Limulus Polyphemus

Limulus Polyphemus

The Limulus Polyphemus -or horseshoe crab- is coming from the age of “visible life” that is the Paleozoic era (440 -248 million years ago).
They are older than dinosaurs, older than flowering plants, they have ten eyes, spawn on the beach, molt around 17 times in 9 to 10 years & can live up to 20 years. These days, extracts from their blood are used by the pharmaceutical industry. Their eggs — laid on the beach — are essential to migratory birds who feed on them from nests that have been disrupted by waves and storms. The feeding of shorebirds has no adverse affect on the breeding success of the horseshoe crab.
They fascinate me. Below some pix taken Saturday at Coney Island and a painting of larvae & juvenile.
For more info check this wonderful site : Limulus Polyphemus

http://www.horseshoecrab.org/

Back up!

Back up!

The taxes, a cold and problems with my ISP server kept me from posting for almost 2 weeks. I am over and done with cold & taxes but I still have not yet solved all the problems with my IPS server and the WordPress learning curve is a bit challenging for me! Anyhow, thank you for your patience and you need to know that I am really determined on posting regularly.

My offering today is a drawing/painting part of a new series that I am working on titled: ManyBody. This particular piece is dedicated to François Bedin who passed away a few weeks ago. In my hometown of Luchon, François was mostly known as “Petit Pois” -Little Pea-! The story goes that when in boarding school –with my older brother Pierre– he ate such a big plate of “Petit Pois” that he was almost never called by his real name again! He was a great friend and a very a smart and funny character.

ManyBody-Petit Pois

A higher resolution available at: https://www.nicolepeyrafitte.com/manybody/petitpois.jpg