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Sphinx Moth
The Sphingidae are a family of moths commonly called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as hornworms. It includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, but species are found in every region.Scoble, Malcolm J. (1995): ''The Lepidoptera: Form, Function and Diversity'' (2nd edition). Oxford University Press & Natural History Museum London. They are moderate to large in size and are distinguished among moths for their agile and sustained flying ability, similar enough to that of hummingbirds as to be reliably mistaken for them. Their narrow wings and streamlined abdomens are adaptations for rapid flight. The family was named by French zoologist Pierre André Latreille in 1802. Some hawk moths, such as the hummingbird hawk-moth or the white-lined sphinx, hover in midair while they feed on nectar from flowers, so are sometimes mistaken for hummingbirds. This hovering capability is only known to have evolv ...
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Hyles Lineata
''Hyles lineata'', also known as the white-lined sphinx, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. They are sometimes known as a "hummingbird moth" because of their bird-like size (2-3 inch wingspan) and flight patterns. As caterpillars, they have a wide range of color phenotypes but show consistent adult coloration. With a wide geographic range throughout Central and North America, ''H. lineata'' is known to feed on many different host plants as caterpillars and pollinate a variety of flowers as adults. Larvae are powerful eaters and are known to form massive groupings capable of damaging crops and gardens. As adults, they use both visual and olfactory perception to locate plants from which they collect nectar. Description Caterpillar Larvae show wide variation in color. The larvae are black with orange spots arranged in lines down the whole body. Their head's prothoracic shield, and the anal plate, are one color, either green or orange with small black dots.David L. Wagner (200 ...
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Convolvulus Hawk-moth
''Agrius convolvuli'', the convolvulus hawk-moth, is a large hawk-moth. It is common throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, partly as a migrant. In New Zealand, it is also known as the kumara moth, and in the Māori language as hīhue. Description and habits The wingspan is . This hawkmoth's basic coloration is in grayish tones, but the abdomen has a broad gray dorsal stripe and pink and black bands edged with white on the sides. The hindwings are light gray with darker broad crosslines. Agrius convolvuli - MHNT CUT 2010 0 470 - Gironde France - Male dorsal.jpg, ♂ Agrius convolvuli - MHNT CUT 2010 0 470 - Gironde France - Male ventral.jpg, ♂ △ Agrius convolvuli - MHNT CUT 2010 0 470 - Gironde France - Female dorsal.jpg, ♀ Agrius convolvuli - MHNT CUT 2010 0 470 - Gironde France - Female ventral.jpg, ♀ △ Its favourite time is around sunset and during the twilight, when it is seen in gardens hovering over the flowers. This moth is very ...
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Zoological Journal Of The Linnean Society
The ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering zoology published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Linnean Society. The editor-in-chief is Maarten Christenhusz (Linnean Society). It was established in 1856 as the ''Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. Zoology'' and renamed ''Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology'' in 1866. It obtained its current title in 1969. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2020 impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a type of journal ranking. Journals with higher impact factor values are considered more prestigious or important within their field. The Impact Factor of a journa ... of 3.286. References External links * Zoology journals Linnean Society of London Monthly journals Academic jour ...
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Cephonodes Hylas
''Cephonodes hylas'', the coffee bee hawkmoth, pellucid hawk moth or coffee clearwing, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1771. A widely distributed moth, it is found in the Near East, Middle East, Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia. Description It has transparent wings and a stout body like a bumble bee. Its wingspan of 45–73  mm. Its marginal borders are very narrow and black. The abdomen varies in colour from yellow to green. Nominate subspecies has bright reddish 3rd and 4th abdominal segments. Larva has two colour forms, green and blackish. In greenish form, the body is greenish with a white-bordered blue dorsal line and a whitish sub-dorsal line ending in a yellow streak at the base of the horn. The head and spiracles are blue. In the dark-coloured form, the head is brown or pale orange and the rest of the body is smoky black. The pupa is dark brown. Cephonodes hylas hyles MHNT CUT 2010 ...
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Pheromone
A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavior of the receiving individuals. There are ''alarm signal, alarm pheromones'', ''food trail pheromones'', ''sex pheromones'', and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Pheromones are used by many organisms, from basic unicellular prokaryotes to complex multicellular eukaryotes. Their use among insects has been particularly well documented. In addition, some vertebrates, plants and ciliates communicate by using pheromones. The ecological functions and evolution of pheromones are a major topic of research in the field of chemical ecology. Background The portmanteau word "pheromone" was coined by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959, based on the Greek language, Greek () and (). Pheromones are also sometimes classified as ec ...
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Elliot Pinhey
Elliot Charles Gordon Pinhey (18 July 1910 in Knokke, Bruges – 7 May 1999 in Cowfold near Horsham, West Sussex) was an entomologist who worked in Africa and specialised in African Lepidoptera and Odonata. Born of British parents on holiday in Belgium, Pinhey made major contributions in entomology to the knowledge of butterflies, moths and dragonflies. Elliot Pinhey's interest in natural history first developed during his early education in England. He obtained a BSc at the University of London in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology in 1934, after which he joined the teaching profession as a Science Master. His chronically poor health led to his doctor's suggesting he emigrate to a more congenial climate. Accordingly, he arrived in Southern Rhodesia in 1939 and took up a teaching post as Science Master. A stint with the Royal Air Force Meteorology department followed, and on his release he joined the Agriculture Department as economic entomologist, working on Acarina, Coc ...
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Agrius Convolvuli
''Agrius convolvuli'', the convolvulus hawk-moth, is a large hawk-moth. It is common throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, partly as a migrant. In New Zealand, it is also known as the kumara moth, and in the Māori language as hīhue. Description and habits The wingspan is . This hawkmoth's basic coloration is in grayish tones, but the abdomen has a broad gray dorsal stripe and pink and black bands edged with white on the sides. The hindwings are light gray with darker broad crosslines. Agrius convolvuli - MHNT CUT 2010 0 470 - Gironde France - Male dorsal.jpg, ♂ Agrius convolvuli - MHNT CUT 2010 0 470 - Gironde France - Male ventral.jpg, ♂ △ Agrius convolvuli - MHNT CUT 2010 0 470 - Gironde France - Female dorsal.jpg, ♀ Agrius convolvuli - MHNT CUT 2010 0 470 - Gironde France - Female ventral.jpg, ♀ △ Its favourite time is around sunset and during the twilight, when it is seen in gardens hovering over the flowers. This moth is very ...
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Sexual Dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, dioecious species, which consist of most animals and some plants. Differences may include secondary sex characteristics, size, weight, color, markings, or behavioral or cognitive traits. Male-male reproductive competition has evolved a diverse array of sexually dimorphic traits. Aggressive utility traits such as "battle" teeth and blunt heads reinforced as battering rams are used as weapons in aggressive interactions between rivals. Passive displays such as ornamental feathering or song-calling have also evolved mainly through sexual selection. These differences may be subtle or exaggerated and may be subjected to sexual selection and natural selection. The opposite of dimorphism is ''monomorphism'', when both biological sexes are phenotype, ...
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Nocturnal
Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing (sense), hearing, olfaction, smell, and specially adapted eyesight. Some animals, such as ferrets, have eyes that can adapt to both low-level and bright day levels of illumination (see metaturnal). Others, such as bushbaby, bushbabies and (some) bats, can function only at night. Many nocturnal creatures including tarsier, tarsiers and some owl, owls have large eyes in comparison with their body size to compensate for the lower light levels at night. More specifically, they have been found to have a larger cornea relative to their eye size than diurnal creatures to increase their : in the low-light conditions. Nocturnality helps wasps, such as ''Apoica flavissima'', avoid hunting in intens ...
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Crepuscular
In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal (active during dawn), vespertine (biology), vespertine/vespertinal (active during dusk), or both. This is distinguished from diurnality, diurnal and nocturnality, nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of daytime and of night, respectively. Some crepuscular animals may also be active by moonlight or during an overcast day. Matutinal animals are active only after dawn, and vespertine (biology), vespertine only before dusk. A number of factors affect the time of day an animal is active. Predation, Predators hunt when their prey is available, and prey try to avoid the times when their principal predators are at large. The temperature may be too high at midday or too low at night. Some creatures may adjust their activities depending on local competition. Etymology and usage The word ''crepuscular'' derives from the Latin ''wiktionary:crepusculum, cre ...
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Proboscis
A proboscis () is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In invertebrates, the term usually refers to tubular arthropod mouthparts, mouthparts used for feeding and sucking. In vertebrates, a proboscis is an elongated nose or snout. Etymology First attested in English in 1609 from Latin , the latinisation (literature), latinisation of the Ancient Greek (), which comes from () 'forth, forward, before' + (), 'to feed, to nourish'. The plural as derived from the Greek is , but in English the plural form ''proboscises'' occurs frequently. Invertebrates The most common usage is to refer to the tubular feeding and sucking organ of certain invertebrates such as insects (e.g., Insect mouthparts#Proboscis, moths, butterflies, and mosquitoes), worms (including Acanthocephala, Nemertea, proboscis worms) and gastropod molluscs. Acanthocephala The Acanthocephala, the thorny-headed worms or spiny-headed worms, are characterized by the pr ...
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Retinaculum (moth)
Some four-winged insect orders, such as the Lepidoptera, have developed a wide variety of morphological wing coupling mechanisms in the imago which render these taxa as "functionally dipterous" (effectively two-winged) for efficient insect flight. All but the most basal forms exhibit this wing coupling. The mechanisms are of three different types - jugal, frenulo-retinacular and amplexiform. Subsec. "Wing coupling". Pp 56-60. Jugal wing coupling The more primitive groups of moth have an enlarged lobe-like area near the basal posterior margin, i.e. at the base of the forewing, called ''jugum'', that folds under the hindwing in flight. Frenulo-retinacular wing coupling Other groups of moth have a frenulum on the hindwing that hooks under a retinaculum on the forewing. The retinaculum is a hook or tuft on the underside of the forewing of some moths. Along with the frenulum, a spine at the base of the forward or costal edge of the hindwing, it forms a coupling mechanism for the f ...
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