1.
Magicicada cassinii
–
Magicicada is the genus of the 13-year and 17-year periodical cicadas of eastern North America. Magicicada spp. spend most of their 13- and 17-year lives underground feeding on xylem fluids from the roots of deciduous forest trees in the eastern United States, after 13 or 17 years, mature cicada nymphs emerge at any given locality, synchronously and in tremendous numbers. After such a developmental phase, the adults are active for about 4 to 6 weeks. The males aggregate into chorus centers and attract mates, within two months of the original emergence, the lifecycle is complete, the eggs have been laid, and the adult cicadas are gone for another 13 or 17 years. The familiar winged imago periodical cicada has red eyes and a black dorsal thorax, the wings are translucent and have orange veins. The underside of the abdomen may be black, orange, or striped with orange and black, depending on the species. Adults are typically 2.4 to 3.3 cm, depending on species, mature females are slightly larger than males. Magicicada males typically form large aggregations that sing in chorus to attract receptive females, different species have different characteristic calling songs. The call of decim periodical cicadas is said to someone calling weeeee-whoa or Pharaoh. The cassini and decula periodic cicadas have songs that intersperse buzzing and ticking sounds, cicadas do not sting and do not normally bite. Like other Auchenorrhyncha bugs, they have used in piercing plants. A cicadas proboscis can pierce human skin when it is handled, which is painful and these cicadas are not venomous, and no evidence shows they transmit diseases. They pose little threat to mature vegetation, although planting new trees or shrubs is best postponed until after an expected emergence of the periodical cicadas, mature plants rarely suffer lasting damage, although twig die-off or flagging can result from egg-laying. Nearly all cicadas spend years underground as juveniles, before emerging above ground for an adult stage of several weeks to a few months. This periodicity is especially remarkable because their lifecycles are so long—13 or 17 years, cicadas of all other species are not synchronized, so some adults mature each summer and emerge while the rest of the population continues to develop underground. Many people refer to these species as annual cicadas since some are seen every summer. The lifecycles of most annual species range from two to 10 years, although some could be longer, the nymphs of the periodical cicadas live underground, usually within 2 ft of the surface, feeding on the juices of plant roots. The nymphs of the periodical cicada undergo five instar stages in their development underground, the difference in the 13- and 17-year lifecycle is the time it takes for the second instar to mature
2.
Taxonomy (biology)
–
Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
3.
Animal
–
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
4.
Arthropod
–
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda, which includes the insects, arachnids, myriapods, arthropods are characterized by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages, the rigid cuticle inhibits growth, so arthropods replace it periodically by moulting. Their versatility has enabled them to become the most species-rich members of all guilds in most environments. They have over a million described species, making up more than 80% of all described living species, some of which. Arthropods range in size from the microscopic crustacean Stygotantulus up to the Japanese spider crab, arthropods primary internal cavity is a hemocoel, which accommodates their internal organs, and through which their haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, they have open circulatory systems. Like their exteriors, the organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. Their nervous system is ladder-like, with paired ventral nerve cords running through all segments and their heads are formed by fusion of varying numbers of segments, and their brains are formed by fusion of the ganglia of these segments and encircle the esophagus. The respiratory and excretory systems of arthropods vary, depending as much on their environment as on the subphylum to which they belong, arthropods also have a wide range of chemical and mechanical sensors, mostly based on modifications of the many setae that project through their cuticles. Aquatic species use internal or external fertilization. Almost all arthropods lay eggs, but scorpions give birth to live young after the eggs have hatched inside the mother, arthropod hatchlings vary from miniature adults to grubs and caterpillars that lack jointed limbs and eventually undergo a total metamorphosis to produce the adult form. The level of care for hatchlings varies from nonexistent to the prolonged care provided by scorpions. The evolutionary ancestry of arthropods dates back to the Cambrian period, the group is generally regarded as monophyletic, and many analyses support the placement of arthropods with cycloneuralians in a superphylum Ecdysozoa. Overall however, the relationships of Metazoa are not yet well resolved. Likewise, the relationships between various groups are still actively debated. Arthropods contribute to the food supply both directly as food, and more importantly indirectly as pollinators of crops. Some species are known to spread disease to humans, livestock. The word arthropod comes from the Greek ἄρθρον árthron, joint, and πούς pous, i. e. foot or leg, arthropods are invertebrates with segmented bodies and jointed limbs
5.
Insect
–
Insects are a class of hexapod invertebrates within the arthropod phylum that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body, three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet, including more than a million described species, the number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million, and potentially represent over 90% of the differing animal life forms on Earth. Insects may be found in all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans. The life cycles of insects vary but most hatch from eggs, insect growth is constrained by the inelastic exoskeleton and development involves a series of molts. The immature stages can differ from the adults in structure, habit and habitat, Insects that undergo 3-stage metamorphosis lack a pupal stage and adults develop through a series of nymphal stages. The higher level relationship of the Hexapoda is unclear, fossilized insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era, including giant dragonflies with wingspans of 55 to 70 cm. The most diverse insect groups appear to have coevolved with flowering plants, adult insects typically move about by walking, flying or sometimes swimming. As it allows for rapid yet stable movement, many insects adopt a tripedal gait in which they walk with their legs touching the ground in alternating triangles, Insects are the only invertebrates to have evolved flight. Many insects spend at least part of their lives under water, with adaptations that include gills. Some species, such as water striders, are capable of walking on the surface of water, Insects are mostly solitary, but some, such as certain bees, ants and termites, are social and live in large, well-organized colonies. Some insects, such as earwigs, show maternal care, guarding their eggs, Insects can communicate with each other in a variety of ways. Male moths can sense the pheromones of female moths over great distances, other species communicate with sounds, crickets stridulate, or rub their wings together, to attract a mate and repel other males. Lampyridae in the beetle order communicate with light, humans regard certain insects as pests, and attempt to control them using insecticides and a host of other techniques. Some insects damage crops by feeding on sap, leaves or fruits, a few parasitic species are pathogenic. Some insects perform complex ecological roles, blow-flies, for example, help consume carrion, Many other insects are considered ecologically beneficial as predators and a few provide direct economic benefit. Silkworms and bees have been used extensively by humans for the production of silk and honey, in some cultures, people eat the larvae or adults of certain insects. Insect first appears documented in English in 1601 in Hollands translation of Pliny, translations of Aristotles term also form the usual word for insect in Welsh, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, etc. The evolutionary relationship of insects to other animal groups remains unclear, in the Pancrustacea theory, insects, together with Entognatha, Remipedia, and Cephalocarida, make up a natural clade labeled Miracrustacea
6.
Hemiptera
–
The Hemiptera /hɛˈmɪptərə/ or true bugs are an order of insects comprising some 50,000 to 80,000 species of groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, and shield bugs. They range in size from 1 mm to around 15 cm, the name true bugs is sometimes limited to the suborder Heteroptera. Many insects commonly known as bugs belong to other orders, for example, most hemipterans feed on plants, using their sucking and piercing mouthparts to extract plant sap. Some are parasitic while others are predators that feed on insects or small invertebrates. They live in a variety of habitats, generally terrestrial. Hemipterans are hemimetabolous, with nymphs that somewhat resemble adults. Many aphids are capable of parthenogenesis, producing young from unfertilised eggs, humans have interacted with the Hemiptera for millennia. Some species are important agricultural pests, damaging crops by the action of sucking sap. Other species have used for biological control of insect pests. Hemipterans have been cultivated for the extraction of dyestuffs cochineal and for shellac, the bed bug is a persistent parasite of humans. Cicadas have been used as food, and have appeared in literature from the Iliad in Ancient Greece. Hemiptera is the largest order of insects containing over 75,000 named species, orders with more species all have a pupal stage. The majority of species are terrestrial, including a number of important agricultural pests and these include the water boatmen, pond skaters, and giant water bugs. The fossil record of hemipterans goes back to the Carboniferous, the oldest fossils are of the Archescytinidae from the Lower Permian and are thought to be basal to the Auchenorrhyncha. Fulguromorpha and Cicadomorpha appear in the Upper Permian, as do Sternorrhyncha of the Psylloidea and Aleurodoidea, aphids and Coccoids appear in the Triassic. The Coleorrhyncha extend back to the Lower Jurassic, the Heteroptera first appeared in the Triassic. The order is now divided into four or more suborders, after the Homoptera were established as paraphyletic, the cladogram is based on one analysis of the phylogeny of the Paraneoptera by Hu Li and colleagues in 2015, using mitochondrial genome sequences and homogeneous models. It places the Sternorrhyncha as sister clade to the Thysanoptera and the lice, however, when heterogeneous models were used, Hemiptera was found to be monophyletic
7.
Cicadomorpha
–
Cicadomorpha is an infraorder of the insect order Hemiptera which contains the cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, and spittlebugs. There are approximately 35,000 described species worldwide, distributed worldwide, all members of this group are plant-feeders, and many produce either audible sounds or substrate vibrations as a form of communication. The earliest fossils of cicadomorphs first appear during the Late Permian, as mentioned under Auchenorrhyncha, some authors use the name Clypeorrhyncha as a replacement for the Cicadomorpha. Nymphs of many Cicadomorphans coat themselves with secretions from specialized Malphigian tubules and they are never coated with hydrophobic wax as seen in the nymphs of Fulgoromorpha. Most Cicadomorphas have a chamber in their mid-gut which helps remove excess water from the xylem or phloem sap that they feed on
8.
Cicadidae
–
The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera. They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers and it is divided into the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and Cicadidae, with more than 1,300 species described from around the world, many undescribed species remain. Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and they have an exceptionally loud song, produced not by stridulation, but by vibrating drumlike tymbals rapidly. The earliest known fossil Cicadomorpha appeared in the Upper Permian period and they typically live in trees, feeding on sap, and laying their eggs in a slit in the bark. Most cicadas are cryptic, singing at night to avoid predators, Cicadas have been featured in literature since the time of Homers Iliad, and as motifs in art from the Chinese Shang dynasty. They have been used in myths and folklore to represent carefree living, Cicadas are eaten in various countries, including China, where the nymphs are served deep-fried in Shandong cuisine. The name is directly from the Latin cicada, meaning tree cricket, Cicadas are arranged into two families, the Tettigarctidae and Cicadidae. The two extant species of Tettigarctidae include one in southern Australia and the other in Tasmania, the family Cicadidae is subdivided into the subfamilies Cicadinae, Tettigadinae, and Cicadettinae, they are found on all continents except Antarctica. Some previous works included a family-level taxon called the Tibiceninae. The largest species is the Malaysian emperor cicada Megapomponia imperatoria, its wingspan is up to about 20 cm and they are also notable for the great length of time some species take to mature. At least 1300 cicada species are distributed worldwide with the majority being in the tropics, most genera are restricted to a single biogeographical region and many species have a very limited range. This high degree of endemism has been used to study the biogeography of complex island groups such as in Indonesia, about 100 species occur in the Palaearctic. A few species are found in southern Europe, and a species is in England, the New Forest cicada, Melampsalta montana. Most of the North American species are in the genus Neotibicen, the best-known North American genus, however, is Magicicada. These periodical cicadas have a long life cycle of 13 or 17 years. Many of them go by names such as cherry nose, brown baker, red eye, greengrocer, yellow Monday, whisky drinker, double drummer. The Australian greengrocer, Cyclochila australasiae, is among the loudest insects in the world, forty-two species from five genera populate New Zealand, ranging from sea level to mountain tops, and all are endemic to New Zealand and the surrounding islands. Fossil Cicadomorpha first appeared in the Upper Permian, the superfamily Palaeontinoidea contains three families
9.
Auchenorrhyncha
–
The Auchenorrhyncha suborder of the Hemiptera contains most of the familiar members of what was called the Homoptera – groups such as cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, planthoppers, and spittlebugs. The aphids and scale insects are the other well-known Homoptera, lesser-known insects largely regarded as Homoptera are the Coleorrhyncha. However, the status of the Hemiptera and Homoptera is currently under investigation and discussion. See Heteroptera and Prosorrhyncha for more information, distributed worldwide, all members of this group are plant-feeders, and many are vectors of viral and fungal diseases of plants. It is also common for Auchenorrhyncha species to produce audible sounds or substrate vibrations as a form of communication. Such calls range from vibrations inaudible to humans, to the calls of many species of cicadas that can be heard for hundreds of metres, in season, they produce the most characteristic and ubiquitous noise of the bush. The word auchenorrhyncha is from the Greek αὐχήν, neck, throat and ῥύγχος, in the last 10 years, there has been evidence to support the monophyletic interpretation, and the most recent research indicates the Auchenorrhyncha are in fact a monophyletic lineage
10.
Leafhopper
–
Leafhopper is a common name applied to any species from the family Cicadellidae. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and are covered with hairs that facilitate the spreading of a secretion over their bodies that acts as a water repellent and they undergo a partial metamorphosis, and have various host associations, varying from very generalized to very specific. Some species have a distribution, or occur throughout the temperate. Some are pests or vectors of plant viruses and phytoplasmas, the family is distributed all over the world, and constitutes the second-largest hemipteran family, with at least 20,000 described species. Members of the tribe Proconiini of the subfamily Cicadellinae are commonly known as sharpshooters, the Cicadellidae combine the following features, The thickened part of the antennae is very short and ends with a bristle. Two ocelli are present on the top or front of the head, the tarsi are made of three segments. The femora are at front with, at most, weak spines, the hind tibiae have one or more distinct keels, with a row of movable spines on each, sometimes on enlarged bases. The base of the legs is close together where they originate under the thorax. The front wings not particularly thickened, an additional and unique character of leafhoppers is the production of brochosomes, which are thought to protect the animals, and particularly their egg clutches, from predation and pathogens. Like other Exopterygota, the leafhoppers undergo direct development from nymph to adult without a pupal stage, while many leafhoppers are drab little insects as is typical for the Membracoidea, the adults and nymphs of some species are quite colorful. Some – in particular Stegelytrinae – have largely translucent wings and resemble flies at a casual glance, leafhoppers have piercing-sucking mouthparts, enabling them to feed on plant sap. A leafhoppers diet commonly consists of sap from a wide and diverse range of plants, leafhoppers mainly are herbivores, but some are known to eat smaller insects, such as aphids, on occasion. A few species are known to be mud-puddling, but as it seems, leafhoppers can transmit plant pathogens, such as viruses, phytoplasmas and bacteria. In some cases, the plant pathogens distributed by leafhoppers are also pathogens of the insects themselves, some species such as the Australian Kahaono montana even build silk nests under the leaves of trees they live in, to protect them from predators. Hence, a recent trend treats the most advanced hemipterans as three or four lineages, namely Archaeorrhyncha, Coleorrhyncha and Heteroptera and Clypeorrhyncha, within the latter, the three traditional superfamilies – Cercopoidea, Cicadoidea and Membracoidea – appear to be monophyletic. The leafhoppers are the most basal living lineage of Membracoidea, which include the families Aetalionidae, Membracidae, Melizoderidae. The leafhoppers are divided into a number of subfamilies, which are listed here alphabetically
11.
Froghopper
–
The froghoppers, or the superfamily Cercopoidea, are a group of Hemipteran insects, in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha. More recently, the family Epipygidae has been removed from the Aphrophoridae, the final family in the group, Machaerotidae, is known as the tube spittlebugs because the nymphs live in calcareous tubes, rather than producing froth as in the other families. The froth serves a number of purposes, the nymphs pierce plants and suck sap causing very little damage, much of the filtered fluids go into the production of the froth, which has an acrid taste, deterring predators. A few species are serious agricultural pests, adult froghoppers jump from plant to plant, some species can jump up to 70 cm vertically, a more impressive performance relative to body weight than fleas. The froghopper can accelerate at 4,000 m/s2 over 2mm as it jumps, spittlebugs can jump 100 times their own length. Many species of froghopper resemble leafhoppers, but can be distinguished by the possession of only a few spines on the hind tibia. Members of the family Clastopteridae have their wings modified to form false heads at the tail end, many adult Cercopidae can bleed reflexively from their tarsi, and the hemolymph appears to be distasteful, they are often aposematically colored
12.
Stridulation
–
Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is associated with insects, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of fish, snakes. Sometimes it is the bearing the file which resonates to produce the sound. Common onomatopoeic words for the produced by stridulation include chirp. Insects and other arthropods stridulate by rubbing two parts of the body. These are referred to generically as the stridulatory organs, stridulation is also known in a few tarantulas, some pill millipedes, and stick insects such as Pterinoxylus spinulosus. Most spiders are silent, but some species are known to stridulate. When disturbed, Theraphosa blondi, the Goliath tarantula, can produce a loud hissing noise by rubbing together the bristles on its legs. This is said to be audible to a distance of up to 15 feet, one of the wolf spiders, Schizocosa stridulans Stratton, produces low-frequency sounds by flexing its abdomen or high-frequency stridulation by using the cymbia on the ends of its pedipalps. Stridulation in several of these examples is for attracting a mate, or as a form of territorial behaviour and this kind of communication was first described by Slovenian biologist Ivan Regen. Some species of venomous snakes stridulate as part of a threat display and they arrange their body into a series of parallel C-shaped coils that they rub together to produce a sizzling sound, rather like water on a hot plate. The best-known examples are members of the genus Echis, although those of the genus Cerastes and at least one bush viper species, Atheris desaixi, the British Library Sound Archive contains over 150,000 recordings of animal sounds and natural atmospheres from around the world
13.
Tymbal
–
Tymbal is a term for a corrugated exoskeletal structure used to produce sounds in insects. In male cicadas, the tymbals are membranes in the abdomen, in tiger moths, the tymbals are modified regions of the thorax, and produce high-frequency clicks. The paired tymbals of a cicada are located on the sides of the abdominal base and these membranes vibrate rapidly, and enlarged chambers derived from the tracheae make the cicadas body serve as a resonance chamber, greatly amplifying the sound. Some cicadas produce sounds louder than 106 dB, among the loudest of all insect-produced sounds and they modulate their noise by positioning their abdomens toward or away from the substrate. These sounds are only audible to humans, and are used in both acoustic aposematism, and as mating signals. A recent study demonstrates that these sounds are used by some moths to jam the sonar of moth-eating bats, encyclopædia Britannica 1911, Hemiptera article on Project Gutenberg
14.
Permian
–
The Permian is a geologic period and system which spans 46.7 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period 298.9 million years ago, to the beginning of the Triassic Period 252.2 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleozoic Era, the following Triassic Period belongs to the Mesozoic Era, the concept of the Permian was introduced in 1841 by geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, who named it after the city of Perm. The Permian witnessed the diversification of the early amniotes into the groups of the mammals, turtles, lepidosaurs. The world at the time was dominated by two known as Pangaea and Siberia, surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa. The Carboniferous rainforest collapse left behind vast regions of desert within the continental interior, amniotes, who could better cope with these drier conditions, rose to dominance in place of their amphibian ancestors. The Permian ended with the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest mass extinction in Earths history, in which nearly 90% of marine species and it would take well into the Triassic for life to recover from this catastrophe. Recovery from the Permian-Triassic extinction event was protracted, on land, the term Permian was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil, the region now lies in the Perm Krai of Russia. This could have in part caused the extinctions of marine species at the end of the period by severely reducing shallow coastal areas preferred by many marine organisms. During the Permian, all the Earths major landmasses were collected into a supercontinent known as Pangaea. The Cimmeria continent rifted away from Gondwana and drifted north to Laurasia, a new ocean was growing on its southern end, the Tethys Ocean, an ocean that would dominate much of the Mesozoic Era. Large continental landmass interiors experience climates with extreme variations of heat and cold, deserts seem to have been widespread on Pangaea. Such dry conditions favored gymnosperms, plants with seeds enclosed in a cover, over plants such as ferns that disperse spores in a wetter environment. The first modern trees appeared in the Permian, the climate in the Permian was quite varied. At the start of the Permian, the Earth was still in an Ice Age, glaciers receded around the mid-Permian period as the climate gradually warmed, drying the continents interiors. In the late Permian period, the drying continued although the temperature cycled between warm and cool cycles, Permian marine deposits are rich in fossil mollusks, echinoderms, and brachiopods. By the close of the Permian, trilobites and a host of other groups became extinct. Terrestrial life in the Permian included diverse plants, fungi, arthropods, the period saw a massive desert covering the interior of Pangaea
15.
Crypsis
–
In ecology, crypsis is the ability of an animal to avoid observation or detection by other animals. It may be a strategy or an antipredator adaptation. Methods include camouflage, nocturnality, subterranean lifestyle, and mimicry, crypsis can involve visual, olfactory, or auditory concealment. When it is visual, the cryptic coloration, effectively a synonym for animal camouflage, is sometimes used. Cryptic animals include the tawny frogmouth, the tuatara, some jellyfish, the sea dragon. Methods of crypsis include camouflage, nocturnality, and subterranean lifestyle, camouflage involves a variety of methods, from disruptive coloration to transparency and some forms of mimicry. As a strategy, crypsis is used by predators against prey, crypsis also applies to eggs and pheromone production. Crypsis can in principle involve visual, olfactory, or auditory camouflage, such animals may resemble rocks, sand, twigs, leaves, and even bird droppings. Countershading, the use of different colors on upper and lower surfaces in graduating tones from a belly to a darker back, is common in the sea. Where the background is brighter than is possible even with white pigment, counter-illumination in marine animals, such as squid, some animals actively camouflage themselves with local materials. The decorator crabs attach plants, animals, small stones, or shell fragments to their carapaces to provide camouflage that matches the local environment, some species preferentially select stinging animals such as sea anemones or noxious plants, benefiting from aposematism as well as or instead of crypsis. Some animals, in terrestrial and aquatic environments, appear to camouflage their odor, which might otherwise attract predators. Numerous arthropods, both insects and spiders, mimic ants, whether to avoid predation, to hunt ants, pirate perch may exhibit chemical crypsis, making them undetectable to frogs and insects colonizing ponds. In the latter type of moth, detailed analyses failed to support a phantom echo mechanism underlying sonar jamming, different aspects of crypsis and sensory abilities may be more or less pronounced in given predator-prey species pairs. Zoologists need special methods to study cryptic animals, including techniques such as radio tracking, mark and recapture. Cryptic animals tend to be overlooked in studies of biodiversity and ecological risk assessment, caterpillar that resembles bird droppings on leaves
16.
Periodical cicadas
–
Magicicada is the genus of the 13-year and 17-year periodical cicadas of eastern North America. Magicicada spp. spend most of their 13- and 17-year lives underground feeding on xylem fluids from the roots of deciduous forest trees in the eastern United States, after 13 or 17 years, mature cicada nymphs emerge at any given locality, synchronously and in tremendous numbers. After such a developmental phase, the adults are active for about 4 to 6 weeks. The males aggregate into chorus centers and attract mates, within two months of the original emergence, the lifecycle is complete, the eggs have been laid, and the adult cicadas are gone for another 13 or 17 years. The familiar winged imago periodical cicada has red eyes and a black dorsal thorax, the wings are translucent and have orange veins. The underside of the abdomen may be black, orange, or striped with orange and black, depending on the species. Adults are typically 2.4 to 3.3 cm, depending on species, mature females are slightly larger than males. Magicicada males typically form large aggregations that sing in chorus to attract receptive females, different species have different characteristic calling songs. The call of decim periodical cicadas is said to someone calling weeeee-whoa or Pharaoh. The cassini and decula periodic cicadas have songs that intersperse buzzing and ticking sounds, cicadas do not sting and do not normally bite. Like other Auchenorrhyncha bugs, they have used in piercing plants. A cicadas proboscis can pierce human skin when it is handled, which is painful and these cicadas are not venomous, and no evidence shows they transmit diseases. They pose little threat to mature vegetation, although planting new trees or shrubs is best postponed until after an expected emergence of the periodical cicadas, mature plants rarely suffer lasting damage, although twig die-off or flagging can result from egg-laying. Nearly all cicadas spend years underground as juveniles, before emerging above ground for an adult stage of several weeks to a few months. This periodicity is especially remarkable because their lifecycles are so long—13 or 17 years, cicadas of all other species are not synchronized, so some adults mature each summer and emerge while the rest of the population continues to develop underground. Many people refer to these species as annual cicadas since some are seen every summer. The lifecycles of most annual species range from two to 10 years, although some could be longer, the nymphs of the periodical cicadas live underground, usually within 2 ft of the surface, feeding on the juices of plant roots. The nymphs of the periodical cicada undergo five instar stages in their development underground, the difference in the 13- and 17-year lifecycle is the time it takes for the second instar to mature
17.
Homer
–
Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature. The Odyssey focuses on the home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Many accounts of Homers life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a bard from Ionia. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value, the Homeric question - by whom, when, where and under what circumstances were the Iliad and Odyssey composed - continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion on the authorship question falls into two camps, one group holds that most of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the work of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the crystallization of a process of working and re-working by many contributors and it is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century B. C. Most researchers believe that the poems were transmitted orally. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, to Plato, the chronological period of Homer depends on the meaning to be assigned to the word Homer. Was Homer a single person, an imaginary person representing a group of poets and this information is often called the world of Homer. The Homeric period would in that cover a number of historical periods, especially the Mycenaean Age. Considered word-for-word, the texts as we know them are the product of the scholars of the last three centuries. Each edition of the Iliad or Odyssey is a different, as the editors rely on different manuscripts and fragments. The term accuracy reveals a belief in an original uniform text. The manuscripts of the work currently available date to no earlier than the 10th century. These are at the end of a missing thousand-year chain of copies made as each generation of manuscripts disintegrated or were lost or destroyed and these numerous manuscripts are so similar that a single original can be postulated. The time gap in the chain is bridged by the scholia, or notes, on the existing manuscripts, librarian of the Library of Alexandria, he had noticed a wide divergence in the works attributed to Homer, and was trying to restore a more authentic copy. He had collected several manuscripts, which he named, the Sinopic, the one he selected for correction was the koine, which Murray translates as the Vulgate. Aristarchus was known for his selection of material
18.
Iliad
–
The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles imminent death and the fall of Troy, although the narrative ends before these events take place. However, as events are prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly. The Iliad is paired with something of a sequel, the Odyssey, along with the Odyssey, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC. Recent statistical modelling based on language evolution gives a date of 760–710 BC, in the modern vulgate, the Iliad contains 15,693 lines, it is written in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects. Note, Book numbers are in parentheses and come before the synopsis of the book, after an invocation to the Muses, the story launches in medias res towards the end of the Trojan War between the Trojans and the besieging Greeks. Chryses, a Trojan priest of Apollo, offers the Greeks wealth for the return of his daughter Chryseis, held captive of Agamemnon, although most of the Greek army is in favour of the offer, Agamemnon refuses. Chryses prays for Apollos help, and Apollo causes a plague to afflict the Greek army, after nine days of plague, Achilles, the leader of the Myrmidon contingent, calls an assembly to deal with the problem. Under pressure, Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis to her father, angered, Achilles declares that he and his men will no longer fight for Agamemnon but will go home. Odysseus takes a ship and returns Chryseis to her father, whereupon Apollo ends the plague, in the meantime, Agamemnons messengers take Briseis away. Achilles becomes very upset, sits by the seashore, and prays to his mother, Achilles asks his mother to ask Zeus to bring the Greeks to the breaking point by the Trojans, so Agamemnon will realize how much the Greeks need Achilles. Thetis does so, and Zeus agrees, Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon, urging him to attack Troy. Agamemnon heeds the dream but decides to first test the Greek armys morale, the plan backfires, and only the intervention of Odysseus, inspired by Athena, stops a rout. Odysseus confronts and beats Thersites, a soldier who voices discontent about fighting Agamemnons war. After a meal, the Greeks deploy in companies upon the Trojan plain, the poet takes the opportunity to describe the provenance of each Greek contingent. When news of the Greek deployment reaches King Priam, the Trojans too sortie upon the plain, in a list similar to that for the Greeks, the poet describes the Trojans and their allies. The armies approach each other, but before they meet, Paris offers to end the war by fighting a duel with Menelaus, urged by his brother and head of the Trojan army, Hector. While Helen tells Priam about the Greek commanders from the walls of Troy, Paris is beaten, but Aphrodite rescues him and leads him to bed with Helen before Menelaus can kill him
19.
Shang dynasty
–
The Shang dynasty or Yin dynasty, according to traditional historiography, ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Zhou dynasty. The classic account of the Shang comes from such as the Book of Documents, Bamboo Annals. The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project dated them from c.1600 to 1046 BC, the Shang dynasty is the earliest dynasty of traditional Chinese history supported by archaeological evidence. Tens of thousands of bronze, jade, stone, bone, the Anyang site has yielded the earliest known body of Chinese writing, mostly divinations inscribed on oracle bones – turtle shells, ox scapulae, or other bones. More than 20,000 were discovered in the scientific excavations during the 1920s and 1930s. The inscriptions provide critical insight into many topics from the politics, economy, many events concerning the Shang dynasty are mentioned in various Chinese classics, including the Book of Documents, the Mencius and the Zuo Zhuan. Working from all the documents, the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian assembled a sequential account of the Shang dynasty as part of his Records of the Grand Historian. His history describes some events in detail, while in other cases only the name of a king is given, a closely related, but slightly different, account is given by the Bamboo Annals. The Annals were interred in 296 BC, but the text has a complex history, the name Yīn is used by Sima Qian for the dynasty, and in the current text version of the Bamboo Annals for both the dynasty and its final capital. It has been a name for the Shang throughout history. Since the Records of Emperors and Kings by Huangfu Mi, it has often used specifically to describe the later half of the Shang dynasty. In Japan and Korea, the Shang are still referred to almost exclusively as the Yin dynasty, however it seems to have been a Zhou name for the earlier dynasty. The word does not appear in the bones, which refer to the state as Shāng. It also does not appear in securely-dated Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, xie is said to have helped Yu the Great to control the Great Flood and for his service to have been granted a place called Shang as a fief. Sima Qian relates that the dynasty itself was founded 13 generations later, when Xies descendant Tang overthrew the impious and cruel final Xia ruler in the Battle of Mingtiao. The Records recount events from the reigns of Tang, Tai Jia, Tai Wu, Pan Geng, Wu Ding, Wu Yi and the final king Di Xin. According to the Records, the Shang moved their capital five times, Di Xin, the last Shang king, is said to have committed suicide after his army was defeated by Wu of Zhou. Legends say that his army and his equipped slaves betrayed him by joining the Zhou rebels in the decisive Battle of Muye, according to the Yi Zhou Shu and Mencius the battle was very bloody
20.
Shandong cuisine
–
Shandong cuisine, more commonly known in Chinese as Lu cuisine, is one of the Eight Culinary Traditions of Chinese cuisine and one of the Four Great Traditions. It is derived from the cooking style of Shandong, a northern coastal province of China. Shandong cuisine is famous for its selection of material and use of different cooking methods. The raw materials are mainly domestic animals and birds, seafood, the masterly cooking techniques include Bao爆, Liu溜, Pa扒, roasting（烤）, boiling（煮）, using sugar to make fruit, crystallizing with honey. Its commonly known that Shandong cuisine is divided into two styles, Jinan and Jiaodong, the style of Shandong cuisine are known for its light aroma, freshness and rich taste. It puts emphasis on its two types of broths, light and milky, both broths are seasoned with scallions and goes well with the freshness of seafood. Jiaodong style, encompassing dishes from eastern Shandong, Fushan, Qingdao, Yantai and it is characterised by seafood dishes with a light taste. Jinan style, made up of dishes from Jinan, Dezhou, Taian, One of its features is the use of soup. Modern cuisines in North China are branches of Shandong cuisine, during the Spring and Autumn period, Shandong was a territory of Qi and Lu. Both states, with mountains and fertile plains, were economically and culturally developed and had abundant aquatic products, grains, some of the earliest known descriptions of Chinese culinary methods come from the states. Yi Ya, a retainer of Duke Huan of Qi, was renowned for his culinary skill, Confucius was quoted in the Analects as saying, One should not indulge overly in fine flour, or in kuai that is sliced too thinly. The cuisine as it is today was created during the Yuan Dynasty. It gradually spread to northern and northeastern China, Beijing, Tianjin, and the emperors palace, Shandong cuisine is primarily made up of eastern Shandong and Jinan dishes. Although modern transportation has increased the availability of ingredients China, Shandong cuisine remains rooted in tradition and it is noted for its variety of seafood, including scallops, prawns, clams, sea cucumbers, and squid. In addition to seafood, Shandong is unique for its use of maize, unlike the sweet corn of North America, Shandong maize is chewy, starchy and often has a grassy aroma. It is served as steamed cobs, or the kernels are removed from the cob, Shandong is noted for its peanuts, which are fragrant and naturally sweet. Large dishes of peanuts are common at meals, and they are served raw in a number of dishes from the region. Shandong uses a variety of small grains, millet, wheat, oats and barley can be found in the local diet, often eaten as congee or milled and cooked into a variety of steamed and fried breads
21.
Onomatopoeia
–
An onomatopoeia is a word that phonetically imitates, resembles or suggests the sound that it describes. As an uncountable noun, onomatopoeia refers to the property of such words, common occurrences of onomatopoeias include animal noises such as oink, miaow, roar or chirp. Although in the English language, the term means the imitation of a sound. For words that imitate sounds, the term Ηχομιμητικό is used, Ηχομιμητικό derives from Ηχώ, meaning echo or sound, and μιμητικό, meaning mimetic or imitation. Some other very common English-language examples include hiccup, zoom, bang, beep, moo, machines and their sounds are also often described with onomatopoeia, as in honk or beep-beep for the horn of an automobile, and vroom or brum for the engine. When someone speaks of an involving a audible arcing of electricity. Human sounds sometimes provide instances of onomatopoeia, as when mwah is used to represent a kiss, for animal sounds, words like quack, moo, bark or woof, roar, meow/miaow or purr, cluck and baa are typically used in English. Some of these words are used both as nouns and as verbs, some languages flexibly integrate onomatopoeic words into their structure. This may evolve into a new word, up to the point that it is no longer recognized as onomatopoeia, verba dicendi are a method of integrating onomatopoeia and ideophones into grammar. Sometimes things are named from the sounds they make, in English, for example, there is the universal fastener which is named for the onomatopoeic of the sound it makes, the zip or zipper. In Tamil and Malayalam, the word for crow is kaakaa and this practice is especially common in certain languages such as Māori and, therefore, in names of animals borrowed from these languages. Although a particular sound is heard similarly by people of different cultures, for example, the snip of a pair of scissors is cri-cri in Italian, riqui-riqui in Spanish, terre-terre or treque-treque in Portuguese, krits-krits in modern Greek and katr-katr in Hindi. Similarly, the honk of a horn is ba-ba in Mandarin, tut-tut in French, pu-pu in Japanese, bbang-bbang in Korean, bært-bært in Norwegian, fom-fom in Portuguese. Onomatopoeic effect can also be produced in a phrase or word string with the help of alliteration and consonance alone, the most famous example is the phrase furrow followed free in Samuel Taylor Coleridges The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It may be noted that the words followed and free are not onomatopoeic in themselves, similarly, alliteration has been used in the line as the surf surged up the sun swept shore. To recreate the sound of breaking waves, in the poem I, She, comic strips and comic books made extensive use of onomatopoeia. Crane had fun with this, tossing in an occasional ker-splash or lickety-wop along with what would become the standard effects. Words as well as images became vehicles for carrying along his increasingly fast-paced storylines, in 2002, DC Comics introduced a villain named Onomatopoeia, an athlete, martial artist and weapons expert who often speaks sounds
22.
Latin
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
23.
Tasmania
–
Tasmania is an island state of the Commonwealth of Australia. It is located 240 km to the south of the Australian mainland, the state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of around 519,100, just over forty percent of which resides in the Greater Hobart precinct, Tasmanias area is 68,401 km2, of which the main island covers 64,519 km2. Though an island state, due to an error the state shares a land border with Victoria at its northernmost terrestrial point, Boundary Islet. The Bishop and Clerk Islets, about 37 km south of Macquarie Island, are the southernmost terrestrial point of the state of Tasmania, the island is believed to have been occupied by Aboriginals for 40,000 years before British colonisation. It is thought Tasmanian Aboriginals were separated from the mainland Aboriginal groups about 10,000 years ago when the sea rose to form Bass Strait. The conflict, which peaked between 1825 and 1831 and led to more than three years of law, cost the lives of almost 1100 Aboriginals and settlers. The near-destruction of Tasmanias Aboriginal population has been described by historians as an act of genocide by the British. The island was part of the Colony of New South Wales. In 1854 the present Constitution of Tasmania was passed and the year the state received permission to change its name to Tasmania. In 1901 it became a state through the process of the Federation of Australia, the state is named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642. Tasman named the island Anthony van Diemens Land after his sponsor Anthony van Diemen, the name was later shortened to Van Diemens Land by the British. It was officially renamed Tasmania in honour of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856, Tasmania was sometimes referred to as Dervon, as mentioned in the Jerilderie Letter written by the notorious Australian bushranger Ned Kelly in 1879. The colloquial expression for the state is Tassie, Tasmania is also colloquially shortened to Tas, especially when used in business names and website addresses. TAS is also the Australia Post abbreviation for the state, the reconstructed Palawa kani language name for Tasmania is Lutriwita. The island was adjoined to the mainland of Australia until the end of the last glacial period about 10,000 years ago, much of the island is composed of Jurassic dolerite intrusions through other rock types, sometimes forming large columnar joints. Tasmania has the worlds largest areas of dolerite, with many distinctive mountains, the central plateau and the southeast portions of the island are mostly dolerite. Mount Wellington above Hobart is an example, showing distinct columns known as the Organ Pipes
24.
Cicadinae
–
The Cicadinae are a subfamily of cicadas, containing the translucent cicadas. They are robust cicadas and many have gaudy colors, but they lack the butterfly-like opaque wing markings found in many species of the related Tibiceninae. This large subfamily is divided into tribes. Other schemes exist, which usually have a coarser subdivision, some, however, merge the Tibiceninae here whole or partly. The unrevised list given below was substantially revised beginning in 2010 due to additional morphological, the tribes, with some notable genera, are
25.
Robert Evans Snodgrass
–
Robert Evans Snodgrass was an American entomologist and artist who made important contributions to the fields of arthropod morphology, anatomy, evolution, and metamorphosis. R. E. Snodgrass was born in St. Louis, Missouri on July 5,1875, to James Cathcart Snodgrass and Annie Elizabeth Evans Snodgrass and he was the oldest of three children. His admitted first ambition in life was to be an engineer or a Pullman conductor. His first recollections of entomology were recorded by E. B, thurman, The first entomological observation which Dr. Snodgrass recalls is seeing that the legs of grasshoppers, cut off by his fathers lawnmower, could still kick while lying on the pavement. This apparently mysterious fact made an impression on him. In 1883, he and the his family moved to Wetmore, Kansas, where his father worked in a local bank, and young Snodgrass began work as a self-taught taxidermist. He had a particular interest in birds, even expressing a desire to become an ornithologist, at age 15, the family again moved, this time to Ontario, California, where they settled on a 20-acre ranch and grew oranges, prunes, and grapes. It was here that Snodgrass entered a Methodist preparatory school at the school level. He studied Latin, Greek, French, German, physics, chemistry, and drawing, Snodgrass bypassed this problem by reading Darwin, Huxley, and Spencer in his free time. His openly professed belief in biological evolution caused him problems in his relationships at home. His first opportunity to research came from Dr. Kellogg. The excitement of research, and the prospect for publishing original work led to his giving up the desire to become an ornithologist, and the publication of his first two science articles. During this time, Snodgrass also participated in his first two expeditions, the first to the Pribilof Islands led by Dr. Jordan. Snodgrass eventually published seven papers with Heller regarding organisms collected during the Galapagos expedition, Snodgrass graduated from Stanford University with his A. B. degree in Zoology in 1901. He was awarded the 1961 Leidy Award from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Smithsonian Institution Archives Robert Evans Snodgrass Papers, 1920s-1963 from Smithsonian Institution Archives Snodgrass, R. E. Insects, their ways and means of living The Snodgrass Tapes
26.
Endemism
–
The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution. An alternative term for a species that is endemic is precinctive, the word endemic is from New Latin endēmicus, from Greek ενδήμος, endēmos, native. Endēmos is formed of en meaning in, and dēmos meaning the people, the term, precinctive, has been suggested by some scientists, and was first used in botany by MacCaughey in 1917. It is the equivalent of endemism, precinction was perhaps first used by Frank and McCoy. That definition excludes artificial confinement of examples by humans in far-off botanical gardens or zoological parks, physical, climatic, and biological factors can contribute to endemism. The orange-breasted sunbird is found in the fynbos vegetation zone of southwestern South Africa. The glacier bear is found only in limited places in Southeast Alaska, political factors can play a part if a species is protected, or actively hunted, in one jurisdiction but not another. There are two subcategories of endemism, paleoendemism and neoendemism, paleoendemism refers to species that were formerly widespread but are now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to species that have arisen, such as through divergence and reproductive isolation or through hybridization. Endemics can easily become endangered or extinct if their restricted habitat changes, particularly—but not only—due to human actions, there were millions of both Bermuda petrels and Bermuda cedars in Bermuda when it was settled at the start of the seventeenth century. By the end of the century, the petrels were thought extinct, cedars, already ravaged by centuries of shipbuilding, were driven nearly to extinction in the twentieth century by the introduction of a parasite. Bermuda petrels and cedars are now rare, as are species endemic to Bermuda
27.
Palearctic realm
–
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earths surface. It consists of Europe, Asia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, North Africa, the Palearctic realm comprises the smaller terrestrial ecoregions of the Euro-Siberian region, the Mediterranean Basin, the Sahara and Arabian Deserts, and Western, Central and East Asia. The Palaearctic realm also has rivers and lakes, forming several freshwater ecoregions. Some of the rivers were the source of water for the earliest recorded civilizations that used irrigation methods, the Palearctic realm includes mostly boreal/subarctic-climate and temperate-climate ecoregions, which run across Eurasia from western Europe to the Bering Sea. South of the taiga are a belt of temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and this vast Euro-Siberian region is characterized by many shared plant and animal species, and has many affinities with the temperate and boreal regions of the Nearctic ecoregion of North America. Many zoologists consider the Palearctic and Nearctic to be a single Holarctic realm, the Palearctic and Nearctic also share many plant species, which botanists call the Arcto-Tertiary Geoflora. The Mediterranean basins mosaic of Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub are home to 13,000 endemic species. Formerly the region was covered with forests and woodlands, but heavy human use has reduced much of the region to the sclerophyll shrublands known as chaparral, matorral, maquis. Conservation International has designated the Mediterranean basin as one of the biodiversity hotspots. A great belt of deserts, including the Atlantic coastal desert, Sahara desert, Central Asia and the Iranian plateau are home to dry steppe grasslands and desert basins, with montane forests, woodlands, and grasslands in the regions high mountains and plateaux. In southern Asia the boundary of the Palearctic is largely altitudinal, the middle altitude foothills of the Himalaya between about 2000–2500 m form the boundary between the Palearctic and Indomalaya ecoregions. East Asia was not much affected by glaciation in the ice ages, the mountains of southwest China are also designated as a biodiversity hotspot. In Southeastern Asia, high mountain ranges form tongues of Palearctic flora and fauna in northern Indochina, isolated small outposts occur as far south as central Myanmar, northernmost Vietnam and the high mountains of Taiwan. One bird family, the accentors is endemic to the Palearctic region, the Holarctic has four other endemic bird families, the divers or loons, grouse, auks, and waxwings. There are no endemic mammal orders in the region, but several families are endemic, Calomyscidae, Prolagidae, contributions to the zooarchaeology of Iceland, some preliminary notes. Iowa City, University of Iowa Press, pages 203–227,1989, buckland, P. C. et al. Holt in Eyjafjasveit, Iceland, a paleoecological study of the impact of Landnám. in Acta Archaeologica 61, pp. 252–271
28.
Cicadetta montana
–
Cicadetta montana is a species of Cicadetta found throughout Europe and in parts of Asia. It is regarded as endangered over large parts of Europe, and has vanished from several areas in Western Europe and it is the only cicada species native to England and Finland. The adult females inject their eggs into the stems of plants. These underground cycles may last many years, differing for each species, females have a body measuring about 50 mm in length, with the males being much smaller. It has transparent wings with prominent veins, folded over the back when at rest, the legs are marked with dull orange as are the leading edges of the wings. As with all cicadas, the produce the shrill, buzzing calls by rapidly flexing drumhead-like membranes. The call of C montana sounds like static hiss to the human ear and is sustained with relatively short lulls at irregular intervals. Their shrilling was venerated by the ancient Greeks, but detested by Virgil and it has turned out to be not a single taxon, but a complex of closely related species distinguishable by their songs. Using this method of differentiation, at least 10 species have been separated from the complex, classification by calls has led to three main groups being proposed which largely correspond with the clades suggested by DNA analyses – one new species not fitting in the proposed scheme. In 2013, in an attempt to locate remaining specimens, developers have written software for smartphones. Up to December 2015, over 3,000 people have downloaded the ″Hunt for the New Forest Cicada app″ without success in Britain, in May 2016,100 unmanned stationary computer chips will be installed throughout the New Forest. Between 1941 and 1961 C. montana also disappeared, so their current absence may be part of a cycle, a review of the genera of Australian cicadas - M. S. Moulds
29.
Neotibicen
–
The genus Neotibicen comprises large-bodied Cicadidae appearing in late summer or autumn in North America. Many colloquial names exist for Neotibicen, including locust, and dog-day cicada, Neotibicen species are the most common cicada in the Eastern United States. Unlike periodical cicadas, whose swarms occur at 13- or 17-year intervals, Neotibicen species can be seen every year, the life-cycle of an individual, however, is more than a year. Nymphs spend two or three years feeding on tree roots before they emerge and their annual reappearance is due to overlapping generations. Neotibicen cicadas are 1–2 inches long, with green, brown, and black markings on the top of the thorax. The fore pair are about twice the length of the hind pair, adults feed using their beak to tap into the xylem of plants, nymphs feed from the xylem of roots. Like other members of the subfamily Cicadinae, Neotibicen species have loud, complex songs, males produce loud calls in the afternoon or evening to attract females. These sounds, distinctive for each species, are produced by organs below the abdomens base and these calls range from a loud buzz to a long rattling sound. Many animals feed on cicadas, which occurs during the final days when they become easy prey near the ground. One of the more notable predators is the cicada killer and this is a large wasp that catches the dog-day cicada. After catching and stinging the insect to paralyze it, the cicada killer carries it back to its hole, when the eggs hatch, the wasp larvae feed on the paralyzed, but still living, cicada
30.
Predator satiation
–
Predator satiation is an antipredator adaptation in which prey briefly occur at high population densities, reducing the probability of an individual organism being eaten. When predators are flooded with potential prey, they can consume only a certain amount and this strategy has evolved in a diverse range of prey, including notably many species of plants, insects, and fish. Predator satiation can be considered a type of refuge from predators, as available food increases, a predator has more chances of survival, growth, and reproduction. However, as food supply begins to overwhelm the predators ability to consume and process it and this pattern is evident in the functional response of type II. There are also limits to growth, dependent on the generation time of the predator species. This phenomenon is particularly conspicuous when it takes the form of masting, some periodical cicada species erupt in large numbers from their larval stage at intervals in years that are prime numbers,13 or 17. At high-density sites, research finds that the number eaten by birds does not increase with the number of cicada individuals, in contrast to predator satiation, a different pattern is seen in response to mutualistic consumers, which benefit an organism by feeding from it. For example, a vines berries may ripen at different times, ensuring frugivores are not swamped with food and so resulting in a larger proportion of its seeds being dispersed
31.
New South Wales
–
New South Wales is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south and it has a coast line with the Tasman Sea on its east side. The Australian Capital Territory is an enclave within the state, New South Wales state capital is Sydney, which is also Australias most populous city. In March 2014, the population of New South Wales was 7.5 million. Just under two-thirds of the population,4.67 million. Inhabitants of New South Wales are referred to as New South Welshmen, the Colony of New South Wales was founded as a penal colony in 1788. It originally comprised a more than half of the Australian mainland with its western boundary set at 129th meridian east in 1825, in addition, the colony also included the island territories of New Zealand, Van Diemens Land, Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Island. During the 19th century, most of the area was detached to form separate British colonies that eventually became New Zealand. However, the Swan River Colony has never administered as part of New South Wales. Lord Howe Island remains part of New South Wales, while Norfolk Island has become a federal Territory, as have the now known as the Australian Capital Territory. The prior inhabitants of New South Wales were the Aboriginal tribes who arrived in Australia about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, before European settlement there were an estimated 250,000 Aboriginal people in the region. The Wodi Wodi people are the custodians of the Illawarra region of South Sydney. The Bundjalung people are the custodians of parts of the northern coastal areas. The European discovery of New South Wales was made by Captain James Cook during his 1770 survey along the eastern coast of the Dutch-named continent of New Holland. In his original journal covering the survey, in triplicate to satisfy Admiralty Orders, Cook first named the land New Wales, however, in the copy held by the Admiralty, he revised the wording to New South Wales. After years of chaos and anarchy after the overthrow of Governor William Bligh, macquaries legacy is still evident today. During the 19th century, large areas were separated to form the British colonies of Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria. Responsible government was granted to the New South Wales colony in 1855, following the Treaty of Waitangi, William Hobson declared British sovereignty over New Zealand in 1840
32.
Victoria (Australia)
–
Victoria is a state in southeast Australia. Victoria is Australias most densely populated state and its second-most populous state overall, most of its population is concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australias second-largest city. Prior to British European settlement, the area now constituting Victoria was inhabited by a number of Aboriginal peoples. With Great Britain having claimed the entire Australian continent east of the 135th meridian east in 1788, Victoria was included in the wider colony of New South Wales. The first settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay, and much of what is now Victoria was included in the Port Phillip District in 1836, Victoria was officially created as a separate colony in 1851, and achieved self-government in 1855. Politically, Victoria has 37 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate, at state level, the Parliament of Victoria consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. Victoria is currently governed by the Labor Party, with Daniel Andrews the current Premier, the personal representative of the Queen of Australia in the state is the Governor of Victoria, currently Linda Dessau. Local government is concentrated in 79 municipal districts, including 33 cities, although a number of unincorporated areas still exist, Victorias total gross state product is ranked second in Australia, although Victoria is ranked fourth in terms of GSP per capita because of its limited mining activity. Culturally, Melbourne is home to a number of museums, art galleries and theatres and is described as the sporting capital of Australia. The Melbourne Cricket Ground is the largest stadium in Australia, and the host of the 1956 Summer Olympics, Victoria has eight public universities, with the oldest, the University of Melbourne, having been founded in 1853. Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria, who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851. The first British settlement in the later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip. In the year 1826 Colonel Stewart, Captain S. Wright, fly and the brigs Dragon and Amity, took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments. Victorias next settlement was at Portland, on the south west coast of what is now Victoria, edward Henty settled Portland Bay in 1834. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, who set up a base in Indented Head, from settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. Shortly after the now known as Geelong was surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W. H. Smythe. And in 1838 Geelong was officially declared a town, despite earlier white settlements dating back to 1826, days later, still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at sites across Victoria
33.
Sydney
–
Sydney /ˈsɪdni/ is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australias east coast, the metropolis surrounds the worlds largest natural harbour, residents of Sydney are known as Sydneysiders. The Sydney area has been inhabited by indigenous Australians for at least 30,000 years, the first British settlers, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived in 1788 to found Sydney as a penal colony, the first European settlement in Australia. Since convict transportation ended in the century, the city has transformed from a colonial outpost into a major global cultural. As at June 2016 Sydneys estimated population was 5,005,358, in the 2011 census,34 percent of the population reported having been born overseas, representing many different nationalities and making Sydney one of the most multicultural cities in the world. There are more than 250 different languages spoken in Sydney and about one-third of residents speak a language other than English at home and it is classified as an Alpha+ World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world. Ranked eleventh in the world for economic opportunity, Sydney has a market economy with strengths in finance, manufacturing. Its gross regional product was $337 billion in 2013, the largest in Australia, there is a significant concentration of foreign banks and multinational corporations in Sydney and the city is promoted as one of Asia Pacifics leading financial hubs. Its natural features include Sydney Harbour, the Royal National Park, man-made attractions such as the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are also well known to international visitors. The first people to inhabit the now known as Sydney were indigenous Australians having migrated from northern Australia. Radiocarbon dating suggests human activity first started to occur in the Sydney area from around 30,735 years ago, the earliest British settlers called them Eora people. Eora is the term the indigenous used to explain their origins upon first contact with the British. Its literal meaning is from this place, prior to the arrival of the British there were 4,000 to 8,000 native people in Sydney from as many as 29 different clans. Sydney Cove from Port Jackson to Petersham was inhabited by the Cadigal clan, the principal language groups were Darug, Guringai, and Dharawal. The earliest Europeans to visit the area noted that the people were conducting activities such as camping and fishing, using trees for bark and food, collecting shells. Development has destroyed much of the citys history including that of the first inhabitants, there continues to be examples of rock art and engravings located in the protected Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The first meeting between the people and the British occurred on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay on the Kurnell Peninsula. He noted in his journal that they were confused and somewhat hostile towards the foreign visitors, Cook was on a mission of exploration and was not commissioned to start a settlement
34.
Melbourne
–
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The name Melbourne refers to an urban agglomeration spanning 9,900 km2, the metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 4,641,636 as of 2016, and its inhabitants are called Melburnians. Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemens Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales, it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837. It was named Melbourne by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria, to whom Lord Melbourne was close, in 1847, during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the worlds largest and wealthiest cities. After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the interim seat of government until 1927. It is a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. It is recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a centre for street art, music. It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the main passenger airport serving the metropolis and the state is Melbourne Airport, the second busiest in Australia. The Port of Melbourne is Australias busiest seaport for containerised and general cargo, Melbourne has an extensive transport network. The main metropolitan train terminus is Flinders Street Station, and the regional train. Melbourne is also home to Australias most extensive network and has the worlds largest urban tram network. Before the arrival of settlers, humans had occupied the area for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years. At the time of European settlement, it was inhabited by under 2000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous tribes, the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and it would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. Batman selected a site on the bank of the Yarra River. Batman then returned to Launceston in Tasmania, in early August 1835 a different group of settlers, including John Pascoe Fawkner, left Launceston on the ship Enterprize
35.
Brisbane
–
Brisbane is the capital of and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland, and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbanes metropolitan area has a population of 2.35 million, the Brisbane central business district stands on the original European settlement and is situated inside a bend of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres from its mouth at Moreton Bay. The demonym of Brisbane is Brisbanite, one of the oldest cities in Australia, Brisbane was founded upon the ancient homelands of the indigenous Turrbal and Jagera peoples. A penal settlement was founded in 1824 at Redcliffe,28 kilometres north of the business district. The city was marred by the Australian frontier wars between 1843 and 1855, and development was set back by the Great Fire of Brisbane. Brisbane was chosen as the capital when Queensland was proclaimed a colony from New South Wales in 1859. During World War II, Brisbane played a role in the Allied campaign. Today, Brisbane is well known for its distinct Queenslander architecture which forms much of the built heritage. It also receives attention for its damaging flood events, most notably in 1974 and 2011. Several large cultural, international and sporting events have held at Brisbane, including the 1982 Commonwealth Games, World Expo 88, the final Goodwill Games in 2001. Prior to white settlement, the Brisbane area was inhabited by the Turrbal and they knew the area that is now the central business district as Mian-jin, meaning place shaped as a spike. The Moreton Bay area was explored by Matthew Flinders. On 17 July 1799, Flinders landed at what is now known as Woody Point, in 1823 Governor of New South Wales Sir Thomas Brisbane instructed that a new northern penal settlement be developed, and an exploration party led by John Oxley further explored Moreton Bay. Oxley discovered, named, and explored the Brisbane River as far as Goodna,20 kilometres upstream from the Brisbane central business district, Oxley recommended Red Cliff Point for the new colony, reporting that ships could land at any tide and easily get close to the shore. The party settled in Redcliffe on 13 September 1824, under the command of Lieutenant Henry Miller with 14 soldiers and 29 convicts. However, this settlement was abandoned after a year and the colony was moved to a site on the Brisbane River now known as North Quay,28 km south, chief Justice Forbes gave the new settlement the name of Edenglassie before it was named Brisbane. Non-convict European settlement of the Brisbane region commenced in 1838, German missionaries settled at Zions Hill, Nundah as early as 1837, five years before Brisbane was officially declared a free settlement. The band consisted of ministers Christopher Eipper and Carl Wilhelm Schmidt and lay missionaries Haussmann, Johann Gottried Wagner, Niquet, Hartenstein, Zillman, Franz, Rode, Doege and they were allocated 260 hectares and set about establishing the mission, which became known as the German Station
36.
Psaltoda moerens
–
Psaltoda moerens, commonly known as the redeye, is an Australian species of cicada. It is distributed through the south-east of Australia, from southern Queensland to South Australia, populations can vary greatly between years, one year they may be present in large numbers and the next they may be entirely absent. They feed primarily on eucalyptus but also on Angophora trees, as they feed on tree sap they expel small droplets of clear waste fluid. When numbers are high, this can form a constant stream, walter Wilson Froggatt reported that the common name was used by Sydney children in his 1907 work Australian Insects, referring to the colour of the ocelli. The typical wingspan is around 110–120 mm, the adult is a shiny black above and brown and finely hairy underneath. As the name implies, the eyes are a red colour, although pinkish-. Heard at any time of day, the call consists of two to twelve revving sounds with a quality, followed by a rattling continuous call. The redeye makes the sound by flexing its abdomen upwards. It is found from the coast inland to Toowoomba and Inverell in the north, and it is found at elevation in the northern parts of its range, and at low altitudes in the southern parts. It appears only irregularly, in summers and not others. The redeye prefers open sclerophyll forest, in particular smooth-barked eucalypts and Angophora species and it has also settled for introduced trees such as the liquidambar, Japanese maple, and weeping willow. Redeyes settle on the trunks of smoother barked trees, and wherever the bark is smoothest on rougher trees, in some cases many thousands of redeyes may inhabit a few trees. They puncture the bark and may feed for hours at a time and they expel waste fluid which can fall in a constant shower if there are large numbers of redeyes. Redeyes are also attracted to light, the female lays eggs in dead or dying plant tissue only. The redeye and related black prince are favoured food items of the noisy friarbird, the width of its gape size is similar to that of the two cicada species. The redeye is preyed upon by the cicada killer wasp, which stings, when the larva hatches it consumes the hapless insect
37.
Thopha saccata
–
Thopha saccata, commonly known as the double drummer, is the largest Australian species of cicada and reputedly the loudest insect in the world. Documented by the Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1803, it was the first described and named cicada native to Australia. Its common name comes from the large dark red-brown sac-like pockets that the male has on each side of its abdomen—the double drums—that are used to amplify the sound it produces. Broad-headed compared with other cicadas, the drummer is mostly brown with a black pattern across the back of its thorax. The sexes are similar in appearance, though the female lacks the males tymbals, found in sclerophyll forest in Queensland and New South Wales, adult double drummers generally perch high in the branches of large eucalypts. They emerge from the ground where they have spent several years as nymphs from November until March and they appear in great numbers in some years, yet are absent in others. Danish naturalist Johan Christian Fabricius described the double drummer as Tettigonia saccata in 1803, the type locality was inexplicably and incorrectly recorded as China. It was placed in the new genus Thopha by French entomologists Charles Jean-Baptiste Amyot, the generic name is derived from thoph, meaning drum. They maintained it as native to China, the specific name is derived from the Latin saccus, meaning sac or bag, and more specifically moneybag. In 1838, Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville pointed out that the drummer is native to Australia. John Obadiah Westwood designated it the species of the genus in 1843. The common name is derived from the male cicadas sac-like tymbal covers on either side of its abdomen, the adult double drummer is the largest Australian species of cicada, the male and female averaging 4.75 and 5.12 cm long respectively. The thorax is 2 cm in diameter, its sides distended when compared with the thorax of other Australian cicadas, the forewings are 5–6.6 cm long. The largest collected specimen has a wingspan of 15.1 cm, the average mass is 4.0 g. The sexes have similar markings, but males have large dark red-brown sac-like structures on each side of their abdomens and these cover the tymbals—specialised structures composed of vertical ribs and a tymbal plate, which is buckled to produce the cicadas song. The head is broader than that of other cicadas, and is broader than the pronotum behind it. The head, antennae and postclypeus are black, with a broken pale brown transverse band across the vertex just behind the ocelli. The eyes are black in young adult cicadas upon emerging, the proboscis is 1.26 cm in length—very long compared with other Australian cicada species
38.
Cyclochila australasiae
–
Cyclochila australasiae, commonly known as the green grocer, is a species of cicada and one of Australias most familiar insects. It is distributed through coastal regions of southeastern Australia and it is one of the loudest insects in the world. The names for the green and yellow forms have been recorded since at least 1896, walter Wilson Froggatt reported that the green form was known as green Monday in his 1907 work Australian Insects. The species was first described by amateur zoologist Edward Donovan as Tettigonia australasiae in 1805, cyclochila australasiae measures about 4 cm in length, with a wingspan of 11–13 cm. Diverse colour forms are seen, the most common being predominantly green or brownish yellow, the exuvia, or discarded empty exoskeleton of the nymph form, is commonly seen on tree trunks in gardens and bushland during the summer months. The loud calls of the male are heard over the months, harsh and high-pitched. The sound is made by the buckling of the timbal ribs, and amplified by resonation in an air sac. Calls occur in the afternoon and dusk of warm days and it is common along the Great Dividing Range, and is also found in the Warrumbungles. It is commonly seen around Sydney and Melbourne, the Blue Mountains, in Brisbane, it is only encountered at elevations above 300 m. It was associated with the white stringybark in a study at three sites in western Sydney, the cicada spends seven years in nymph form drinking sap from plant roots underground before emerging from the earth as an adult. The adults, who live for six weeks, fly around, mate, live cicadas are often collected by climbing trees and can be kept temporarily as pets in shoeboxes. They cannot easily be kept for longer than a day or two, given that they need flowing sap for food
39.
Amphipsalta zelandica
–
The chorus cicada, Amphipsalta zelandica, is the most common species of cicada in New Zealand where it is endemic and found in most areas. They typically live in forests and areas with open bush, where their left-over nymph skins can be seen on tree trunks, the males produce their cicada sound in unison, which can reach deafening proportions at the height of their population around February. Groups of cicada can suddenly transition from the typical cicada sound to synchronised clicks, Amphipsalta zelandica have a nymph stage before their last molt and become an adult. During this nymph stage they are a soft and creamy white, the lengths of the adults are usually larger than 2 cm in length while the largest species are up to 4 cm, this includes the wings. Chorus cicadas’ wing span is about 6 cm and the wings of the chorus cicada only appear after molting to adult stage, they are membranous with veins, the colour of the chorus cicada can be black/green/brown and many have stripes along their body. The antenna of the Amphipsalta zelandica has seven segments with the seventh being constricted medially which means the last segment is tightened towards the middle. The adult male cicadas differ to the females by the presence of a clasper sheath, the song made by cicadas is the loudest noise made by an insect. Only the male Chorus cicada produces a song that is specific to their species. The species can be identified by their song, a pulse group of their song is made up of five clicks where the central click is stronger than the two on either side of it. The central click can become two clicks if the cicada is tired and has no energy and these clicks are made by the cicada hitting its wings against the surface it’s sitting on. These pulse groups can be produced quickly and continuously in a note during chorus sing. It is New Zealands biggest cicada, their size is averaging around 40 mm and this type of food makes the chorus cicada a generalist feeder as it has a range of host plants that it feeds on. An orchard root system provides a food source the nymphs which live in the soil. Chorus cicadas are endemic insects to New Zealand, the most closely related species are found in Australia, New Caledonia and Norfolk Island. However, some studies about the New Zealand fauna show that the fauna of New Zealand was from several invasions across the Tasman Sea from Australia or New Caledonia, Chorus cicadas are often found in towns and cities. In addition to central Otago and parts of Canterbury, Chorus cicadas are distributed throughout the whole country. They distribute in the North Island and some areas of the South Island commonly. Sometimes chorus cicadas are found on buildings, fences or some lamp posts, Cicadas preferred to stay at the eastern coast, in sub-tropical, sub-humid and temperate environments
_with_Cicada.jpg)
.jpg)
. PMID 5347716.
