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Sphictostethus Nitidus
''Sphictostethus nitidus'', the golden hunter wasp or red spider wasp, is a species of pepsid spider wasp endemic to New Zealand. Description Females are reddish brown with yellow tints and with sooty spots; the males are also reddish brown with yellow-tinted wings, but these are never spotted. Females are 8.5-22.0 mm in length, and males 7.5-15.0 mm. They have a bold, jerky gait, and their vivid colour is aposematic to warn off visual predators such as birds and lizards. It is the only New Zealand ''Sphictostethus'' species that does not change from red to black when altitude or latitude increases. Its body stays red even at the most southern latitudes of its range. Biology ''S. nitidus'' hunts terrestrially in a variety of situations such as underneath and within logs, debris, and rotting wood, arboreally in shrubs and bushes, and on shingles and under boulders. The prey is usually detected by sight and pursued into the open. ''S. nitidus'' varies the attack depend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johan Christian Fabricius
Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is considered one of the most important entomologists of the 18th century, having named nearly 10,000 species of animals, and established the basis for the modern insect classification. Biography Johan Christian Fabricius was born on 7 January 1745 at Tønder in the Duchy of Schleswig, where his father was a doctor. He studied at the gymnasium at Altona and entered the University of Copenhagen in 1762. Later the same year he travelled together with his friend and relative Johan Zoëga to Uppsala, where he studied under Carl Linnaeus for two years. On his return, he started work on his , which was finally published in 1775. Throughout this time, he remained dependent on subsidies from his father, who worked as a consultant at Frederiks Hospita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kleptoparasitism
Kleptoparasitism (etymologically, parasitism by theft) is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct feeding, which can mean when food is scarce or when victims are abundant. Many kleptoparasites are arthropods, especially bees and wasps, but including some true flies, dung beetles, bugs, and spiders. Cuckoo bees are specialized kleptoparasites which lay their eggs either on the pollen masses made by other bees, or on the insect hosts of parasitoid wasps. They are an instance of Emery's rule, which states that insect social parasites tend to be closely related to their hosts. The behavior occurs, too, in vertebrates including birds such as skuas, which persistently chase other seabirds until they disgorge their food, and carnivorous mammals such as spotted hyenas and lions. Other species opportunistically indulge in kleptoparasitism. Strategy Kleptoparasitism is a fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Fauna Of New Zealand
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example '' Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. '' Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hymenoptera Of New Zealand
Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typically have a special ovipositor for inserting eggs into hosts or places that are otherwise inaccessible. This ovipositor is often modified into a stinger. The young develop through holometabolism (complete metamorphosis)—that is, they have a wormlike larval stage and an inactive pupal stage before they mature. Etymology The name Hymenoptera refers to the wings of the insects, but the original derivation is ambiguous. All references agree that the derivation involves the Ancient Greek πτερόν (''pteron'') for wing. The Ancient Greek ὑμήν (''hymen'') for membrane provides a plausible etymology for the term because species in this order have membranous wings. However, a key characteristic of this order is that the hindwings are co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insects Described In 1775
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. Their blood is not totally contained in vessels; some circulates in an open cavity known as the haemocoel. Insects are the most diverse group of animals; they include more than a million described species and represent more than half of all known living organisms. The total number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million; In: potentially over 90% of the animal life forms on Earth are insects. Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans, which are dominated by another arthropod group, crustaceans, which recent research has indicated insects are nested within. Nearly all insects hatch from eggs. Inse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neoramia Otagoa
''Neoramia'' is a genus of South Pacific sheetweb spiders first described by Raymond Robert Forster & C. L. Wilton in 1973. Species it contains twenty-two species, all from New Zealand: *'' Neoramia allanae'' Forster & Wilton, 1973 – New Zealand *'' Neoramia alta'' Forster & Wilton, 1973 – New Zealand *'' Neoramia charybdis'' (Hogg, 1910) – New Zealand *'' Neoramia childi'' Forster & Wilton, 1973 – New Zealand *'' Neoramia crucifera'' (Hogg, 1909) – New Zealand (Auckland Is.) *'' Neoramia finschi'' (L. Koch, 1872) – New Zealand *'' Neoramia fiordensis'' Forster & Wilton, 1973 – New Zealand *'' Neoramia hoggi'' (Forster, 1964) – New Zealand (Campbell Is.) *'' Neoramia hokina'' Forster & Wilton, 1973 – New Zealand *''Neoramia janus'' (Bryant, 1935) – New Zealand *'' Neoramia koha'' Forster & Wilton, 1973 – New Zealand *'' Neoramia komata'' Forster & Wilton, 1973 – New Zealand *'' Neoramia mamoea'' Forster & Wilton, 1973 – New Zealand *'' Neoramia marama' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spinneret (spider)
A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and are typically segmented. While most spiders have six spinnerets, some have two, four, or eight. They can move both independently and in concert. Most spinnerets are not simple structures with a single orifice producing a single thread, but complex structures of many microscopic spigots, each producing one filament. This produces the necessary orientation of the protein molecules, without which the silk would be weak and useless. Spigots can be singular or found in groups, which also permits spiders to combine multiple filaments in different ways to produce many kinds of silk for various purposes. Spinneret morphology can help arachnologists identify the taxon of a specimen and the specific morphology of a spigot can determine its use as well ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Sparrow
The house sparrow (''Passer domesticus'') is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of . Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings. One of about 25 species in the genus ''Passer'', the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia. Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird. The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings. Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development. It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priocnemis Monachus
''Priocnemis monachus'' is a species of spider wasp endemic to New Zealand, where it is known as the black hunting wasp or ngaro wīwī. It hunts large tunnelweb or trapdoor spiders, paralysing them with its sting and storing them in burrows for its larvae to eat alive. It is the largest member of the family Pompilidae in New Zealand. Taxonomy The holotype of this species was collected by Joseph Dalton Hooker, and is in the Banks collection of the British Museum of Natural History. It is one of a number of species named but not described by Adam White, and intended to appear in the series Voyage of the Erebus and Terror, but not in fact being published there. In error, Frederick Smith in 1855 attributed the species to White, but Smith's listing of it as ''Pompilus monachus'' in his ''Catalogue of hymenopterous insects in the British Museum'' is the first published description. In the years following its description, the species has been placed in the genera '' Pompilus'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chelicerae
The chelicerae () are the mouthparts of the subphylum Chelicerata, an arthropod group that includes arachnids, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. Commonly referred to as "jaws", chelicerae may be shaped as either articulated fangs, or similarly to pincers. Some chelicerae, such as those found on nearly all spiders, are hollow and contain (or are connected to) venom glands, and are used to inject venom into prey or a perceived threat. In ''Pisaurina mira'', also known as the nursery web spider, the chelicerae are utilized to snatch the prey once it becomes within reach, facilitating the "sit-and-wait ambush predator" behavior. Both pseudoscorpions and harvestmen have structures on their chelicerae that are used for grooming (papillae in pseudoscorpions, cheliceral teeth in Opiliones). Types Chelicerae can be divided into three kinds: jackknife chelicerae, scissor chelicerae, and 3-segmented chelate chelicerae. Jackknife chelicerae The jackknife chelicera is subchelate (with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pepsinae
The Pepsinae are a subfamily of the spider wasp family, Pompilidae, including the tarantula hawks, as well as smaller species. Genera *''Ageniella'' Banks, 1912 *'' Allaporus'' Banks, 1933 *''Auplopus'' Spinola, 1841 250px, '' Auplopus carbonarius'' with prey *''Caliadurgus'' Pate, 1946 *'' Chirodamus'' Haliday, 1837 *''Cryptocheilus'' Panzer, 1806 *'' Cyemagenia'' Arnold, 1946 *'' Cyphononyx'' Dahlbom, 1845 *'' Deuteragenia'' Šustera, 1912 *'' Dichragenia'' Haupt, 1950 *'' Dipogon'' Fox 1897 *''Entypus'' Dahlbom, 1843 *''Epipompilus'' Kohl, 1884 *'' Guichardia'' Arnold, 1951 *''Hemipepsis'' Dahlbom, 1844 *''Java'' Pate, 1946 *'' Melanagenia'' Wahis, 2009 *'' Minagenia'' Banks, 1934 *'' Nipponodipogon'' Ishikawa, 1965 *'' Paraclavelia'' Haupt, 1930 *''Pepsis'' Fabricius, 1804 *''Phanagenia'' Banks, 1933 *'' Poecilagenia'' Haupt, 1926 *'' Priocnemella'' Banks, 1925 *''Priocnemis'' Schiødte, 1837 *'' Priocnessus'' Banks, 1925 *'' Schistonyx'' Saussure, 1887 *''Sphictostethus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porrhothele Antipodiana
''Porrhothele antipodiana'', the black tunnelweb spider, is a spider found throughout much of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands in bush and gardens and is one of New Zealand's most researched spiders. It is related to tarantulas, and is a harmless relative of the venomous Australian funnel-web spider. Description In females, the carapace is usually coloured yellow or orange black with some shading near the eyes. The legs and palps are also typically orange brown, but are darker than the carapace. The chelicerae are reddish brown (sometimes black). The sternum is a pale reddish brown. The abdomen is a uniform purple black colour and may have faint chevron patterns, more noticeable in juveniles. The opening of the two pairs of book lungs are ringed with cream. Females are the larger of the two sexes. Body size is variable, but can exceed 30 mm. In males, the carapace is darker than in females. The legs and palps are a dark reddish brown. The chelicerae are also dark redd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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