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Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Droplet

A drop or droplet is a small column of liquid, bounded completely or almost completely by free surfaces. A drop may form when liquid accumulates at the lower end of a tube or other surface boundary, producing a hanging drop called a pendant drop. Drops may also be formed by the condensation of a vapor or by atomization of a larger mass of liquid.





Friday, 17 August 2012

Giraffe Weevil


   The giraffe weevil (Trachelophorus giraffa) is a weevil endemic to Madagascar.It derives its name from an extended neck much like that of the common giraffe. The giraffe weevil is sexually dimorphic, with the neck of the male typically being 2 to 3 times the length of that of the female. Most of the body is black with distinctive red elytra covering the flying wings. The total body length of the males is just under an inch (2.5 cm), among the longest for any Attelabid species. The extended neck is an adaptation that assists in nest building and fighting. When it comes time to breed, the mother-to-be will roll and secure a leaf of the host plant, Dichaetanthera cordifolia and Dichaetanthera arborea (a small tree in the family Melastomataceae), and then lay a single egg within the tube. She will then snip the roll from the remaining leaf in preparation of the egg hatching.

   Another beetle with a similar common name is the New Zealand giraffe weevil, Lasiorynchus barbicornis. This is the longest weevil in the world, and is from the family Brentidae.

Reference From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia







Monday, 6 August 2012

Cuckoo Bee




The Cuckoo Bee

The term cuckoo bee is used for a variety of different bee lineages which have evolved the kleptoparasitic habit of laying their eggs in the nests of other bees, reminiscent of the behavior of cuckoo birds. The name is technically best applied to the apid subfamily Nomadinae. Females of cuckoo bees can be easily recognized in almost all cases, as they lack pollen collecting structures (the scopa) and do not construct their own nests. They often have reduced body hair, abnormally thick and/or heavily sculptured exoskeleton, and saber-like mandibles, though this is not universally true, and other less visible changes are common, as well. 
They typically enter the nests of pollen-collecting species, and lay their eggs in cells provisioned by the host bee. When the cuckoo bee larva hatches it consumes the host larva's pollen ball, and, if the female kleptoparasite has not already done so, kills and eats the host larva. In a few cases where the hosts are social species (e.g., the subgenus Psithyrus of the genus Bombus, which are parasitic bumble bees that infiltrate nests of non-parasitic species of Bombus), the cleptoparasite remains in the host nest and lays many eggs, sometimes even killing the host queen and replacing her - such species are often called social parasites, though a few of them are also what are referred to as "brood parasites."
Many cuckoo bees are closely related to their hosts, and may bear similarities in appearance reflecting this relationship. This common pattern gave rise to the ecological principle known as "Emery's Rule". Others parasitize bees in different families, like Townsendiella, a nomadine apid, one species of which is a cleptoparasite of the melittid genus Hesperapis, while the other species in the same genus attack halictid bees.

Reference From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



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