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Macrotermes Bellicosus
''Macrotermes bellicosus'' is a species of ''Macrotermes''. The queens are the largest amongst known termites, measuring about long when physogastric. The workers average in length and soldiers are slightly larger. ' means "combative" in Latin. The species is a member of a genus indigenous to Africa and South-East Asia. Behavior Caste polyethism There are two worker castes in ''M. bellicosus'', the major worker and the minor worker. In both cases, the workers begin their lives by taking care of the queen, and later on leave the nest to begin foraging. The point at which the worker leaves the nest to begin gathering food differs slightly between the two castes. Major workers will leave at any point between 13 and 25 days after moulting, and the minor worker exits between 9 and 32 days. Activities of ''M. bellicosus'' that go on outside the nest, which mainly consist of exploration and food gathering, show a division of labor between the two worker castes. The exploration phase, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Smeathman
Henry Smeathman (1742–1786) was an English naturalist, best known for his work in entomology and colonial settlement in Sierra Leone. In 1771 the Quaker physician John Fothergill, along with two other members of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks and Marmaduke Tunstall, sponsored Smeathman to spend four years in and around the Sierra Leone peninsula studying its natural history, specifically its insects. Life Sierra Leone Smeathman made his voyage to Africa aboard a trade ship called the ''Fly'', which was transporting barrels of rum to the West African coast. The ''Fly'' arrived at Sierra Leone on 12 December 1771. Smeathman was given some key contacts in West African coast including Afro-European slave trading families, presumably from Drury, Fothergill or Banks. With these contacts, Smeathman was first granted permission to stay in the Banana Islands, where he settled on 17 December 1771, and stayed for more than three years. Upon arrival, Smeathman presented himself ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macrotermes
''Macrotermes'' is a genus of termites belonging to the subfamily Macrotermitinae and widely distributed throughout Africa and South-East Asia. Well-studied species include ''Macrotermes natalensis'' and '' M. bellicosus.'' Like other genera in the Macrotermitinae, they consume dead plant material indirectly by cultivating a basidiomycete fungus of the genus '' Termitomyces'' on galleries inside – often very large – termite mounds. Frequently at the beginning of the rainy season, enormous swarms of winged flying adults disperse to establish new colonies. Spores are sown on the wood in the nest and treated with a growth hormone. The termites feed on the resulting fungus garden. The fungi produce heat in the nest, which rises towards the closed chimney. The heat is exchanged via the chimney, and its smaller tunnels that lead to the surface. Carbon dioxide and oxygen are exchanged near the surface of the nest, and workers may open or block individual tunnels to regulate tempe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. It has greatly influenced many languages, Latin influence in English, including English, having contributed List of Latin words with English derivatives, many words to the English lexicon, particularly after the Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England, Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest. Latin Root (linguistics), roots appear frequently in the technical vocabulary used by fields such as theology, List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names, the sciences, List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes, medicine, and List of Latin legal terms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moulting
In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at specific times of the year, or at specific points in its life cycle. In medieval times, it was also known as "mewing" (from the French verb "muer", to moult), a term that lives on in the name of Britain's Royal Mews where the King's hawks used to be kept during moulting time before becoming horse stables after Tudor times. Moulting can involve shedding the Epidermis (skin), epidermis (skin), pelage (hair, feathers, fur, wool), or other external layer. In some groups, other body parts may be shed, for example, the entire exoskeleton in arthropods, including the wings in some insects. Examples In birds In birds, moulting is the periodic replacement of feathers by shedding old feathers while producing new ones. Feathers are dead struct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dear Enemy Effect
The dear enemy effect or dear enemy recognition is an ethological phenomenon in which two neighbouring territorial animals become less aggressive toward one another once territorial borders are well established. As territory owners become accustomed to their neighbours, they expend less time and energy on defensive behaviors directed toward one another. However, aggression toward unfamiliar neighbours remains the same. Some authors have suggested the dear enemy effect is territory residents displaying lower levels of aggression toward familiar neighbours compared to unfamiliar individuals who are non-territorial "floaters".Bee, M.A., (2003). A test of the "dear enemy effect" in the strawberry dart-poison frog (''Dendrobates pumilio''). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 54: 601-610 The dear enemy effect has been observed in a wide range of animals including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates. It can be modulated by factors such as the location of the fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comoé National Park
The Comoé National Park () is a Man and the Biosphere Programme, Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Zanzan District, Zanzan and Savanes District, Savanes districts of north-eastern Ivory Coast. It is the largest protected area in West Africa, with an area of , and ranges from the humid Guinean forest–savanna mosaic, Guinea savanna to the dry Sudanian savanna, Sudanian zone. This steep climatic north–south gradient allows the park to harbor a multitude of habitats with a remarkable diversity of life. Some animal and plant species even find their last sanctuary in some of the different savanna types, gallery forests, Riparian zone, riparian grasslands, rock outcrops, or Habitat fragmentation, forest islands. The park was initially added as a World Heritage Site due to the diversity of plant life present around the Komoé River, including pristine patches of tropical rainforest that are usually only found further south. As a well-eroded plain between two la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Largest Insects
Insects, which are a type of arthropod, are the most numerous group of multicellular organisms on the planet, with over a million species identified so far. The title of heaviest insect in the world has many contenders, the most frequently crowned of which is the larval stage of the Goliathus, goliath beetle, ''Goliathus goliatus'', the maximum size of which is at least and . The highest confirmed weight of an adult insect is for a gravid female giant weta, ''Deinacrida heteracantha'', although it is likely that one of the elephant beetles, ''Megasoma elephas'' and ''Megasoma actaeon'', or Goliathus, goliath beetles, both of which can commonly exceed and , can reach a greater weight. The longest insects are the stick insects, see below. Representatives of the extinct dragonfly-like Order (biology), order Meganisoptera (also known as griffinflies) such as the Carboniferous ''Meganeura monyi'' and the Permian ''Meganeuropsis permiana'' are the largest insect species ever known. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Termites
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 Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insects Of Africa
Insects (from Latin ') are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and a pair of antennae. Insects are the most diverse group of animals, with more than a million described species; they represent more than half of all animal species. The insect nervous system consists of a brain and a ventral nerve cord. Most insects reproduce by laying eggs. Insects breathe air through a system of paired openings along their sides, connected to small tubes that take air directly to the tissues. The blood therefore does not carry oxygen; it is only partly contained in vessels, and some circulates in an open hemocoel. Insect vision is mainly through their compound eyes, with additional small ocelli. Many insects can hear, using tympanal organs, which may be on the legs or other parts of the body. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
