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Parasitengona
Parasitengona is a group of mites, variously ranked as a hyporder or a cohort, between the taxonomic ranks of order and family. They are divided into the aquatic Hydrachnidia (water mites) and the terrestrial Trombidia. The latter includes velvet mites and chiggers. Description Many Parasitengona are relatively large (for mite standards) and have a bright red colouration. Other colours include purple, orange, yellow, blue, green and brown. The terrestrial Trombidia are often hypertrichous, meaning they are covered in many irregularly arranged setae. The chelicerae bases are separate, the fixed cheliceral digit is absent and the movable digit is either hooked or linear. The palps are often raptorial with a claw-like seta on the tibia. The gnathosoma is retractable within group Erythraeina. The stigmata and peritremes, when present, are between the cheliceral bases. In Trombidia, there is usually one or two pairs of trichobothria on the prodorsum, and these are often mounted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrachnidia
Hydrachnidia, also known as "water mites", Hydrachnidiae, Hydracarina or Hydrachnellae, are among the most abundant and diverse groups of benthic arthropods, composed of 6,000 described species from 57 families. As water mites of Africa, Asia, and South America have not been well-studied, the numbers are likely to be far greater. Other taxa of parasitengone mites include species with semi-aquatic habits, but only the Hydracarina are properly subaquatic. Water mites follow the general Parasitengona life cycle: active larva, inactive (calyptostasic) protonymph, active deutonymph, inactive tritonymph and active adult. Usually, larvae are parasites, while deutonymphs and adults are predators. Description Water mites may be brilliant red or orange in colour, unusual among freshwater invertebrates, but they also display more subtle blues, greens and yellows. They are also unusual among mites in some lineages having movable, internalized eye lenses sunk deep within the prosoma rath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crane Fly
Crane fly is a common name referring to any member of the insect family Tipulidae. Cylindrotominae, Limoniinae, and Pediciinae have been ranked as subfamilies of Tipulidae by most authors, though occasionally elevated to family rank. In the most recent classifications, only Pediciidae is now ranked as a separate family, due to considerations of paraphyly. In colloquial speech, crane flies are sometimes known as "mosquito hawks", "skeeter-eater", or "daddy longlegs", (a term also used to describe opiliones (harvestmen) and members of the spider family Pholcidae, both of which are arachnids). The larvae of crane flies are known commonly as leatherjackets. Crown group crane flies have existed since at least the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous and are found worldwide, though individual species usually have limited ranges. They are most diverse in the tropics but are also common in northern latitudes and high elevations. Tipulidae is one of the largest groups of flies, inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chironomidae
The Chironomidae (informally known as chironomids, nonbiting midges, or lake flies) comprise a family of nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Many species superficially resemble mosquitoes, but they lack the wing scales and elongated mouthparts of the Culicidae. The name Chironomidae stems from the Ancient Greek word ''kheironómos'', "a pantomimist". Common names and biodiversity This is a large taxon of insects; some estimates of the species numbers suggest well over 10,000 world-wide. Males are easily recognized by their plumose antennae. Adults are known by a variety of vague and inconsistent common names, largely by confusion with other insects. For example, chironomids are known as "lake flies" in parts of Canada and Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, but "bay flies" in the areas near the bay of Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are called "sand flies", "muckleheads", "muffleheads", "Canadian so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myrmecophily
Myrmecophily ( , ) is the term applied to positive interspecies associations between ants and a variety of other organisms, such as plants, other arthropods, and fungi. Myrmecophily refers to mutualistic associations with ants, though in its more general use, the term may also refer to commensal or even parasitic interactions. The term "myrmecophile" is used mainly for animals that associate with ants. An estimated 10,000 species of ants (Formicidae) are known, with a higher diversity in the tropics.B. Holldobler and E.O. Wilson, The Ants, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1990. In most terrestrial ecosystems, ants are ecologically and numerically dominant, being the main invertebrate predators. As a result, ants play a key role in controlling arthropod richness, abundance, and community structure.K. Fiedler, B. Holldobler, and P. Seufert, "Butterflies and ants: The communicative domain," Cellular and molecular life sciences, vol. 52, 1996 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odonata
Odonata is an order of flying insects that includes the dragonflies and damselflies. Members of the group first appeared during the Triassic, though members of their total group, Odonatoptera, first appeared in Late Carboniferous. The two common groups are distinguished with dragonflies, placed in the suborder Epiprocta, usually being larger, with eyes together and wings up or out at rest, while damselflies, suborder Zygoptera, are usually smaller with eyes placed apart and wings along body at rest. All Odonata have aquatic larvae called naiads (nymphs), and all of them, larvae and adults, are carnivorous. The adults can land, but rarely walk. Their legs are specialised for catching prey. They are almost entirely insectivorous. Etymology and terminology Fabricius coined the term ''Odonata'' in 1793 from the Ancient Greek ( Ionic form of ) 'tooth'. One hypothesis is that it was because their maxillae are notably toothed. Most insects also have toothed mandibles. The wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arrenurus
''Arrenurus'' (αρρεν - male, ουρά - tail) is a genus of water mites within the family Arrenuridae, and was first described by Antoine Louis Dugès in 1834. It has a cosmopolitan distribution in lentic waters, even on remote Pacific islands, and is found on every continent, with the possible exception of Antarctica. Some 950 species are currently recognised, making ''Arrenurus'' the largest of genera. ''Arrenurus'' goes through seven stages - egg, inactive prelarva, larva, protonymph, deutonymph, tritonymph, and adult, only the larval stage being parasitic, and marked sexual dimorphism in the heavily sclerotised adults. Taxonomy of females is often problematic, but relatively simple in the males. ''Arrenurus'' larvae are ectoparasites of some aquatic insects in freshwater habitats, particularly the Odonata (Dragonflies and Damselflies). These mites establish an association for the purpose of transportation and nutrients, and attach to the host during the host's transit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alobates Pennsylvanica
''Alobates pensylvanicus'' is a species of beetle in the genus Alobates whose common name is false mealworm beetle. The species is black, has a pronotum that is nearly square, and has at least five rows of fine punctures on each elytron. False mealworm beetles live beneath bark and logs and are found throughout the United States. They have a life span of one year. ''A. pensylvanicus'' is often misidentified with ''A. barbatus''. The difference between the two is on the mentum of the head ventral. '' A. barbatus'' have a tuft of long yellow setae, while ''A. pensylvanicus'' does not. Some aquariums use the larvae A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ... as fish food. Unlike many other tenebrionids, the larvae are light white and slightly more moisture dependent. Pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parasitism
Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one". Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as Armillaria mellea, honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the Orobanchaceae, broomrapes. There are six major parasitic Behavioral ecology#Evolutionarily stable strategy, strategies of exploitation of animal hosts, namely parasitic castration, directly transmitted parasitism (by contact), wikt:trophic, trophicallytransmitted parasitism (by being eaten), Disease vector, vector-transmitted paras ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spermatophore
A spermatophore or sperm ampulla is a capsule or mass containing spermatozoa created by males of various animal species, especially salamanders and arthropods, and transferred in entirety to the female's ovipore during reproduction. Spermatophores may additionally contain nourishment for the female, in which case it is called a nuptial gift, as in the instance of bush crickets. In the case of the toxic moth ''Utetheisa ornatrix'', the spermatophore includes sperm, nutrients, and pyrrolizidine alkaloids which prevent predation because it is poisonous to most organisms. However, in some species such as the Edith's checkerspot butterfly, the "gift" provides little nutrient value. The weight of the spermatophore transferred at mating has little effect on female reproductive output. Arthropods Spermatophores are the norm in arachnids and several soil arthropods. In various insects, such as bush crickets, the spermatophore is often surrounded by a proteinaceous spermatophylax. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dioecy
Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is biparental reproduction. Dioecy has costs, since only about half the population directly produces offspring. It is one method for excluding self-fertilization and promoting allogamy (outcrossing), and thus tends to reduce the expression of recessive deleterious mutations present in a population. Plants have several other methods of preventing self-fertilization including, for example, dichogamy, herkogamy, and self-incompatibility. Dioecy is a dimorphic sexual system, alongside gynodioecy and androdioecy. In zoology In zoology, dioecious species may be opposed to hermaphroditic species, meaning that an individual is either male or female, in which case the synonym gonochory is more often used. Most animal species are dioecious (gon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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