1.
Taxonomy (biology)
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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
2.
Animal
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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
3.
Arthropod
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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
4.
Insect
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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
5.
Fly
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True flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek di = two, and ptera = wings. Insects of this use only a single pair of wings to fly. Diptera is an order containing an estimated 1,000,000 species including horse-flies, crane flies, hoverflies and others. Flies have a head, with a pair of large compound eyes. Their wing arrangement gives them great manoeuvrability in flight, and claws, Flies undergo complete metamorphosis, the eggs are laid on the larval food-source and the larvae, which lack true limbs, develop in a protected environment, often inside their source of their food. The pupa is a capsule from which the adult emerges when ready to do so. Diptera is one of the insect orders and are of considerable ecological. Flies are important pollinators, second only to the bees and their Hymenopteran relatives, Flies may have been among the evolutionarily earliest pollinators responsible for early plant pollination. Flies can be annoyances especially in parts of the world where they can occur in large numbers. Larger flies such as flies and screwworms cause significant economic harm to cattle. Blowfly larvae, known as gentles, and other larvae, known more generally as maggots, are used as fishing bait. They are also used in medicine in debridement to clean wounds, dipterans are endopterygotes, insects that undergo radical metamorphosis. They belong to the Mecopterida, alongside the Mecoptera, Siphonaptera, Lepidoptera and Trichoptera, the possession of a single pair of wings distinguishes most true flies from other insects with fly in their names. However, some true flies such as Hippoboscidae have become secondarily wingless and this cladogram represents the current consensus view. The first true dipterans known are from the Middle Triassic, and they became widespread during the Middle, modern flowering plants did not appear until the Cretaceous, so the original dipterans must have had a different source of nutrition other than nectar. The basal clades in the Diptera include the Deuterophlebiidae and the enigmatic Nymphomyiidae, three episodes of evolutionary radiation are thought to have occurred based on the fossil record. Many new species of lower Diptera developed in the Triassic, about 220 million years ago, many lower Brachycera appeared in the Jurassic, some 180 million years ago. A third radiation took place among the Schizophora at the start of the Paleogene,66 million years ago, the phylogenetic position of Diptera has been controversial
6.
Brachycera
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The Brachycera are a suborder of the order Diptera. It is a major suborder consisting of around 120 families and their most distinguishing characteristic is reduced antenna segmentation. A summary of the main characteristics is, Antenna size is reduced. The maxillary palp has two segments or fewer, the back portions of the larval head capsule extend into the prothorax. Two distinct parts make up of the larval mandible, the epandrium and hypandrium of the genitalia are separated in males. No premandible is present on the surface of the labrum. The configuration of the CuA2 and A1 wing veins is distinct, brachyceran flies can also be distinguished through behavior. Many of the species are predators or scavengers, additionally, most recent classifications no longer use the Linnaean ranks for taxa, and this creates its own set of problems. Larger brachycera Media related to Brachycera at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Brachycera at Wikispecies The Tree of Life Web Project, Brachycera Brachycera images
7.
Tabanomorpha
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The Tabanomorpha is one of the two Brachyceran groups outside the Hippoboscoidea that contain blood-feeding species, though they are not important disease vectors. The larvae of tabanomorphs are primarily found in aquatic or semi-aquatic habitats and they often have warts or other body projections that may resemble the prolegs of caterpillars. The infraorder Vermileonomorpha is often included within the Tabanomorpha, though the most recent classifications place them as its sister taxon, there are also some classifications that place the Nemestrinoidea within the Tabanomorpha, though this is not widely accepted. There are two superfamily-level lineages currently recognized within Tabanomorpha, the Tabanoidea and the Rhagionoidea
8.
Stratiomyidae
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The soldier flies are a family of flies. The family contains over 2,700 species in over 380 extant genera worldwide. Adults are found near larval habitats, which are found in an array of locations, mostly in wetlands, damp places in soil, sod, under bark, in animal excrement. They are often rather inactive flies which typically rest with their wings placed one above the other over the abdomen, in English, the Stratiomidi are commonly called soldier flies, in German waffenfliegen. In the Italian language Duméril used the common names term stratiomidi, very small to large,3 segmented antennae with the terminal segment annulated, ocelli present, lower orbital bristles absent. For a pictorial atlas explaining these terms go to Larvae may be either aquatic or terrestrial, in regards to nutrition they may be saprophagous, mycophagous, or predatory. The larva is apodous and eucephalic and cylindrical-fusiform, depressed dorso-ventrally and distinctly segmented, the size of the mature larva is variable, depending on the species, from less than 1 cm in length up to 3–5 cm. The head is narrower than the thorax and partially sunken into it. The integument is strongly sclerotized with the cuticle containing inclusions of calcium carbonate with hexagonal crystals which form a characteristic micro-sculpture, in aquatic species, the last urite is thin and more or less elongated forming a breathing tube which ends with a tuft of waterproofing bristles. It is used to air from the surface, the larva remaining submerged. The pupa develops inside the exuvia of the last larval stage, the pupation within the larval exuvia constitutes a case of evolutionary convergence with Cyclorrhapha, in which group there is the formation of a true puparium. The larvae of Stratiomyidae are characterized by a variety of behaviours. The diet is mainly scavenger, but aquatic species also feed on algae, not very frequent are zoophagia, predation and phytophagia. The aquatic larvae are sometimes characterized by particularly specific habitat requirements. For example, several species colonize rocks covered by a layer of water, others are found in brackish water. In general, though, Stratiomyidae larvae colonize stagnant waters or rivers near the shores, seeking the richest vegetation, algae and debris. Terrestrial larvae are found in substrates, in decomposing vegetable matter and animal excreta, in moist soils and litter, under the bark of trees. Inopus rubriceps, the sugarcane soldier fly, is a pest, adults are glucophagous and visit flowers to feed on nectar, or else do not feed at all, dedicating their short lives to reproduction. Unlike other dipterous scavengers, adults of Stratiomyidae do not have relationships with the substrate of the larvae
9.
Binomial nomenclature
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Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name
10.
Carl Linnaeus
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Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the father of modern taxonomy. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus, Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his education at Uppsala University. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands and he then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, at the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message, Tell him I know no man on earth. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, Swedish author August Strindberg wrote, Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist. Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum, The Pliny of the North and he is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology. In botany, the abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation Linn. is found, Linnæus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nicolaus Ingemarsson and Christina Brodersonia and his siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus, and Emerentia Linnæa. One of a line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius, a year after Linnæus birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curates house, even in his early years, Linnæus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus, soon Linnæus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants
11.
10th edition of Systema Naturae
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The 10th edition of Systema Naturae is a book written by Carl Linnaeus and published in two volumes in 1758 and 1759, which marks the starting point of zoological nomenclature. In it, Linnaeus introduced binomial nomenclature for animals, something he had already done for plants in his 1753 publication of Species Plantarum, before 1758, most biological catalogues had used polynomial names for the taxa included, including earlier editions of Systema Naturae. The first work to consistently apply binomial nomenclature across the kingdom was the 10th edition of Systema Naturae. Names published before that date are unavailable, even if they would otherwise satisfy the rules, during Linnaeus lifetime, Systema Naturae was under continuous revision. The Animal Kingdom, Animals enjoy sensation by means of an organization, animated by a medullary substance, perception by nerves. They have members for the different purposes of life, organs for their different senses and they all originate from an egg. Their external and internal structure, their anatomy, habits, instincts. The list has been broken down into the six classes Linnaeus described for animals, Mammalia, Aves, Amphibia, Pisces, Insecta. These classes were created by studying the internal anatomy, as seen in his key. Warm, red blood Viviparous, Mammalia Oviparous, Aves Heart with 1 auricle,1 ventricle, cold, red blood Lungs voluntary, Amphibia External gills, Pisces Heart with 1 auricle,0 ventricles. Linnaeus described mammals as, Animals that suckle their young by means of lactiferous teats, in external and internal structure they resemble man, most of them are quadrupeds, and with man, their natural enemy, inhabit the surface of the Earth. The largest, though fewest in number, inhabit the ocean and they are areal, vocal, swift and light, and destitute of external ears, lips, teeth, scrotum, womb, bladder, epiglottis, corpus callosum and its arch, and diaphragm. They breathe by means of gills, which are united by a bony arch, swim by means of radiate fins. Many of them are without a head, and most of them without feet. They are principally distinguished by their tentacles, by the Ancients they were not improperly called imperfect animals, as being destitute of ears, nose, head, eyes and legs, and are therefore totally distinct from Insects. In addition to repeating the species he had listed in his Species Plantarum. The species from Species Plantarum were numbered sequentially, while the new species were labelled with letters, new plant species described in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae include, The original 1758 Systema Naturae Linnaeus 1758 Classification of Animals on the Taxonomicon
12.
Synonym (taxonomy)
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For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies. This name is no longer in use, it is now a synonym of the current scientific name which is Picea abies, unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy, synonyms are not equals, but have a different status, for any taxon with a particular circumscription, position, and rank, only one scientific name is considered to be the correct one at any given time. A synonym cannot exist in isolation, it is always an alternative to a different scientific name, given that the correct name of a taxon depends on the taxonomic viewpoint used a name that is one taxonomists synonym may be another taxonomists correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is described and named more than once, independently. They may also arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to one, a species is moved to a different genus. To the general user of scientific names, in such as agriculture, horticulture, ecology, general science. A synonym is a name that was used as the correct scientific name but which has been displaced by another scientific name. Thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as a name which has the same application as another. In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have mentioned as such after the current scientific name. Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the synonym in the formal rules of nomenclature which govern scientific names. Changes of scientific name have two causes, they may be taxonomic or nomenclatural, a name change may be caused by changes in the circumscription, position or rank of a taxon, representing a change in taxonomic, scientific insight. A name change may be due to purely nomenclatural reasons, that is, based on the rules of nomenclature, the earliest such name is called the senior synonym, while the later name is the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest correctly published name, synonyms are important because if the earliest name cannot be used, then the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon. Objective synonyms refer to taxa with the type and same rank. For example, John Edward Gray published the name Antilocapra anteflexa in 1855 for a species of pronghorn, however, it is now commonly accepted that his specimen was an unusual individual of the species Antilocapra americana published by George Ord in 1815. Ords name thus takes precedence, with Antilocapra anteflexa being a subjective synonym. Objective synonyms are common at the level of genera, because for various reasons two genera may contain the type species, these are objective synonyms
13.
Eisenia fetida
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These worms thrive in rotting vegetation, compost, and manure. They are epigean, rarely found in soil, in this trait they resemble Lumbricus rubellus. They have groups of bristles on each segment that move in and out to nearby surfaces as the worms stretch. Eisenia fetida worms are used for vermicomposting and they are native to Europe, but have been introduced to every other continent except Antarctica. When roughly handled, an Eisenia fetida exudes a pungent liquid and this is presumably an antipredator adaptation. Eisenia fetida is closely related to Eisenia andrei, also referred to as E. foetida andrei, the only simple way of distinguishing the two species is that E. foetida is sometimes lighter in colour. Molecular analyses have confirmed their identity as separate species and breeding experiments have shown that they do not produce hybrids, as with other earthworm species, Eisenia fetida is hermaphroditic. However, two worms are required for reproduction. The two worms join clitella, the large lighter-colored bands which contain the reproductive organs. Both worms then secrete cocoons which contain several eggs each and these cocoons are lemon-shaped and are pale yellow at first, becoming more brownish as the worms inside become mature. These cocoons are clearly visible to the naked eye
14.
Aquaculture
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Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, algae, and other aquatic organisms. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, mariculture refers to aquaculture practiced in marine environments and in underwater habitats. According to the FAO, aquaculture Farming implies some form of intervention in the process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators. Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated, further, in current aquaculture practice, products from several pounds of wild fish are used to produce one pound of a piscivorous fish like salmon. Particular kinds of aquaculture include fish farming, shrimp farming, oyster farming, mariculture, algaculture, particular methods include aquaponics and integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, both of which integrate fish farming and plant farming. The indigenous Gunditjmara people in Victoria, Australia, may have raised eels as early as 6000 BC, Aquaculture was operating in China circa 2500 BC. When the waters subsided after river floods, some fish, mainly carp, were trapped in lakes, early aquaculturists fed their brood using nymphs and silkworm feces, and ate them. A fortunate genetic mutation of carp led to the emergence of goldfish during the Tang dynasty, japanese cultivated seaweed by providing bamboo poles and, later, nets and oyster shells to serve as anchoring surfaces for spores. Romans bred fish in ponds and farmed oysters in coastal lagoons before 100 CE, in central Europe, early Christian monasteries adopted Roman aquacultural practices. Aquaculture spread in Europe during the Middle Ages since away from the seacoasts, improvements in transportation during the 19th century made fresh fish easily available and inexpensive, even in inland areas, making aquaculture less popular. The 15th-century fishponds of the Trebon Basin in the Czech Republic are maintained as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a remarkable example is a fish pond dating from at least 1,000 years ago, at Alekoko. Legend says that it was constructed by the mythical Menehune dwarf people, in first half of 18th century, German Stephan Ludwig Jacobi experimented with external fertilization of brown trouts and salmon. He wrote an article Von der künstlichen Erzeugung der Forellen und Lachse, by the latter decades of the 18th century, oyster farming had begun in estuaries along the Atlantic Coast of North America. The word aquaculture appeared in an 1855 newspaper article in reference to the harvesting of ice, in 1859, Stephen Ainsworth of West Bloomfield, New York, began experiments with brook trout. By 1864, Seth Green had established a commercial fish-hatching operation at Caledonia Springs, near Rochester, by 1866, with the involvement of Dr. W. W. Fletcher of Concord, Massachusetts, artificial fish hatcheries were under way in both Canada and the United States. When the Dildo Island fish hatchery opened in Newfoundland in 1889, the word aquaculture was used in descriptions of the hatcheries experiments with cod and lobster in 1890. By the 1920s, the American Fish Culture Company of Carolina, Rhode Island, during the 1940s, they had perfected the method of manipulating the day and night cycle of fish so that they could be artificially spawned year around. Californians harvested wild kelp and attempted to supply around 1900
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Animal feed
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Animal feed is food given to domestic animals in the course of animal husbandry. There are two types, fodder and forage. Used alone, the word feed more often refers to fodder, fodder refers particularly to foods or forages given to the animals, rather than that which they forage for themselves. It includes hay, straw, silage, compressed and pelleted feeds, oils and mixed rations, Feed grains are the most important source of animal feed globally. The amount of used to produce the same unit of meat varies substantially. According to an estimate reported by the BBC in 2008, Cows and sheep need 8kg of grain for every 1kg of meat they produce, the most efficient poultry units need a mere 1. 6kg of feed to produce 1kg of chicken. Farmed fish can also be fed on grain, and use less than poultry. Other feed grains include wheat, oats, barley, and rice, traditional sources of animal feed include household food scraps and the byproducts of food processing industries such as milling and brewing. Material remaining from milling oil crops like peanuts, soy, scraps fed to pigs are called slop, and those fed to chicken are called chicken scratch. Brewers spent grain is a byproduct of beer making that is used as animal feed. Compound feed is fodder that is blended from various raw materials and these blends are formulated according to the specific requirements of the target animal. They are manufactured by feed compounders as meal type, pellets or crumbles, the main ingredients used in commercially prepared feed are the feed grains, which include corn, soybeans, sorghum, oats, and barley. Compound feed may also include premixes, which may also be sold separately, because of the availability of these products, a farmer who uses his own grain can formulate his own rations and be assured his animals are getting the recommended levels of minerals and vitamins. According to the American Feed Industry Association, as much as $20 billion worth of feed ingredients are purchased each year and these products range from grain mixes to orange rinds to beet pulps. The feed industry is one of the most competitive businesses in the sector, and is by far the largest purchaser of U. S. corn, feed grains. Tens of thousands of farmers with feed mills on their own farms are able to compete with huge conglomerates with national distribution, Feed crops generated $23.2 billion in cash receipts on U. S. farms in 2001. At the same time, farmers spent a total of $24.5 billion on feed that year, in 2011, around 734.5 million tons of feed were produced annually around the world. Corn gluten feed was first manufactured in 1882, while leading world feed producer Purina Feeds was established in 1894 by William Hollington Danforth, Cargill, which was mainly dealing in grains from its beginnings in 1865, started to deal in feed at about 1884
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Entomophagy
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Entomophagy is the human use of insects as food. The eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults of insects have been eaten by humans from prehistoric times to the present day. Human insect-eating is common to cultures in most parts of the world, including North, Central, and South America, and Africa, Asia, Australia, over 1,000 species of insects are known to be eaten in 80% of the worlds nations. The total number of ethnic groups recorded to practice entomophagy is around 3,000, however, in some societies insect-eating is uncommon or even taboo. Today insect eating is rare in the world, but insects remain a popular food in many regions of Latin America, Africa, Asia. Some companies are trying to introduce insects into Western diets, FAO has registered some 1900 edible insect species and estimates there were in 2005 some 2 billion insect consumers worldwide. They also suggest entomophagy should be considered as a solution to environmental pollution, entomophagy is sometimes defined broadly to cover the eating of arthropods other than insects, including arachnids and myriapods. There are over 1,900 known species of arthropods that are edible to humans, Insects, nematodes and fungi that obtain their nutrition from insects are sometimes termed entomophagous, especially in the context of biological control applications. These may also be more specifically classified into predators, parasites or parasitoids, while viruses, bacteria, before humans had tools to hunt or farm, insects may have represented an important part of their diet. Evidence has been found analyzing coprolites from caves in the US, coprolites in caves in the Ozark Mountains were found to contain ants, beetle larvae, lice, ticks, and mites. Evidence suggests that evolutionary precursors of Homo sapiens were also entomophagous, insectivory also features to various degrees amongst extant primates, such as marmosets and tamarins, and some researchers suggest that the earliest primates were nocturnal, arboreal insectivores. Similarly, most extant apes are insectivorous to some degree, cave paintings in Altamira, north Spain, dated from about 30,000 to 9,000 BC, depict the collection of edible insects and wild bee nests, suggesting a possibly entomophagous society. Cocoons of wild silkworm were found in ruins in the Shanxi province of China, the cocoons were discovered with large holes, suggesting the pupae were eaten. Many ancient entomophagy practices have changed little over time compared with other agricultural practices, entomophagy can be divided into two categories, insects used as a source of nutrients and insects as condiments. Some insects are eaten as larvae or pupae, others as adults, There are a large number of cultures that embrace the eating of insects. The species include 235 butterflies and moths,344 beetles,313 ants, bees and wasps,239 grasshoppers, crickets and cockroaches,39 termites, other commonly eaten insects are termites, cicadas and dragonflies. Insects are known to be eaten in 80% of the worlds nations, the leafcutter ant Atta laevigata is traditionally eaten in some regions of Colombia and northeast Brazil. In southern Africa, the widespread moth Gonimbrasia belinas large caterpillar, in Australia, the witchetty grub is eaten by the indigenous population
17.
Composting
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Compost is organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Compost is a key ingredient in organic farming, modern, methodical composting is a multi-step, closely monitored process with measured inputs of water, air, and carbon- and nitrogen-rich materials. The decomposition process is aided by shredding the plant matter, adding water, worms and fungi further break up the material. Bacteria requiring oxygen to function and fungi manage the process by converting the inputs into heat, carbon dioxide. The ammonium is the form of nitrogen used by plants, when available ammonium is not used by plants it is further converted by bacteria into nitrates through the process of nitrification. It is used in gardens, landscaping, horticulture, and agriculture, the compost itself is beneficial for the land in many ways, including as a soil conditioner, a fertilizer, addition of vital humus or humic acids, and as a natural pesticide for soil. In ecosystems, compost is useful for control, land and stream reclamation, wetland construction. Organic ingredients intended for composting can alternatively be used to generate biogas through anaerobic digestion, Composting of waste is an aerobic method of decomposing solid wastes. The process involves decomposition of waste into humus known as compost which is a good fertilizer for plants. However, the term composting is used worldwide with differing meanings, some composting textbooks narrowly define composting as being an aerobic form of decomposition, primarily by aerobic or facultative microbes. An alternative form of decomposition to composting is anaerobic digestion. For many people, composting is used to refer to different types of biological processes. In North America, anaerobic composting is still a term for what much of the rest of the world. The microbes used and the involved are quite different between composting and anaerobic digestion. Nitrogen — to grow and reproduce more organisms to oxidize the carbon, high nitrogen materials tend to be green and wet. Oxygen — for oxidizing the carbon, the decomposition process, water — in the right amounts to maintain activity without causing anaerobic conditions. Certain ratios of these materials will provide beneficial bacteria with the nutrients to work at a rate that heat up the pile. In that process much water will be released as vapor, the hotter the pile gets, the more often added air and water is necessary, the air/water balance is critical to maintaining high temperatures until the materials are broken down
18.
Food waste
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Food waste or food loss is food that is discarded or lost uneaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous, and occur at the stages of production, processing, retailing, current estimates put global food loss and waste between one-third and one-half of all food produced. Loss and wastage occurs at all stages of the supply chain or value chain. In low-income countries, most loss occurs during production, while in developed countries much food – about 100 kilograms per person per year – is wasted at the consumption stage, generally, food loss or food waste is food that is discarded or lost uneaten. However, precise definitions are contentious, often defined on a situational basis, professional bodies, including international organizations, state governments and secretariats may use their own definitions. Definitions of food waste vary, among other things, in food waste consists of, how it is produced. Definitions also vary because certain groups do not consider food waste to be a waste material, some definitions of what food waste consists of are based on other waste definitions and which materials do not meet their definitions. Under the UNs Save Food initiative, the FAO, UNEP and stakeholders have agreed the following definition of loss and waste. Food loss in the production and distribution segments of the supply chain is mainly a function of the food production. The directive, 75/442/EEC, containing this definition was amended in 1991 with the addition of categories of waste, concurrently, all Member States of the European Union shall establish frameworks to collect and report levels of food waste across all sectors in a comparable way. The latest data are requested to develop national food waste prevention plans, the states remain free to define food waste differently for their purposes, though many choose not to. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Americans throw away up to 40% of food that is safe to eat, in developing and developed countries which operate either commercial or industrial agriculture, food waste can occur at most stages of the food industry and in significant amounts. Nevertheless, on-farm losses in storage in developing countries, particularly in African countries, research into the food industry of the United States, whose food supply is the most diverse and abundant of any country in the world, found food waste occurring at the beginning of food production. From planting, crops can be subjected to pest infestations and severe weather, since natural forces remain the primary drivers of crop growth, losses from these can be experienced by all forms of outdoor agriculture. The use of machinery in harvesting can cause waste, as harvesters may be unable to discern between ripe and immature crops, or collect only part of a crop. Food waste continues in the post-harvest stage, but the amounts of post-harvest loss involved are relatively unknown, regardless, the variety of factors that contribute to food waste, both biological/environmental and socio-economical, would limit the usefulness and reliability of general figures. In storage, considerable losses can be attributed to pests. This is a problem for countries that experience a combination of heat and ambient humidity, as such conditions encourage the reproduction of insect pests
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Green waste
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Green waste is biodegradable waste that can be composed of garden or park waste, such as grass or flower cuttings and hedge trimmings, as well as domestic and commercial food waste. The differentiation green identifies it as high in nitrogen, as opposed to brown waste, green waste is often collected in municipal curbside collection schemes or through private waste management contractor businesses and subject to independent audit. Biogas captured from biodegradable green waste can be used as biofuel, green waste can be used as non-food crop to produce cellulosic ethanol. It can also help us reduce the usage of petroleum gases which produce harmful gases on burning Garden waste dumping
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Neotropical realm
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The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earths land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas, in biogeography, the Neotropic or Neotropical realm is one of the eight terrestrial realms. The realm also includes temperate southern South America, in contrast, the Neotropical Floristic Kingdom excludes southernmost South America, which instead is placed in the Antarctic kingdom. The Neotropic is delimited by similarities in fauna or flora and its fauna and flora are distinct from the Nearctic because of the long separation of the two continents. The formation of the Isthmus of Panama joined the two continents two to three years ago, precipitating the Great American Interchange, an important biogeographical event. These rainforest ecoregions are one of the most important reserves of biodiversity on Earth and these rainforests are also home to a diverse array of indigenous peoples, who to varying degrees persist in their autonomous and traditional cultures and subsistence within this environment. Nevertheless, amidst these declining circumstances this vast reservoir of human diversity continues to survive, in South America alone, some 350–400 indigenous languages and dialects are still living, in about 37 distinct language families and a further number of unclassified and isolate languages. Many of these languages and their cultures are also endangered, laurel forest and other cloud forest are subtropical and mild temperate forest, found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable and mild temperatures. Tropical rainforest, tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests are highlight in Southern North America, Amazonia, Caribbean, Central America, Northern Andes, the bioregion also includes tropical savanna and tropical dry forest ecoregions. Eastern South America includes the Caatinga xeric shrublands of northeastern Brazil, the broad Cerrado grasslands and savannas of the Brazilian Plateau, and the Pantanal and Chaco grasslands. The diverse Atlantic forests of eastern Brazil are separated from the forests of Amazonia by the Caatinga and Cerrado, the Orinoco is a region of humid forested broadleaf forest and wetland primarily comprising the drainage basin for the Orinoco River and other adjacent lowland forested areas. This region includes most of Venezuela and parts of Colombia and these magnificent rainforests are endangered by extensive logging and their replacement by fast-growing non-native pines and eucalyptus. After the final breakup of the Gondwana about 110 million years ago, South America was separated from Africa and drifted north, the long-term effect of the exchange was the extinction of many South American species, mostly by outcompetition by northern species. 31 bird families are endemic to the Neotropical realm, over twice the number of any other realm and they include tanagers, rheas, tinamous, curassows, antbirds, ovenbirds, and toucans. Bird families originally unique to the Neotropics include hummingbirds and wrens, Neotropical fishes include more than 5,700 species, and represent at least 66 distinct lineages in continental freshwaters. The well-known red-bellied piranha is endemic to the Neotropic realm, occupying a larger area than any other piranha species. Plant families that originated in the Neotropic include Bromeliaceae, Cannaceae and Heliconiaceae, historical Biogeography of Neotropical Freshwater Fishes. 424 pp. ISBN 978-0-520-26868-5 Bequaert, Joseph C, an Introductory Study of Polistes in the United States and Canada with Descriptions of Some New North and South American Forms
21.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
22.
Iberian Peninsula
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The Iberian Peninsula /aɪˈbɪəriən pəˈnɪnsjᵿlə/, also known as Iberia /aɪˈbɪəriə/, is located in the southwest corner of Europe. The peninsula is divided between Portugal and Spain, comprising most of their territory. With an area of approximately 582,000 km2, it is the second largest European peninsula, at that time, the name did not describe a single political entity or a distinct population of people. Strabos Iberia was delineated from Keltikē by the Pyrenees and included the land mass southwest of there. The ancient Greeks reached the Iberian Peninsula, of which they had heard from the Phoenicians, hecataeus of Miletus was the first known to use the term Iberia, which he wrote about circa 500 BC. Herodotus of Halicarnassus says of the Phocaeans that it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with. According to Strabo, prior historians used Iberia to mean the country side of the Ἶβηρος as far north as the river Rhône in France. Polybius respects that limit, but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar, elsewhere he says that Saguntum is on the seaward foot of the range of hills connecting Iberia and Celtiberia. Strabo refers to the Carretanians as people of the Iberian stock living in the Pyrenees, according to Charles Ebel, the ancient sources in both Latin and Greek use Hispania and Hiberia as synonyms. The confusion of the words was because of an overlapping in political, the Latin word Hiberia, similar to the Greek Iberia, literally translates to land of the Hiberians. This word was derived from the river Ebro, which the Romans called Hiberus, hiber was thus used as a term for peoples living near the river Ebro. The first mention in Roman literature was by the annalist poet Ennius in 200 BC. Virgil refers to the Ipacatos Hiberos in his Georgics, the Roman geographers and other prose writers from the time of the late Roman Republic called the entire peninsula Hispania. As they became interested in the former Carthaginian territories, the Romans began to use the names Hispania Citerior. At the time Hispania was made up of three Roman provinces, Hispania Baetica, Hispania Tarraconensis, and Lusitania, Strabo says that the Romans use Hispania and Iberia synonymously, distinguishing between the near northern and the far southern provinces. Whatever language may generally have been spoken on the peninsula soon gave way to Latin, except for that of the Vascones, the Iberian Peninsula has always been associated with the Ebro, Ibēros in ancient Greek and Ibērus or Hibērus in Latin. The association was so known it was hardly necessary to state, for example. Pliny goes so far as to assert that the Greeks had called the whole of Spain Hiberia because of the Hiberus River, the river appears in the Ebro Treaty of 226 BC between Rome and Carthage, setting the limit of Carthaginian interest at the Ebro. The fullest description of the treaty, stated in Appian, uses Ibērus, with reference to this border, Polybius states that the native name is Ibēr, apparently the original word, stripped of its Greek or Latin -os or -us termination
23.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
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Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
25.
Croatia
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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period
26.
Malta
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Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy,284 km east of Tunisia, the country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000, making it one of the worlds smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km2, is the smallest national capital in the European Union, Malta has one national language, which is Maltese, and English as an official language. John, French and British, have ruled the islands, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to Malta in 1942 for the countrys bravery in the Second World War. The George Cross continues to appear on Maltas national flag, the country became a republic in 1974, and although no longer a Commonwealth realm, remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004, in 2008, Catholicism is the official religion in Malta. The origin of the term Malta is uncertain, and the modern-day variation derives from the Maltese language, the most common etymology is that the word Malta derives from the Greek word μέλι, meli, honey. The ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning honey-sweet, possibly due to Maltas unique production of honey, an endemic species of bee lives on the island. The Romans went on to call the island Melita, which can be considered either as a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth a haven or port in reference to Maltas many bays, few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. The extinction of the hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in areas and also in caves. The Sicani were the tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to found in Agrigento. A culture of megalithis temple builders then either supplanted or arose from this early period, the temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Animal bones and a knife found behind an altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, the culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the builders fell victim to famine or disease
27.
Canary Islands
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The Canary Islands, also known as the Canaries, are an archipelago and autonomous community of Spain located on the Atlantic Ocean,100 kilometres west of Morocco. The Canaries are among the outermost regions of the European Union proper and it is also one of the eight regions with special consideration of historical nationality recognized as such by the Spanish Government. The main islands are Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, the archipelago also includes a number of islands and islets, La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara, Roque del Oeste and Roque del Este. In ancient times, the chain was often referred to as the Fortunate Isles. The Canary Islands is the most southerly region of Spain and the largest and most populated archipelago of the Macaronesia region, the islands have a subtropical climate, with long hot summers and moderately warm winters. The precipitation levels and the level of maritime moderation varies depending on location and elevation, green areas as well as desert exist on the archipelago. Due to their location above the inversion layer, the high mountains of these islands are ideal for astronomical observation. For this reason, two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have built on the islands. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been the largest city in the Canaries since 1768, between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927 Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 a decree ordered that the capital of the Canary Islands be shared, the third largest city of the Canary Islands is San Cristóbal de La Laguna on Tenerife. This city is home to the Consejo Consultivo de Canarias. During the time of the Spanish Empire, the Canaries were the main stopover for Spanish galleons on their way to the Americas, who came south to catch the prevailing northeasterly trade winds. The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning Islands of the Dogs, according to the historian Pliny the Elder, the Mauretanian king Juba II named the island Canaria because it contained vast multitudes of dogs of very large size. Another speculation is that the dogs were actually a species of monk seal, critically endangered. The dense population of seals may have been the characteristic that most struck the few ancient Romans who established contact with these islands by sea. Alternatively, it is said that the inhabitants of the island, Guanches, used to worship dogs, mummified them. The ancient Greeks also knew about a people, living far to the west, who are the dog-headed ones, who worshipped dogs on an island. Some hypothesize that the Canary Islands dog-worship and the ancient Egyptian cult of the god, Anubis are closely connected
28.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
29.
Afrotropical realm
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See Tropical Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa for other aspects. The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earths eight biogeographic realms and it was formerly known as the Ethiopian Zone or Ethiopian Region. Most of the Afrotropic, with the exception of Africas southern tip, has a tropical climate, South of the Sahara, two belts of tropical grassland and savanna run east and west across the continent, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ethiopian Highlands. Immediately south of the Sahara lies the Sahel belt, a zone of semi-arid short grassland. Rainfall increases further south in the Sudanian Savanna, also simply as the Sudan. The Sudanian Savanna is home to two great flooded grasslands, the Sudd wetland in South Sudan, and the Niger Inland Delta in Mali, the forest-savanna mosaic is a transitional zone between the grasslands and the belt of tropical moist broadleaf forests near the equator. South Arabia, expressed as being mostly Yemen and parts of western Oman, some of the notable are Jabal Bura, Jabal Raymah, and Jabal Badaj in the Yemeni highland escarpment, and the seasonal forests in eastern Yemen and the Dhofar region of Oman. Other woodlands scatter the land and are small and are predominantly juniper or acacia forests. The forest zone, a belt of tropical moist broadleaf forests. The Upper Guinean forests of West Africa extend along the coast from Guinea to Togo, the largest tropical forest zone in Africa is the Congolian forests of the Congo Basin in Central Africa. A belt of tropical moist broadleaf forest also runs along the Indian Ocean coast, acacia-Commiphora grasslands Serengeti Afromontane region, from the Ethiopian Highlands to the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, including the East African Rift. Distinctive flora, including Podocarpus and Afrocarpus, as well as giant Lobelias, Madagascar and neighboring islands form a distinctive sub-region of the realm, with numerous endemic taxa like the lemurs. Madagascar and the Seychelles are old pieces of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, other Indian Ocean islands, like the Comoros and Mascarene Islands, are volcanic islands that formed more recently. Madagascar contains several important biospheres, as its biodiversity and ratio of endemicism is extremely high, the Afrotropical realm is home to a number of endemic plant families. Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands are home to ten families of flowering plants, eight are endemic to Madagascar, one to Seychelles. Twelve plant families are endemic or nearly endemic to South Africa of which five are endemic to the Cape floristic province, other endemic Afrotropic families include Barbeyaceae, Montiniaceae, Myrothamnaceae and Oliniaceae. The East African Great Lakes are the center of biodiversity of many freshwater fishes, the central rivers fauna comprises 194 fish species, with 119 endemics and only 33 restricted to small areas. The Afrotropic has various endemic bird families, including ostriches, sunbirds, the bird, guineafowl
30.
Australasian realm
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The Australasian realm is an biogeographic realm that is coincident, but not synonymous, with the geographical region of Australasia. The Australasian realm also includes several Pacific island groups, including the Bismarck Archipelago, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, New Zealand and its surrounding islands are a distinctive sub-region of the Australasian realm. The rest of Indonesia is part of the Indomalayan realm, from an ecological perspective the Australasian realm is a distinct region with a common geologic and evolutionary history and a great many unique plants and animals. In this context, Australasia is limited to Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the biological dividing line from the Indomalayan realm of tropical Asia is the Wallace Line, Borneo and Bali lie on the western, Asian side. These three land masses have been separated from other continents, and from one another, for millions of years. All of Australasia shares the Antarctic flora, although the northern, Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania are separated from one another by shallow continental shelves, and were linked together when the sea level was lower during ice ages. They share a similar fauna which includes marsupial and monotreme mammals, eucalypts are the predominant trees in much of Australia and New Guinea. New Zealand has no land mammals, but also had ratite birds, including the kiwi. Note that this zonation is based on flora, animals do not necessarily follow the same biogeographic boundaries, in the present case, many birds occur in both Indomalayan and Australasian regions, but not across the whole of either. On the other hand, there are few faunistic commonalities shared only by Australia and New Zealand, meanwhile, Australia, Melanesia and the Wallacea are united by a large share of similar animals, but few of these occur farther into the Pacific. On the other hand, much of the Polynesian fauna is related to that of Melanesia, Australasia Oceania Panda. org, Map of the Ecozones
31.
Palearctic realm
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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
32.
Nearctic realm
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The Nearctic is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earths land surface. The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, the Canadian Shield bioregion extends across the northern portion of the continent, from the Aleutian Islands to Newfoundland. It includes the Nearctics Arctic Tundra and Boreal forest ecoregions, in terms of floristic provinces, it is represented by part of the Canadian Province of the Circumboreal Region. In terms of provinces, it is represented by the North American Atlantic Region. In terms of provinces, it is represented by the Rocky Mountain region. In terms of provinces, it is represented by the Madrean Region. North America later split from Eurasia, North America has been joined by land bridges to both Asia and South America since then, which allowed an exchange of plant and animal species between the continents, the Great American Interchange. The two realms are included in a single Holarctic realm. Now extinct in the Nearctic The American cheetah now extinct worldwide One bird family, the Holarctic has four endemic families, divers, grouse, auks, and the waxwings. The scarab beetle families Pleocomidae and Diphyllostomatidae are also endemic to the Nearctic, the fly species Cynomya cadaverina is also found in high numbers in this area. Plants families endemic or nearly endemic to the Nearctic include the Crossosomataceae, Simmondsiaceae, freshwater Ecoregions of North America, A Conservation Assessment Washington, DC, Island Press. The Eternal Frontier, an Ecological History of North America and its Peoples, ricketts, Taylor H. Eric Dinerstein, David M. Olson, Colby J. Loucks, et al. Terrestrial Ecoregions of North America, a Conservation Assessment, map of the ecozones Nearctica, The Natural World of North America Nearctic Region
33.
North Africa
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North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of Africa. The United Nationss definition of Northern Africa is, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, the countries of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya are often collectively referred to as the Maghreb, which is the Arabic word for sunset. Egypt lies to the northeast and encompasses part of West Asia, while Sudan is situated on the edge of the Sahel, Egypt is a transcontinental country because of the Sinai Peninsula, which geographically lies in Western Asia. North Africa also includes a number of Spanish possessions, the Canary Islands and Madeira in the North Atlantic Ocean northwest of the African mainland are included in considerations of the region. From 3500 BC, following the abrupt desertification of the Sahara due to changes in the Earths orbit. The Islamic influence in the area is significant, and North Africa is a major part of the Muslim world. Some researchers have postulated that North Africa rather than East Africa served as the point for the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent in the Out of Africa migration. The Atlas Mountains extend across much of Morocco, northern Algeria and Tunisia, are part of the mountain system that also runs through much of Southern Europe. They recede to the south and east, becoming a steppe landscape before meeting the Sahara desert, the sediments of the Sahara overlie an ancient plateau of crystalline rock, some of which is more than four billion years old. Sheltered valleys in the Atlas Mountains, the Nile Valley and Delta, a wide variety of valuable crops including cereals, rice and cotton, and woods such as cedar and cork, are grown. Typical Mediterranean crops, such as olives, figs, dates and citrus fruits, the Nile Valley is particularly fertile, and most of the population in Egypt and Sudan live close to the river. Elsewhere, irrigation is essential to improve yields on the desert margins. The inhabitants of Saharan Africa are generally divided in a manner corresponding to the principal geographic regions of North Africa, the Maghreb, the Nile valley. The edge of the Sahel, to the south of Egypt has mainly been inhabited by Nubians, Ancient Egyptians record extensive contact in their Western desert with people that appear to have been Berber or proto-Berber, as well as Nubians from the south. They have contributed to the Arabized Berber populations, the official language or one of the official languages in all of the countries in North Africa is Arabic. The people of the Maghreb and the Sahara regions speak Berber languages and several varieties of Arabic, the Arabic and Berber languages are distantly related, both being members of the Afroasiatic language family. The Tuareg Berber languages are more conservative than those of the coastal cities. Over the years, Berbers have been influenced by contact with cultures, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Europeans
34.
Indomalayan realm
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The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the parts of East Asia. Indomalaya also includes the Philippines, lowland Taiwan, and Japans Ryukyu Islands, the tropical moist forests of Indomalaya are mostly dominated by trees of the dipterocarp family. The Indian Subcontinent bioregion covers most of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, the Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and Himalaya are a major biogeographic boundary between the subtropical and tropical flora and fauna of the Indian subcontinent and the temperate-climate Palearctic realm. The Indochina bioregion includes most of mainland Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, malesia is a botanical province which straddles the boundary between Indomalaya and Australasia. It includes the Malay Peninsula and the western Indonesian islands, the Philippines, the eastern Indonesian islands, the flora of Indomalaya blends elements from the ancient supercontinents of Laurasia and Gondwana. India collided with Asia 30-45 MYA, and exchanged species, two orders of mammals, the colugos and treeshrews, are endemic to the realm, as are families Craseonycteridae, Diatomyidae, Platacanthomyidae, Tarsiidae and Hylobatidae. Large mammals characteristic of Indomalaya include the leopard, tigers, water buffalos, Asian Elephant, Indian Rhinoceros, Javan Rhinoceros, Malayan Tapir, orangutans, Indomalaya has three endemic bird families, the Irenidae, Megalaimidae and Rhabdornithidae. Also characteristic are pheasants, pittas, Old World babblers, more information is available under Indomalayan realm fauna. Malesia Sundaland Ecoregions of India Ecoregions of the Philippines Map of the Indomalaya ecozone. Wikramanayake, E. E. Dinerstein, C. J. Loucks, D. M. Olson, J. Morrison, J. L. Lamoreux, M. McKnight, terrestrial ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific, a conservation assessment
35.
Mimicry
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Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry evolves to protect a species from predators, making it an antipredator adaptation, the resemblances that evolve in mimicry can be in appearance, behaviour, sound or scent. Mimicry may be to the advantage of organisms that share a resemblance, in which case it is a mutualism, or mimicry can be to the detriment of one. Mimicry occurs when a group of organisms, the mimics, evolve to share perceived characteristics with another group, the evolutionary convergence between groups is driven by the selective action of a signal-receiver or dupe. Birds, for example, use sight to identify palatable insects, over time, palatable insects may evolve to resemble noxious ones, making them mimics and the noxious ones models. In the case of mutualism, sometimes both groups are referred to as co-mimics, in its broadest definition, mimicry can include non-living models. The specific terms masquerade and mimesis are sometimes used when the models are inanimate, for example, animals such as flower mantises, planthoppers and geometer moth caterpillars that resemble twigs, bark, leaves or flowers practice masquerade. Some authors would consider this mimicry, others would not, many animals bear eyespots, which are hypothesized to resemble the eyes of larger animals. They may not resemble any specific organisms eyes, and whether or not animals respond to them as eyes is also unclear, nonetheless, eyespots are the subject of a rich contemporary literature. It is often thought that models must be more abundant than mimics, though visual mimicry through animal coloration is most obvious to humans, other senses such as olfaction or hearing may be involved, and more than one type of signal may be employed. Mimicry may involve morphology, behaviour, and other properties, in any case, the mimetic signal always functions because it resembles that of another organism. In evolutionary terms, this phenomenon is a form of co-evolution and it can involve an evolutionary arms race if mimicry negatively affects the model, and the model can evolve a different appearance from the mimic. Mimics may have different models for different life stages, or they may be polymorphic. Models themselves may have more than one mimic, though frequency dependent selection favours mimicry where models outnumber mimics, models tend to be relatively closely related organisms, but mimicry of vastly different species is also known. Most known mimics are insects, though many other animal mimics are known, Plants and fungi may also be mimics, though less research has been carried out in this area. Use of the word dates to 1637. It derives from the Greek term mimetikos, imitative, in turn from mimetos, originally used to describe people, mimetic was used in zoology from 1851, mimicry from 1861. Many types of mimicry have been described, an overview of each follows, highlighting the similarities and differences between the various forms
36.
Organ pipe mud dauber
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The organ pipe mud dauber is a type of wasp in the family Crabronidae. They are fairly large wasps, shiny black with pale hind tarsi, male organ pipe mud daubers are among the few male wasps of any species to stay at the nest. A male stands guard while a female is away collecting spiders, mating typically occurs on her visits to the nest. They typically build their nests in sheltered locations, and large aggregations may form with dozens to hundreds of nests in a small area. Organ pipe mud daubers are also an exceedingly docile species of wasp and they sting the spiders, commonly orb weavers, to paralyze them then deposit them into nests as food for the growing larva. Stings to humans are rare, bordering on non-existent. However, if squeezed, organ pipe mud daubers will sting in self-defense, there are a great many other species in the genus Trypoxylon, mostly smaller in size and less abundant
37.
Antenna (biology)
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Antennae, sometimes referred to as feelers, are paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. Antennae are connected to the first one or two segments of the arthropod head and they vary widely in form, but are always made of one or more jointed segments. While they are sensory organs, the exact nature of what they sense. Functions may variously include sensing touch, air motion, heat, vibration, antennae are sometimes modified for other purposes, such as mating, brooding, swimming, and even anchoring the arthropod to a substrate. Larval arthropods have antennae that differ from those of the adult, many crustaceans, for example, have free-swimming larval forms that use their antennae for swimming. Except the chelicerates and proturans, which have none, all non-crustacean arthropods have a pair of antennae. Crustaceans bear two pairs of antennae, the pair attached to the first segment of the head are called primary antennae or antennules. This pair is generally uniramous, but is biramous in crabs and lobsters, the pair attached to the second segment are called secondary antennae or simply antennae. The second antennae are biramous, but many species later evolved uniramous pairs. The second antennae may be reduced, apparently absent, or modified to such an extent that they no longer resemble antennae. The subdivisions of crustacean antennae have many names, including flagellomeres, annuli, articles, the terminal ends of crustacean antennae have two major categorizations, segmented and flagellate. An antenna is considered segmented if each of the annuli is separate from those around it and has individual muscle attachments. Flagellate antennae, on the hand, have muscle attachments only around the base. There are several notable uses of antennae in crustaceans. Many crustaceans have a larval stage called a nauplius, which is characterized by its use of antennae for swimming. Barnacles, a highly modified crustacean, use their antennae to attach to rocks, insects evolved from prehistoric crustaceans, and they have secondary antennae like crustaceans, but not primary antennae. Antennae are the primary olfactory sensors of insects and are accordingly well-equipped with a variety of sensilla. Paired, mobile, and segmented, they are located between the eyes on the forehead, embryologically, they represent the appendages of the second head segment
38.
Arthropod leg
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The arthropod leg is a form of jointed appendage of arthropods, usually used for walking. Homologies of leg segments between groups are difficult to prove and are the source of much argument, some authors posit up to eleven segments per leg for the most recent common ancestor of extant arthropods but modern arthropods have eight or fewer. It has been argued that the ancestral leg need not have been so complex, the appendages of arthropods may be either biramous or uniramous. A uniramous limb comprises a series of segments attached end-to-end. A biramous limb, however, branches into two, and each consists of a series of segments attached end-to-end. The external branch of the appendages of crustaceans is known as the exopod or exopodite, other structures aside from the latter two are termed exites and endites. Exopodites can be distinguished from exites by the possession of internal musculature. The exopodites can sometimes be missing in some groups. The legs of insects and myriapods are uniramous, in crustaceans, the first antennae are uniramous, but the second antennae are biramous, as are the legs in most species. For a time, possession of uniramous limbs was believed to be a shared, derived character and it is now believed that several groups of arthropods evolved uniramous limbs independently from ancestors with biramous limbs, so this taxon is no longer used. The situation is identical in scorpions, but with the addition of a pre-tarsus beyond the tarsus, the claws of the scorpion are not truly legs, but are pedipalps, a different kind of appendage that is also found in spiders and is specialised for predation and mating. In Limulus, there are no metatarsi or pretarsi, leaving six segments per leg, the legs of crustaceans are divided primitively into seven segments, which do not follow the naming system used in the other groups. They are, coxa, basis, ischium, merus, carpus, propodus, in some groups, some of the limb segments may be fused together. The claw of a lobster or crab is formed by the articulation of the dactylus against an outgrowth of the propodus, crustacean limbs also differ in being biramous, whereas all other extant arthropods have uniramous limbs. Myriapods have seven-segmented walking legs, comprising coxa, trochanter, prefemur, femur, tibia, tarsus, myriapod legs show a variety of modifications in different groups. In all centipedes, the first pair of legs is modified into a pair of venomous fangs called forcipules, in most millipedes, one or two pairs of walking legs in adult males are modified into sperm-transferring structures called gonopods. In some millipedes, the first leg pair in males may be reduced to tiny hooks or stubs, insects and their relatives are hexapods, having six legs, connected to the thorax, each with five components. In order from the body they are the coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, each is a single segment, except the tarsus which can be from three to seven segments, each referred to as a tarsomere
39.
Abdomen
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The abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The region occupied by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity, in arthropods it is the posterior tagma of the body, it follows the thorax or cephalothorax. The abdomen stretches from the thorax at the diaphragm to the pelvis at the pelvic brim. The pelvic brim stretches from the joint to the pubic symphysis and is the edge of the pelvic inlet. The space above this inlet and under the thoracic diaphragm is termed the abdominal cavity, the boundary of the abdominal cavity is the abdominal wall in the front and the peritoneal surface at the rear. The abdomen contains most of the organs of the digestive tract. Hollow abdominal organs include the stomach, the intestine. Organs such as the liver, its attached gallbladder, and the function in close association with the digestive tract. The spleen, kidneys, and adrenal glands also lie within the abdomen, along with blood vessels including the aorta. Anatomists may consider the urinary bladder, uterus, fallopian tubes, finally, the abdomen contains an extensive membrane called the peritoneum. A fold of peritoneum may completely cover certain organs, whereas it may only one side of organs that usually lie closer to the abdominal wall. Anatomists call the type of organs retroperitoneal. For example, the stomach of ruminants is divided into four chambers – rumen, in vertebrates, the abdomen is a large cavity enclosed by the abdominal muscles, ventrally and laterally, and by the vertebral column dorsally. Lower ribs can also enclose ventral and lateral walls, the abdominal cavity is upper part of the pelvic cavity. It is attached to the cavity by the diaphragm. Structures such as the aorta, inferior vena cava and esophagus pass through the diaphragm, both the abdominal and pelvic cavities are lined by a serous membrane known as the parietal peritoneum. This membrane is continuous with the visceral peritoneum lining the organs, the abdomen in vertebrates contains a number of organs belonging, for instance, to the digestive tract and urinary system. There are three layers of the abdominal wall and they are, from the outside to the inside, external oblique, internal oblique, and transverse abdominal
40.
Room temperature
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Colloquially, room temperature is the range of temperatures that people prefer for indoor settings, at which the air feels neither hot nor cold when wearing typical indoor clothing. The range is typically between 15 °C and 25 °C and various methods of control are often employed to maintain this thermal comfort level. In certain fields, like science and engineering, and within a particular context, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language identifies room temperature as around 20 to 22 °C. Ambient temperature simply means the temperature of the surroundings and will be the same as room temperature indoors, standard conditions for temperature and pressure
41.
Shelf life
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Shelf life is the length of time that a commodity may be stored without becoming unfit for use, consumption, or sale. In other words, it refer to whether a commodity should no longer be on a pantry shelf. It applies to cosmetics, foods and beverages, medical devices, medicines, explosives, pharmaceutical drugs, chemicals, tires, batteries, in some regions, an advisory best before, mandatory use by or freshness date is required on packaged perishable foods. Most expiration dates are used as based on normal and expected handling. Use prior to the date does not guarantee the safety of a food or drug. According to the USDA, canned foods are safe indefinitely as long as they are not exposed to freezing temperatures, if the cans look ok, they are safe to use. Discard cans that are dented, rusted, or swollen, high-acid canned foods will keep their best quality for 12 to 18 months, low-acid canned foods for 2 to 5 years. Sell by date is an ambiguous term for what is often referred to as an expiration date. Most food is edible after the expiration date. A product that has passed its shelf life might still be safe, Shelf life depends on the degradation mechanism of the specific product. Most can be influenced by several factors, exposure to light, heat, moisture, transmission of gases, mechanical stresses, product quality is often mathematically modelled around a parameter. For some foods, health issues are important in determining shelf life, bacterial contaminants are ubiquitous, and foods left unused too long will often be contaminated by substantial amounts of bacterial colonies and become dangerous to eat, leading to food poisoning. However, shelf life alone is not an indicator of how long the food can safely be stored. For example, pasteurized milk can remain fresh for five days after its sell-by date if it is refrigerated properly, in contrast, if milk already has harmful bacteria, the use-by dates become irrelevant. The expiration date of pharmaceuticals specifies the date the manufacturer guarantees the full potency, most medications continue to be effective and safe for a time after the expiration date. A rare exception is a case of renal tubular acidosis purportedly caused by expired tetracycline, a study conducted by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration covered over 100 drugs, prescription and over-the-counter. The study showed that about 90% of them were safe and effective as long as 15 years past their expiration dates. One major exception is the Shelf Life Extension Program of the U. S. Department of Defense, which commissioned a major study of drug efficacy from the FDA starting in the mid-1980s
42.
Pupa
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A pupa is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation. The pupal stage is only in holometabolous insects, those that undergo a complete metamorphosis, going through four life stages, embryo, larva, pupa. The pupae of different groups of insects have different names such as chrysalis for the pupae of butterflies, pupae may further be enclosed in other structures such as cocoons, nests or shells. In the life of an insect the pupal stage follows the larval stage and it is during the time of pupation that the adult structures of the insect are formed while the larval structures are broken down. The adult structures, imaginal discs, then grow to become the adult structures, pupae are inactive, and usually sessile. However, the pupae may be exarate or obtect and they have a hard protective coating and often use camouflage to evade potential predators. Pupation may last weeks, months or even years, for example, it is two weeks in monarch butterflies. The pupa may enter dormancy or diapause until the season for the adult insect. In temperate climates pupae usually stay dormant during winter, while in the tropics pupae usually do so during the dry season, anise swallowtails sometimes emerge after years as a chrysalis. Insects emerge from pupae by splitting the pupal case, and the process of pupation is controlled by the insects hormones. Most butterflies emerge in the morning, in mosquitoes the emergence is in the evening or night. In fleas the process is triggered by vibrations that indicate the presence of a suitable host. Prior to emergence, the adult inside the exoskeleton is termed pharate. Once the pharate adult has eclosed from the pupa, the empty pupal exoskeleton is called an exuvia, in most hymenopterans the exuvia is so thin, pupae are usually immobile and are largely defenseless. To overcome this, a feature is concealed placement. There are some species of Lycaenid butterflies who are protected in their pupal stage by ants, another means of defense by pupae of other species is the capability of making sounds or vibrations to scare potential predators. A few species use chemical defenses including toxic secretions, the pupae of social hymenopterans are protected by adult members of the hive. Examples are pupae of the orders Neuroptera, Mecoptera, Trichoptera, adecticous pupa - pupae without articulated mandibles
43.
Poultry
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Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the eggs they produce, their meat, or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae, especially the order Galliformes, if there are ducks and or geese that are kept as pets they shall not be considered poultry unlike domesticated chickens. Poultry also includes other birds that are killed for their meat, such as the young of pigeons but does not include wild birds hunted for sport or food. The word poultry comes from the French/Norman word poule, itself derived from the Latin word pullus, the domestication of poultry took place several thousand years ago. This may have originally been as a result of people hatching and rearing young birds from eggs collected from the wild, but later involved keeping the birds permanently in captivity. Domesticated chickens may have used for cockfighting at first and quail kept for their songs. Selective breeding for fast growth, egg-laying ability, conformation, plumage and docility took place over the centuries, although some birds are still kept in small flocks in extensive systems, most birds available in the market today are reared in intensive commercial enterprises. Poultry is the second most widely eaten type of meat globally and, along with eggs, all poultry meat should be properly handled and sufficiently cooked in order to reduce the risk of food poisoning. The word poultry comes from the Middle English pultrie, from Old French pouletrie, from pouletier, poultry dealer, the word pullet itself comes from Middle English pulet, from Old French polet, both from Latin pullus, a young fowl, young animal or chicken. The word fowl is of Germanic origin, poultry can be defined as domestic fowls, including chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks, raised for the production of meat or eggs and the word is also used for the flesh of these birds used as food. The Encyclopædia Britannica lists the bird groups but also includes guinea fowl. In colloquial speech, the term fowl is often used near-synonymously with domesticated chicken, or with poultry or even just bird, both words are also used for the flesh of these birds. Poultry can be distinguished from game, defined as wild birds or mammals hunted for food or sport, chickens are medium-sized, chunky birds with an upright stance and characterised by fleshy red combs and wattles on their heads. Males, known as cocks, are larger, more boldly coloured. Chickens are gregarious, omnivorous, ground-dwelling birds that in their natural surroundings search among the leaf litter for seeds, invertebrates and they seldom fly except as a result of perceived danger, preferring to run into the undergrowth if approached. Todays domestic chicken is descended from the wild red junglefowl of Asia. Domestication is believed to have taken place between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago, and what are thought to be fossilized chicken bones have been found in northeastern China dated to around 5,400 BC. Archaeologists believe domestication was originally for the purpose of cockfighting, the bird being a doughty fighter
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Pig
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A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig and its ancestor, the common Eurasian wild boar, along with species, related creatures outside the genus include the peccary, the babirusa. Pigs, like all suids, are native to the Eurasian and African continents, juvenile pigs are known as piglets. Pigs are highly social and intelligent animals, with around 1 billion individuals alive at any time, the domesticated pig is one of the most numerous large mammals on the planet. Pigs are omnivores and can consume a range of food. Pigs can harbour a range of parasites and diseases that can be transmitted to humans, because of the similarities between pigs and humans, pigs are used for human medical research. The Online Etymology Dictionary provides anecdotal evidence as well as linguistic, saying that the term derives probably from Old English *picg, found in compounds, apparently related to Low German bigge, Dutch big. Another Old English word for pig was fearh, related to furh furrow, from PIE *perk- dig and this reflects a widespread IE tendency to name animals from typical attributes or activities. Synonyms grunter, porker are from sailors and fishermens euphemistic avoidance of uttering the word pig at sea, a superstition perhaps based on the fate of the Gadarene swine and it is entirely likely that the word to call pigs, soo-ie, is similarly derived. A typical pig has a head with a long snout which is strengthened by a special prenasal bone. The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food and is an acute sense organ. There are four hoofed toes on each trotter, with the two larger central toes bearing most of the weight, but the two also being used in soft ground. The dental formula of adult pigs is 3.1.4.33.1.4.3, the rear teeth are adapted for crushing. In the male, the teeth form tusks, which grow continuously and are sharpened by constantly being ground against each other. Occasionally, captive mother pigs may savage their own piglets, often if they become severely stressed, some attacks on newborn piglets are non-fatal. Others may cause the death of the piglets and sometimes, the mother may eat the piglets and it is estimated that 50% of piglet fatalities are due to the mother attacking, or unintentionally crushing, the newborn pre-weaned animals. Scientists have recently discovered that pigs can exhibit a bias and are optimists or pessimests. In a study by the University of Lincoln,36 pigs were tested and they were placed in a room with two food bowls at each end of the room
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Frass
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Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter. Frass is a term and accordingly it is variously used. It is derived from the German Fraß, a past participle verbal noun of fressen, the English usage derives the idea of excrement from what larvae had eaten, and similarly also, the refuse left behind by insects. Such usage dates back to the mid nineteenth century, in modern technical English sources differ on the precise definition, though there is little actual direct contradiction. One glossary from the early 20th century speaks of. excrement, various forms of frass often may be seen in the tunnels of leaf miners, in rotting wood, under dead bark, or under plants infested with caterpillars. Contact with frass causes plants to secrete chitinase in response to its high chitin levels, frass is a natural bloom stimulant, and has high nutrient levels. Frass contains abundant amoebae, beneficial bacteria, and fungi, accordingly, it is a microbial inoculant, in particular a soil inoculant, a source of desirable microbes, that promotes the formation of compost. It is an important recycler of nutrients in rainforests, and favours plant health, feces Guano Chitosan European spruce bark beetle Allaby, Michael. Ecology of Insects, concepts and applications, weiss, Martha R. Defecation behavior and ecology of insects. Annual Review of Entomology 51, 635–661, doi,10. 1146/annurev. ento.49.061802.123212 Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Insect Poop, insects that put their poop to good use — About. com, Insects, by Debbie Hadley
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Instar
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An instar is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult, until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or assume a new form, differences between instars can often be seen in altered body proportions, colors, patterns, changes in the number of body segments or head width. After moulting, i. e. shedding their exoskeleton, the juvenile arthropods continue in their life cycle until they pupate or moult again. This period of growth, instar, is fixed, some arthropods can continue to moult after sexual maturity, but the stages between these subsequent moults are generally not called instars. The number of instars an insect undergoes depends on the species, lower temperatures and humidity often slow the rate of development. The dictionary definition of instar at Wiktionary
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Housefly
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The housefly, Musca domestica, is a fly of the suborder Cyclorrhapha. It is believed to have evolved in the Cenozoic era, possibly in the Middle East and it is the most common fly species found in habitations. Adult insects are grey to black with four longitudinal lines on the thorax, slightly hairy bodies. They have red eyes, and the larger female has these set further apart than the male. The female housefly usually only once and stores the sperm for later use. She lays batches of about 100 eggs on decaying matter such as garbage. These soon hatch into white maggots which after 2 to 5 days of development transform into reddish-brown pupae. Adult flies normally live for 2 to 4 weeks but can hibernate during the winter, the adults feed on a variety of liquid or semi-liquid substances beside solid materials which have been softened by saliva. They carry pathogens on their bodies and in their feces and can contaminate food, for these reasons they are considered pests, but have been used in the laboratory in research into ageing and sex determination. Adult houseflies grow to 8–12 millimetres long, the thorax is gray or sometimes even black, with four longitudinal dark lines on the back. The whole body is covered with hair-like projections, the females are slightly larger than the males, and have a much larger space between their red compound eyes. Pupae can range from about 8 to 20 mg under different conditions, like other Diptera, houseflies have only one pair of wings, what would be the hind pair is reduced to small halteres that aid in flight stability. Characteristically, the media vein shows an upward bend. Species that appear similar to the include, The lesser house fly, Fannia canicularis, is smaller, more slender. The stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, has piercing mouthparts and the vein is only slightly curved. The mouth parts of the fly are characterised by the proboscis, at the end of the proboscis, the labium is found. The structure is an organ that is characterised by many groves. The purpose of this pseudotrachea is to take up liquids, the absorbed liquid is eventually transported to the oesophagus
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