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Blue Copper
The blue copper, also known as ''Lycaena heteronea'', is an American butterfly that belongs to the gossamer-winged family. The butterfly is named so because of the bright blue hue of the upper side of the males' wings. Females are brown on their upper side. Both sexes are white with black spots on the underside of the wings. Blue coppers are seen on the west coast of the United States and the southwest region of Canada, particularly British Columbia and Alberta. The males are often confused with Boisduval’s blue , another species of butterfly. Blue coppers prefer to live in areas where species of Eriogonum are found. Blue copper larvae sometimes form mutualistic associations with ''Formica francoeuri'', an ant species. Description The blue copper is part of the family Lycaenidae and the subfamily Lycaeninae. The upper wing surface of the males is sky blue with dark veins. On females, the upper wing has more of a copper color with black dots. The wings are outlined in white. B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Baptiste Boisduval
Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de Boisduval (24 June 1799 – 30 December 1879) was a French lepidopterist, botanist, and physician. He was one of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France, and was the co-founder of the Société entomologique de France. While best known abroad for his work in entomology, he started his career in botany, collecting a great number of French plant specimens and writing broadly on the topic throughout his career, including the textbook ''Flores française'' in 1828. Early in his career, he was interested in Coleoptera and allied himself with both Jean Théodore Lacordaire and Pierre André Latreille. He was the curator of the Pierre Françoise Marie Auguste Dejean collection in Paris and described many species of beetles, as well as butterflies and moths, resulting from the voyages of the ''Astrolabe'', the expedition ship of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse and the '' Coquille'', that of Louis Isidore Duperrey. He left Paris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lycaenidae
Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfly species. The family comprises seven subfamilies, including the blues (Polyommatinae), the coppers (Lycaeninae), the hairstreaks (Theclinae), and the harvesters (Miletinae). Description, food, and life cycle Adults are small, under 5 cm usually, and brightly coloured, sometimes with a metallic gloss. Larvae are often flattened rather than cylindrical, with glands that may produce secretions that attract and subdue ants. Their cuticles tend to be thickened. Some larvae are capable of producing vibrations and low sounds that are transmitted through the substrates they inhabit. They use these sounds to communicate with ants.Pierce, N. E.; Braby, M. F.; Heath, A.; Lohman, D. J.; Mathew, J.; Rand, D. B. & Travassos, M. A. (2002)"The eco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eriogonum
''Eriogonum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus is found in North America and is known as wild buckwheat. This is a highly species-rich genus, and indications are that active speciation is continuing. It includes some common wildflowers such as the California buckwheat (''Eriogonum fasciculatum''). The genus derived its name from the Greek word ''erion'' meaning 'wool' and ''gonu'' meaning 'knee or joint'. The author of the genus, Michaux, explained the name as describing the first named species of the genus (''E. tomentosum'') as a wooly plant with sharply bent stems (''"planta lanata, geniculata"''). Despite sharing the common name "buckwheat", ''Eriogonum'' is part of a different genus than the cultivated European buckwheat and than other plant species also called wild buckwheat. It came into the news in 2005 when the Mount Diablo buckwheat (''Eriogonum truncatum'', believed to be extinct) was rediscovered. Ecology ''Eriogonum'' spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutualism (biology)
Mutualism describes the ecological interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit. Mutualism is a common type of ecological interaction. Prominent examples include most vascular plants engaged in mutualistic interactions with mycorrhizae, flowering plants being pollinated by animals, vascular plants being dispersed by animals, and corals with zooxanthellae, among many others. Mutualism can be contrasted with interspecific competition, in which each species experiences ''reduced'' fitness, and exploitation, or parasitism, in which one species benefits at the expense of the other. The term ''mutualism'' was introduced by Pierre-Joseph van Beneden in his 1876 book ''Animal Parasites and Messmates'' to mean "mutual aid among species". Mutualism is often conflated with two other types of ecological phenomena: cooperation and symbiosis. Cooperation most commonly refers to increases in fitness through within-species (intraspecific) interactions, althoug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buckwheat
Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum''), or common buckwheat, is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as '' Fagopyrum tataricum'', a domesticated food plant raised in Asia. Despite its name, buckwheat is not closely related to wheat. It is not a cereal, nor is it even a member of the grass family. Buckwheat is related to sorrel, knotweed, and rhubarb, and is known as a pseudocereal because its seeds' culinary use is the same as cereals, owing to their high starch content. Etymology The name "buckwheat" or "beech wheat" comes from its triangular seeds, which resemble the much larger seeds of the beech nut from the beech tree, and the fact that it is used like wheat. The word may be a translation of Middle Dutch ''boecweite'': ''boec'' (Modern Dutch ''beuk''), "beech" (see PIE *''bhago''-) and ''weite'' (Mod. Dut. ''tarwe'', antiquated Dut. '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green Rabbitbrush
''Ericameria teretifolia'', known by the common name green rabbitbrush, is a North American species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It is native to southern and eastern California, southern Nevada, and northwestern Arizona in the southwestern United States. ''Ericameria teretifolia'' is a shrub up to 150 cm (5 feet) tall. Leaves are thread-shaped and terete (round in cross-section, very gradually tapering; the epithet ''teretifolia'' means "with terete leaves"). One plant can produce many small yellow flower heads each with 5-7 disc florets but no ray florets The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w .... The plant grows in desert regions, in flat plains, rocky slopes, and canyon walls. References teretifolia Flora of the California desert regions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myrmecophilous
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] |
Lycaena
''Lycaena'' is a genus of butterflies. The genus range is Holarctic, with the exception of four species found in New Zealand, two in South Africa, one in New Guinea and one in Java. It is commonly divided into several subgenera, such as '' Antipodolycaena''. Many formerly independent genera are now subsumed within ''Lycaena''; the genus ''Gaiedes'' may also belong here. Many of the subgenera, species groups and species listed here may be synonyms. Species Listed alphabetically within groups: funet.fi Subgenus ''Tharsalea'' Scudder, 1876: *'''' (Boisduval, 1852) – tailed copper Subgenus ''Chal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butterflies Of North America
This list contains links to lists with the common and scientific names of butterflies of North America north of Mexico. * Papilionidae: swallowtails and parnassians (40 species) ** Parnassiinae: parnassians (3 species) ** Papilioninae: swallowtails (37 species) * Hesperiidae: skippers (300 species) ** Pyrrhopyginae: firetips (1 species) ** Pyrginae: spread-wing skippers (138 species) ** Heteropterinae: skipperlings (7 species) ** Hesperiinae: grass skippers (141 species) ** Megathyminae: giant-skippers (13 species) * Pieridae: whites and sulphurs (70 species) ** Pierinae: whites (29 species) ** Coliadinae: sulphurs (40 species) ** Dismorphiinae: mimic-whites (1 species) * Lycaenidae: gossamer-wings (144 species) ** Miletinae: harvesters (1 species) ** Lycaeninae: coppers (16 species) ** Theclinae: hairstreaks (90 species) ** Polyommatinae: blues (37 species) * Riodinidae: metalmarks (28 species) * Nymphalidae: brush-footed butterflies (233 species) ** Libytheinae: snou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butterflies Described In 1852
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] |
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