|
Megacrania Batesii
''Megacrania batesii'', commonly known as the peppermint stick insect, is an unusual species of stick insect found in northeastern Australia, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and possibly as far north as the Philippines. It is notable for its aposematic coloration, as well as its robust chemical defense mechanism. Its common name refers to the irritating fluid — with an odor resembling peppermint — that it sprays as a defensive action from a pair of glands located at its prothorax when threatened, as well as the cylindrical, twig-like shape of its body. A member of the subfamily Megacraniinae, it was first described by English naturalist and explorer Henry Walter Bates in 1865. Within their distribution, the habitat of these large insects occurs in complex mesophyll vine forests (lowland tropical and subtropical rainforests), at the transition area between the forest and the beach. They can be found in small numbers in such places, resting on the u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Forsell Kirby
William Forsell Kirby (14 January 1844 – 20 November 1912) was an English entomologist and folklorist. Life He was born in Leicester. He was the eldest son of Samuel Kirby, who was a banker. He was educated privately, and became interested in butterflies and moths at an early age. The family moved to Brighton, where he became acquainted with Henry Cooke, Frederick Merrifield and J. N. Winter. He published the ''Manual of European Butterflies'' in 1862. In 1867 he became a curator in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society, and produced a ''Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera'' (1871; Supplement 1877). In 1879 Kirby joined the staff of the British Museum (Natural History) as an assistant, after the death of Frederick Smith. He published a number of catalogues, as well as ''Rhopalocera Exotica'' (1887–1897) and an ''Elementary Text-book of Entomology''. He also did important work on orthopteroid insects including a three volume Catalogue of all known species (1904, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pandanus
''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with some 750 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. The greatest number of species are found in Madagascar and Malaysia. Common names include pandan, screw palm, and screw pine. They are classified in the order Pandanales, family Pandanaceae. Description Often called pandanus palms, these plants are not closely related to palm trees. The species vary in size from small shrubs less than tall, to medium-sized trees tall, typically with a broad canopy, heavy fruit, and moderate growth rate. The trunk is stout, wide-branching, and ringed with many leaf scars. Mature plants can have branches. Depending on the species, the trunk can be smooth, rough, or warty. The roots form a pyramidal tract to hold the trunk. They commonly have many thick stilt roots near the base, which provide support as the tree grows top-heavy with leaves, fruit, and branches. These roots are adven ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Edward Pellew Group Of Islands
The Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands is situated in the south-west corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria, off the coast of the Northern Territory, Australia. History They were named in 1802 by Matthew Flinders in honour of Sir Edward Pellew, a fellow naval officer. Although Flinders was the first British explorer to pass that way, his journals describe indications of some "foreign" people having visited beforehand. Flinders speculated that these visitors were Chinese. The islands were also sighted in 1644 by Abel Tasman who thought they were part of the mainland and called them "Cape Vanderlin". Description The group includes Vanderlin Island, North Island, West Island, Centre Island and South West Island. Combined, the islands have a total area of 2100 square kilometres; the largest, Vanderlin Island, is 32 km long and 13 km wide. Most islands are inhabited (some part-time) by the indigenous Yanyuwa people, and are also part of Wurralibi Aboriginal Land. Tourist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, S.C. The land is mostly flat and about half of the area is used for grazing cattle. The relatively undisturbed eucalyptus-wooded savannahs, tropical rainforests and other types of habitat are now recognised and preserved for their global environmental significance. Although much of the peninsula remains pristine, with a diverse repertoire of endemic flora and fauna, some of its wildlife may be threatened by industry and overgrazing as well as introduced species and weeds.Mackey, B. G., Nix, H., & Hitchcock, P. (2001). The natural heritage significance of Cape York Peninsula. Retrieved 15 January 2008, froepa.qld.gov.au. The northernmost point of the peninsula is Cape York (). The land has been occupied by a number of Abor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Instar
An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or assume a new form. Differences between instars can often be seen in altered body proportions, colors, patterns, changes in the number of body segments or head width. After shedding their exoskeleton (moulting), the juvenile arthropods continue in their life cycle until they either pupate or moult again. The instar period of growth is fixed; however, in some insects, like the salvinia stem-borer moth, the number of instars depends on early larval nutrition. Some arthropods can continue to moult after sexual maturity, but the stages between these subsequent moults are generally not called instars. For most insect species, an ''instar'' is the developmental stage of the larval forms of holometabolous (complete metamorphism) or nymphal forms o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tegmen
A tegmen (plural: ''tegmina'') designates the modified leathery front wing on an insect particularly in the orders Dermaptera ( earwigs), Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets and similar families), Mantodea (praying mantis), Phasmatodea (stick and leaf insects) and Blattodea (cockroaches). It is also a term used in botany to describe the delicate inner protective layer of a seed, and in zoology to describe a stiff membrane on the upper surface of the crown of a crinoid. In vertebrate anatomy it denotes a plate of thin bone forming the roof of the middle ear. The nature of tegmina The term ''tegmen'' refers to a miscellaneous and arbitrary group of organs in various orders of insects; they certainly are homologous in the sense that they all are derived from insect forewings, but in other senses they are analogous; for example, the evolutionary development of the short elytra of the Dermaptera shared none of the history of the development of tegmina in the Orthoptera, say. Also, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesothorax
The mesothorax is the middle of the three segments of the thorax of hexapods, and bears the second pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the mesonotum (dorsal), the mesosternum (ventral), and the mesopleuron (lateral) on each side. The mesothorax is the segment that bears the forewings in all winged insects, though sometimes these may be reduced or modified, as in beetles (Coleoptera) or Dermaptera, in which they are sclerotized to form the elytra ("wing covers"), and the Strepsiptera, in which they are reduced to form halteres that attach to the mesonotum. All adult insects possess legs on the mesothorax. In some groups of insects, the mesonotum is hypertrophied, such as in Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera), in which the anterior portion of the mesonotum (called the mesoscutum, or simply "scutum") forms most of the dorsal surface of the thorax. In these orders, there is also typically a small sclerite attached to the mesonotum that covers the wing ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megacrania Batesii-mating-DEM
''Megacrania'' is a genus of the subfamily Megacraniinae of stick insects. Members of this genus are commonly referred to as "peppermint stick insects", due to the characteristic odor of their defensive spray, as well as the cylindrical, twig-like shape of their bodies. These unusual insects are notable for their aposematic coloration, as well as their robust chemical defense mechanism. This mechanism consists of an irritating fluid — with an odor resembling peppermint — that they spray from a pair of scent glands located at the prothorax when threatened. This fluid is irritating or painful when inhaled or absorbed through mucous membranes, and is an effective deterrent against many arthropod, reptilian and avian predators. Taxonomy This genus was first described by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1871. After an exhaustive study, the genus ''Megacrania'' was revised in 2007. Among other revisions, ''M. batesii'' was removed from synonymy with '' M. alpheus''. There are now 12 known spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megacrania
''Megacrania'' is a genus of the subfamily Megacraniinae of stick insects. Members of this genus are commonly referred to as "peppermint stick insects", due to the characteristic odor of their defensive spray, as well as the cylindrical, twig-like shape of their bodies. These unusual insects are notable for their aposematic coloration, as well as their robust chemical defense mechanism. This mechanism consists of an irritating fluid — with an odor resembling peppermint — that they spray from a pair of scent glands located at the prothorax when threatened. This fluid is irritating or painful when inhaled or absorbed through mucous membranes, and is an effective deterrent against many arthropod, reptilian and avian predators. Taxonomy This genus was first described by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1871. After an exhaustive study, the genus ''Megacrania'' was revised in 2007. Among other revisions, ''M. batesii'' was removed from synonymy with '' M. alpheus''. There are now 12 known spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parasitoid Wasp
Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causing the death of these hosts. Different species specialise in hosts from different insect orders, most often Lepidoptera, though some select beetles, flies, or bugs; the spider wasps (Pompilidae) exclusively attack spiders. Parasitoid wasp species differ in which host life-stage they attack: eggs, larvae, pupae, or adults. They mainly follow one of two major strategies within parasitism: either they are endoparasitic, developing inside the host, and koinobiont, allowing the host to continue to feed, develop, and moult; or they are ectoparasitic, developing outside the host, and idiobiont, paralysing the host immediately. Some endoparasitic wasps of the superfamily Ichneumonoidea have a mutualistic relationship with polydnaviruses, the vir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oecophylla Smaragdina
''Oecophylla smaragdina'' ( common names include Asian weaver ant, weaver ant, green ant, green tree ant, semut rangrang, semut kerangga, and orange gaster) is a species of arboreal ant found in tropical Asia and Australia. These ants form colonies with multiple nests in trees, each nest being made of leaves stitched together using the silk produced by the ant larvae: hence the name 'oecophylla' reek for 'leaf-house' Description Workers and major workers are mostly coloured orange. Workers are long; they look after larvae and farm scale bugs for honeydew. Major workers are long, with long strong legs and large mandibles. They forage, assemble and expand the nest. Queens are typically long, and normally greenish-brown, giving the species its name ''smaragdina'' (Latin: emerald). Distribution and habitat ''Oecophylla smaragdina'' has a widespread distribution in tropical Asia and Australia, its range extending from India through Indonesia and the Philippines to Northern Ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parthenogenesis
Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek grc, παρθένος, translit=parthénos, lit=virgin, label=none + grc, γένεσις, translit=génesis, lit=creation, label=none) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur in a gamete (egg or sperm) without combining with another gamete (e.g., egg and sperm fusing). In animals, parthenogenesis means development of an embryo from an unfertilized Gametophyte, egg cell. In plants, parthenogenesis is a component process of apomixis. In algae, parthenogenesis can mean the development of an embryo from either an individual sperm or an individual egg. Parthenogenesis occurs naturally in some plants, algae, invertebrate animal species (including nematodes, some tardigrades, water fleas, some scorpions, aphids, some mites, some bees, some Phasmatodea and parasitic wasps) and a few vertebrates (such as some fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds). This type of reproduction has been induced artificially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_(7686081848).jpg "Click for more on -> Parasitoid Wasp")
