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Austroperla
''Austroperla cyrene'', the black stonefly, is a species of austroperlid stonefly endemic to New Zealand. It is the single species in the genus ''Austroperla''. The species is a 'shredder' that lives and feeds on decomposing wood and leaves in streams throughout New Zealand. It is particularly common in forested streams but relatively rare or absent from deforested streams. ''A. cyrene'' nymphs and adults contain hydrogen cyanide and as a result are toxic to predators. To advertise their toxicity, ''A. cyrene'' adults have striking aposematic (warning) colouration, with bright yellow and white colour features against a black background. This distinctive warning coloration is mimicked by melanic specimens of the non-toxic stoneflies ''Zelandoperla fenestrata'' and ''Taraperla pseudocyrene''. A fossilised specimen of ''Austroperla'' has been recorded from early Miocene sediments of Foulden Maar in Central Otago. A phylogenetic study of Southern Hemisphere stoneflies similarly su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zelandoperla Fenestrata
''Zelandoperla fenestrata'' is a widespread endemic New Zealand ‘long-tailed’ stonefly that is often abundant in high-gradient stony streams, from near sea-level up to alpine elevations. The species name 'fenestrata' refers to the window-like rectangular patterning visible on the wings of non-melanic adult specimens. This species is highly polymorphic in terms of wing length, with numerous wing-reduced, flightless populations found at high elevations above the alpine treeline. While wing-reduced forms of ''Z. fenestrata'' were previously considered to be a distinct species (''Z. pennulata''), recent genomic research indicates that flightless ecotypes have evolved independently and repeatedly across distinct upland regions of southern New Zealand. Full-winged and vestigial-winged ecotypes within this complex can sometimes be found together in sympatry, and can be either fully interbreeding or reproductively isolated. ''Zelandoperla fenestrata'' also exhibits a striki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Newman (entomologist)
Edward Newman (13 May 1801 – 12 June 1876) was an English entomologist, botanist and writer. Newman was born in Hampstead into a Quaker family. Both his parents were keen naturalists, and he was further encouraged to take an interest in the natural world at his boarding school in Painswick. He left school at sixteen to join his father's business in Guildford, moving to Deptford in 1826 to take over a rope-making business. Here he met many of the leading entomologists of the day, including Edward Doubleday, and was a founder member of the Entomological Club. In 1832 he was elected as editor of the club's journal, ''The Entomological Magazine'', and the following year became a fellow of the Linnean Society and one of the founder members of the Entomological Society of London. In 1840 Newman was married and published the first edition of ''A History of British Ferns and Allied Plants''. He became a partner in a firm of London printers, Luxford & Co., and became a printer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foulden Maar
Foulden Maar is a fossil site near Middlemarch in Otago, New Zealand. The fossils were deposited in the small deep crater lake of a maar formed by a volcano in the Miocene era, around 23 million years ago. The crater lake existed for a period of around 130,000 years, and during this time it gradually filled up with diatomite, composed of annual layers of silica-shelled algae ( diatoms). These layers of diatomite have preserved exceptional fossils of fish from the crater lake, and plants, spiders and insects from the sub-tropical forest that developed around the crater. The site is the only known maar of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, and is one of New Zealand's pre-eminent fossil sites. A 2018 proposal to mine Foulden Maar for livestock-food additive attracted significant public opposition. The mining company went into receivership in 2019, and in 2023, the Dunedin City Council reached agreement with the receivers to purchase the land, including the surrender of the mining p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plecoptera Genera
Plecoptera is an order of insects, commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the most primitive groups of Neoptera, with close relatives identified from the Carboniferous and Lower Permian geological periods, while true stoneflies are known from fossils only a bit younger. Their modern diversity, however, apparently is of Mesozoic origin. Plecoptera are found in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, and the populations are quite distinct, although the evolutionary evidence suggests species may have crossed the equator on a number of occasions before once again becoming geographically isolated. All species of Plecoptera are intolerant of water pollution, and their presence in a stream or still water is usually an indicator of good or excellent water quality. Description and ecology Stoneflies have a generaliz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Insects Of New Zealand
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 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plecoptera Of New Zealand
Plecoptera is an order of insects, commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the most primitive groups of Neoptera, with close relatives identified from the Carboniferous and Lower Permian geological periods, while true stoneflies are known from fossils only a bit younger. Their modern diversity, however, apparently is of Mesozoic origin. Plecoptera are found in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, and the populations are quite distinct, although the evolutionary evidence suggests species may have crossed the equator on a number of occasions before once again becoming geographically isolated. All species of Plecoptera are intolerant of water pollution, and their presence in a stream or still water is usually an indicator of good or excellent water quality. Description and ecology Stoneflies have a gener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phylogenetic
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups of organisms. These relationships are determined by Computational phylogenetics, phylogenetic inference methods that focus on observed heritable traits, such as DNA sequences, protein amino acid sequences, or morphology. The result of such an analysis is a phylogenetic tree—a diagram containing a hypothesis of relationships that reflects the evolutionary history of a group of organisms. The tips of a phylogenetic tree can be living taxa or fossils, and represent the "end" or the present time in an evolutionary lineage. A phylogenetic diagram can be rooted or unrooted. A rooted tree diagram indicates the hypothetical common ancestor of the tree. An unrooted tree diagram (a network) makes no assumption about the ancestral line, and does ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Otago
Central Otago is located in the inland part of the Otago region in the South Island of New Zealand. The motto for the area is "A World of Difference". The area is dominated by mountain ranges and the upper reaches of the Clutha River and tributaries. The wide flat plateau of the Maniototo which lies between the upper reaches of the Taieri River and the Clutha's northern tributary the Manuherikia is also part of Central Otago. Characterised by cold winters and hot, dry summers, the area is only lightly populated. First significant European occupation came with the discovery of gold at Gabriel's Gully near Lawrence in 1861, which led to the Central Otago goldrush. Other towns and villages include Alexandra, Bannockburn, Clyde, Cromwell, Millers Flat, Naseby, Omakau, Ranfurly, Roxburgh, St. Bathans, and Wedderburn. Since the 19th century, most of the area's economic activity has centred on sheep, stone fruit, and tourism. In recent years, deer farms and vineyard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Miocene
The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 Ma to 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). It was preceded by the Oligocene epoch. As the climate started to get cooler, the landscape started to change. New mammals evolved to replace the extinct animals of the Oligocene epoch. The first members of the hyena and weasel family started to evolve to replace the extinct '' Hyaenodon'', entelodonts and bear-dogs. The chalicotheres survived the Oligocene epoch. A new genus of entelodont called '' Daeodon'' evolved in order to adapt to the new habitats and hunt the new prey animals of the Early Miocene epoch; it quickly became the top predator of North America. But it became extinct due to competition from ''Amphicyon ''Amphicyon'' ("ambiguous dog") is an extinct genus of large carnivorous bone-crushing mammals, popularly known as bear dogs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stonefly
Plecoptera is an order of insects, commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the most primitive groups of Neoptera, with close relatives identified from the Carboniferous and Lower Permian geological periods, while true stoneflies are known from fossils only a bit younger. Their modern diversity, however, apparently is of Mesozoic origin. Plecoptera are found in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, and the populations are quite distinct, although the evolutionary evidence suggests species may have crossed the equator on a number of occasions before once again becoming geographically isolated. All species of Plecoptera are intolerant of water pollution, and their presence in a stream or still water is usually an indicator of good or excellent water quality. Description and ecology Stoneflies have a general ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melanic
The term melanism refers to black pigment and is derived from the gr, μελανός. Melanism is the increased development of the dark-colored pigment melanin in the skin or hair. Pseudomelanism, also called abundism, is another variant of pigmentation, identifiable by dark spots or enlarged stripes, which cover a large part of the body of the animal, making it appear melanistic. The morbid deposition of black matter, often of a malignant character causing pigmented tumors, is called melanosis. Adaptation Melanism related to the process of adaptation is called adaptive. Most commonly, dark individuals become fitter to survive and reproduce in their environment as they are better camouflaged. This makes some species less conspicuous to predators, while others, such as leopards, use it as a foraging advantage during night hunting. Typically, adaptive melanism is heritable: A dominant allele, which is entirely or nearly entirely expressed in the phenotype, is responsible for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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