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Puddle
A puddle is a very small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface. It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or by surface tension upon a flat surface. Puddles are often characterized by murky water or mud due to the disturbance and dissolving of surrounding sediment, primarily due to precipitation. A puddle is generally shallow enough to walk through, and too small to traverse with a boat or raft. Small wildlife may be attracted to puddles. Natural puddles and wildlife Puddles in natural landscapes and habitats, when not resulting from precipitation, can indicate the presence of a seep or spring. Small seasonal riparian plants, grasses, and wildflowers can germinate with the ephemeral "head start" of moisture provided by a puddle. Small wildlife, such as birds and insects, can use puddles as a source of essential moisture or for bathing. Raised constructed puddles, bird baths, are a part of domestic and wildlife gardens as a garden ornament ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surface Tension
Surface tension is the tendency of liquid surfaces at rest to shrink into the minimum surface area possible. Surface tension (physics), tension is what allows objects with a higher density than water such as razor blades and insects (e.g. Gerridae, water striders) to float on a water surface without becoming even partly submerged. At liquid–air interfaces, surface tension results from the greater attraction of liquid molecules to each other (due to Cohesion (chemistry), cohesion) than to the molecules in the air (due to adhesion). There are two primary mechanisms in play. One is an inward force on the surface molecules causing the liquid to contract. Second is a tangential force parallel to the surface of the liquid. This ''tangential'' force is generally referred to as the surface tension. The net effect is the liquid behaves as if its surface were covered with a stretched elastic membrane. But this analogy must not be taken too far as the tension in an elastic membrane i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mud-puddling
Puddling is a behaviour in which an organism seeks out nutrients in certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud, and carrion, and sucks up the fluid. Where the conditions are suitable, conspicuous insects such as butterfly, butterflies commonly form aggregations on wet soil, dung, or carrion. (1996): Mating systems and sexual division of foraging effort affect puddling behaviour by butterflies. ''Ecological Entomology'' 21(2): 193-197PDF fulltext From the fluids they obtain salt (chemistry), salts and amino acids that play various roles in their physiology, ethology, and ecology. (1999): Mud-puddling behavior in tropical butterflies: In search of proteins or minerals? ''Oecologia'' 119(1): 140–148. (HTML abstractPDF fulltext Most conspicuous in butterflies, this behaviour also has been seen in some other animals, primarily insects like the leafhoppers, e.g. the potato leafhopper, ''Empoasca fabae''. Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are diverse in their strateg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird Bath
A bird bath (or birdbath) is an artificial puddle or small shallow pond, created with a water-filled basin, in which birds may drink, bathe, and cool themselves. A bird bath can be a garden ornament, small reflecting pool, outdoor sculpture, and also can be a part of creating a vital wildlife garden. Description A bird bath (or birdbath) is an artificial puddle or small shallow pond, created with a water-filled basin. Birds may use the bath to drink, bathe, and cool themselves. A bird bath is an attraction for many different species of birds to visit gardens, especially during the summer and drought periods. Bird baths that provide a reliable source of water year round add to the popularity and "micro-habitat" support. Bird baths can be pre-made basins on pedestals and columns or hang from leaves and trees, or be carved out depressions in rock (geology), rocks and boulders. Requirements for a bird bath should include the following; a shallow gradually deepening basin; open sur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seep (hydrology)
A seep or flush is a moist or wet place where water, usually groundwater, reaches the Earth's surface from an underground aquifer. Description Seeps are usually not of sufficient volume to be flowing beyond their immediate above-ground location. They are part of the limnology-geomorphology system. Like a higher volume spring, the water is only from underground sources. Seeps mostly occur in lower elevation areas because water runs downhill, but can happen higher up if the groundwater present is abundant enough. Along with natural seeps, man made seeps can occur by digging anywhere where there is wet ground. This method can be useful for survival purposes and helps the local wildlife by adding another water source to the area. Seeps often form a puddle, and are important for small wildlife, bird, and butterfly habitat and moisture needs. When they support mud-puddling, many butterfly (Lepidoptera) species, including some types that are endemic endangered species, can obtain nutr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwealth usage), snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor (reaching 100% relative humidity), so that the water condenses and "precipitates" or falls. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation; their water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate, so fog and mist do not fall. (Such a non-precipitating combination is a colloid.) Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated with water vapor: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are calle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosquito
Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mosquitoes have a slender segmented body, one pair of wings, three pairs of long hair-like legs, and specialized, highly elongated, piercing-sucking mouthparts. All mosquitoes drink nectar from flowers; females of some species have in addition adapted to drink blood. The group diversified during the Cretaceous period. Evolutionary biology, Evolutionary biologists view mosquitoes as micropredators, small animals that Parasitism, parasitise larger ones by drinking their blood without immediately killing them. Parasitology, Medical parasitologists view mosquitoes instead as Disease vector, vectors of disease, carrying protozoan parasites or bacterial or virus, viral pathogens from one Host (biology), host to another. The mosquito life cycle cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwealth usage), snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor (reaching 100% relative humidity), so that the water condenses and "precipitates" or falls. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation; their water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate, so fog and mist do not fall. (Such a non-precipitating combination is a colloid.) Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated with water vapor: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called shower (p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butterfly
Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though molecular evidence suggests that they likely originated in the Cretaceous. Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, and like other holometabolous insects they undergo complete metamorphosis. Winged adults lay eggs on the food plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs out, expands its wings to dry, and flies off. Some butterflies, especially in the tropics, have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation, and a few in cold locations may take s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nutrient
A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excreted by cells to create non-cellular structures such as hair, scales, feathers, or exoskeletons. Some nutrients can be metabolically converted into smaller molecules in the process of releasing energy such as for carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and fermentation products ( ethanol or vinegar) leading to end-products of water and carbon dioxide. All organisms require water. Essential nutrients for animals are the energy sources, some of the amino acids that are combined to create proteins, a subset of fatty acids, vitamins and certain minerals. Plants require more diverse minerals absorbed through roots, plus carbon dioxide and oxygen absorbed through leaves. Fungi live on dead or living organic matter and meet nutrient needs from th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salt (chemistry)
In chemistry, a salt or ionic compound is a chemical compound consisting of an assembly of positively charged ions ( cations) and negatively charged ions ( anions), which results in a compound with no net electric charge (electrically neutral). The constituent ions are held together by electrostatic forces termed ionic bonds. The component ions in a salt can be either inorganic, such as chloride (Cl−), or organic, such as acetate (). Each ion can be either monatomic, such as sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl−) in sodium chloride, or polyatomic, such as ammonium () and carbonate () ions in ammonium carbonate. Salts containing basic ions hydroxide (OH−) or oxide (O2−) are classified as bases, such as sodium hydroxide and potassium oxide. Individual ions within a salt usually have multiple near neighbours, so they are not considered to be part of molecules, but instead part of a continuous three-dimensional network. Salts usually form crystalline structures ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amino Acid
Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 appear in the genetic code of life. Amino acids can be classified according to the locations of the core structural functional groups ( alpha- , beta- , gamma- amino acids, etc.); other categories relate to polarity, ionization, and side-chain group type ( aliphatic, acyclic, aromatic, polar, etc.). In the form of proteins, amino-acid '' residues'' form the second-largest component (water being the largest) of human muscles and other tissues. Beyond their role as residues in proteins, amino acids participate in a number of processes such as neurotransmitter transport and biosynthesis. It is thought that they played a key role in enabling life on Earth and its emergence. Amino acids are formally named by the IUPAC- IUBMB Joint Commi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
