1.
Papilio xuthus
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It was also recorded in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India, in 2014. It mates multiple times in its life, leading to a genetic diversity in its young. It is preyed upon by a host of organisms, including the tree cricket Oecanthus longicauda, ant Lasius niger, P. xuthus utilizes color vision and color constancy while foraging for plants of the family Rutaceae. It is common and not threatened, Papilio xuthus is common in urban, suburban, woods and orange orchards. The flight period is from May to August, males use both physical and visual cues to attract mates during the breeding season. Females of the species regularly mate with multiple partners, after mating, females use habitat and food quality to determine where they will oviposit their eggs. Papilio xuthus is a member of the Papilio genus, of which Papilio appalachiensis, Papilio canadensis and it is of the family Papilionidae and order Lepidoptera. It was first introduced in Hawaii in 1971 from Japan or Guam, P. xuthus makes significant seasonal migrations over 200 km. There are two subspecies of P. xuthus, Papilio xuthus koxingus and Papilio xuthus neoxuthus, the Asian swallowtail is a mid-sized, yellow, prominently-tailed butterfly. It has a wingspan of 45 to 55 mm and its normal color pattern consists of a black pattern on a yellow background. Wing coloration is sexually dimorphic, with females showing broader proximal marginal bands in the hindwing, blue-iridesecent and orange scales separate the black bands on the hindwing. The black bands also run in stripes of varying thickness along the forewing, the young caterpillar mimics bird feces and has a white and brown spot on its head. As they mature, caterpillars develop a green body color with brown spots. During the mating season, Asian swallowtail males fly through the foliage of trees in search of a mate. If a male encounters a female resting on a plant with open and horizontal wings, it approaches her, in addition, males use visual cues to conduct the mating ritual and are particularly attracted to closely spaced yellow patches on female wings. Most females of the Asian swallowtail butterfly mate more than once in their life and this behavior is typical of many other swallowtail butterflies including P. glaucus, P. helenus and P. protenor. By mating multiply, females are able to increase the diversity of their offspring. In addition, multiple matings allow females to produce a number of eggs
2.
Butterfly
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Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, the group comprises the large superfamily Papilionoidea, which contains at least one former group, the skippers and the most recent analyses suggest it also contains the moth-butterflies. Butterfly fossils date to the Paleocene, which was about 56 million years ago, Butterflies have the typical four-stage insect life cycle. Winged adults lay eggs on the plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars. The caterpillars grow, sometimes rapidly, and when fully developed. When metamorphosis is complete, the skin splits, the adult insect climbs out. Butterflies are often polymorphic, and many species use of camouflage, mimicry. Some, like the monarch and the lady, migrate over long distances. Many butterflies are attacked by parasites or parasitoids, including wasps, protozoans, flies, some species are pests because in their larval stages they can damage domestic crops or trees, other species are agents of pollination of some plants. Larvae of a few butterflies eat harmful insects, and a few are predators of ants, culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts. The Oxford English Dictionary derives the word straightforwardly from Old English butorflēoge, butter-fly, similar names in Old Dutch, the earliest Lepidoptera fossils are of a small moth, Archaeolepis mane, of Jurassic age, around 190 million years ago. Butterflies evolved from moths, so while the butterflies are monophyletic, the oldest butterflies are from the Palaeocene MoClay or Fur Formation of Denmark. The oldest American butterfly is the Late Eocene Prodryas persephone from the Florissant Fossil Beds, traditionally, the butterflies have been divided into the superfamily Papilionoidea excluding the smaller groups of the Hesperiidae and the more moth-like Hedylidae of America. Butterfly adults are characterized by their four scale-covered wings, which give the Lepidoptera their name, as in all insects, the body is divided into three sections, the head, thorax, and abdomen. The thorax is composed of three segments, each with a pair of legs, in most families of butterfly the antennae are clubbed, unlike those of moths which may be threadlike or feathery. The long proboscis can be coiled when not in use for sipping nectar from flowers, some day-flying moths, such as the hummingbird hawk-moth, are exceptions to these rules. Butterfly larvae, caterpillars, have a head with strong mandibles used for cutting their food. They have cylindrical bodies, with ten segments to the abdomen, generally with short prolegs on segments 3–6 and 10, many are well camouflaged, others are aposematic with bright colours and bristly projections containing toxic chemicals obtained from their food plants
3.
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
4.
Metamorphosis
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Metamorphosis is iodothyronine-induced and an ancestral feature of all chordates. Some insects, fishes, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, cnidarians, echinoderms, and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, animals that go through metamorphosis are called metamorphoses. Animals can be divided into species that undergo metamorphosis, incomplete metamorphosis. Scientific usage of the term is technically precise, and it is not applied to general aspects of cell growth, the word metamorphosis derives from Greek μεταμόρφωσις, transformation, transforming, from μετα-, change and μορφή, form. Metamorphosis is iodothyronine-induced and a feature of all chordates. In insects growth and metamorphosis are controlled by hormones synthesized by endocrine glands near the front of the body, neurosecretory cells in an insects brain secrete a hormone, the prothoracicotropic hormone that activates prothoracic glands, which secrete a second hormone, usually ecdysone, that induces ecdysis. PTTH also stimulates the corpora allata, an organ, to produce juvenile hormone. Experiments on firebugs have shown how juvenile hormone can affect the number of nymph instar stages in hemimetabolous insects, All three categories can be found in the diversity of insects, including no metamorphosis, incomplete or partial metamorphosis, and complete metamorphosis. In hemimetabolous insects, immature stages are called nymphs, development proceeds in repeated stages of growth and ecdysis, these stages are called instars. The juvenile forms closely resemble adults, but are smaller and lack features such as wings. The size and morphological differences between nymphs in different instars are small, often just differences in proportions and the number of segments, in later instars. In holometabolous insects, immature stages are called larvae, and differ markedly from adults, insects which undergo holometabolism pass through a larval stage, then enter an inactive state called pupa, and finally emerge as adults. The earliest insect forms showed direct development, and the evolution of metamorphosis in insects is thought to have fuelled their dramatic radiation, some early ametabolous true insects are still present today, such as bristletails and silverfish. Hemimetabolous insects include cockroaches, grasshoppers, dragonflies, and true bugs, phylogenetically, all insects in the Pterygota undergo a marked change in form, texture and physical appearance from immature stage to adult. According to research from 2008, adult Manduca sexta is able to retain behavior learned as a caterpillar, many observations have indicated that programmed cell death plays a considerable role during physiological processes of multicellular organisms, particularly during embryogenesis and metamorphosis. Sequence illustrating complete metamorphosis in the white butterfly, Pieris rapae In typical amphibian development, eggs are laid in water. Frogs, toads, and newts all hatch from the eggs as larvae with external gills, afterwards, newt larvae start a predatory lifestyle, while tadpoles mostly scrape food off surfaces with their horny tooth ridges. Metamorphosis in amphibians is regulated by thyroxin concentration in the blood, which stimulates metamorphosis, and prolactin, specific events are dependent on threshold values for different tissues
5.
Adult
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Biologically, an adult is a human or other organism that has reached sexual maturity. In human context, the term adult additionally has meanings associated with social and legal concepts, in contrast to a minor, a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majority and is therefore regarded as independent, self-sufficient, and responsible. Human adulthood encompasses psychological adult development, conversely, one may legally be an adult but possess none of the maturity and responsibility that may define an adult character. In different cultures there are events that relate passing from being a child to becoming an adult or coming of age. This often encompasses the passing a series of tests to demonstrate that a person is prepared for adulthood, or reaching a specified age, most modern societies determine legal adulthood based on reaching a legally specified age without requiring a demonstration of physical maturity or preparation for adulthood. Historically and cross-culturally, adulthood has been determined primarily by the start of puberty, in the past, a person usually moved from the status of child directly to the status of adult, often with this shift being marked by some type of coming-of-age test or ceremony. After the social construct of adolescence was created, adulthood split into two forms, biological adulthood and social adulthood, thus, there are now two primary forms of adults, biological adults and social adults. Depending on the context, adult can indicate either definition, thus, the base definition of the word adult is the period beginning at puberty. Puberty generally begins around 10 or 11 years of age for girls and 11 or 12 years of age for boys, legally, adulthood means that one can engage in a contract. One can distinguish the legality of acts of a person, or of enabling a young person to carry out that act, by selling, renting out, showing, permitting entrance, allowing participation. There may be distinction between commercially and socially enabling, sometimes there is the requirement of supervision by a legal guardian, or just by an adult. Sometimes there is no requirement, but rather a recommendation, with regard to films with violence, etc. Some cultures in Africa define adulthood at age 13, according to Jewish tradition, adulthood is reached at age 13 for Jewish boys and girls, they are expected to demonstrate preparation for adulthood by learning the Torah and other Jewish practices. The Christian Bible and Jewish scripture contain no age requirement for adulthood or marrying, which includes engaging in sexual activity. The 1983 Code of Canon Law states, A man before he has completed his year of age
6.
Developmental biology
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Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of regeneration, asexual reproduction and metamorphosis and in the growth, regional specification refers to the processes that create spatial pattern in a ball or sheet of initially similar cells. This generally involves the action of cytoplasmic determinants, located within parts of the fertilized egg, the early stages of regional specification do not generate functional differentiated cells, but cell populations committed to develop to a specific region or part of the organism. These are defined by the expression of combinations of transcription factors. Morphogenesis relates to the formation of three-dimensional shape and it mainly involves the orchestrated movements of cell sheets and of individual cells. Morphogenesis is important for creating the three layers of the early embryo and for building up complex structures during organ development. Cell differentiation relates specifically to the formation of cell types such as nerve, muscle. Differentiated cells contain large amounts of proteins associated with the cell function. Growth involves both an increase in size, and also the differential growth of parts which contributes to morphogenesis. Growth mostly occurs through cell division but also changes of cell size. The control of timing of events and the integration of the processes with one another is the least well understood area of the subject. It remains unclear whether animal embryos contain a master clock mechanism or not, the development of plants involves similar processes to that of animals. However plant cells are mostly immotile so morphogenesis is achieved by differential growth, also, the inductive signals and the genes involved in plant development are different from those that control animal development. Cell differentiation is the process whereby different functional cell types arise in development, for example, neurons, muscle fibers and hepatocytes are well known types of differentiated cell. The genes encoding these proteins are highly active, for example, NeuroD is a key transcription factor for neuronal differentiation, myogenin for muscle differentiation, and HNF4 for hepatocyte differentiation. Cell differentiation is usually the final stage of development, preceded by several states of commitment which are not visibly differentiated, a single tissue, formed from a single type of progenitor cell or stem cell, often consists of several differentiated cell types. Control of their formation involves a process of inhibition, based on the properties of the Notch signaling pathway. For example, in the plate of the embryo this system operates to generate a population of neuronal precursor cells in which NeuroD is highly expressed
7.
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
8.
Amphibian
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Amphibians are ectothermic, tetrapod vertebrates of the class Amphibia. They inhabit a variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal or freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Thus amphibians typically start out as larvae living in water, the young generally undergo metamorphosis from larva with gills to an adult air-breathing form with lungs. Amphibians use their skin as a respiratory surface and some small terrestrial salamanders and frogs lack lungs. They are superficially similar to lizards but, along with mammals and birds, reptiles are amniotes, the earliest amphibians evolved in the Devonian period from sarcopterygian fish with lungs and bony-limbed fins, features that were helpful in adapting to dry land. They diversified and became dominant during the Carboniferous and Permian periods, over time, amphibians shrank in size and decreased in diversity, leaving only the modern subclass Lissamphibia. The three modern orders of amphibians are Anura, Urodela, and Apoda, the number of known amphibian species is approximately 7,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. The smallest amphibian in the world is a frog from New Guinea with a length of just 7.7 mm. The largest living amphibian is the 1.8 m Chinese giant salamander, the study of amphibians is called batrachology, while the study of both reptiles and amphibians is called herpetology. The word amphibian is derived from the Ancient Greek term ἀμφίβιος, the term was initially used as a general adjective for animals that could live on land or in water, including seals and otters. Traditionally, the class Amphibia includes all tetrapod vertebrates that are not amniotes, the numbers of species cited above follows Frost and the total number of known amphibian species is over 7,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. With the phylogenetic classification, the taxon Labyrinthodontia has been discarded as it is a group without unique defining features apart from shared primitive characteristics. Classification varies according to the phylogeny of the author and whether they use a stem-based or a node-based classification. The phylogeny of Paleozoic amphibians is uncertain, and Lissamphibia may possibly fall within groups, like the Temnospondyli or the Lepospondyli. If the common ancestor of amphibians and amniotes is included in Amphibia, all modern amphibians are included in the subclass Lissamphibia, which is usually considered a clade, a group of species that have evolved from a common ancestor. The three modern orders are Anura, Caudata, and Gymnophiona, although the fossils of several older proto-frogs with primitive characteristics are known, the oldest true frog is Prosalirus bitis, from the Early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona. It is anatomically similar to modern frogs. The oldest known caecilian is another Early Jurassic species, Eocaecilia micropodia, the earliest salamander is Beiyanerpeton jianpingensis from the Late Jurassic of northeastern China
9.
Cnidaria
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Cnidaria is a phylum containing over 9,000 species of animals found exclusively in aquatic environments, they are predominantly marine species. Their distinguishing feature is cnidocytes, specialized cells that use mainly for capturing prey. Their bodies consist of mesoglea, a non-living jelly-like substance, sandwiched between two layers of epithelium that are one cell thick. They have two basic forms, swimming medusae and sessile polyps, both of which are radially symmetrical with mouths surrounded by tentacles that bear cnidocytes. Both forms have a single orifice and body cavity that are used for digestion and respiration, many cnidarian species produce colonies that are single organisms composed of medusa-like or polyp-like zooids, or both. Cnidarians activities are coordinated by a nerve net and simple receptors. Several free-swimming species of Cubozoa and Scyphozoa possess balance-sensing statocysts, not all cnidarians reproduce sexually, with many species having complex life cycles of asexual polyp stages and sexual medusae. Some, however, omit either the polyp or the medusa stage, Cnidarians were formerly grouped with ctenophores in the phylum Coelenterata, but increasing awareness of their differences caused them to be placed in separate phyla. Staurozoa have recently been recognised as a class in their own rather than a sub-group of Scyphozoa. Most cnidarians prey on organisms ranging in size from plankton to animals several times larger than themselves, but many obtain much of their nutrition from dinoflagellates, many are preyed on by other animals including starfish, sea slugs, fish and turtles. Many scleractinian corals—which form the foundation for coral reefs—possess polyps that are filled with zooxanthellae. While reef-forming corals are almost entirely restricted to warm and shallow waters, other cnidarians can be found at great depths, in polar regions. Recent phylogenetic analyses support monophyly of cnidarians, as well as the position of cnidarians as the group of bilaterians. Cnidarians form a phylum that are more complex than sponges, about as complex as ctenophores, and less complex than bilaterians. Cnidarians are distinguished from all other animals by having cnidocytes that fire like harpoons and are used mainly to capture prey, in some species, cnidocytes can also be used as anchors. Hence, cnidarians and ctenophores have traditionally been labelled diploblastic, along with sponges, however, both cnidarians and ctenophores have a type of muscle that, in more complex animals, arises from the middle cell layer. As a result, some recent text books classify ctenophores as triploblastic, adult cnidarians appear as either swimming medusae or sessile polyps, and many hydrozoan species are known to alternate between the two forms. Both are radially symmetrical, like a wheel and a tube respectively, since these animals have no heads, their ends are described as oral and aboral
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The dictionary definition of larva at Wiktionary
