Australian Deserts. Honeypot Ants is actually a term used for a number of unrelated species that share a certain special caste. In case your not familier, the different ants in a colony are broken up into different groups or castes acording to their jobs. The most common and reckonized would be queens, workers, and soldiers, among other things. Ants classified as the Honeypot variaty include a caste known as repletes. You see, its almost manditory for all eurosocial insect colonys to forage for food and store it for later use. They however, usually just bring the food into predetermined food storage chambers. Honeypot ants on the other hand, don't store food in reserves, they are the reserves. That's right, these repletes wait for workers to bring food back to the colony for them to eat. Once they eat more than they need (which isn't much to begin with) they store the rest into their abdomens. It's not long till their abdomens swell up to the size of grapes and the're unable to move by themselves. Then, in times of drought or hardship, the other works can make the Honeypots regurgitate their stored nutriants by strokeing their antennae to share with the rest of the colony. This method of efficiant food storage does not go unnoticed by other species. When food is scarce, other colonys of ant may attempt to raid Honeypot dwellings in hopes of stealing some of these living food dispensers. It doesn't stop there though. In some rural areas where Honeypots can be found, even humans are known to snack on these little morsals and consider them a delicacy.

Sure thing Rose. Rosewind was first in line with a honeypot ant highlight, but after that I'd be glad to do cellar spiders. Untill I finish those two, I'd like it if you guys could hold off on requests ok?

As asked by starswirlthebearded, The Bombadier Beetle. The Bombardier Beetle can be found on every continent bar Asia and Antartica. Their appearance is simple enough, a reddish orange head and thorax with a black abdomen that may have additional markings. Their rather small, only growing as big as 2 mm to an inch. They prey upon small insects at night and when their not eating, may congregate into small groups. The Bombardier Beetle's most notorius feature is its incredible method of defense. Now he may not look like much, but when threatened, The Bombardier Beetle is capable of spraying a searing hot, toxic, and sticky chemical from its abdomen in rapid succesion. That's right, if you though acid spiting monsters only existed in sci fi movies, think again, as they are very real. You see, the Bombardier Beetle has two chambers in its abdomen. One containing hydroquinone and the other containing hydrogen peroxide. These two reservoirs are both connected to a mixing chamber through holowed tubes. The walls of the mixing chamber are lined with water and catalytic and peroxidic enzymes. When all these chemicals come together, they resault in a chemical reaction creating noxious substance that reaches tempetures just under that of the boiling point of water. The Bombadier Beetle is then free to spray this chemical warfare in incredibly rapid spurts, being recorded of delivering 400 sprays a second! Here's a short video showcasing this marval of the insect kingdom in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-wVFLucTks There you go Swirly, hope you liked it!

Oh geeze, I meant to edit the first one by making it quote imaginations but ended up making an entirely new one that's exactly the same but with the quote. I feel so stupid right now...

The terms handyman and and roadie share a ton of similarities so I would think that they are pretty interchangable. Essentially, his cutie mark represents his ability of being able to work in the shadows to help others, often by using his enginuity and foresight. Hope that clears up a thing or two. Hey wait, your part of the roleplay help staff! That must mean my application is about to be considered! Right?