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Archedictyon
Archedictyon (from Greek ''Arche'' meaning first, original, ancient, primitive, or most basic and ''dictyo-'' meaning net or netlike, plural "archedictya") is a name given to a hypothetical scheme of wing venation proposed for the common ancestor of all winged insects. Description The nature of the archedictyon is an important consideration in the taxonomic classification of the large, primitive Palaeozoic insects known as Palaeodictyoptera and was used by Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart for this purpose as early as 1854. A National Museum of Natural History database for the study of ants, wasps, bees and termites describes the archedictyon as: ...the primitive original vein network characterizing the wings of many of the most ancient insect fossils (T-B, after Needham; Mackerras, in CSIRO); in Mastotermitidae and Hodotermitidae (Isoptera), the complex network or reticulum of irregular veinlets between the veins in the apical 3 quarters of both wings, including the anal lobe (Eme ...
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Insect Wing
Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insect flight, insects to fly. They are found on the second and third Thorax (insect anatomy), thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwings, respectively, though a few insects lack hindwings, even rudiments. The wings are strengthened by a number of longitudinal veins, which often have cross-connections that form closed "cells" in the membrane (extreme examples include the Odonata, dragonflies and Neuroptera, lacewings). The patterns resulting from the fusion and cross-connection of the wing veins are often diagnostic for different evolutionary lineages and can be used for identification to the family (biology), family or even genus level in many order (biology), orders of insects. Physically, some insects move their flight muscles directly, others indirectly. In insects with direct flight, the wing muscles directly attach to the win ...
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Mastotermes Darwiniensis
''Mastotermes darwiniensis'', common names giant northern termite and Darwin termite, is a termite species found only in northern Australia. It is the most primitive extant termite species. Contrary to common belief, this species does not form mounds as the nests are subterranean and inconspicuous. Colonies will readily occupy and infest decomposing wood but primarily live in a complex subterranean network of tunnels and galleries which they use to travel to new food sites. Colonies may eventually split and form isolated satellite colonies. Evolutionary significance This species shows uncanny similarities to certain cockroaches, the termites' closest relatives. These similarities include the anal lobe of the wing and the laying of eggs in bunches, rather than singly. It is the only living member of its genus '' Mastotermes'' and its family Mastotermitidae, though numerous fossil taxa are known. The termites were traditionally placed in the Exopterygota, but such an indiscrimina ...
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Wasp
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey. The most commonly known wasps, such as yellowjackets and hornets, are in the family Vespidae and are eusocial, living together in a nest with an egg-laying queen and non-reproducing workers. Eusociality is favoured by the unusual haplodiploid system of sex determination in Hymenoptera, as it makes sisters exceptionally closely related to each other. However, the majority of wasp species are solitary, with each adult female living and breeding independently. Females typically have an oviposit ...
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Fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Though the fossil record is incomplete, numerous studies have demonstrated that there is enough information available to give a good understanding of the pattern of diversification of life on Earth. In addition, the record can predict and fill gaps such as the discovery of '' Tiktaalik'' in the arctic of Canada. Paleontology includes the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are sometimes considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before prin ...
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Evolution
Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more or less common within a population over successive generations. The process of evolution has given rise to biodiversity at every level of biological organisation. The scientific theory of evolution by natural selection was conceived independently by two British naturalists, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, in the mid-19th century as an explanation for why organisms are adapted to their physical and biological environments. The theory was first set out in detail in Darwin's book ''On the Origin of Species''. Evolution by natural selection is established by observable facts about living organisms: (1) more offspring are often produced than can possibly survive; (2) phenotypic variatio ...
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Reticulate
Reticulation is a net-like pattern, arrangement, or structure. Reticulation or Reticulated may refer to: * Reticulation (single-access key), a structure of an identification tree, where there are several possible routes to a correct identification * A coloration pattern of some animals (e.g. the reticulated giraffe) * An arrangement of veins in a leaf, with the veins interconnected like a network * The endoplasmic reticulum within a cell, often resembling a net * A phylogenetic network A phylogenetic network is any graph used to visualize evolutionary relationships (either abstractly or explicitly) between nucleotide sequences, genes, chromosomes, genomes, or species. They are employed when reticulation events such as hybridi ..., the result when hybrid speciation, introgression and paraphyletic speciation is applied to a phylogenetic tree * Reticulated water (Australia, South Africa), water from a piped network rather than from a bore or well, see: wiktionary:reticulated w ...
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Plesiomorphic
In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, and synapomorphy all mean a trait shared between species because they share an ancestral species. Apomorphic and synapomorphic characteristics convey much information about evolutionary clades and can be used to define taxa. However, plesiomorphic and symplesiomorphic characteristics cannot. The term ''symplesiomorphy'' was introduced in 1950 by German entomologist Willi Hennig. Examples A backbone is a plesiomorphic trait shared by birds and mammals, and does not help in placing an animal in one or the other of these two clades. Birds and mammals share this trait because both clades are descended from the same far distant ancestor. Other clades, e.g. snakes, lizards, turtles, fish, frogs, all have backbones and none are either birds n ...
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Palaeoptera
The name Palaeoptera (from Greek ( 'old') + ( 'wing')) has been traditionally applied to those ancestral groups of winged insects (most of them extinct) that lacked the ability to fold the wings back over the abdomen as characterizes the Neoptera. The Diaphanopterodea, which are palaeopteran insects, had independently and uniquely evolved a different wing-folding mechanism. Both mayflies and dragonflies lack any of the smell centers in their brain found in Neoptera. Disputed status The complexities of the wing-folding mechanism, as well as the mechanical operation of the wings in flight ( indirect flight muscles), are such that it indicates that Neoptera is a monophyletic lineage. The plesiomorphic absence of wing-folding does not necessarily mean the Palaeoptera form a natural group – they may be an assemblage containing all insects, closely related or not, that "are not Neoptera", an example of a wastebasket taxon. If the extinct lineages are taken into account, it is lik ...
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Academic Publishing
Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes Research, academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or Thesis, theses. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted on the Internet is often called "grey literature". Most scientific and scholarly journals, and many academic and scholarly books, though not all, are based on some form of academic peer review, peer review or editorial refereeing to qualify texts for publication. Peer review quality and selectivity standards vary greatly from journal to journal, publisher to publisher, and field to field. Most established academic disciplines have their own journals and other outlets for publication, although many academic journals are somewhat interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary, and publish work from several distinct fields or subfields. There is also a tendency for existing journals to divide into ...
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Apical (anatomy)
Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position provides a definition of what is at the front ("anterior"), behind ("posterior") and so on. As part of defining and describing terms, the body is described through the use of anatomical planes and axes. The meaning of terms that are used can change depending on whether a vertebrate is a biped or a quadruped, due to the difference in the neuraxis, or if an invertebrate is a non-bilaterian. A non-bilaterian has no anterior or posterior surface for example but can still have a descriptor used such as proximal or distal in relation to a body part that is nearest to, or furthest from its middle. International organisations have determined vocabularies that are often used as standards for subdisciplines of anatomy. For example, '' Terminolog ...
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Reticulum
Reticulum is a small, faint constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for a small net, or reticle—a net of crosshairs at the focus of a telescope eyepiece that is used to measure star positions. The constellation is best viewed between October and December, and save for one main star visible in ideal conditions, cannot be seen from north of the 30th parallel north. History A constellation in this area was introduced by Isaac Habrecht II in his celestial globe in 1621, who named it ''Rhombus''. It was replaced with a somewhat different constellation by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the eighteenth century; during his stay at the Cape of Good Hope, he named the constellation le Réticule Rhomboide to commemorate the reticle in his telescope eyepiece. The name was later Latinized to Reticulum in his star catalogue ''Coelum Australe Stelliferum''. In 1810, the stars of Reticulum were used by William Croswell to produce the constellation '' Marmo ...
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Isoptera
Termites are a group of detritophagous eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus. They are distinguished by their moniliform antennae and the soft-bodied, unpigmented worker caste for which they have been commonly termed "white ants"; however, they are not ants but highly derived cockroaches. About 2,997 extant species are currently described, 2,125 of which are members of the family Termitidae. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattodea (the cockroaches). Termites were once classified in a separate order from cockroaches, but recent phylogenetic studies indicate that they evolved from cockroaches, as they are deeply nested within the group, and the sister group to wood-eating cockroaches of the genus '' Cryptocercus''. Previous estimates suggested the divergence took place during the Jurassic or Triassic. More ...
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