Inert inverts

From the public gallery of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore. If I am not wrong, all these animals were collected locally.

A colourful beetle.

Button snails. Sadly now an uncommon sight on local beaches.

Mantis shrimp. Apart from their formidable ability to cause damage to sensitive duck organs, stomatopods have probably the most sophisticated eyes in the animal kingdom, able to see colours beyond human vision and with built-in polarisation sensitivity. According to Wikipedia's entry, the Cantonese call them 'pissing shrimp' due to their habit of urinating when cooked. I guess I would be pissed too...

Praying mantis.

Aedes mosquito.

Stygophrynus sp., an Amblypygid from Bukit Timah. Those who watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire would recognise this as the hapless victim of a fatal curse. I couldn't find any information on the local biodiversity of whip scorpions but in the process found a site of a Singaporean scorpion fan. Click here to find out more about local scorpions, but the site's piped music should carry a warning label for excessive cheesiness.

A hermit crab.

A hairy crab.

Comments

[slurp!]

Thanks! didn't know about public gallery of Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research. hope to pop in soon :)

[Hai~Ren]

Ooh button shells! Saw a whole bunch of them at East Coast, collected a lot, but I seem to have misplaced them somewhere... Damn.

It's really fascinating how this single species is so highly variable even within a single population. Just what are all those pretty colours for, anyway?

I wunder if these hairy crabs taste as good as the ones from China. Any1 know how to prepare them without a call to the A&E (or wherever they send a person that's silly enuff to gobble poisonous crabbies)?

*SQUEAK*

[monkey]

ooo pissing shrimp! i know pissing shrimp! why dont u just say pissing shrimp. make monkey feel stupid with scientific name again. oh wait... mantis shrimp is not so scientific. bleh :P

testing ur new canon lens haR?
bah make me jealous

considering mrsduck's hatred towards mozzies.... lol i laughed out loud at ur aedes mosquito picture because its almost like id-ing the enemy! ATTACK! lol