Pink and White Katydids

A resident of Osaka, Japan found some interesting insects in her flower bed. Among them was an odd pair of grasshopper-like bugs — one pink, one white. An Osaka Museum of Natural History entomologist identifies them as the larvae of Euconocephalus thunbergi (”kubikirigisu” in Japanese), a close relative of the katydid. While he says it is normal for these insects to change between green and brown to match their surroundings, pink and white are considered abnormal. Speculation is that the pink is an extreme variation of the brown coloration, and the white specimen is believed to be an albino, though nobody will know for sure until it becomes an adult.

Zoo Sells Gorilla's Art On eBay

Little Joe and Okie, two of the western lowland gorillas at the Boston zoo, are avid finger painters and their paintings are now being sold on eBay. The finger painting is a part of the zoo’s enrichment program designed to keep the gorillas intellectually stimulated.

Polar Bear Gallery

Some cool pictures taken from this Flickr photo gallery:

Eel Species with Protruding Throat Jaw

Researchers studying one species of moray eels have uncovered a deadly secret that helps the fish to swallow their prey. Like the creatures from the sci-fi movie Alien, these eels have a second, extendable pair of jaws — encrusted with sharp teeth — that thrusts forward to ensnare their prey.

High-speed videos and X-ray photos show how the second jaws, called pharyngeal jaws, lie in wait inside the throat (top of picture), and then extend forwards into the mouth to grab prey that has been captured by the eel's main teeth (bottom of picture). The morsel is then drawn into the eel's esophagus.

This helps the eels (Muraena retifera) to be deadly hunters, despite the fact that, unlike many other predatory fish, they cannot generate strong suction forces inside the mouth cavity to capture a meal. Zoologists had previously been puzzled as to how moray eels, which live on coral reefs and rocky shorelines all over the world, keep hold of their prey long enough to swallow it. Unlike the movie creatures, however, these moray eels cannot extend their second set of jaws out beyond their first.

Many fish species have extra jaws in their throats, which can function to filter food from water or to grind prey when swallowing. But the eel's extendable jaws are the first throat jaws known to be adapted to help catch prey, rather than simply to help swallow it.

Be sure to check out the video of the jaws in action:

Monster spider web spun in Texas

Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail in Lake Tawokoni Texas State Park.

Spider experts say the web may have been constructed by social cobweb spiders, which work together, or could be the result of a mass dispersal in which the arachnids spin webs to spread out from one another.