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Snow Flea
Snow flea is a common name for several arthropods, not including true fleas: * ''Boreidae'', a family of scorpionflies known as snow fleas in the British Isles, especially: ** ''Boreus hyemalis'' a species of scorpionfly that crawls on snow * ''Hypogastrura nivicola ''Hypogastrura nivicola'' is a species of dark blue springtail. Its (US) English name is snow flea, but there are also insects called by that name. They are often seen jumping about on the surface of snow on a warm winter day in North America. Re ...'', a species of springtail known as snow flea in North America ** * Several springtails of the family Isotomidae and the genus '' Desoria'', known as snow fleas in Europe {{Animal common name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hypogastrura Nivicola
''Hypogastrura nivicola'' is a species of dark blue springtail. Its (US) English name is snow flea, but there are also insects called by that name. They are often seen jumping about on the surface of snow on a warm winter day in North America. Researchers at Queen's University (Canada) have sequenced and synthesised the anti-freeze-like protein that allows ''H. nivicola'' to operate in sub-zero environments, and found it to be glycine-rich. There are hopes that similar proteins may be useful for storing transplant organs and for producing better ice cream. By preventing the formation of ice crystals in tissues, organs could be stored at lower temperatures, increasing the time of their viability outside a living body. Unlike proteins with similar functions in other species, the protein found in ''H. nivicola'' breaks down easily at higher temperatures. (Press release.) See also * Snow scorpionfly - a group of insects also (Boreidae) known as snow fleas including: ** ''Boreus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages. Arthropods are bilaterally symmetrical and their body possesses an external skeleton. In order to keep growing, they must go through stages of moulting, a process by which they shed their exoskeleton to reveal a new one. Some species have wings. They are an extremely diverse group, with up to 10 million species. The haemocoel, an arthropod's internal cavity, through which its haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, accommodates its interior organs; it has an open circulatory system. Like their exteriors, the internal organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. Their nervous system is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flea
Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, are usually brown, and have bodies that are "flattened" sideways or narrow, enabling them to move through their hosts' fur or feathers. They lack wings; their hind legs are extremely well adapted for jumping. Their claws keep them from being dislodged, and their mouthparts are adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood. They can leap 50 times their body length, a feat second only to jumps made by another group of insects, the superfamily of froghoppers. Flea larvae are worm-like, with no limbs; they have chewing mouthparts and feed on organic debris left on their hosts' skin. Genetic evidence indicates that fleas are a specialised lineage of parasitic scorpionflies (Mecoptera) ''sensu lato'', most closely related to the family Nannochor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boreidae
Boreidae, commonly called snow scorpionflies, or in the British Isles, snow fleas (no relation to the snow flea '' Hypogastrura nivicola'') are a very small family of scorpionflies, containing only around 30 species, all of which are boreal or high-altitude species in the Northern Hemisphere. These insects are small (typically 6 mm or less), with the wings reduced to bristles or absent, and they are somewhat compressed, so in fact some resemblance to fleas is noted. They are most commonly active during the winter months, towards the transition into spring, and the larvae and adults typically feed on mosses. The adults will often disperse between breeding areas by walking across the open snow, thus the common name. The males use their bristle-like wings to help grasp the female over their back while mating, while the wings of females are vestigial small oval pads with no ability to allow them to fly. The adults have a long rostrum formed from the clypeus and labrum, gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boreus Hyemalis
''Boreus hyemalis'' (Syn.: ''Boreus hiemalis'') is an insect, 3 to 4.5 millimetres long from the family of ''Boreidae''. Its common name is snow flea. It has stubby, grey-brown wings with a metallic sheen. Snow fleas crawl or hop over the snow at temperatures around freezing point The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium. The melting point of a substance depend ... and thus resemble glacier fleas and snow flies. The males have 4 short, wing vestiges which curve downwards at their ends. The females only have two scale-like wing vestiges. In general, the female may be recognised from a curved, sabre-like pipe that acts as an ovipositor. In their fully formed state, these animals are only found in the colder period of the year between October and March. During this time mating takes place. The larvae live on moss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
