Worldbuilding: Heterozygote Advantage

One of the interesting facets of how DNA works on Earth is, so long as you’re one of most eukaryotic organisms, you generally have two separate copies of each and every gene in your genetic makeup.

There are, of course, exceptions.

An Alien-ish Invasion

Spotted something while out on a walk, had to make sure I got pics. Because… well.

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Worldbuilding: Consider Arctic Bees

Ran across a throwaway line about arctic bees in an SVSSS fic. There are some creative writers in that fandom, taking full advantage of the fact that Proud Immortal Demon Way was canonically a badly-written hash with excellent monsters, to do some really neat worldbuilding.

So. Arctic bees. What if you want something like that in your story?

Worldbuilding: On the Move

Do your monsters migrate?

In real life, most large land-based predators don’t migrate. They may have large territories and wander hundreds of miles, but they generally need a fixed territory to defend, rear young in, and maintain a large enough prey base to survive. Herds on the African savanna are well-known for taking advantage of this,

A Walk: The Good, the Bad, and the Ivy

Yes, the frogs are still out there….

Pine Barrens treefrog, hiding out on a greenbriar leaf.

Shrub Mints, Sky, and Water

Believe it or not, this is a mint.

Monarchs Ahoy

And most of the monarchs made it! We had two plant themselves inside to pupate – one was attached to a shelf – so we ended up with….

Yeah. We had to catch ’em.

This Joint is Jumping

Frogs. Everywhere. Willow Rosenberg would probably yelp.

…Maybe. They’re very tiny frogs.

Monarch Update: In Hopes of Hawks

It’s been said that an ecologist is someone who puts up birdfeeders in hopes of seeing hawks. The same principle applies to milkweed for monarchs; what you often get is wasps.

Worldbuilding: Cutting Down to the Bone

In your world, what eats dragon bones?