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Zopherus Chilensis
''Zopherus chilensis'', also commonly known as the ma'kech or jewelled bug, is a species of ironclad beetle in the family Zopheridae. Despite the name "''chilensis''", nearly all of the known specimens have been found from Mexico to Venezuela. Appearance ''Z. chilensis'' is described "muted gold" to "dull white" in colour, with black blotches or tubercles on its back. It is the largest species the in the genus Zopherus, and grows between 34 and 46 mm in length; 13 to 17 mm in width. As living brooches In the Yucatán Peninsula, locals collect specimens of ''Z. chilensis'' and attach to their backs rhinestones, pearls, chenille, and small baubles. The beetle is then attached to a small golden leash and worn as jewellery or, more frequently in modern times, sold to tourists. The practice is at least a hundred years old. Life cycle, habitat, and diet ''Z. chilensis'' lives in dead wood in arid forests and other similarly hot, dry, regions. The larvae A larva (; plural ...
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John Edward Gray
John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for a zoological name. Gray was keeper of zoology at the British Museum in London from 1840 until Christmas 1874, before the natural history holdings were split off to the Natural History Museum. He published several catalogues of the museum collections that included comprehensive discussions of animal groups and descriptions of new species. He improved the zoological collections to make them amongst the best in the world. Biography Gray was born in Walsall, but his family soon moved to London, where Gray studied medicine. He assisted his father in writing ''The Natural Arrangement of British Plants'' (1821). After being blackballed by the Linnean Society of London, Gray shifted his interest from botany to zoology. He began his zoologica ...
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Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the Caribbean Sea to the east. The Yucatán Channel, between the northeastern corner of the peninsula and Cuba, connects the two bodies of water. The peninsula is approximately in area. It has low relief, and is almost entirely composed of porous limestone. The peninsula lies east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrowest point in Mexico separating the Atlantic Ocean, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, from the Pacific Ocean. Some consider the isthmus to be the geographic boundary between Central America and the rest of North America, placing the peninsula in Central America. Politically all of Mexico, including the Yucatán, is generally considered part of North America, while Guatemala an ...
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Larva
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 larva's appearance is generally very different from the adult form (''e.g.'' caterpillars and butterflies) including different unique structures and organs that do not occur in the adult form. Their diet may also be considerably different. Larvae are frequently adapted to different environments than adults. For example, some larvae such as tadpoles live almost exclusively in aquatic environments, but can live outside water as adult frogs. By living in a distinct environment, larvae may be given shelter from predators and reduce competition for resources with the adult population. Animals in the larval stage will consume food to fuel their transition into the adult form. In some organisms like polychaetes and barnacles, adults are immobil ...
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Dry Forest
Dry or dryness most often refers to: * Lack of rainfall, which may refer to **Arid regions **Drought * Dry or dry area, relating to legal prohibition of selling, serving, or imbibing alcoholic beverages * Dry humor, deadpan * Dryness (medical) * Dryness (taste), the lack of sugar in a drink, especially an alcoholic one * Dry direct sound without reverberation Dry or DRY may also refer to: Places * Dry Brook (other), various rivers * Dry Creek (other), various rivers and towns * Dry, Loiret, a commune of the Loiret ''département'' in France * Dry River (other), various rivers and towns Art, entertainment, and media Film * ''Dry'' (2014 film), a Nigerian film directed by Stephanie Linus * ''Dry'' (2022 film), an Italian film directed by Paolo Virzì * ''The Dry'' (film), a 2020 film based on the novel by Jane Harper Literature * ''Dry'' (memoir), a 2003 memoir by Augusten Burroughs * ''The Dry'' (novel), a 2016 novel by Jane Harper Music * ...
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Zopherus Chilensis Sjh
''Zopherus'' is a genus of beetles comprising 19 species. They live in the Americas and are adapted to wood-boring. Distribution Species of ''Zopherus'' only live in the Americas, where they are distributed from Venezuela to the southern United States. Ten species live in the United States, five of them in California. Description Members of the genus are long and cylindrical, with very thick exoskeletons. Indeed, the elytra are so thick that it is often necessary to drill a hole in them in order to mount specimens. Species living north of the Rio Grande are almost all uniformly black in colour, while the tropical species are almost all strongly patterned in contrasting black and white. The animal's head is largely hidden by the thorax. The elytra are fused together, rendering ''Zopherus'' species unable to fly. Ecology ''Zopherus'' species are adapted for boring into wood, some species even being reported to bore into sound wood, rather than only dead wood. ''Z. tristis'' l ...
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Chenille Fabric
Chenille is a type of yarn, or fabric made from it. ''Chenille'' is the French word for caterpillar whose fur the yarn is supposed to resemble. History According to textile historians, chenille-type yarn is a recent invention, dating to the 18th century and believed to have originated in France. The original technique involved weaving a " leno" fabric and then cutting the fabric into strips to make the chenille yarn. Alexander Buchanan, a foreman in a Paisley fabric mill, is credited with introducing chenille fabric to Scotland in the 1830s. Here he developed a way to weave fuzzy shawls. Tufts of coloured wool were woven together into a blanket that was then cut into strips. They were treated by heating rollers in order to create the frizz. This resulted in a very soft, fuzzy fabric named chenille. Another Paisley shawl manufacturer went on to further develop the technique. James Templeton and William Quiglay worked to refine this process while working on imitation oriental r ...
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Pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate (mainly aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite) in minute crystalline form, which has deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls, can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, ''pearl'' has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable. The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as ''natural'' pearls. ''Cultured'' or ''farmed'' pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Imitation pearls are also widely s ...
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Rhinestone
A rhinestone, paste or diamante is a diamond simulant originally made from rock crystal but since the 19th century from crystal glass or polymers such as acrylic. Original Originally, rhinestones were rock crystals gathered from the river Rhine, hence the name, although some were also found in areas like the Alps, but today the name "rhinestone" applies only to varieties of lead glass known as crystal glass. The availability was greatly increased in the 18th century when the Alsatian jeweller Georg Friedrich Strass had the idea to imitate diamonds by coating the lower side of lead glass with metal powder. Hence, rhinestones are called ''strass'' in many European languages. As opposed to the classic rhinestones, which had a metal powder coating on the bottom side only, several companies have opted to mass-produce iridescent lead glass, by reducing the metal coating thickness and applying it uniformly, not using metal powder with a binder but by applying various forms of met ...
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Zopherus
''Zopherus'' is a genus of beetles comprising 19 species. They live in the Americas and are adapted to wood-boring. Distribution Species of ''Zopherus'' only live in the Americas, where they are distributed from Venezuela to the southern United States. Ten species live in the United States, five of them in California. Description Members of the genus are long and cylindrical, with very thick exoskeletons. Indeed, the elytra are so thick that it is often necessary to drill a hole in them in order to mount specimens. Species living north of the Rio Grande are almost all uniformly black in colour, while the tropical species are almost all strongly patterned in contrasting black and white. The animal's head is largely hidden by the thorax. The elytra are fused together, rendering ''Zopherus'' species unable to fly. Ecology ''Zopherus'' species are adapted for boring into wood, some species even being reported to bore into sound wood, rather than only dead wood. ''Z. tristis'' l ...
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Ma'kech
A living brooch, also known as a ma'kech, makech, and maquech, is a brooch made from a living beetle of the genus ''Zopherus'' (one of the three genera of ironclad beetle), particularly the species ''Zopherus chilensis ''Zopherus chilensis'', also commonly known as the ma'kech or jewelled bug, is a species of ironclad beetle in the family Zopheridae. Despite the name "''chilensis''", nearly all of the known specimens have been found from Mexico to Venezuela. ...''. The brooches are decorated with paste gemstones, bric-à-brac, and imitation gold, and are tethered to a woman's blouse by a small chain. Such brooches have traditionally been made in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico as objects of personal adornment. They do not move quickly, are very hardy, and are capable of living for over 3 years without food or water. References {{reflist Jewellery Insects in culture Cruelty to animals ...
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Tubercle
In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal. In plants A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection, but it has slightly different meaning depending on which family of plants or animals it is used to refer to. In the case of certain orchids and cacti, it denotes a round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on the lip. They are also known as podaria (singular ''podarium''). When referring to some members of the pea family, it is used to refer to the wart-like excrescences that are found on the roots. In fungi In mycology, a tubercle is used to refer to a mass of hyphae from which a mushroom is made. In animals When it is used in relation to certain dorid nudibranchs such as '' Peltodoris nobilis'', it means the nodules on the dorsum of the animal. The tubercles in nudibranchs can present themselves in different ways: e ...
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Smithsonian Contributions To Zoology
The Smithsonian Contributions and Studies Series is a collection of serial periodical publications produced by the Smithsonian Institution, detailing advances in various scientific and societal fields to which the Smithsonian Institution has made contributions. History The Smithsonian Institution began publishing consolidated compilations of quarto-sized papers in 1848, under the name ''Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge''.History of Scholarly Publishing
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In 1862 -sized papers called ''Smithsonian Miscellaneous Co ...
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