|
Southern Birdwing
''Troides minos'', the southern birdwing, also called Sahyadri birdwing, is a large and striking swallowtail butterfly endemic to south India. With a wingspan of 140–190 mm, it is the second largest butterfly of India. It is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List. It was earlier considered a subspecies of the common birdwing (''Troides helena'') but is now recognised as a valid species. The species is more common in the Western Ghats of South India, which is a biodiversity hotspot with a high degree of endemism in many taxa. It is much sought after by collectors and is a highlight of many butterfly tours in the Western Ghats. It is the state butterfly of Karnataka, India. Description Description from Charles Thomas Bingham (1907) ''The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma, Butterflies''. Volume II. Male and female. Differs from ''Troides helena cerberus'' as follows. * Male: Hindwing: the black along the dorsal and terminal margins both on upper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pieter Cramer
Pieter Cramer (21 May 1721 (baptized) – 28 September 1776), was a wealthy Dutch merchant in linen and Spanish wool, remembered as an entomologist. Cramer was the director of the Zealand Society, a scientific society located in Flushing, and a member of ''Concordia et Libertate'', based in Amsterdam. This literary and patriotic society, where Cramer gave lectures on minerals, commissioned and/or financed the publishing of his book ''De uitlandsche Kapellen'', on foreign (exotic) butterflies, occurring in three parts of the world Asia, Africa and America. Cramer assembled an extensive natural history collection that included seashells, petrifications, fossils and insects of all orders. Many were colourful butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera), collected in countries where the Dutch had colonial or trading links, such as Surinam, Ceylon, Sierra Leone and the Dutch East Indies. Cramer decided to get a permanent record of his collection and so engaged the painter Gerrit Wartenaar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable". Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to sustainable development in its projects. IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation. It tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice and through building partnerships. The organization is best known to the wider ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladistics
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived characteristics ( synapomorphies'')'' that are not present in more distant groups and ancestors. However, from an empirical perspective, common ancestors are inferences based on a cladistic hypothesis of relationships of taxa whose character states can be observed. Theoretically, a last common ancestor and all its descendants constitute a (minimal) clade. Importantly, all descendants stay in their overarching ancestral clade. For example, if the terms ''worms'' or ''fishes'' were used within a ''strict'' cladistic framework, these terms would include humans. Many of these terms are normally used paraphyletically, outside of cladistics, e.g. as a 'grade', which are fruitless to precisely delineate, especially when including extinct species. R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Species Group
In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each other, further blurring any distinctions. Terms that are sometimes used synonymously but have more precise meanings are cryptic species for two or more species hidden under one species name, sibling species for two (or more) species that are each other's closest relative, and species flock for a group of closely related species that live in the same habitat. As informal taxonomic ranks, species group, species aggregate, macrospecies, and superspecies are also in use. Two or more taxa that were once considered conspecific (of the same species) may later be subdivided into infraspecific taxa (taxa within a species, such as bacterial strains or plant varieties), that is complex but it is not a species complex. A species complex is in most cas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palatability
Palatability (or palatableness) is the hedonic reward (i.e., pleasure) provided by foods or fluids that are agreeable to the "palate", which often varies relative to the homeostatic satisfaction of nutritional, water, or energy needs. The palatability of a food or fluid, unlike its flavor or taste, varies with the state of an individual: it is lower after consumption and higher when deprived. It has increasingly been appreciated that this can create a hunger that is independent of homeostatic needs.Lowe MR, Butryn ML. (2007). Hedonic hunger: a new dimension of appetite? Physiol Behav. Jul 24;91(4):432-9. Brain mechanism The palatability of a substance is determined by opioid receptor-related processes in the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum.Wassum KM, Ostlund SB, Maidment NT, Balleine BW. (2009). Distinct opioid circuits determine the palatability and the desirability of rewarding events. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106:12512–12517 The opioid processes involve mu opioi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrrolizidine Alkaloid Sequestration
Pyrrolizidine alkaloid sequestration by insects is a strategy to facilitate defense and mating. Various species of insects have been known to use molecular compounds from plants for their own defense and even as their pheromones or precursors to their pheromones. A few Lepidoptera have been found to sequester chemicals from plants which they retain throughout their life and some members of Erebidae are examples of this phenomenon. Starting in the mid-twentieth century researchers investigated various members of Arctiidae, and how these insects sequester pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) during their life stages, and use these chemicals as adults for pheromones or pheromone precursors. PAs are also used by members of the Arctiidae for defense against predators throughout the life of the insect. Overview Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are a group of chemicals produced by plants as secondary metabolites, all of which contain a pyrrolizidine nucleus. This nucleus is made up of two pyrrole rings bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thottea Siliquosa
''Thottea siliquosa'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Aristolochiaceae. It is used as an Ayurvedic medicine in India and Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an .... References External links * India biodiversity Aristolochiaceae {{Piperales-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aristolochia Tagala
''Aristolochia tagala'' is commonly known as Indian birthwort and locally as Dutchman's pipe. Distribution It is widely distributed: the distribution is from the Himalaya to Sri Lanka through South East Asia (includes Myanmar, Indonesia, Indochina, and Thailand) and China, to Oceania (includes the whole of Malesia, the Solomon Islands and Queensland in Australia). The species is found in forests and open lowland thickets, climbing over bushes and trees. Ecological roles The caterpillars of two butterflies, the common birdwing (''Troides helena cerberus'') and common rose (''Pachliopta aristolochiae''), feed on the leaves of this plant. A food plant for the species, ''Aristolochia tagala ''has been planted in the Kadoorie Farm and Shan Liu Road in Hong Kong to sustain a healthy population of common birdwings. Uses The species is used as medicines. The Malays pound the leaves apply it to the head to treat fever. In Indonesia, poultice are made with leaves of the species; it is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aristolochia Indica
''Aristolochia indica'' (native language: Garudakkodi / Eswaramooli) is a creeper plant found in Southern India and also Sri Lanka. It Is known as 'sapsada' in Sri Lanka and is critical to the survival of the southern birdwing and common birdwing, as well as crimson and common rose butterflies. It reaches a height of several metres on trees and cover the branches with thick foliage. It is commonly found in forest floor, rocky hillslopes. It flowers once a year to produce seeds. It can also be propagated by roots. The plant has a number of historical medicinal uses. Toxicity This plant contains aristolochic acid, a carcinogen also found in various '' Aristolochia'' and '' Asarum'' plants, both in the family Aristolochiaceae. Aristolochic acid is composed of an about 1:1 mixture of two forms, aristolochic acid I and aristolochic acid II. In addition to its carcinogenicity, aristolochic acid is also highly nephrotoxic and may be a causative agent in Balkan nephropathy Balkan e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aristolochiaceae
The Aristolochiaceae () are a family, the birthwort family, of flowering plants with seven genera and about 400 known species belonging to the order Piperales. The type genus is ''Aristolochia'' L. Description They are mostly perennial, herbaceous plants, shrubs, or lianas. The membranous, cordate simple leaves are spread out, growing alternately along the stem on leaf stalks. The margins are commonly entire. No stipules are present. The bizarre flowers are large to medium-sized, growing in the leaf axils. They are bilaterally or radially symmetrical. Classification Aristolochiaceae are magnoliids, a basal group of angiosperms which are not part of the large categories of monocots or eudicots. As of APG IV (2016), the former families Hydnoraceae and Lactoridaceae are included, because exclusion would make Aristolochiaceae in the traditional sense paraphyletic. Some newer classification schemes, such as the update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, place the family Aristol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Braconid Wasp
The Braconidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. After the closely related Ichneumonidae, braconids make up the second-largest family in the order Hymenoptera, with about 17,000 recognized species and many thousands more undescribed. One analysis estimated a total between 30,000 and 50,000, and another provided a narrower estimate between 42,000 and 43,000 species. Classification The Braconidae are currently divided into about 47 subfamilies and over 1000 genera, which include ''Aerophilus'', ''Aleiodes'', ''Apanteles'', ''Asobara'', ''Bracon (genus), Bracon'', ''Cenocoelius'', ''Chaenusa'', ''Chorebus'', ''Cotesia'', ''Dacnusa'', ''Diachasma'', ''Microgaster'', ''Opius'', ''Parapanteles'', ''Phaenocarpa'', ''Spathius'', and ''Syntretus.'' These fall into two major groups, informally called the cyclostomes and noncyclostomes. In cyclostome braconids, the Labrum (arthropod mouthpart), labrum and the lower part of the Clypeus (arthropod anatomy), clypeus are concave with respect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
