Smaug Giganteus

Smaug giganteus

Isn’t it funny that they named it after Smaug, the DRAGON?!

It is named after the dragon Smaug from the fantasy book “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The second part of its name „gigangeus“ is Latin meaning gigantic, because it is the largest member of the Cordylidae family.

They grown up to 35-40cm (15 inches).

Unlike other girdled lizards they don’t live on rocks, they make shallow burrows in open grassland. They live in South Africa.

The superhero of the sea

Tremoctopus violaceus

Also known as Blanket octopus

There wasn’t a single male Blanket octopus discovered until 2002 because scientists looked at the wrong sized animals. Female Blank octopuses can be up to 40.000 times more massive than males which makes them the largest gender discrepancy in the whole animal kingdom.

The female blanket octopus has a long, fleshy ‘cape’ enclosing its tentacles. The cape makes the octopus appear larger to potential predators.

It’s also called the superhero of the sea because of its large cape.

They are found in subtropical and tropical oceans.

Byasa polyeuctes

Also known als the common windmill or windmill butterfly. It is very common in India and belongs to the windmill genus “Byasa”

These butterflies prefer forests and woods as habitat.

The length is between 1.1 and 1.4 cm

Langaha Madagascariensis

Malagasy leaf-nosed snake

The special thing about this snake is its nose.

It has a strange nasal appendage that is pointy in males and leaf-like in females. The males are dorsally brown and ventrally yellow while the females are mottled grey.

They are usually found in Madagascar and are poisonous (not dangerous for humans). They lay in trees with their snouts hanging down from the branches, resembling vines.

To be more plant like they swing with the wind. They can grow up to 1m (3 feet) in length.

They mainly eat frogs and lizards are oviparous with clutch sizes ranging from 5 to 11 eggs.

Pseudobiceros hancockanus

Hancock's Flatworm

They are a species of hermaphroditic marine flatworm in the family Pseudocerotidae.

It can grow up to 14cm (5.5 inches) in length.

Pseudobiceros hancockanus lives in warm seas or coral reefs (seen in Indonesia, Fiji and Kenya)

Scientists suspect it eats small invertebrates that live in sponges.

Argema mittrei

Also known as comet moth lives in Madagascar.

The male has a wingspan of 20 centimeters and a tail span of 15 centimeters. Which makes it one of the world’s largest silk moths.

The female lays 120-170 eggs.

They unfortunately live only between 6-8 days.

When the moths emerge from their cocoons as adults they no longer feed on plants to survive. They do have a mouth and a gut but neither function.

(Follow for more biology facts)