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Knapweed Fritillary
''Melitaea phoebe'', the knapweed fritillary, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in the Palearctic realm, except the northernmost locations. It used to include '' Melitaea telona'', recently revalidated as a distinct cryptic species. Description The wingspan is 34–50 mm. ''M. phoebe''. The largest ''Melitaea'' of the Old World, at least certain of its forms. The forewing much more pointed than in the previous species; equally variable in colour as well as the distinctness of the markings. The black markings are usually united, in some cases even covering nearly the whole wings, but in other cases may be strongly reduced. It is characteristic for this species that the reddish yellow submarginal lunate spot situated between the two median veins reaches with its vertex considerably farther into the disc than the other yellow lunate spots. This is especially the case on the forewing, but also on the hindwing the submarginal lunule between the 1. and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Denis
Johann Nepomuk Cosmas Michael Denis, also: ''Sined the Bard'', (27 September 1729 – 29 September 1800) was an Austrian Catholic priest and Jesuit, who is best known as a poet, bibliographer, and lepidopterist. Life Denis was born at Schärding, located on the Inn (river), Inn River, then ruled by the Electorate of Bavaria, in 1729, the son of Johann Rudolph Denis, who taught him Latin at an early age. At the age of ten, he was enrolled to be educated by the Society of Jesus, Jesuits at their college in Passau. After completing his studies in 1747, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Vienna. In 1749, following this initial formation period, Denis was sent to carry his period of regency (Jesuit), Regency at Jesuit colleges in Graz and Klagenfurt. He was Holy Orders, ordained a Catholic priest, priest in 1757. Two years later, he was appointed professor at the Theresianum in Vienna, a Jesuit college. After the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, and the subsequent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ignaz Schiffermüller
Ignaz Schiffermüller (born 2 October 1727 in Hellmonsödt; died 21 June 1806 in Linz) was an Austrian naturalist mainly interested in Lepidoptera. Schiffermüller was a teacher at the Theresianum College in Vienna. His collection was presented to the old United Royal and Imperial Natural History Collections (Vereinigtes k.k. Naturalien-Cabinet) at the Hofburg where it burnt during the revolution in 1848. With Michael Denis, also a teacher at the Theresianum, he published the first index of the Lepidoptera of the Viennese region ''das Systematische Verzeichnis der Schmetterlinge der Wienergegend herausgegeben von einigen Lehrern am k. k. Theresianum'' (1775). His collection is in the ''Kaiserlichen Hof-Naturalienkabinett'' (now Naturhistorisches Museum Wien). Schiffermüller is also noteworthy for his work in developing a scientifically based colour nomenclature. In his ''Versuch eines Farbensystems'' (1772), Schiffermüller addressed the need for a standardised nomenclature wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the large superfamily (zoology), superfamily Papilionoidea, which contains at least one former group, the skippers (formerly the superfamily "Hesperioidea"), and the most recent analyses suggest it also contains the moth-butterflies (formerly the superfamily "Hedyloidea"). Butterfly fossils date to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago. Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, as like most insects they undergo Holometabolism, complete metamorphosis. Winged adults lay eggs on the food plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nymphalidae
The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a reduced pair of forelegs and many hold their colourful wings flat when resting. They are also called brush-footed butterflies or four-footed butterflies, because they are known to stand on only four legs while the other two are curled up; in some species, these forelegs have a brush-like set of hairs, which gives this family its other common name. Many species are brightly coloured and include popular species such as the emperors, monarch butterfly, admirals, tortoiseshells, and fritillaries. However, the under wings are, in contrast, often dull and in some species look remarkably like dead leaves, or are much paler, producing a cryptic effect that helps the butterflies blend into their surroundings. Nomenclature Rafinesque introduced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palearctic Realm
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Siberian region; the Mediterranean Basin; the Sahara and Arabian Deserts; and Western, Central and East Asia. The Palaearctic realm also has numerous rivers and lakes, forming several freshwater ecoregions. The term 'Palearctic' was first used in the 19th century, and is still in use as the basis for zoogeographic classification. History In an 1858 paper for the ''Proceedings of the Linnean Society'', British zoologist Philip Sclater first identified six terrestrial zoogeographic realms of the world: Palaearctic, Aethiopian/Afrotropic, Indian/Indomalayan, Australasian, Nearctic, and Neotropical. The six indicated general groupings of fauna, based on shared biogeography and large-scale geographic barriers to migration. Alfred Wallace ad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melitaea Telona
''Melitaea ornata'', the eastern knapweed fritillary, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. The species rank of ''Melitaea ornata'' (type locality Guberlya, Russia) was only very recently recognised by two research groups independently (Russell et al., 2005; Varga et al., 2005). They realized that there was an unrecognised species in Europe under the name of '' M. phoebe''. The separation of this cryptic species was based on larval morphology from the fourth instar onwards. ''M. phoebe'' larvae have a black head capsule while the larvae of this recently recognised Ponto-Mediterranean species have a brick-red head capsule (Russell et al., 2007). The separation of the two taxa was also supported by the results of enzyme electrophoresis study (Pecsenye et al., 2007). Based on these observations, the name ''M. telona'' Fruhstorfer (type locality: Jerusalem, Israel) was taken into use for this species. In a recent molecular study, the ''M. phoebe'' group forms a monophyletic cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryptic Species
In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each other, further blurring any distinctions. Terms that are sometimes used synonymously but have more precise meanings are cryptic species for two or more species hidden under one species name, sibling species for two (or more) species that are each other's closest relative, and species flock for a group of closely related species that live in the same habitat. As informal taxonomic ranks, species group, species aggregate, macrospecies, and superspecies are also in use. Two or more taxa that were once considered conspecific (of the same species) may later be subdivided into infraspecific taxa (taxa within a species, such as bacterial strains or plant varieties), that is complex but it is not a species complex. A species complex is in most cas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wingspan
The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird. The term wingspan, more technically extent, is also used for other winged animals such as pterosaurs, bats, insects, etc., and other aircraft such as ornithopters. In humans, the term wingspan also refers to the arm span, which is distance between the length from one end of an individual's arms (measured at the fingertips) to the other when raised parallel to the ground at shoulder height at a 90º angle. Former professional basketball player Manute Bol stood at and owned one of the largest wingspans at . Wingspan of aircraft The wingspan of an aircraft is always measured in a straight line, from wingtip to wingtip, independently of wing shape or sweep. Implications for aircraft design and anima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adalbert Seitz
Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz, (24 February 1860 in Mainz – 5 March 1938 in Darmstadt) was a German physician and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He was a director of the Frankfurt zoo from 1893 to 1908 and is best known for editing the multivolume reference on the butterflies and larger moths of the world ''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' which continued after his death. Biography Seitz was born in Mainz and went to school in Aschaffenburg, Darmstadt and Bensheim. He studied medicine from 1880 to 1885 and then zoology at Giessen. His doctorate was on the protective devices of animals. He worked as an assistant in the maternity hospital of the University of Giessen and then worked as a ship's doctor from 1887, travelling to Australia, South America and Asia. He began to collect butterflies on these travels. In 1891 he habilitated in zoology with a thesis on the biology of butterflies from the University of Giessen. In 1893 he took up a position as a director ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plantago
''Plantago'' is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a few are subshrubs growing to tall. Description The leaves are sessile or have a poorly defined petiole. They have three or five parallel veins that diverge in the wider part of the leaf. Leaves are broad or narrow, depending on the species. The inflorescences are borne on stalks typically tall, and can be a short cone or a long spike, with numerous tiny wind-pollinated flowers. Species The boundaries of the genus ''Plantago'' have been fairly stable, with the main question being whether to include ''Bougueria'' (one species from the Andes) and ''Littorella'' (2–3 species of aquatic plants).Albach, D. C., Meudt, H. M. & Oxelman, B. 2005Piecing together the "new" Plantaginaceae ''American Journal of Botany'' 92: 297–315. There are a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centaurea
''Centaurea'' () is a genus of over 700 species of herbaceous thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Members of the genus are found only north of the equator, mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere; the Middle East and surrounding regions are particularly species-rich. In the western United States, yellow starthistles are an invasive species. Around the year 1850, seeds from the plant had arrived to the state of California. It is believed that those seeds came from South America. Common names Common names for this genus are centaury, centory, starthistles, knapweeds, centaureas and the more ambiguous "bluets"; a vernacular name used for these plants in parts of England is "loggerheads" (common knapweed). The ''Plectocephalus'' group – possibly a distinct genus – is known as basketflowers. "Cornflower" is used for a few species, but that term more often specifically means either '' C. cyanus'' (the annual cornflower) or ''Centaurea montana'' (the perennial c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centaurea Jacea
''Centaurea jacea'', brown knapweed or brownray knapweed, is a species of herbaceous perennial plants in the genus ''Centaurea'' native to dry meadows and open woodland throughout Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia .... It grows to tall, and flowers mainly from June to September. In Britain and America, it is often found as a hybrid of black knapweed, '' Centaurea nigra''. Unlike the black knapweed, the flower heads always look as if they are rayed, forming a more open star rather than a brush-like tuft. '' Centaurea ×moncktonii'' is a fertile hybrid between black knapweed and brown knapweed. References External links * jacea Flora of Norway Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Maghreb Flora of Andorra {{Cynareae-stu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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