1.
Peacock mite
–
The peacock mites of the genus Tuckerella are a significant herbivorous pest in the tropics, for example on citrus fruit. Other species dwell in grasses, possibly as root feeders, the peacock mites name suggests that their feather-like setae adorning their backs are evocative of a peacocks plumage. They also have long hair-like setae projecting from rear that have been compared to a peacock tail. The 5–7 pairs of caudal setae can be flicked over the body very quickly and they may also help in wind-borne dispersal. They are classified in the superfamily Tetranychoidea, being its most ornate members
Peacock mite
–
Tuckerella
Peacock mite
–
Acariformes
2.
False-color
–
False color refers to a group of color rendering methods used to display images in color which were recorded in the visible or non-visible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. A false-color image is an image that depicts an object in colors that differ from those a photograph would show, to understand false color, a look at the concept behind true color is helpful. An image is called an image when it offers a natural color rendition. When applied to images, true-color means that the perceived lightness of a subject is preserved in its depiction. There are three sources of color error, Different spectral sensitivities of the human eye and of an image capture device. Different spectral emissions / reflections of the object and of the image render process, differences in spectral irradiance in the case of reflective images or reflective objects – see color rendering index for details. Color management can be used to mitigate this problem within the physical constraints, while a false-color image can be created using solely the visual spectrum, typically some or all data used is from electromagnetic radiation outside the visual spectrum. The choice of bands is governed by the physical properties of the object under investigation. As the human eye uses three spectral bands, three bands are commonly combined into a false-color image. In contrast, an image made from one spectral band. For true color, the RGB channels from the camera are mapped to the corresponding RGB channels of the image, for false color this relationship is changed. The simplest false-color encoding is to take an RGB image in the visible spectrum, for traditional false-color satellite images of Earth a NRG→RGB mapping is used, with N being the near-infrared spectral band – this yields the typical vegetation in red false-color images. False color is used for satellite and space images, Examples are remote sensing satellites, some spacecraft, with rovers being the most prominent examples, have the ability to capture approximate true-color images as well. Weather satellites produce, in contrast the spacecrafts mentioned previously, grayscale images from the visible or infrared spectrum, a pseudocolor image is derived from a grayscale image by mapping each intensity value to a color according to a table or function. Pseudo color is used when a single channel of data is available. A typical example for the use of color is thermography. Pseudocoloring can make some more visible, as the perceived difference in color space is bigger than between successive gray levels alone. A further application of pseudocoloring is to store the results of image elaboration, density slicing, a variation of pseudo color, divides an image into a few colored bands and is used in the analysis of remote sensing images
False-color
–
A mosaic constructed from a series of 53 images taken through three
spectral filters by Galileo ’s imaging system as it flew over the northern regions of the
Moon in December 1992.
False-color
False-color
–
This approximate true-color
panorama shows the impact crater
Endurance on
Mars. It was taken by the panoramic camera on the
Opportunity rover and is a composite of a total of 258 images taken in the 480, 530 and 750
nanometer spectral bands (blue / green, green and near infrared).
False-color
–
A traditional false-color satellite image of Las Vegas. Grass-covered land (e.g. a golf course) appears in red.
3.
Scanning electron microscope
–
A scanning electron microscope is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning it with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that contain information about the surface topography. The electron beam is scanned in a raster scan pattern. SEM can achieve better than 1 nanometer. Specimens can be observed in vacuum, in low vacuum, in wet conditions. The most common SEM mode is detection of electrons emitted by atoms excited by the electron beam. The number of electrons that can be detected depends, among other things. By scanning the sample and collecting the electrons that are emitted using a special detector. An account of the history of SEM has been presented by McMullan. Ardenne applied the principle not only to achieve magnification but also to purposefully eliminate the chromatic aberration otherwise inherent in the electron microscope. He further discussed the various modes, possibilities and theory of SEM. The types of produced by an SEM include secondary electrons, reflected or back-scattered electrons, photons of characteristic X-rays and light, absorbed current. Secondary electron detectors are standard equipment in all SEMs, but it is rare that a machine would have detectors for all other possible signals. The signals result from interactions of the beam with atoms at various depths within the sample. In the most common or standard detection mode, ie secondary electron imaging or SEI, consequently, SEM can produce very high-resolution images of a sample surface, revealing details less than 1 nm in size. Back-scattered electrons are beam electrons that are reflected from the sample by elastic scattering and they emerge from deeper locations within the specimen and consequently the resolution of BSE images is generally poorer than SE images. BSE images can provide information about the distribution of different elements in the sample, characteristic X-rays are emitted when the electron beam removes an inner shell electron from the sample, causing a higher-energy electron to fill the shell and release energy. These characteristic X-rays are used to identify the composition and measure the abundance of elements in the sample, due to the very narrow electron beam, SEM micrographs have a large depth of field yielding a characteristic three-dimensional appearance useful for understanding the surface structure of a sample
Scanning electron microscope
–
These
pollen grains taken on an SEM show the characteristic
depth of field of SEM
micrographs.
Scanning electron microscope
–
M. von Ardenne's first SEM
Scanning electron microscope
–
SEM opened sample chamber
Scanning electron microscope
–
Analog type SEM
4.
Taxonomy (biology)
–
Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
Taxonomy (biology)
–
Title page of
Systema Naturae, Leiden, 1735
Taxonomy (biology)
–
Evolution of the
vertebrates at class level, width of spindles indicating number of families. Spindle diagrams are typical for
Evolutionary taxonomy
Taxonomy (biology)
–
The same relationship, expressed as a
cladogram typical for
cladistics
Taxonomy (biology)
–
Type specimen for
Nepenthes smilesii, a tropical
pitcher plant.
5.
Animal
–
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
Animal
–
Carl Linnaeus, known as the father of modern
taxonomy
Animal
–
Had'n
Animal
–
The use of
love darts by the land snail
Monachoides vicinus is a form of
sexual selection
Animal
–
A
newt lung cell stained with
fluorescent dyes undergoing the early
anaphase stage of
mitosis
6.
Arthropod
–
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda, which includes the insects, arachnids, myriapods, arthropods are characterized by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages, the rigid cuticle inhibits growth, so arthropods replace it periodically by moulting. Their versatility has enabled them to become the most species-rich members of all guilds in most environments. They have over a million described species, making up more than 80% of all described living species, some of which. Arthropods range in size from the microscopic crustacean Stygotantulus up to the Japanese spider crab, arthropods primary internal cavity is a hemocoel, which accommodates their internal organs, and through which their haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, they have open circulatory systems. Like their exteriors, the organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. Their nervous system is ladder-like, with paired ventral nerve cords running through all segments and their heads are formed by fusion of varying numbers of segments, and their brains are formed by fusion of the ganglia of these segments and encircle the esophagus. The respiratory and excretory systems of arthropods vary, depending as much on their environment as on the subphylum to which they belong, arthropods also have a wide range of chemical and mechanical sensors, mostly based on modifications of the many setae that project through their cuticles. Aquatic species use internal or external fertilization. Almost all arthropods lay eggs, but scorpions give birth to live young after the eggs have hatched inside the mother, arthropod hatchlings vary from miniature adults to grubs and caterpillars that lack jointed limbs and eventually undergo a total metamorphosis to produce the adult form. The level of care for hatchlings varies from nonexistent to the prolonged care provided by scorpions. The evolutionary ancestry of arthropods dates back to the Cambrian period, the group is generally regarded as monophyletic, and many analyses support the placement of arthropods with cycloneuralians in a superphylum Ecdysozoa. Overall however, the relationships of Metazoa are not yet well resolved. Likewise, the relationships between various groups are still actively debated. Arthropods contribute to the food supply both directly as food, and more importantly indirectly as pollinators of crops. Some species are known to spread disease to humans, livestock. The word arthropod comes from the Greek ἄρθρον árthron, joint, and πούς pous, i. e. foot or leg, arthropods are invertebrates with segmented bodies and jointed limbs
Arthropod
Arthropod
–
Head
Arthropod
–
Cicada climbing out of its exoskeleton while attached to tree
Arthropod
–
Head of a
wasp with three ocelli (centre), and
compound eyes at the left and right
7.
Chelicerata
–
The subphylum Chelicerata constitutes one of the major subdivisions of the phylum Arthropoda. It contains the horseshoe crabs, sea spiders, and arachnids, the chelicerata originated as marine animals, possibly in the Cambrian period, but the first confirmed chelicerate fossils, eurypterids, date from 445 million years ago in the Late Ordovician period. The surviving marine species include the four species of xiphosurans, and possibly the 1,300 species of pycnogonids, on the other hand, there are over 77,000 well-identified species of air-breathing chelicerates, and there may be about 500,000 unidentified species. Like all arthropods, chelicerates have segmented bodies with jointed limbs, all covered in a made of chitin. The chelicerate bauplan consists of two tagmata, the prosoma and the opisthosoma, except that mites have lost a division between these sections. The chelicerae, which give the group its name, are the appendages that appear before the mouth. In most sub-groups, they are modest pincers used to feed, however, spiders chelicerae form fangs that most species use to inject venom into prey. The group has the circulatory system typical of arthropods, in which a tube-like heart pumps blood through the hemocoel. Marine chelicerates have gills, while the air-breathing forms generally have both lungs and tracheae. Most chelicerates rely on modified bristles for touch and for information about vibrations, air currents, the most active hunting spiders also have very acute eyesight. Chelicerates were originally predators, but the group has diversified to use all the major feeding strategies, predation, parasitism, herbivory, to conserve water, air-breathing chelicerates excrete waste as solids that are removed from their blood by Malpighian tubules, structures that also evolved independently in insects. While the marine horseshoe crabs rely on external fertilization, air-breathing chelicerates use internal, predatory species generally use elaborate courtship rituals to prevent males from being eaten before they can mate. Most lay eggs that hatch as what look like adults, but all scorpions. In most chelicerate species the young have to fend for themselves, the evolutionary origins of chelicerates from the early arthropods have been debated for decades. The medical industry uses the blood of horseshoe crabs as a test for the presence of contaminant bacteria. Mites can cause allergies in humans, transmit diseases to humans and their livestock. However, in the Acari there is no division between these sections. In primitive forms the acron has a pair of eyes on the sides
Chelicerata
Chelicerata
–
Phidippus johnsoni chelicera (green) and pedipalps (bottom)
Chelicerata
–
Female
scorpion Compsobuthus werneri carrying its young (white)
Chelicerata
–
A microscopic mite
Lorryia formosa.
8.
Arachnid
–
Arachnids are a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals, in the subphylum Chelicerata. The term is derived from the Greek word ἀράχνη, meaning spider, spiders are the largest order in the class. Almost all extant arachnids are terrestrial, living mainly on land, however, some inhabit freshwater environments and, with the exception of the pelagic zone, marine environments as well. They comprise over 100,000 named species, including spiders, scorpions, harvestmen, ticks, mites, almost all adult arachnids have eight legs, and arachnids may be easily distinguished from insects by this fact, since insects have six legs. However, arachnids also have two pairs of appendages that have become adapted for feeding, defense, and sensory perception. The first pair, the chelicerae, serve in feeding and defense, the next pair of appendages, the pedipalps, have been adapted for feeding, locomotion, and/or reproductive functions. In Solifugae, the palps are quite leg-like, so that animals appear to have ten legs. The larvae of mites and Ricinulei have only six legs, a fourth pair usually appears when they moult into nymphs, however, mites are variable, as well as eight, there are adult mites with six or even four legs. Arachnids are further distinguished from insects by the fact they do not have antennae or wings and their body is organized into two tagmata, called the prosoma, or cephalothorax, and the opisthosoma, or abdomen. The cephalothorax is derived from the fusion of the cephalon and the thorax, the abdomen is segmented in the more primitive forms, but varying degrees of fusion between the segments occur in many groups. It is typically divided into a preabdomen and postabdomen, although this is clearly visible in scorpions, and in some orders, such as the Acari. A telson is present in scorpions, where it has modified to a stinger. Like all arthropods, arachnids have an exoskeleton, and they also have a structure of cartilage-like tissue, called the endosternite. The endosternite is even calcified in some Opiliones, most arachnids lack extensor muscles in the distal joints of their appendages. Spiders and whipscorpions extend their limbs hydraulically using the pressure of their hemolymph, solifuges and some harvestmen extend their knees by the use of highly elastic thickenings in the joint cuticle. Scorpions, pseudoscorpions and some harvestmen have evolved muscles that extend two leg joints at once, the equivalent joints of the pedipalps of scorpions though, are extended by elastic recoil. This type of system has almost certainly evolved from the book lungs. The excretory glands of arachnids include up to four pairs of coxal glands along the side of the prosoma, many arachnids have only one or the other type of excretory gland, although several do have both
Arachnid
Arachnid
–
Ixodes hexagonus, a
tick
Arachnid
–
An amblypygid
Arachnid
–
Araneus diadematus
9.
William Elford Leach
–
William Elford Leach, MD, FRS was an English zoologist and marine biologist. Elford Leach was born at Hoe Gate, Plymouth, the son of an attorney, at the age of twelve he began a medical apprenticeship at the Devonshire and Exeter Hospital, studying anatomy and chemistry. By this time he was already collecting marine animals from Plymouth Sound, at seventeen he began studying medicine at St Bartholomews Hospital in London, finishing his training at the University of Edinburgh before graduating MD from the University of St Andrews. Here he threw himself into the task of reorganising and modernising these collections, in 1815, he published the first bibliography of entomology in Brewsters Edinburgh Encyclopedia. He also worked and published on other invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and was the naturalist who separated the centipedes and millipedes from the insects, giving them their own group, the Myriapoda. In his day he was the leading expert on the Crustacea and was in contact with scientists in the United States. In 1816 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 25, however, in 1821 he suffered a nervous breakdown due to overwork and became unable to continue his researches. He resigned from the museum in March 1822 and his elder sister Jane took him to continental Europe to convalesce and they lived in Italy and Malta and he died from cholera in San Sebastiano Curone, near Tortona, north of Genoa on 25 August 1836. He was one of the most laborious and successful, as well as one of the most universal, in Britain zoologists remained committed to the system of animal classification introduced by Linnaeus in the middle of the 18th century. This was a tool but its principles led to artificial groupings of species when creating larger groups such as genera. For example, Linnaeus had called all animals encased in an outer skeleton. The grouping does separate animals with hard outer skeletons from jellyfish, worms, snails, vertebrates, etc. in continental Europe in the late 18th century naturalists began to revise the way they grouped species. They used an array of characters, not just one or two, and began to discern groups of species that physically resembled one another, lived in similar ways. They created new genera to house these coherent groups and referred to these as natural genera and they named this approach the natural method or natural system of classification. Unlike many of his countrymen, Leach was aware of developments across the English Channel. He read the French literature and, despite the war with France and he applied the new principles to his own research and brought them to the attention of other British zoologists through his publications. Between the years 1813 and 1830 he produced more than 130 scientific articles, by applying the natural method in these works he created more than 380 new genera, many of which have stood the test of time and remain valid today. In 1834, at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Leonard Jenyns reported on The Recent Progress
William Elford Leach
–
Illustration from
Adam White 's A Popular History of British Crustacea, 1857, showing three genera of crustacea named by Leach as anagrams of Carolina: Cirolana, Conilera and Rocinela
William Elford Leach
–
Libinia emarginata described by Leach in Zoological Miscellany in 1815.
10.
Superorder
–
In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized by the nomenclature codes. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, an immediately higher rank, superorder, may be added directly above order, while suborder would be a lower rank. A taxonomic unit, a taxon, in that rank, in that case the plural is orders. Example, The Juglans and Hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, what does and does not belong to each order is determined by a taxonomist, as is whether a particular order should be recognized at all. Often there is no agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing an order. Some taxa are accepted almost universally, while others are recognised only rarely, for some groups of organisms, consistent suffixes are used to denote that the rank is an order. The Latin suffix -formes meaning having the form of is used for the name of orders of birds and fishes. The suffix -ales is for the name of orders of plants, fungi, for some clades covered by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a number of additional classifications are sometimes used, although not all of these are officially recognised. In their 1997 classification of mammals, McKenna and Bell used two levels between superorder and order, grandorder and mirorder. Michael Novacek inserted them at the same position, michael Benton inserted them between superorder and magnorder instead. This position was adopted by Systema Naturae 2000 and others, in botany, the ranks of subclass and suborder are secondary ranks pre-defined as respectively above and below the rank of order. Any number of further ranks can be used as long as they are clearly defined, the superorder rank is commonly used, with the ending -anae that was initiated by Armen Takhtajans publications from 1966 onwards. Carl Linnaeus was the first to apply it consistently to the division of all three kingdoms of nature in his Systema Naturae, for plants, Linnaeus orders in the Systema Naturae and the Species Plantarum were strictly artificial, introduced to subdivide the artificial classes into more comprehensible smaller groups. In French botanical publications, from Michel Adansons Familles naturelles des plantes and until the end of the 19th century, some of the plant families still retain the names of Linnaean natural orders or even the names of pre-Linnaean natural groups recognised by Linnaeus as orders in his natural classification. Such names are known as family names. In zoology, the Linnaean orders were used more consistently and that is, the orders in the zoology part of the Systema Naturae refer to natural groups. Some of his names are still in use
Superorder
–
Title page of the 1758 edition of Linnaeus's Systema Naturæ.
Superorder
–
The hierarchy of
biological classification 's eight major
taxonomic ranks. A
class contains one or more orders. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown.
11.
Acariformes
–
The Acariformes are the more diverse of the two superorders of mites. Over 32,000 described species are found in 351 families, the Acariformes can be divided into two main clades - Sarcoptiformes and Trombidiformes. In addition, a group containing primitive forms, the Endeostigmata, was formerly also considered distinct. The Trombidiformes present their own problems, the small group Sphaerolichida appears to be the most ancient lineage among them. However, the Prostigmata are variously subdivided into the Anystina and Eleutherengona, consequently, it may be best for the time being to consider each of the three main prostigmatan lineages to be equally distinct from the other two. The Sarcoptiformes ingest solid food, being mainly microherbivores, fungivores and detritivores, some Astigmatina – the Psoroptidia – have become associated with vertebrates and nest-building insects. These include the well known house dust mites, scab mites and mange mites, stored product mites, feather mites, the relationships between their main groups are not well-resolved and subject to revision. In particular it appears as if the Oribatida need to be split up in two, as the Astigmatina are closer to some of them than the latter are to other Oribatida, the Trombidiformes are most noted for the economic damage caused by many plant parasite species. All of the most important plant pests among the Acari are trombidiformans, such as spider mites, many species are also predators, fungivores, and animal parasites. Some of the most conspicuous species of free-living mites are the large and bright red velvet mites. Oribatid mites and to a lesser extent others are a source of alkaloids in poison frogs. Such frogs raised without these orbatids in their diets do not develop the strong poisons associated with them in the wild
Acariformes
–
Acariformes
Acariformes
–
Lorryia formosa (Trombidiformes:
Tydeidae)
Acariformes
12.
Parasitiformes
–
The Parasitiformes are an order of Acari. Many species are parasitic, but not all, for example, about half of the 10,000 known species in the suborder Mesostigmata are predatory and cryptozoan, living in the soil-litter, rotting wood, dung, carrion, nests or house dust. A few species have switched to grazing on fungi or ingesting spores or pollen, the phytoseiid mites, which account for about 15% of all described Mesostigmata are used with great success for biological control. There are over 12,000 described species of Parasitiformes, and the total estimate is between 100,000 and 200,000 species
Parasitiformes
–
Parasitiformes
Parasitiformes
–
Acariformes
13.
Lorryia formosa
–
Lorryia formosa, commonly known as the yellow mite or the citrus yellow mite, is a species of acariform mite. They are in the subfamily Tydeinae of the family Tydeidae, commonly found on the foliage of citrus trees around the world, Lorryia formosa also associates with a variety of other plant types. The life cycle includes six stages of development, and the lifespan averages about 37 days. The females of the use an asexual form of reproduction where the growth and development of embryos occurs without fertilization by a male. Lorryia formosa, originally found in Morocco, was first described by Cooreman in 1958, in his 1980 revision of the family Tydeidae, H. M. André synonymized the genus Lorryia with Tydeus, and Lorryia formosa became Tydeus formosus. André based his revision on the similarities of the chaetotaxy, especially on the legs, but ignored body ornamentation, in 1998, Kazmierski revised the Tydeinae subfamily, this time using ornamentation and other features, and reestablished the genus Lorryia. In Lorryia formosa, like all Acariformes mites, the capitulum is the head segment, the idiosoma is further subdivided into the propodosoma, metapodosoma, and opisthosoma. The genital region includes a progenital aperture flanked by setae, specimens are generally less than 250 µm long. Life cycles of Lorryia formosa are characterized by six distinct stages, egg, larva, protonymph, deutonymph, tritonymph. The average lifetime is 37 days, of which 60% is considered adulthood and it is not known whether the intracellular endosymbiont bacterium Wolbachia is responsible for the alteration in reproductive capability. Wolbachia, a genus of inherited bacteria common in insects, are known to alter the sex ratio in arthropods and mites. The sex ratio is also influenced by the host plant, one study found that on citrus, 30% of the population were males. Reared on rubber trees, the percentage of males in the population drops to very low, Lorryia formosa has been found associated with chayote squash, citrus, dahlia, pear, papaya, mango, Cola acuminata, and the parana pine in Brazil. In Portugal, it has collected from Prunus domestica, P. persica, P. armeniaca, apple. It has also reported from Hibiscus species collected in Guadeloupe. L. formosa is found on citrus plants throughout the world. For example, it has found in the Mediterranean region, as well as Algeria, Italy, Libya, Morocco, Portugal. It is common and widespread on Florida citrus, Lorryia formosa is the only species of Tydeinae thought to be a pest of citrus
Lorryia formosa
–
Lorryia formosa
Lorryia formosa
–
Acariformes
14.
Tydeidae
–
Tydeidae is a family of acariform mites. These are generally small mites with muted colours, the body is soft, often with complex striated or reticulated patterns. Some species have two or three eyes although many are completely eyeless and these mites live in a wide range of habitats and there are predatory, fungivorous and scavenging species. Genera of Tydeidae include, Tydeidae at Fauna Europaea Joel Hallans Biology Catalog, Tydeidae Media related to Tydeidae at Wikimedia Commons
Tydeidae
–
Tydeidae
Tydeidae
–
Acariformes
15.
Acari
–
Acari are a taxon of arachnids that contains mites and ticks. The diversity of the Acari is extraordinary and its history goes back to at least the early Devonian period. As a result, acarologists have proposed a set of taxonomic ranks to classify mites. The monophyly of the Acari is open to debate, and the relationships of the acarines to other arachnids is not at all clear. In older treatments, the subgroups of the Acarina were placed at order rank, most acarines are minute to small, but the largest Acari may reach lengths of 10–20 millimetres. Over 50,000 species have been described and it is estimated that a million or more species may exist, the study of mites and ticks is called acarology, and the leading scientific journals for acarology include Acarologia, Experimental and Applied Acarology and the International Journal of Acarology. Mites are arachnids and, as such, evolved from a body with the segments organised into two tagmata, a prosoma and an opisthosoma. This anterior body region is called the capitulum or gnathosoma and, the remainder of the body is called the idiosoma and is unique to mites. Most adult mites have four pairs of legs, like other arachnids, for example, gall mites like Phyllocoptes variabilis have a worm-like body with only two pairs of legs, some parasitic mites have only one or three pairs of legs in the adult stage. Larval and prelarval stages have a maximum of three pairs of legs, adult mites with only three pairs of legs may be called larviform, also members of the Nematalycidae within Endeostigmata, who lives between sand grains, have often wormlike and elongated bodies with reduced legs. The mouth parts of mites may be adapted for biting, stinging, sawing or sucking and they breathe through tracheae, stigmata, intestines and the skin itself. Species hunting for other mites have very acute senses, but many mites are eyeless, the central eyes of arachnids are always missing, or they are fused into a single eye. Thus, any eye number from none to five may occur, acarine ontogeny typically consists of an egg, a prelarval stage, a larval stage, and a series of nymphal stages. Any or all of these stages except the adult may be suppressed or occur only within the body of a previous stage, larvae have a maximum of three pairs of legs, legs IV are added at the first nymphal stage. Usually, a maximum of three stages are present and they are referred to in sequence as the protonymph, deutonymph. The females of some Tarsonemidae bear sexually mature young, if one or more nymphal stages are absent, then authors may disagree on which stages are present. Only the Oribatida pass through all developmental stages and they live in practically every habitat, and include aquatic and terrestrial species. They outnumber other arthropods in the organic matter and detritus
Acari
Acari
–
A soft-bodied tick of the family
Argasidae, beside eggs it has just laid
Acari
–
Rust mite,
Aceria anthocoptes (size: 50
micrometres)
Acari
–
Male tick (size: 2 mm)
16.
Decomposers
–
Decomposers are organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, and in doing so, they carry out the natural process of decomposition. Like herbivores and predators, decomposers are heterotrophic, meaning that they use organic substrates to get their energy, carbon and nutrients for growth and development. Thus, invertebrates such as earthworms, woodlice, and sea cucumbers are technically detritivores, not decomposers, the primary decomposers of litter in many ecosystems are fungi. Unlike bacteria, which are unicellular organisms, most saprotrophic fungi grow as a network of hyphae. While bacteria are restricted to growing and feeding on the surfaces of organic matter. Additionally, only wood-decay fungi have evolved the enzymes necessary to decompose lignin and these two factors make fungi the primary decomposers in forests, where litter has high concentrations of lignin and often occurs in large pieces. Fungi decompose organic matter by releasing enzymes to break down the decaying material, hyphae used to break down matter and absorb nutrients are also used in reproduction. When two compatible fungis hyphae grow close to other, they will then fuse together for reproduction
Decomposers
–
The fungi on this tree are decomposers
Decomposers
–
Carnivores
Decomposers
–
General
Decomposers
–
Population ecology
17.
Predator
–
In an ecosystem, predation is a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey. Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on it, but the act of predation often results in the death of the prey, thus predation is often, though not always, carnivory. Other categories of consumption are herbivory, fungivory, and detritivory, all of these are consumer-resource systems. It can often be difficult to separate various types of feeding behaviors. For example, some parasites prey on their host and then lay their eggs on it, for their offspring to feed on it while it continues to live, the key characteristic of predation is the predators direct impact on the prey population. Selective pressures imposed on one another leads to an evolutionary arms race between prey and predator, resulting in various antipredator adaptations. Ways of classifying predation include grouping by trophic level or diet, by specialization, Predators can be classified by their interactions with their prey. Two factors are considered here, how close the predator and prey are, and whether the prey is killed by the predator. A true predator is one that kills and eats another living thing, Predators may hunt actively for prey in pursuit predation, or sit and wait for prey to approach within striking distance, as in ambush predators. Some predation entails venom that subdues a prey before the predator ingests it, as in the box jellyfish, or disables it, in some cases, the venom contributes to the digestion of the prey, as in rattlesnakes and some spiders. In contrast, baleen whales eat millions of microscopic plankton at once, seed and egg predation are true predation, as seeds and eggs are potential organisms. Predators need not eat prey entirely, for example, some predators cannot digest bones, some may eat only part of an organism, but still consistently cause its death. Grazing organisms do not often kill their prey, while some herbivores like zooplankton live on unicellular phytoplankton and therefore, by the individualized nature of the organism, kill their prey, many others only eat a small part of the plant. Grazing livestock may pull some grass out at the roots, but most is simply grazed upon, kelp is frequently grazed in subtidal kelp forests, but regrows at the base of the blade continuously to cope with browsing pressure. Animals may also be grazed upon, female mosquitos land on hosts briefly to gain sufficient proteins for the development of their offspring, starfish may be grazed on, being capable of regenerating lost arms. Parasites can at times be difficult to distinguish from grazers and their feeding behavior is similar in many ways, however they are noted for their close association with their host species. This close living arrangement may be described by the symbiosis, living together. Parasitic organisms range from the mistletoe, a parasitic plant
Predator
–
A
South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) as the predator feeding on the
blesbuck as the prey
Predator
–
Indian python swallowing a small
chital deer at
Mudumalai National Park
Predator
–
Meat ants feeding on a
cicada; some species can
prey on individuals of far greater size, particularly when working cooperatively.
Predator
–
Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) killing a young
bushbuck (Tragelaphus sylvaticus) in
Kruger National Park.
18.
Parasite
–
In biology/ecology, parasitism is a non-mutual relationship between species, where one species, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred primarily to organisms visible to the naked eye, Parasites can be microparasites, which are typically smaller, such as protozoa, viruses, and bacteria. Examples of parasites include the plants mistletoe and cuscuta, and animals such as hookworms, unlike predators, parasites typically do not kill their host, are generally much smaller than their host, and will often live in or on their host for an extended period. Both are special cases of consumer-resource interactions, Parasites show a high degree of specialization, and reproduce at a faster rate than their hosts. Classic examples of parasitism include interactions between vertebrate hosts and tapeworms, flukes, the Plasmodium species, and fleas, parasitism differs from the parasitoid relationship in that parasitoids generally kill their hosts. Parasites reduce host biological fitness by general or specialized pathology, such as parasitic castration and impairment of secondary sex characteristics, Parasites increase their own fitness by exploiting hosts for resources necessary for their survival, e. g. food, water, heat, habitat, and transmission. Although parasitism applies unambiguously to many cases, it is part of a continuum of types of interactions between species, rather than an exclusive category, in many cases, it is difficult to demonstrate harm to the host. In others, there may be no apparent specialization on the part of the parasite, coined in English in 1611, the word parasitism comes from the Greek παρά + σιτισμός feeding, fattening. Parasites are classified based on their interactions with their hosts and on their life cycles, an obligate parasite is totally dependent on the host to complete its life cycle, while a facultative parasite is not. A direct parasite has one host while an indirect parasite has multiple hosts. For indirect parasites, there always be a definitive host. Parasites that live on the outside of the host, either on the skin or the outgrowths of the skin, are called ectoparasites and those that live inside the host are called endoparasites. Endoparasites can exist in one of two forms, intercellular parasites or intracellular parasites, intracellular parasites, such as protozoa, bacteria or viruses, tend to rely on a third organism, which is generally known as the carrier or vector. The vector does the job of transmitting them to the host, an example of this interaction is the transmission of malaria, caused by a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium, to humans by the bite of an anopheline mosquito. Those parasites living in a position, being half-ectoparasites and half-endoparasites, are called mesoparasites. An epiparasite is one that feeds on another parasite and this relationship is also sometimes referred to as hyperparasitism, exemplified by a protozoan living in the digestive tract of a flea living on a dog. Social parasites take advantage of interactions between members of social organisms such as ants, termites, and bumblebees, an extreme example of social parasitism is the ant species of Tetramorium inquilinum of the Alps, which spend their whole lives on the back of Tetramorium host ants. With tiny and deprecated bodies they have evolved for one single task, if they fall off, they most likely would not have the strength to climb back on top of another ant, and eventually they will die
Parasite
–
Brood parasitism is a form of parasitism
Parasite
–
A
Tetragnatha montana spider parasitized by an
Acrodactyla quadrisculpta larva.
Parasite
–
A
Lithognathus fish parasitized by a
Cymothoa exigua parasite.
Parasite
–
Human head lice (
Pediculus humanus capitis) are ectoparasites.
19.
Varroa
–
Varroa is a genus of parasitic mites associated with honey bees, placed in its own family, Varroidae. The genus was named for Marcus Terentius Varro, a Roman scholar, the condition of a honeybee colony being infested with Varroa mites is called varroosis. Research has indicated that alone, neither Varroa mites nor deformed wing virus are particularly deadly, Varroa mites were first discovered in Java about 1904, but are now present in all honey bee populations except Australia, Isle of Man and northern parts of Norway. They were discovered in the United States in 1987, in New Zealand in 2000, bee-breeding efforts to develop resistance against Varroa are ongoing. The USDA has developed a line of bees which uses Varroa-sensitive hygiene to remove reproductive mites and this line is now being distributed to beekeepers to be used as part of their integrated pest management programs. Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans,1904 is a relatively benign parasite of Apis cerana, Varroa rindereri de Guzman & Delfinado-Baker,1996 Varroa sinhai Varroa wongsirii Some honey bees strains have become resistant to Varroa. These strains have developed Varroa-sensitive hygiene behavior and can detect and remove Varroa in brood, data related to Varroa at Wikispecies Media related to Varroa at Wikimedia Commons
Varroa
–
Varroa
Varroa
–
Acariformes
20.
Honeybee
–
A honey bee is any bee member of the genus Apis, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the construction of perennial, colonial nests from wax. Currently, only seven species of bee are recognized, with a total of 44 subspecies, though historically. The best known honey bee is the Western honey bee which has been domesticated for honey production, Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the roughly 20,000 known species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey, including the stingless honey bees, the study of bees including honey bees is known as melittology. The genus name Apis is Latin for bee, nonetheless, compounds gradually solidify in the orthography of natural languages in ways that do not always comply with prescription. Honey bees appear to have their center of origin in South and Southeast Asia, notably, living representatives of the earliest lineages to diverge have their center of origin there. The first Apis bees appear in the record at the Eocene–Oligocene boundary. The origin of these prehistoric honey bees does not necessarily indicate Europe as the place of origin of the genus, few fossil deposits are known from South Asia, the suspected region of honey bee origin, and fewer still have been thoroughly studied. No Apis species existed in the New World during human times before the introduction of A. mellifera by Europeans, only one fossil species is documented from the New World, Apis nearctica, known from a single 14-million-year-old specimen from Nevada. The close relatives of modern honey bees – e. g. bumblebees and stingless bees – are also social to some degree, most species have historically been cultured or at least exploited for honey and beeswax by humans indigenous to their native ranges. Only two of these species have been domesticated, one at least since the time of the building of the Egyptian pyramids. Honey bees are the extant members of the tribe Apini. Todays honey bees constitute three clades, the chromosome counts of female bees for the three clades are, Micrapis 2N =16, Megapis 2N =16, and Apis 2N =32. Drones of all species have 1N chromosome counts, the genome of Apis has been mapped. Drones are produced from unfertilized eggs, so represent only the DNA of the queen that laid the eggs, workers and queens result from fertilized eggs, so have both a mother and a father. Arrhenotokous parthenogenesis, a form of parthenogenesis, controls sex differentiation. The sex allele is polymorphic, and so long as two different variants are present, a female bee results, if both sex alleles are identical, diploid drones are produced. Honey bees detect and destroy diploid drones after the eggs hatch, queens typically mate with multiple drones on more than one mating flight
Honeybee
Honeybee
–
Apis dorsata on
Tribulus terrestris in
Hyderabad, India
Honeybee
–
Apis dorsata on comb
Honeybee
–
Eastern honey bee (Apis cerana) from
Hong Kong
21.
Eriophyes tiliae
–
Eriophyes tiliae is a mite that forms the lime nail gall or bugle gall. It develops in a chemically induced gall, an erect, oblique or curved distortion rising up from the surface of the leaves of the common lime tree Tilia × europaea. During late spring and summer, tubular growths up to 5 millimetres long develop on the surface of lime tree leaves. These galls may be yellow-green or red in color, may be very numerous, several sub-species have been identified, partly identified by their positioning on the leaves in relation to the veins and other structures. The mites move onto the foliage in the spring, having overwintered in the bark crevices or around buds and these gall inducers are less than 0. Before the autumn, the mites, which up to now have been feeding and growing inside the galls, depart from these shielings. The mites will pass the winter in such locations and then the cycle will be repeated and this species is one amongst a number of gall-formers which can be superficially similar in appearance, however E. tilae tilae is restricted to lime trees. Some herbivorous insects create their own microhabitats by forming, in case, a highly distinctive plant structure called a gall, composed of plant tissue. Galls are both habitat and food source for their creator, the interior of a bedeguar gall is formed from the bud, and is composed of edible nutritious and structural tissues. Some galls act as sinks, concentrating resources in the gall from the surrounding plant parts. Galls may also provide the insect with physical protection from predators. The galls induced appear not to affect the health of the lime trees, eriophyes inangulis Oak marble gall Oak apple Oak artichoke gall Cola-nut gall Virtual Field Guide
Eriophyes tiliae
–
Eriophyes tiliae
Eriophyes tiliae
–
Upper surface
Eriophyes tiliae
–
Lower surface
22.
Invertebrate
–
Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column, derived from the notochord. This includes all animals apart from the subphylum Vertebrata, familiar examples of invertebrates include insects, crabs, lobsters and their kin, snails, clams, octopuses and their kin, starfish, sea-urchins and their kin, jellyfish, and worms. The majority of species are invertebrates, one estimate puts the figure at 97%. Many invertebrate taxa have a number and variety of species than the entire subphylum of Vertebrata. Some of the invertebrates, such as the Tunicata and Cephalochordata are more closely related to the vertebrates than to other invertebrates. This makes the term invertebrate paraphyletic and hence almost meaningless for taxonomic purposes, the word invertebrate comes from the form of the Latin word vertebra, which means a joint in general, and sometimes specifically a joint from the spinal column of a vertebrate. In turn the jointed aspect of vertebra derived from the concept of turning, coupled with the prefix in-, meaning not or without. The term invertebrates is not always precise among non-biologists since it does not accurately describe a taxon in the way that Arthropoda. Each of these describes an valid taxon, phylum, subphylum or family. Invertebrata is a term of convenience, not a taxon, it has very little circumscriptional significance except within the Chordata, the Vertebrata as a subphylum comprises such a small proportion of the Metazoa that to speak of the kingdom Animalia in terms of Vertebrata and Invertebrata has limited practicality. That would at least circumscribe the Chordata, however, even the notochord would be a less fundamental criterion than aspects of embryological development and symmetry or perhaps bauplan. The following text reflects earlier scientific understanding of the term and of animals which have constituted it. According to this understanding, invertebrates do not possess a skeleton of bone and they include hugely varied body plans. Many have fluid-filled, hydrostatic skeletons, like jellyfish or worms, others have hard exoskeletons, outer shells like those of insects and crustaceans. The most familiar invertebrates include the Protozoa, Porifera, Coelenterata, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Echinodermata, Mollusca, Arthropoda include insects, crustaceans and arachnids. By far the largest number of described species are insects. The following table lists the number of described extant species for major invertebrate groups as estimated in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species,2014.3. The IUCN estimates that 66,178 extant vertebrate species have been described, the trait that is common to all invertebrates is the absence of a vertebral column, this creates a distinction between invertebrates and vertebrates
Invertebrate
–
The common fruit fly,
Drosophila melanogaster, has been used extensively for research
Invertebrate
–
Insects
Invertebrate
–
Molluscs
Invertebrate
–
Crustaceans
23.
Habitat (ecology)
–
A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other type of organism. The term typically refers to the zone in which the organism lives and it is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population. Every organism has certain habitat needs for the conditions in which it will thrive, habitat types include polar, temperate, subtropical and tropical. The terrestrial vegetation type may be forest, steppe, grassland, the word habitat has been in use since about 1755 and derives from the Latin third-person singular present indicative of habitāre, to inhabit, from habēre, to have or to hold. Habitat can be defined as the environment of an organism. It is similar in meaning to a biotope, an area of environmental conditions associated with a particular community of plants. Generally speaking, animal communities are reliant on specific types of plant communities, some plants and animals are generalists, and their habitat requirements are met in a wide range of locations. The small white butterfly for example is found on all the continents of the world apart from Antarctica and its larvae feed on a wide range of Brassicas and various other plant species, and it thrives in any open location with diverse plant associations. Disturbance is important in the creation of biodiverse habitats, in the absence of disturbance, a climax vegetation cover develops that prevents the establishment of other species. Lightning strikes and toppled trees in tropical forests allow species richness to be maintained as pioneering species move in to fill the gaps created. Similarly coastal habitats can become dominated by kelp until the seabed is disturbed by a storm, another cause of disturbance is when an area may be overwhelmed by an invasive introduced species which is not kept under control by natural enemies in its new habitat. Terrestrial habitat types include forests, grasslands, wetlands and deserts, within these broad biomes are more specific habitats with varying climate types, temperature regimes, soils, altitudes and vegetation types. Many of these habitats grade into each other and each one has its own communities of plants. A habitat may suit a particular species well, but its presence or absence at any particular location depends to some extent on chance, on its dispersal abilities, freshwater habitats include rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, marshes and bogs. Although some organisms are found across most of these habitats, the majority have more specific requirements, similarly, aquatic plants can be floating, semi-submerged, submerged or grow in permanently or temporarily saturated soils besides bodies of water. Marine habitats include brackish water, estuaries, bays, the sea, the intertidal zone. Further variations include rock pools, sand banks, mudflats, brackish lagoons, sandy and pebbly beaches, the benthic zone or seabed provides a home for both static organisms, anchored to the substrate, and for a large range of organisms crawling on or burrowing into the surface. A desert is not the kind of habitat that favours the presence of amphibians, with their requirement for water to keep their skins moist, nevertheless, some frogs live in deserts, creating moist habitats underground and hibernating while conditions are adverse
Habitat (ecology)
–
This
coral reef in the
Phoenix Islands Protected Area is a rich habitat for sea life.
Habitat (ecology)
–
Few creatures make the
ice shelves of
Antarctica their habitat.
Habitat (ecology)
–
Subdisciplines
Habitat (ecology)
–
General
24.
Mold
–
A mold or mould is a fungus that grows in the form of multicellular filaments called hyphae. In contrast, fungi that can adopt a single-celled growth habit are called yeasts, molds are a large and taxonomically diverse number of fungal species in which the growth of hyphae results in discoloration and a fuzzy appearance, especially on food. The network of these tubular branching hyphae, called a mycelium, is considered a single organism, the hyphae are generally transparent, so the mycelium appears like very fine, fluffy white threads over the surface. Cross-walls may delimit connected compartments along the hyphae, each containing one or multiple, the dusty texture of many molds is caused by profuse production of asexual spores formed by differentiation at the ends of hyphae. The mode of formation and shape of spores is traditionally used to classify molds. Many of these spores are colored, making the much more obvious to the human eye at this stage in its life-cycle. Molds are considered to be microbes and do not form a taxonomic or phylogenetic grouping. In the past, most molds were classified within the Deuteromycota, molds cause biodegradation of natural materials, which can be unwanted when it becomes food spoilage or damage to property. They also play important roles in biotechnology and food science in the production of foods, beverages, antibiotics, pharmaceuticals. There are thousands of species of molds, which have diverse life-styles including saprotrophs, mesophiles, psychrophiles and thermophiles. They all require moisture for growth and some live in aquatic environments, like all fungi, molds derive energy not through photosynthesis but from the organic matter on which they live, utilising heterotrophy. Typically, molds secrete hydrolytic enzymes, mainly from the hyphal tips and these enzymes degrade complex biopolymers such as starch, cellulose and lignin into simpler substances which can be absorbed by the hyphae. In this way molds play a role in causing decomposition of organic material. Many molds also synthesise mycotoxins and siderophores which, together with lytic enzymes, molds can also grow on stored food for animals and humans, making the food unpalatable or toxic and are thus a major source of food losses and illness. Many strategies for food preservation are to prevent or slow growth as well as growth of other microbes. Molds reproduce by producing large numbers of spores, which may contain a single nucleus or be multinucleate. Mold spores can be asexual or sexual, many species can produce both types, other mold spores have slimy sheaths and are more suited to water dispersal. Mold spores are spherical or ovoid single cells, but can be multicellular
Mold
–
Mold growing on a
clementine
Mold
–
Mold growth covering a decaying
peach. The frames were taken approximately 12 hours apart over a period of six days.
Mold
–
Spinellus fusiger growing on the mushroom
Mycena haematopus
Mold
–
Moldy tomatoes
25.
Ecological niches
–
In ecology, a niche is a term with a variety of meanings related to the behavior of a species living under specific environmental conditions. The ecological niche describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors, the notion of ecological niche is central to ecological biogeography, which focuses on spatial patterns of ecological communities. Species distributions and their dynamics over time result from properties of the species, and interactions between the two — in particular the abilities of some species, especially our own, to modify their environments and alter the range dynamics of many other species. Alteration of a niche by its inhabitants is the topic of niche construction. Island biogeography can help explain island species and associated unfilled niches, the ecological meaning of niche comes from the meaning of niche as a recess in a wall for a statue, which itself is probably derived from the Middle French word nicher, meaning to nest. The Grinnellian niche concept embodies the idea that the niche of a species is determined by the habitat in which it lives, in other words, the niche is the sum of the habitat requirements and behaviors that allow a species to persist and produce offspring. Its niche is defined by the felicitous complementing of the thrashers behavior and this perspective of niche allows for the existence of both ecological equivalents and empty niches. In 1927 Charles Sutherland Elton, a British ecologist, defined a niche as follows, The niche of an animal means its place in the environment, its relations to food. Elton classified niches according to foraging activities, For instance there is the niche that is filled by birds of prey which eat small animals such as shrews, in an oak wood this niche is filled by tawny owls, while in the open grassland it is occupied by kestrels. Conceptually, the Eltonian niche introduces the idea of a response to. In an extreme example, beavers require certain resources in order to survive and reproduce, thus, the beaver affects the biotic and abiotic conditions of other species that live in and near the watershed. In a more subtle case, competitors that consume resources at different rates can lead to cycles in resource density that differ between species, not only do species grow differently with respect to resource density, their own population growth can lead to different effects on resource density over time. The hypervolume defines the space of resources available to organisms. The niche concept was popularized by the zoologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson in 1957, Hutchinson inquired into the question of why there are so many types of organisms in any one habitat. For such a distribution, the position, width and form of the niche correspond to the mean, standard deviation. This postulate, however, can be misguided, as it ignores the impacts that the resources of each category have on the organism, for instance, the resource in the overlap region can be non-limiting, in which case there is no competition for this resource despite niche overlap. An organism free of interference from other species could use the range of conditions and resources in which it could survive. Hutchinson used the idea of competition for resources as the mechanism driving ecology
Ecological niches
–
The
flightless dung beetle occupies a niche exploiting animal droppings as a food source
Ecological niches
–
The shape of the
bill of this
Purple-throated Carib is complementary to the shape of the flower, enabling it to exploit the nectar as a resource
Ecological niches
–
As a hemi-
parasitic plant, the
mistletoe in this tree exploits its host for nutrients and as a place to grow.
Ecological niches
–
Subdisciplines
26.
Oribatida
–
Oribatida, also known as moss mites or beetle mites, are an order of mites, in the chewing Acariformes clade Sarcoptiformes. They range in size from 0.2 to 1.4 millimetres, oribatid mites generally have low metabolic rates, slow development and low fecundity. Species are iteroparous with adults living a long time, for example. Oribatid mites have six instars, prelarva, larva,3 nymphal instars. The Oribatida are of importance as hosts of various tapeworm species. Oribatida is divided into the following taxa, Archegozetes longisetosus Conoppia palmicinctum Krantz, halliday, R. B. D. E. Walter, H. C. Proctor, R. A. Norton, M. J. Colloff, Acarology, Proceedings of the 10th International Congress. Mites in Soil, An interactive key to mites and other soil microarthropods, woolley, Tyler A. Acarology, Mites and Human Welfare
Oribatida
–
Oribatida
Oribatida
–
Acariformes
27.
Predation
–
In an ecosystem, predation is a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey. Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on it, but the act of predation often results in the death of the prey, thus predation is often, though not always, carnivory. Other categories of consumption are herbivory, fungivory, and detritivory, all of these are consumer-resource systems. It can often be difficult to separate various types of feeding behaviors. For example, some parasites prey on their host and then lay their eggs on it, for their offspring to feed on it while it continues to live, the key characteristic of predation is the predators direct impact on the prey population. Selective pressures imposed on one another leads to an evolutionary arms race between prey and predator, resulting in various antipredator adaptations. Ways of classifying predation include grouping by trophic level or diet, by specialization, Predators can be classified by their interactions with their prey. Two factors are considered here, how close the predator and prey are, and whether the prey is killed by the predator. A true predator is one that kills and eats another living thing, Predators may hunt actively for prey in pursuit predation, or sit and wait for prey to approach within striking distance, as in ambush predators. Some predation entails venom that subdues a prey before the predator ingests it, as in the box jellyfish, or disables it, in some cases, the venom contributes to the digestion of the prey, as in rattlesnakes and some spiders. In contrast, baleen whales eat millions of microscopic plankton at once, seed and egg predation are true predation, as seeds and eggs are potential organisms. Predators need not eat prey entirely, for example, some predators cannot digest bones, some may eat only part of an organism, but still consistently cause its death. Grazing organisms do not often kill their prey, while some herbivores like zooplankton live on unicellular phytoplankton and therefore, by the individualized nature of the organism, kill their prey, many others only eat a small part of the plant. Grazing livestock may pull some grass out at the roots, but most is simply grazed upon, kelp is frequently grazed in subtidal kelp forests, but regrows at the base of the blade continuously to cope with browsing pressure. Animals may also be grazed upon, female mosquitos land on hosts briefly to gain sufficient proteins for the development of their offspring, starfish may be grazed on, being capable of regenerating lost arms. Parasites can at times be difficult to distinguish from grazers and their feeding behavior is similar in many ways, however they are noted for their close association with their host species. This close living arrangement may be described by the symbiosis, living together. Parasitic organisms range from the mistletoe, a parasitic plant
Predation
–
A
South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) as the predator feeding on the
blesbuck as the prey
Predation
–
Indian python swallowing a small
chital deer at
Mudumalai National Park
Predation
–
Meat ants feeding on a
cicada; some species can
prey on individuals of far greater size, particularly when working cooperatively.
Predation
–
Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) killing a young
bushbuck (Tragelaphus sylvaticus) in
Kruger National Park.
28.
Parasitism
–
In biology/ecology, parasitism is a non-mutual relationship between species, where one species, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred primarily to organisms visible to the naked eye, Parasites can be microparasites, which are typically smaller, such as protozoa, viruses, and bacteria. Examples of parasites include the plants mistletoe and cuscuta, and animals such as hookworms, unlike predators, parasites typically do not kill their host, are generally much smaller than their host, and will often live in or on their host for an extended period. Both are special cases of consumer-resource interactions, Parasites show a high degree of specialization, and reproduce at a faster rate than their hosts. Classic examples of parasitism include interactions between vertebrate hosts and tapeworms, flukes, the Plasmodium species, and fleas, parasitism differs from the parasitoid relationship in that parasitoids generally kill their hosts. Parasites reduce host biological fitness by general or specialized pathology, such as parasitic castration and impairment of secondary sex characteristics, Parasites increase their own fitness by exploiting hosts for resources necessary for their survival, e. g. food, water, heat, habitat, and transmission. Although parasitism applies unambiguously to many cases, it is part of a continuum of types of interactions between species, rather than an exclusive category, in many cases, it is difficult to demonstrate harm to the host. In others, there may be no apparent specialization on the part of the parasite, coined in English in 1611, the word parasitism comes from the Greek παρά + σιτισμός feeding, fattening. Parasites are classified based on their interactions with their hosts and on their life cycles, an obligate parasite is totally dependent on the host to complete its life cycle, while a facultative parasite is not. A direct parasite has one host while an indirect parasite has multiple hosts. For indirect parasites, there always be a definitive host. Parasites that live on the outside of the host, either on the skin or the outgrowths of the skin, are called ectoparasites and those that live inside the host are called endoparasites. Endoparasites can exist in one of two forms, intercellular parasites or intracellular parasites, intracellular parasites, such as protozoa, bacteria or viruses, tend to rely on a third organism, which is generally known as the carrier or vector. The vector does the job of transmitting them to the host, an example of this interaction is the transmission of malaria, caused by a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium, to humans by the bite of an anopheline mosquito. Those parasites living in a position, being half-ectoparasites and half-endoparasites, are called mesoparasites. An epiparasite is one that feeds on another parasite and this relationship is also sometimes referred to as hyperparasitism, exemplified by a protozoan living in the digestive tract of a flea living on a dog. Social parasites take advantage of interactions between members of social organisms such as ants, termites, and bumblebees, an extreme example of social parasitism is the ant species of Tetramorium inquilinum of the Alps, which spend their whole lives on the back of Tetramorium host ants. With tiny and deprecated bodies they have evolved for one single task, if they fall off, they most likely would not have the strength to climb back on top of another ant, and eventually they will die
Parasitism
–
Brood parasitism is a form of parasitism
Parasitism
–
A
Tetragnatha montana spider parasitized by an
Acrodactyla quadrisculpta larva.
Parasitism
–
A
Lithognathus fish parasitized by a
Cymothoa exigua parasite.
Parasitism
–
Human head lice (
Pediculus humanus capitis) are ectoparasites.
29.
Pyroglyphidae
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Pyroglyphidae is a family of mites. It includes the house dust mite, the naming of the family originates from the fact that dust mites cause eczema, with intense itching and a red rash. The condition has been described as burns from fire on the skin, with a burning itching sensation. Data related to Pyroglyphidae at Wikispecies
Pyroglyphidae
–
Acariformes
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