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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • Instigate@aussie.zonetoScience Memes@mander.xyzYass Queen
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    10 months ago

    Probed on whether Queen would be able to win a BRIT gong in 2021, he was reported to have responded:

    “We would be forced to have people of different colours and different sexes and we would have to have a trans [person]. You know life doesn’t have to be like that. We can be separate and different.”

    Apparently he was ‘ambushed’ and ‘stitched up’ and his words were ‘subtly twisted’ but he never stated what his original words were, if they were different from the quote. I’m not usually a fan of people who use terms like “a trans” or who lament “cancel culture” because gendered categories are removed from awards ceremonies.

    https://www.thepinknews.com/2021/11/28/queen-brian-may-brit-awards-twisted-trans/


  • So it looks like the frogs mentioned in this meme are microhylids, and for some further info:

    Crocraft & Hambler (1989) noted that the frog seemed to benefit from living in proximity to the spider by eating the small invertebrates that were attracted to prey remains left by the spider. The frog presumably also benefits by receiving protection: small frogs like this are preyed on by snakes and large arthropods, yet on this occasion we have a frog that receives a sort of ‘protection’ from a large, formidable spider bodyguard. Hunt (1980) suggested that the spider might gain benefit from the presence of the frog: microhylids specialise on eating ants, and ants are one of the major predators of spider eggs. By eating ants, the microhylids might help protect the spider’s eggs.

    This is also super cute behaviour:

    Young spiders have sometimes been observed to grab the frogs, examine them with their mouthparts, and then release them unharmed.

    Apparently the spiders’ protectiveness can also be pretty overt:

    Karunarathna & Amarasinghe (2009) reported how several Poecilotheria were seen attacking individuals of Hemidactylus depressus (a gecko) after the latter tried eating the eggs of the frogs the spiders were sharing their tree holes with.

    And some ideas on why this might be an example of mutualistic behaviour rather than commensalism:

    …the spider seems to benefit in that the frogs eat the ants that might ordinarily attack the spider’s eggs. Due to their small size, ants are presumably difficult for the spiders to deal with, and they might be effectively helpless against them.

    Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/tetrapod-zoology/tiny-frogs-and-giant-spiders-best-of-friends/