Moroccan Flic-flac Spider

Image: Prof. Dr. Rechenberg
Cebrennus rechenbergi

THIS. This is what we've all been waiting for. After the Mauritanian Flim-flam Beetle and the Austro-Hungarian Wibble-wobble Toad, we've finally found ourselves a Moroccan Flic-flac Spider.

Stilt-legged Fly

Image: Laura Gooch

Flies on stilts! Because sometimes even tiny flies need to big themselves up.

Blind Lizard

Image: Brown, Rafe

Here's an opportunity to impress your friends with your astonishing knowledge of a creature no-one has ever heard of! You could even start a rumour that its salivary glands hold the cure to wrinkled skin disease but the skincare-industrial complex keeps it under wraps. Who's to know?

Red-headed Mouse Spider

Image: Jason Bond
Missulena occatoria

Look at this sexy devil!

Bird's Nest Fungus

Image: Monica R.

Teeny bird nests with tiny eggs in! Are the fairies raising chickens now?

Jaw Worm

Image: Matthew Hooge

Molluscs range from mussels who sit around in their shell all day doing nothing, to active, wide-eyed, predatory squid. Arthropods can have 6 legs, 8 legs or several hundred legs. Chordates can have lungs and a backbone, no lungs and a backbone or no lungs and no backbone either.

These are among the most famous and diverse of the animal phyla; splendidly bountiful branches of the tree of life. But let's not allow their mind-boggling variety cause us to overlook the more stark branches with their tiny animal life that barely anyone has ever heard of.

Potoo

Image: Yanayacu Biological Station

I got myself a guest post! When it comes to big, googly eyes, few can match your average squid, let along a particularly googly-eyed squid. Ernie Allison introduces us to a noble challenger of the feathered kind.

Closely related to nightjars and frogmouths, the Potoo is the avian equivalent of your crazy uncle. You know the one—when he shows up to the family reunion you can’t tell if he’s been hitting the bottle since 9 AM, or just coming off of another Special K bender.

Four New Carnivorous Sponges

Just when you thought it was safe to step into the bathroom, researchers introduce four new species of carnivorous sponge to the "Known to Science" list.

Blind Cavefish

Image: H. Zell
Astyanax mexicanus

"Look, ma! No eyes!"

Thus spake The Eyeless One, Pallid Wanderer of the Underdark, He Who Sees Without Sight, the one they call... Blind Cavefish.

I'm the tall one

Check out another view of that day foraging with Monica Wilde over at Little Outdoor Kylie. Turns out that hat is her thing, haha!

She's got loads of pictures and as usual I'm the tall one with glasses. I'm not always the scruffy one in a hat, though!

Hidden Miracles of the Natural World

Small...

Smaller...

Really, really tiny!

Video: TED

Hot on the heels of Daniel Stoupin's latest effort, Louie Schwartzberg, assisted by his glamorous mane of hair, shows us some sights too slow, fast or small for the eye to see. It all comes from a movie he's been working on called Mysteries of the Unseen World.

Ochtheran Mantis Fly

Image: Tony

ATTACK OF THE KILLER HOUSE FLIES!

Burton's Snake Lizard

Image: Matt
Lialis burtonis

What do you think of when you hear the word "gecko"? Feet, yes? Big eyes and big, sticky feet. Spiderman with a tail.

Rules, however, are made to be broken.

Spirula

Image: Dr. Steve O'Shea

The most unique and mysterious cephalopod you've never heard of!

Conch Flippin' Easy

Image: divemasterking2000

Remember Neil the upside down snail's epic, heart-rending struggle to turn himself right-side up?

Turns out not all snails find flipping themselves over quite so arduous a process...