|
Rifleman (bird)
The rifleman (''Acanthisitta chloris'') (Māori: ''titipounamu'') is a small insectivorous passerine bird that is endemic to New Zealand. It belongs to the family Acanthisittidae, also known as the New Zealand wrens, of which it is one of only two surviving species. The rifleman resembles a wren in form, but is not related to the family of true wrens, Troglodytidae, nor the fairy-wrens of Australia. Taxonomy The rifleman was described by Anders Sparrman in 1787 based on a bird collected in Queen Charlotte Sound in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand's South Island. He originally placed it in the nuthatch genus ''Sitta''. Frédéric de Lafresnaye placed it in its own monotypic genus ''Acanthisitta'' in 1842. The name ''Acanthisitta'' is a portmanteau of the thornbill genus '' Acanthiza'' and the genus ''Sitta''. The rifleman is named after a colonial New Zealand regiment because its plumage drew similarities with the military uniform of a rifleman. Description The riflem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frédéric De Lafresnaye
Baron Nöel Frédéric Armand André de Lafresnaye (24 July 1783 – 14 July 1861) was a French ornithologist and collector. Lafresnaye was born into an aristocratic family at Chateau de La Fresnaye in Falaise, Calvados, Falaise, Normandy. He took an early interest in natural history, particularly entomology. It was only after acquiring a collection of European birds that he turned his attention to ornithology. Lafresnaye described a number of new bird species, some with Alcide d'Orbigny. He accumulated a collection of over 8,000 bird skins at his home. After his death the collection was purchased by the American collector Henry Bryant (naturalist), Henry Bryant and donated to the Boston Society of Natural History, Boston Natural History Society. It was transferred to the Museum of Comparative Zoology in 1914. Lafresnaye's piculet, Lafresnaye's woodcreeper and Lafresnaye's vanga are avian species that bear his name. Selected works * ''Contributions à l'ornithologie'', 183 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ultrasound
Ultrasound is sound waves with frequency, frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing range, hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies from person to person and is approximately 20 Hertz, kilohertz (20,000 hertz) in healthy young adults. Ultrasound devices operate with frequencies from 20 kHz up to several gigahertz. Ultrasound is used in many different fields. Ultrasonic devices are used to detect objects and measure distances. Ultrasound imaging or sonography is often used in medicine. In the nondestructive testing of products and structures, ultrasound is used to detect invisible flaws. Industrially, ultrasound is used for cleaning, mixing, and accelerating chemical processes. Animals such as bats and porpoises use ultrasound for locating Predation, prey and obstacles. History Acoustics, the science of sound, starts as far back as Pyth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banknotes Of The New Zealand Dollar
New Zealand dollar banknotes are the banknotes in circulation in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Tokelau, Niue and the Pitcairn Islands, denominated in the New Zealand dollar (symbol: $; ISO 4217 currency code NZD, also abbreviated ). They are issued by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and since 1999 have been made of polymer banknotes, polymer. History Before 1934, a number of trading banks issued their own banknotes in New Zealand and were not obligated to accept each other's banknotes. By the 1920s there was a general desire to have a single national currency. Accordingly, the Reserve Bank was established in 1934 as the sole authority for issuing New Zealand's national banknotes, while the New Zealand Treasury had responsibility for issuing new coins. New Zealand was the last British dominion to establish a national currency. The Reserve Bank has released seven different issues of New Zealand bank notes; two issues took place when the New Zealand pound was the national curren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treecreeper
The treecreepers are a family, Certhiidae, of small passerine birds, widespread in wooded regions of the Northern Hemisphere and sub-Saharan Africa. The family contains eleven species in two genera, ''Certhia'' and ''Salpornis''. Their plumage is dull-coloured, and as their name implies, they climb over the surface of trees in search of food. Taxonomy and systematics The family consists of two subfamilies, each with one genus. Their distinctive anatomical and behavioural characteristics are discussed in their respective articles. *Subfamily Certhiinae, genus ''Certhia'', is the typical treecreepers, with eight species found in Europe and Asia, and one, the brown creeper, in North America. *Subfamily Salpornithinae, genus ''Salpornis'', contains only the Indian spotted creeper and African spotted creeper. Some taxonomists place the nuthatches and treecreepers in a larger grouping with the wrens and gnatcatchers. This superfamily, the Certhioidea, was based on phylogenetic studie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insect
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. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maggot
A maggot is the larva of a fly (order Diptera); it is applied in particular to the larvae of Brachycera flies, such as houseflies, cheese flies, and blowflies, rather than larvae of the Nematocera, such as mosquitoes and crane flies. Entomology "Maggot" is not a technical term and should not be taken as such; in many standard textbooks of entomology, it does not appear in the index at all. In many non-technical texts, the term is used for insect larvae in general. Other sources have coined their own definitions; for example: "The term applies to a grub when all trace of limbs has disappeared" and "Applied to the footless larvae of Diptera".Smith, John. BExplanation of terms used in entomology Brooklyn Entomological Society, 1906. Additionally, in ''Flies: The Natural History and Diversity of Diptera'', the author claims maggots "are larvae of higher Brachycera ( Cyclorrhapha)." Maggot-like fly larvae are of significance in ecology and medicine; among other roles, var ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insectivorous
A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were amphibians. When they evolved 400 million years ago, the first amphibians were piscivores, with numerous sharp conical teeth, much like a modern crocodile. The same tooth arrangement is however also suited for eating animals with exoskeletons, thus the ability to eat insects is an extension of piscivory. At one time, insectivorous mammals were scientifically classified in an order called Insectivora. This order is now abandoned, as not all insectivorous mammals are closely related. Most of the Insectivora taxa have been reclassified; those that have not yet been reclassified and found to be truly related to each other remain in the order Eulipotyphla. Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers. Insects make up ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helpers At The Nest
Helpers at the nest is a term used in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology to describe a social structure in which juveniles and sexually mature adolescents of either one or both sexes remain in association with their parents and help them raise subsequent broods or litters, instead of dispersing and beginning to reproduce themselves. This phenomenon was first studied in birds where it occurs most frequently, but it is also known in animals from many different groups including mammals and insects. It is a simple form of co-operative breeding. The effects of helpers usually amount to a net benefit, however, benefits are not uniformly distributed by all helpers nor across all species that exhibit this behaviour. There are multiple proposed explanations for the behaviour, but its variability and broad taxonomic occurrences result in simultaneously plausible theories.Dickinson, J. L.; Hatchwell, B. J. (2004) "Fitness consequences of helping" in ''Ecology and evolution of coop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird Nest
A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American robin or Eurasian blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the Montezuma oropendola or the village weaver—that is too restrictive a definition. For some species, a nest is simply a shallow depression made in sand; for others, it is the knot-hole left by a broken branch, a burrow dug into the ground, a chamber drilled into a tree, an enormous rotting pile of vegetation and earth, a shelf made of dried saliva or a mud dome with an entrance tunnel. The smallest bird nests are those of some hummingbirds, tiny cups which can be a mere across and high. At the other extreme, some nest mounds built by the dusky scrubfowl measure more than in diameter and stand nearly tall. The study of birds' nests is known as ''caliology''. Not all bird species bui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rifleman - New Zealand (38403655815)
A rifleman is an infantry soldier armed with a rifled long gun. Although the rifleman role had its origin with 16th century hand cannoneers and 17th century musketeers, the term originated in the 18th century with the introduction of the rifled musket. By the mid-19th century, entire regiments of riflemen were formed and became the mainstay of all standard infantry, and ''rifleman'' became a generic term for any common infantryman. History Units of musketeers were originally developed to support units of pikemen. As firearms became more effective and widely used, the composition of these pike-and-musket units changed, with pikemen eventually becoming support units to the musketeers, particularly against cavalry. The last pike regiments were dissolved by the 1720s, as pikes were superseded by the invention of the bayonet. This converted the musket into a pike for those situations where it might still be useful, such as following up volleys with a charge, crowd control, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Podocarpaceae
Podocarpaceae is a large family of mainly Southern Hemisphere conifers, known in English as podocarps, comprising about 156 species of evergreen trees and shrubs.James E. Eckenwalder. 2009. ''Conifers of the World''. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. . It contains 19 genera if ''Phyllocladus'' is included and ''Manoao'' and ''Sundacarpus'' are recognized. The family is a classic member of the Antarctic flora, with its main centres of diversity in Australasia, particularly New Caledonia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and to a slightly lesser extent Malesia and South America (primarily in the Andes Mountains). Several genera extend north of the equator into Indochina and the Philippines. ''Podocarpus'' reaches as far north as southern Japan and southern China in Asia, and Mexico in the Americas, and ''Nageia'' into southern China and southern India. Two genera also occur in sub-Saharan Africa, the widespread ''Podocarpus'' and the endemic '' Afrocarpus''. ''Parasitaxus usta'' is uniqu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nothofagus
''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and New Caledonia). The species are ecological dominants in many temperate forests in these regions. Some species are reportedly naturalised in Germany and Great Britain. The genus has a rich fossil record of leaves, cupules, and pollen, with fossils extending into the late Cretaceous period and occurring in Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and South America. Description The leaves are toothed or entire, evergreen or deciduous. The fruit is a small, flattened or triangular nut, borne in cupules containing one to seven nuts. Reproduction Many individual trees are extremely old, and at one time, some populations were thought to be unable to reproduce in present-day conditions where they were growing, except by suckering ( clonal rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
