life: Model Doris Fischer takes a smoke break at the 100-year-old Art Institute of Chicago-affiliated school and colony in Ox-Bow, Michigan, in 1946. See more here.
mothernaturenetwork: Largest hailstone confirmed in HawaiiThe record-setting hailstone was dropped by a so-called supercell thunderstorm, a rare occurrence in Hawaii.
theonlyhalfbloodprincess: How beautiful are the tiles and engravings on this fountain?!  Morocco - Casablanca 
patchthatsweater: sempervivum “lilac time”
archiemcphee: Mantis-cycle! Nordin Seruyan photographed this awesome praying mantis cycling on a plant in the Seruyan Regency of Indonesia. [via TYWKIWDBI]
wild-asthewind: rhamphotheca: Extinction Looms for Rare Frog Species, Now Down to One Individual by John R. Platt And then there was one. The last known Rabb’s fringe-limbed tree frog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum) now lives by himself at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia after the zoo euthanized the only other member of its species. The euthanized frog, another male, had been experiencing a “marked decline in health and behavior” according to a Zoo Atlanta news release. Scientists made the decision to end its suffering and preserve its genetic material for future studies. (photo: Zoo Atlanta) The team says it could have let the frog die naturally, but feared it could have died at night when no humans were on site. “Amphibians decompose much more rapidly than do many other classes of animals,” herpetology curator Joseph Mendelson said in the Zoo Atlanta press release. “Had the frog passed away overnight when no staff members were present, we would have lost any opportunity to preserve precious genetic material. To lose that chance would have made this extinction an even greater tragedy in terms of conservation, education and biology.” (photo: Brian Gratwicke) The Rabb’s fringe-limbed tree frog, native to a small area of Panama, was only identified by scientists in 2005 but has not been observed in the wild since 2007. According to Zoo Atlanta’s Web page about the species, the frog’s only known population “was drastically reduced immediately upon the arrival of the fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, into the region in 2006… (read more: Scientific American)   (top photo: Brian Gratwicke) Go in peace little man, go in peace species, I’m sorry <3
rhamphotheca: Parental Duties A male Liophryne schlaginhaufen (family Microhylidae) with froglets on his back. - This species, from Papua New Guinea, is perhaps most famously known for its mating habits in which the male excretes a hormone on an unsuspecting female, rendering it unconscious before copulation… (Wikipedia) (via: Live Science)   (photo: David Bickford, Nature)