|
Dolomedes Aquaticus
''Dolomedes aquaticus'' is a Dolomedes, fishing spider that lives and hunts along the gravel banks of unforested New Zealand rivers. It prefers open riverbanks where it lives under rocks, usually less than 5 metres from the river. Its colouring allows it to blend in with river stones. Normally nocturnal, it sits and waits for its prey after dark, and can survive for short periods under the water. Taxonomy ''Dolomedes aquaticus'' was described in 1887 by Peter Goyen. Description Females have a total body length of 13–26 mm, males being smaller at 11–18 mm. The fourth leg is longest, about 36 mm in females and 33 mm in males. The cephalothorax is chocolate brown, with a supra-marginal band of yellow extending from the posterior slope to the anterior angle of the pars cephalica: falces, maxillæ, labium, and sternum chocolate-brown; legs and palpi, brown; abdomen above greenish-brown with two longitudinal rows of brown-margined yellow spots, at the sides gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dolomedes
''Dolomedes'' is a genus of large spiders of the family Pisauridae. They are also known as fishing spiders, raft spiders, dock spiders or wharf spiders. Almost all ''Dolomedes'' species are semiaquatic, with the exception of the tree-dwelling '' D. albineus'' of the southeastern United States. Many species have a striking pale stripe down each side of the body. They hunt by waiting at the edge of a pool or stream, then when they detect the ripples from prey, they run across the surface to subdue it using their foremost legs, which are tipped with small claws; like other spiders they then inject venom with their hollow jaws to kill and digest the prey. They mainly eat insects, but some larger species are able to catch small fish. They can also climb beneath the water, when they become encased in a silvery film of air. "''Dolomedes''" is derived from the Greek word "δολομήδης" which means wily, deceitful. There are over a hundred species of ''Dolomedes'' throughout the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cephalothorax
The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cephalothorax'' and ''abdomen'' in some groups.) The word ''cephalothorax'' is derived from the Greek words for head (, ') and thorax (, '). This fusion of the head and thorax is seen in chelicerates and crustaceans; in other groups, such as the Hexapoda (including insects), the head remains free of the thorax. In horseshoe crabs and many crustaceans, a hard shell called the carapace covers the cephalothorax. Arachnid anatomy Fovea The fovea is the centre of the cephalothorax and is located behind the head (only in spiders).Dalton, Steve (2008). ''Spiders; The Ultimate Predators''. A & C Black, London. P.p. 19. . It is often important in identification. It can be transverse or procurved Smith, A. M. (1990c). Baboon spiders: Tarantulas of Afr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, and to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers , making it the world's 12th-largest island. At low altitude, it has an oceanic climate. The South Island is shaped by the Southern Alps which run along it from north to south. They include New Zealand's highest peak, Aoraki / Mount Cook at . The high Kaikōura Ranges lie to the northeast. The east side of the island is home to the Canterbury Plains while the West Coast is famous for its rough coastlines such as Fiordland, a very high proportion of native bush and national parks, and the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. The main centres are Christchurch and Dunedin. The economy relies on agriculture and fishing, tourism, and general manufacturing and servi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Island
The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest island. The world's 28th-most-populous island, Te Ika-a-Māui has a population of accounting for approximately % of the total residents of New Zealand. Twelve main urban areas (half of them officially cities) are in the North Island. From north to south, they are Whangārei, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Napier, Hastings, Whanganui, Palmerston North, and New Zealand's capital city Wellington, which is located at the south-west tip of the island. Naming and usage Although the island has been known as the North Island for many years, in 2009 the New Zealand Geographic Board found that, along with the South Island, the North Island had no official name. After a public consultation, the board offic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Braided River
A braided river, or braided channel, consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called braid bars or, in English usage, ''aits'' or ''eyots''. Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment loads or coarse grain sizes, and in rivers with steeper slopes than typical rivers with straight or meandering channel patterns. They are also associated with rivers with rapid and frequent variation in the amount of water they carry, i.e., with "flashy" rivers, and with rivers with weak banks. Braided channels are found in a variety of environments all over the world, including gravelly mountain streams, sand bed rivers, on alluvial fans, on river deltas, and across depositional plains. Description A braided river consists of a network of multiple shallow channels that diverge and rejoin around ephemeral ''braid bars''. This gives the river a fancied resemblance to the interweaved strands of a braid. The braid bars, also known as chan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spiders Of New Zealand
New Zealand has 1157 described spider species, with an estimated total fauna of 2000 species. Over 97 per cent are endemic, and the rest have been introduced through human activities or were natural wind-borne introductions. The New Zealand spider with the largest leg span is the Nelson cave spider (''Spelungula cavernicola''), with a leg span of up to and a body length. The Australian white-tailed spider, first recorded in New Zealand in 1886, has been falsely attributed as the cause of many necrotising spider bites. The flat huntsman spider ('' Delena cancerides''), also from Australia, and called the Avondale spider in New Zealand, was accidentally introduced in the early 1920s, possibly in shipments of hardwood logs used for railway sleepers.Rowell and Avilés (1995). "Sociality in a bark-dwelling huntsman spider from Australia, Delena cancerides Walckenaer (Araneae: Sparassidae)". ''Insectes Sociaux''. Volume 42(3): 287-302 The huntsman spiders, which are considered harml ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.svg "Click for more on -> South Island")
