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Zayante Band-winged Grasshopper
The Zayante band-winged grasshopper (''Trimerotropis infantilis'') is a species of insect in the family Acrididae. It is endemic to a small portion of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. Background and description The Zayante band-winged grasshopper is in the Order Orthoptera and Family Acrididae. It is known to be located only in Santa Cruz County, California within the Zayante sandhills, chiefly within a Maritime Coast Range Ponderosa Pine forest. The area has little vegetation and is primarily made up of sand and soil sediments. The male grasshoppers range from 13.7 to 17.2 millimeters in length, and females a little larger from 19.7 to 21.6 millimeters. (Donald J. Barry. 2000). They have forewings that are tan to gray with darker bands, pale yellow hind wings, with one faint thin band that is visible when they are in flight; its eyes are also banded. Its lower legs (tibiae) are blue and gray (Donald J. Barry 2000). They have good flying skills, being known to fly dist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motility, able to move, can Sexual reproduction, reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in which their body consists of a hollow sphere of Cell (biology), cells, the blastula, during Embryogenesis, embryonic development. Over 1.5 million Extant taxon, living animal species have been Species description, described—of which around 1 million are Insecta, insects—but it has been estimated there are over 7 million animal species in total. Animals range in length from to . They have Ecology, complex interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs. The scientific study of animals is known as zoology. Most living animal species are in Bilateria, a clade whose members have a Symmetry in biology#Bilate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erysimum Teretifolium
''Erysimum teretifolium'' is a species of ''Erysimum'' known by the common names Santa Cruz wallflower and Ben Lomond wallflower. It is a very rare plant endemic to Santa Cruz County, California, where it grows on inland sand spits, chaparral, and sandstone deposits in the southern Santa Cruz Mountains. It is a California state and federally listed endangered species. This plant is a biennial or perennial herb with one or more unbranched erect dark reddish-purple stems reaching anywhere from 15 centimeters to nearly a meter in height. There are a few straight, somewhat toothed, dark greenish leaves along the stems. At the tops of the stems are thin clusters of flowers with rounded bright to dark yellow or orangish petals, each one or two centimeters long. The flowers drop to leave long, flat fruits which are siliques up to 15 centimeters long, sticking out from the stem. This species is found only within a strip of land measuring 9 miles long by 5 miles wide.USFWS''E. teretifoliu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural History Of Santa Cruz County, California
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are part of nature, human activity is often understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena. The word ''nature'' is borrowed from the Old French ''nature'' and is derived from the Latin word ''natura'', or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, literally meant "birth". In ancient philosophy, ''natura'' is mostly used as the Latin translation of the Greek word ''physis'' (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics of plants, animals, and other features of the world to develop of their own accord. The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion; it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-So ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orthoptera Of North America
Orthoptera () is an order (biology), order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and cricket (insect), crickets, including closely related insects, such as the Tettigoniidae, bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – grasshoppers, locusts, and close relatives; and Ensifera – crickets and close relatives. More than 20,000 species are distributed worldwide. The insects in the order have incomplete metamorphosis, and produce sound (known as a "stridulation") by rubbing their wings against each other or their legs, the wings or legs containing rows of corrugated bumps. The Tympanum (anatomy), tympanum, or ear, is located in the front Tibia (arthropod), tibia in crickets, mole crickets, and bush crickets or katydids, and on the first abdominal segment in the grasshoppers and locusts. These organisms use vibrations to locate other individuals. Grasshoppers and other orthopterans are able to fold their Insect wing, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Fauna Of California
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example '' Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. '' Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carpobrotus Chilensis
''Carpobrotus chilensis'' is a species of succulent plant known by the common name sea fig. It grows on coastal sand dunes and bluffs and is used as an ornamental plant, and it is also edible. However, along with its even more troublesome cousin, '' C. edulis'', it has invaded sections of the California coast at the expense of native vegetation, and is subject to control efforts. Description ''Carpobrotus chilensis'' sends out prostrate stems that are upwards of long; these root at the nodes and can carpet the ground, with fleshy, pointed leaves which are long and triangular in cross-section. It is similar to, and often mistaken for, its close relative the "ice plant" (''Carpobrotus edulis''), which is larger, and grows alongside and sometimes hybridizes with ''C. chilensis''. For comparison, the larger flowers of ''C. edulis'' ( in diameter) are yellow or light pink, whereas ''C. chilensis'' flowers are smaller ( in diameter) and deep magenta. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cytisus Striatus
''Cytisus striatus'' is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names hairy-fruited broom and Portuguese broom. This plant is native to the west of the Iberian Peninsula and northwestern Morocco. Description This is a tall shrub often exceeding in height. It is highly branched and sprawling. The sparse leaves are made up of small leaflets about a centimeter long each. The shrub bears yellow legume flowers and the pods are covered in white hairs. This shrub is similar to its relative, ''Cytisus scoparius'', but it can be distinguished by the paler shade of yellow of its flowers and by the hairy coat on its pods. Invasive plant species It is also known in other parts of the world as an introduced species. It was introduced to California in the 1960s as an erosion-controlling plant, but it 'escaped' and spread to become a major noxious weed, an invasive species colonizing in many habitats there. It is also caused ecological damages in Oregon. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loss Of Habitat
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby reducing biodiversity and species abundance. Habitat destruction is the leading cause of biodiversity loss. Fragmentation and loss of habitat have become one of the most important topics of research in ecology as they are major threats to the survival of endangered species. Activities such as harvesting natural resources, industrial production and urbanization are human contributions to habitat destruction. Pressure from agriculture is the principal human cause. Some others include mining, logging, trawling, and urban sprawl. Habitat destruction is currently considered the primary cause of species extinction worldwide. Environmental factors can contribute to habitat destruction more indirectly. Geological processes, climate change, intro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Cruz Kangaroo Rat
The narrow-faced kangaroo rat (''Dipodomys venustus'') is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae. It is endemic to California in the United States. Like all other heteromyids, the dental formula of ''Dipodomys venustus'' is . Narrow-faced kangaroo rats lives within chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranea ..., mixed chaparral, and on sandy soils with oak or pine. They are distributed along West-central California in the coastal mountains.Best, Troy L. “Dipodomys Venustus.” ''Mammalian Species'', no. 403, 1992, pp. 1–4. ''JSTOR'', JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3504315.Retrieved 3 December 2017. References Dipodomys Endemic fauna of California Mammals of the United States Rodents of North America Fauna of the California chaparral and woodlan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chorizanthe Pungens
''Chorizanthe pungens'' is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common name Monterey spineflower. It is endemic to California, where it is known from the San Francisco Bay Area south along the Central Coast. Description It grows mainly in coastal habitat and that of the hills and mountains overlooking the coastline. This is a generally erect but sometimes spreading or prostrate plant with stems up to half a meter in length. It is green to gray to red in color and usually hairy in texture. The leaves are located at the base of the plant; there are also bracts along the stem at the bases of the inflorescences which look like leaves. The inflorescence is a dense cluster of flowers, each flower surrounded by six white to pink hairy bracts tipped in hooked awns. The flower itself is only a few millimeters wide with jagged tepals. Varieties There are two varieties of this species: *var. ''pungens'' is the more common *var. ''hartwegiana'' is known only fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arctostaphylos Silvicola
''Arctostaphylos silvicola'' is a species of manzanita known by the common names Bonny Doon or silverleaf manzanita. It is endemic to the sandhills of the southern Santa Cruz Mountains in California's Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties. Description This is a large shrub growing at least a meter tall and known to exceed six meters in height, looking much like a tree. The bark is dark red and smooth. The leaves are greenish gray in color and sometimes slightly woolly. They are oval in shape and up to 3.5 centimeters long. The shrub flowers in inflorescences of long, urn-shaped manzanita flowers and produces drupes 6 to 12 millimeters wide. Habitat ''Arctostaphylos silvicola'' grows in coniferous forest and chaparral on inland marine sands. Conservation Status Silverleaf is listed as "fairly endangered" by the California Native Plant Society. The main threats to the species are habitat loss through sand mining Sand mining is the extraction of sand, mainly through an open p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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