Leannderthal

This is Abraham, the guitar fish.  His species has been around for at least 150 million years, with very little evolving, so if you have any history questions he is the one to ask.  Abraham has wonderful ray-like fins added to his shark-like aerodynamic body, so he should really enjoy swooping around the oceans, but he doesn’t.  He would much rather rest on the ocean floor, and sleep.  Despite his sharkish looks, he is a peacenik, and is no danger as long as you are not a small crab or other sea creature living on the bottom of the sea.  I don’t know why this 40″ guy is called a guitar fish, I can only assume he plays a mean guitar.

These are a couple of jirds.  Mama jird is Beverly, and baby jird is Ryan.  Like most jirds, Beverly and Ryan have no regard for the 24 hour cycle, they sleep on and off all day and night.  They just have a short day in their internal clock, and don’t pay much attention to the sun.  These  little critters can leap a surprising distance, they think of themselves as kangaroos.  These are southern jirds, they don’t hibernate like some of their northern counterparts.  Beverly is very proud of her little guy, his is very smart and a quick learner. 

This is Hester, the bush-cricket.  She looks a little sad, I think it is because bush-crickets are locust without wings, they are tied to the bush for they cannot fly.  You can tell Hester is a girl by the ovipositor, that’s the long stick-like organ that is attached to her abdomen and goes out behind her.  It will help her deposit her eggs underground.  That “saddle” on her back is the way she makes piercing sounds.  Hester’s ancestors played havoc with the vines of France, but with pesticides their numbers have dwindled.  Hester is looking for a mate, she is having trouble finding a reliable  boyfriend.  Wish her luck.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 9:15 am and is filed under watercolor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.