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Estivation
Aestivation ( (summer); also spelled estivation in American English) is a state of animal dormancy, similar to hibernation, although taking place in the summer rather than the winter. Aestivation is characterized by inactivity and a lowered metabolic rate, that is entered in response to high temperatures and arid conditions. It takes place during times of heat and dryness, which are often the summer months. Invertebrate and vertebrate animals are known to enter this state to avoid damage from high temperatures and the risk of desiccation. Both terrestrial and aquatic animals undergo aestivation. Fossil records suggest that aestivation may have evolved several hundred million years ago. Physiology Organisms that aestivate appear to be in a fairly "light" state of dormancy, as their physiological state can be rapidly reversed, and the organism can quickly return to a normal state. A study done on '' Otala lactea'', a snail native to parts of Europe and Northern Africa, shows th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Otala Lactea
''Otala lactea'', known as the milk snail or Spanish snail, is a large, edible species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk, in the family Helicidae, the typical snails.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Otala lactea (O. F. Müller, 1774). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1050532 on 2021-02-14 Archaeological recovery at the Ancient Roman site of Volubilis, in Morocco, illustrates prehistoric exploitation of ''O. lactea'' by humans. Distribution This species of snail is native to the western Mediterranean Basin in the southern Iberian Peninsula, Morocco, Algeria, Balearic and Canary Islands, Malta and Corsica. It has been introduced to the Azores, Madeira, United States, including Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, and to Bermuda, Cuba, and southeastern Australia. Anatomy This snail creates and uses love darts as part of its courtship behaviour, prior to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Dormancy
Dormancy is a period in an organism's Biological life cycle, life cycle when growth, development, and (in animals) physical activity are temporarily stopped. This minimizes metabolism, metabolic activity and therefore helps an organism to conserve energy. Dormancy tends to be closely associated with Ecosystem, environmental conditions. Organisms can synchronize entry to a dormant phase with their Ecosystem, environment through predictive or consequential means. Predictive dormancy occurs when an organism enters a dormant phase ''before'' the onset of adverse conditions. For example, photoperiod and decreasing temperature are used by many plants to predict the onset of winter. Consequential dormancy occurs when organisms enter a dormant phase ''after'' adverse conditions have arisen. This is commonly found in areas with an unpredictable climate. While very sudden changes in conditions may lead to a high mortality rate among animals relying on consequential dormancy, its use can be a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Helix (gastropod)
''Helix'' is a genus of large, air-breathing land snails native to the western Palaearctic and characterized by a globular shell. It is the type genus of the family Helicidae, and one of the animal genera described by Carl Linnaeus at the dawn of the zoological nomenclature. Members of the genus first appeared in the fossil record during the Miocene. Well-known species include '' Helix pomatia'' (Roman snail, Burgundy snail, or edible snail) and '' Helix lucorum'' (Turkish snail). ''Cornu aspersum'' (garden snail), though externally similar and long classified as a member of ''Helix'' (as "''Helix aspersa''"), is not closely related to ''Helix'' and belongs to a different tribe of Helicinae. Taxonomy In Linnaeus' 10th edition of Systema Naturae, which marks the beginning of the zoological nomenclature, the generic name ''Helix'' had been used for a variety of terrestrial (e.g. '' Zonites algirus''), freshwater (e.g. ''Lymnaea stagnalis''), and marine (e.g. '' Fossarus amb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Land Snail
A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have gastropod shell, shells (those without shells are known as slugs). However, it is not always easy to say which species are terrestrial, because some are more or less amphibious between land and fresh water, and others are relatively amphibious between land and salt water. Land snails are a Polyphyly, polyphyletic group comprising at least ten independent evolutionary transitions to terrestrial life (the last common ancestor of all gastropods was marine). The majority of land snails are pulmonates that have a lung and breathe air. Most of the non-pulmonate land snails belong to lineages in the Caenogastropoda, and tend to have a gill and an operculum (gastropod), operculum. The largest clade of non-pulmonate land snails is the Cyclophoroidea, with more than 7,0 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Blepharida Rhois
The sumac flea beetle, ''Blepharida rhois'', is most commonly found in North America and is a member of the herbivorous beetle family, ''Leaf beetle, Chrysomelidae.'' More specifically, this beetle is part of the ''Flea beetle, Alticinae'' subfamily, a highly diverse subfamily that includes more than 1000 species in 550 genera. Members of the ''Chrysomelidae'' family are distinguished by their enlarged metafemora and their ability to jump up to 100 times their length. This gives the beetle the ability to catapult jump in order to escape approaching predators. This ability has led to the common name of “flea beetle.” Both larvae and adults are typically a quarter of an inch long. While adults are cream colored with irregular reddish patterns, larvae are typically gray with yellow stripes. This beetle primarily feeds on the external surface of ''Sumac, Rhus'' leaves. Through this diet, larvae are able to digest useful chemical compounds that can be used as a form of chemical defe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Hibernation
Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic reduction entered by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It is most commonly used to pass through winter months – called overwintering. Although traditionally reserved for "deep" hibernators such as rodents, the term has been redefined to include animals such as bears and is now applied based on active metabolic suppression rather than any absolute decline in body temperature. Many experts believe that the processes of daily torpor and hibernation form a continuum and use similar mechanisms. The equivalent during the summer months is aestivation. Hibernation functions to conserve energy when sufficient food is not available. To achieve this energy saving, an endothermic animal decreases its metabolic rate and thereby its body temperature. Hibernation may last days, weeks, or months—depending on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Helix Pomatia
''Helix pomatia'', known as the Roman snail, Burgundy snail, or escargot, is a species of large, air-breathing stylommatophoran land Snails, snail native to Europe. It is characterized by a globular brown shell. It is an edible species which commonly occurs Synanthrope, synanthropically throughout its range. Distribution The present Species distribution, distribution of ''Helix pomatia'' is considerably affected by the dispersion by human and synanthropic occurrences. The northern limits of their natural distribution run presumably through central Germany and southern Poland with the eastern range limits running through western-most Ukraine and Moldova/Romania to Bulgaria. In the south, the species reaches northern Bulgaria, central Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Hezegovina and Croatia. It occurs in northern Italy southwards to the Po (river), Po and the Ligurian Apennines. Westerly the native range extends to eastern France. Currently, ''H. pomatia'' is distribut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Coccinellidae
Coccinellidae () is a widespread family (biology), family of small beetles. They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in the United Kingdom; "lady" refers to Mary, mother of Jesus, mother Mary. Entomologists use the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles to avoid confusion with true bugs. The more than 6,000 described species have a global distribution and are found in a variety of habitats. They are oval beetles with a domed back and flat underside. Many of the species have conspicuous aposematic (warning) colours and patterns, such as red with black spots, that warn potential predators that they taste bad. Most coccinellid species are carnivorous predators, preying on insects such as aphids and scale insects. Other species are known to consume non-animal matter, including plants and fungi. They are Promiscuity#Other animals, promiscuous breeders, reproducing in spring and summer in temperate regions and during the wet season in tropical regions. M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Metabolic Rate
Metabolism (, from ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes; the conversion of food to building blocks of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and some carbohydrates; and the elimination of metabolic wastes. These enzyme-catalyzed reactions allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. The word ''metabolism'' can also refer to the sum of all chemical reactions that occur in living organisms, including digestion and the transportation of substances into and between different cells, in which case the above described set of reactions within the cells is called intermediary (or intermediate) metabolism. Metabolic reactions may be categorized as ''catabolic''—the ''breaking down'' of compounds (for example, of glucose to pyruvate by cellular respiration); ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Operculum (gastropod)
An operculum (; ) is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure like a trapdoor that exists in many (but not all) groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails, including the Helicinidae, Cyclophoridae, Aciculidae, Maizaniidae, Pomatiidae, etc. The operculum is attached to the upper surface of the foot and in its most complete state, it serves as a sort of "trapdoor" to close the aperture (mollusc), aperture of the shell when the soft parts of the animal are retracted. The shape of the operculum varies greatly from one family of gastropods to another. It is fairly often circular, or more or less oval in shape. In species where the operculum fits snugly, its outline corresponds exactly to the shape of the aperture (mollusc), aperture of the shell and it serves to seal the entrance of the shell. Many families have opercula that are reduced in size, and which are not capable of closing the shell aperture. Opercula have sometimes been modifie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Australian Journal Of Zoology
The ''Australian Journal of Zoology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by CSIRO Publishing. It covers research on all aspects of zoology, with a special focus on the fauna of Australia. The editor-in-chief is Paul Cooper (Australian National University). Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in AGRICOLA, Elsevier Biobase, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts Service, Current Contents/Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences, Science Citation Index Expanded, Scopus, and The Zoological Record. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2021 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 1.073. See also * List of zoology journals References Exter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Desiccation Tolerance
Desiccation tolerance refers to the ability of an organism to withstand or endure extreme dryness, or drought-like conditions. Plants and animals living in arid or periodically arid environments such as temporary streams or ponds may face the challenge of desiccation, therefore physiological or behavioral adaptations to withstand these periods are necessary to ensure survival. In particular, insects occupy a wide range of ecologically diverse niches and, so, exhibit a variety of strategies to avoid desiccation. In general, desiccation resistance in insects is measured by the change in mass during dry conditions. The overall mass difference between measurements before and after aridity exposure is attributed to body water loss, as respiratory water loss is generally considered negligible. Desiccation and plants Desiccation tolerant plants include ''Craterostigma plantagineum'', ''Lindernia brevidens'' and '' Ramonda serbica''. Desiccation sensitive plants include members of ''Ara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
