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Dear Mummy：
Love you and miss you!
Have a great birthday!
Wishing you all the happiness in the world.
ChEn
Semelparity and iteroparity refer to the reproductive strategy of an organism. A species is considered semelparous if it is characterized by a single reproductive episode before death, and iteroparous if it is characterized by multiple reproductive cycles over the course of its lifetime. Some plant scientists use the parallel terms monocarpy and polycarpy. (See also plietesials: plants that grow for a number of years, flower gregariously (synchronously), set seed and then die.)
In truly semelparous species, death after reproduction is part of an overall strategy that includes putting all available resources into maximizing reproduction, at the expense of future life. In any iteroparous population there will be some individuals who die between their first and second reproductive episodes, but unless this is part of a syndrome of programmed death after reproduction, this would not be called semelparity.
Royal Palm, Roystonea regia, Lowlands, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami FL
The reproductive centre of a magnolia flower, located in the centre, is a cluster of stamens (male) and carpels (female), often resembling a small pineapple or pine cone.
Heterospecific mating attempts (a form of reproductive interference) are a well known phenomenon in anuran explosive breeders.
Notorious is the breeding frenzy of male common toads (Bufo bufo) which - in their scrambling for mates - not only form mating balls sometimes drowning unlucky females in the process, but also grab onto each other, syntopic anuran species, salamanders and other animate and inanimate objects. Toads have been observed clinging to a carp's forehead, drowning a water vole or hugging a clump of mud. Even a human hand will do.
Male moor frogs (Rana arvalis) on the other hand have developed a sky blue nuptial colouration which seems to serve as a visual cue enabling them to not waste time and energy in amplexus with each other during scrambling competition. This however doesn't keep them from wasting their resources clinging onto other non-blue stuff.
This is the one presentable shot I brought with me from a trip to Northern Germany in the first half of April which for various reasons had a lot less photography going on than I would normally have wished. Male R. arvalis only keep up their nuptial colouration for a few days each year and I've never seen them live during this phase.
This time, most of the spawning business was already done when I got there and the males had lost most of their colour, leaving only a blue tint on their brownish bodies a bit less intense than the picture suggests. However I was thoroughly stoked to discover these star crossed lovers, now being the second heterospecific mating attempt between anurans I could observe in the field.
Abgrabung bei Trappenkamp.
Yes, they're in a reproductive mood. But differently than you might think.
In flies, the female pokes her ovipositor into the seminal organ of the male; female is on the left in the photo, the male right. Once there, sperm ejaculate is forced into it, and she stores it until her eggs are ready to be ovideposited.
The Act is quite a feat: it usually takes at least 20 minutes and can last up to two hours. Ejaculative Time by the male is about 9 minutes. It has been claimed by entomologists that the time between those 9 minutes and those two hours shows that these Beasties enjoy what they're doing.
But I'm as much fascinated by the colors!
A macro of a Hibiscus. The reproductive system of the flower are the yellow stamens and the red pistils. The stamens are the male reproductive parts of the flower and the pistils are the female ones.
For further information about the anatomy of a Hibiscus, please refer to :
juridicious.com/2013/03/14/anatomy-of-a-hibiscus-part-2-e...
Australia is full steam ahead for the second stolen generation.
And just like the first the verdict is in “...it has been decided, that in a court you are not represented in, that for the benefit of your children, you will not raise them…”
Just blame everything on the rich?
As much as Elon Musk, and the other space venturing billionaires are criticized for their effort to commercialise space, unless we are successful in finding by an absolute miracle a remarkably similar planet, we will all suffer a horrible and inevitable fate. Mathematically it is a certainty that in the future, there will be no reproductive freedom as is currently known in the west. Unless we find another habitable planet, and exterminate more innocent living things, reproductive freedom as we know it will end. Can we not just terra form like the Weyland corporation of the Alien movies? Well terra forming is going to take an age, and we do not have that much time. It is a scenario, that l contemplated while studying the arts at university, ironically not one I was introduced to while studying the sciences. While studying the arts my lecturer, a doctorate holder in the arts, instructed me that the world population had been predicted to be held, or plateau at fourteen billion, a number l found horrific. The same lecturer once asked a class l was in, if we were a feminist or not, and to raise our hands if we were. Although it seemed like a name and shame process for those that did not, l raised my hand because l was, and it should be noted, l still am. Additionally it must be said that this writing that contains some of my dairy musings, is not an attack on feminism but a defence of it. Why would l be seemingly critical of feminism? Because feminism is floundering. Why was this number of fourteen billion so horrific to feminism in my opinion? I thought it was horrific, not just for the sheer distress it will place on the planet, but for the fact that when we as a planet hit a population of fourteen billion, the beauty of having children will not be available for all women, nor all men. Reproductive freedom will end; and with it, sex as we know it too, thus leaving sexual freedom to become a misnomer.
The scenario led me to question both the process and motives for procreation. It led me to explore the politics and motives for state sanctions, state subsidies, and or the construction of the system that takes children away from their parents. In my research and study, l realised, l was not alone, and that much of what l was contemplating was nothing original. Many have contemplated the issues l looked at, and many have considered those issues before me; but l do not think, that it was comprehended that a second stolen generation, had, or would have, occurred. In the supposed emancipation of woman, who would have thought, that in the attempt to achieve it, children would be abducted by the state once again. Mournfully l do not think that it is possible to talk freely about it without ridicule, and the sadness that means for us all. It causes a lot of personal introspection about the motives of the people who perpetrated it, and who would have a vested interest, in a process that lost its way. One that has and manages to cause so much damage. But what has occurred too once again cause the theft of children? What would be the motive for this? Has the scenario of breeding been high jacked with well-meaning state sanctions, and its mutation, promoted with it, the prostitution of motherhood, via well-meaning state subsidies? Was this a repeat of the old colonial system? Despite the necessity for a safety net, the family unit was, and is prostituted with state subsidies here in Australia. And I contemplated heavily about a presumption that it might be said that those involved where both bad men and bad woman. I thought that this thought pattern would be a simplistic one, when the state had caused it, with state overreach. It was, and is promoted with, populist political pork barrelling of the individual…
With those in custody of their children paid more money by the state to not stay with the person they had their children with, what other choice was there? I understand the conundrum of the safety net, and the position everyone is in, but the sanctions, and subsidies, have caused a radical shift, and that shift has occurred in a noticeably brief period of time. It has changed where the centre of the gaussian curves to produce children are positioned. Gaussian curves that took thousands of years to position, with both nature and nurture… This new positioning of the centre of the gaussian curves, has widely occurred in countries where neo feminism is practiced, as opposed to where feminism was being applied. It has become a process promoted with postcolonial western dogma, for some countries in the west, including Australia. Is it part of the decolonisation of west? Is part of postcolonialism to take children away from their fathers, and to dismantle the family unit? One of the reasons why l contemplate why it happened, is that it goes against what the world’s greatest feminist, my grandmother, and what she had taught me by her example. She taught me that you do not expect others to pay for your privilege, you earn it. The Questions are, who has, or will shoulder the cost of this new system? Who is paying for the repositioning of those mathematical bell-shaped curves? And as always, there are rhetorical questions, such as. Is, or was it, a finite system, for both monies, and the custody of the children? Did it become a system where you rob Peter to pay Paul? And in this experiment of monumental size, and consequences, are the social scientists making up numbers like the reserve banks of the world? And do they not consider that unlike the digital world where money has no limit, in the real-world people do.
The academic narrative is that the old patriarchal system used to run men into cannons in the name of nationalism. The men were called cannon fodder. It was said that they, the patriarchy, were leading lambs to the slaughter. A modern term seemed to morph from this, and it was sheeple. But with the destruction of feminism’s admirable objective, that of equality of opportunity, a new group of cannon fodder or sheeple has been produced, and it has occurred via a second stolen generation. In counting people like numbers of a herd, instead of as individuals with inalienable rights, are the sheeple, being treated anything less than statistical cannon fodder? The question is who or what does this new stolen generation serve? Could the feminists have been deliberately misguided to a non-beneficial objective or was it an initiative-taking result of neo feminist dogma. Neo feminism that is in opposition to my grandmother’s example and the feminists of her era, seems to feature heavily in the neo feminist movement. Were the results inevitable once the contributions that males make to their families were disrespected. The result of that disrespect is that it has produced a second stolen generation. And just like the first stolen generation it comes from the undervaluing of a parent’s right to raise their children, and how valuable that contribution is in the future wellbeing of the child or children. The statistics are that in Australia 45% of court proceedings result in sole custody being awarded to the mother. In contrast only 11% of fathers will receive sole custody. Only 3% of court cases result in a Court Order that mandates no contact with one of the child’s parents, 83% of the time the mother ended up with custody.
Like the old government Aboriginal protection board, the new system is weighted in favour of children being taken away from those deemed as unessicary, unessicary for anything other than their labour. In the old protectorate system, children were taken away from Aboriginal mothers who were the predominate raisers of children. And just like the current stolen generation it is was said to have been done for the greater good. To paraphrase the band Midnight Oil’s song and its themes, what a “…Short Memory…” Under the new government child protectorate board, woman are receiving custody, at a rate that makes feminism seem like a pathetic ideal. Feminism was sold as being about equality of the sexes, but this is far from what has been achieved when it comes to who receives child custody of the children. With most children being taken away from their fathers by the court or given up by their fathers due to a financial reality. The reality is that his family, would get more money on single parent benefits while he worked and subsided the family while in isolation. The result of this process involving court rulings and financial stimulus, is that the numbers of this second stolen generation far exceed the first one. The first stolen generation saw approximately 100 000 Australian Aboriginal children taken from their families. And it was horrific. The new system sees 1 in 3 marriages end in divorce, on average, at the 12-year mark. Every year around thirty-nine thousand marriages are broken, a statistic that does not include unmarried couples. (It is a poor statistic, but l tried typing in “…how many children are taken away from their fathers in Australia…” and got back metaphoric crickets chirping. I wanted a definitive number, a number that would drive home the scale of the incident or crime.) Of those marriages that have children they predominantly go to the mother both by court edict, and or end up with the mother, as it is more economically advantages, under the Australian state subsidised system. Yes, the state here in Australia pays a person to separate from their child’s other parent. In Australia, the state pays you to break apart your family.
But where is the word sorry? Who will say sorry to a group of people systemically discriminated against, and reduced to nothing more than a pay-packet? Where is the word sorry for repeating the atrocities of the past? It has been said, like a paraphrase of the old system, and to reiterate, “…it has been found, in a court that you are not represented in, that for the benefit of your child, you will not raise them…” How are men not represented in a court that has predominately male judges? Well, it is not certainly their peer group. How many blue-collar men are actively recruited to work at the court other than as guards, let alone employed to give decisions on where children go? No, the decision making is left to university educated individuals. Individuals with the majority of their self-experience of the struggle of modern-day blue-collar males, being their meetings in the court, where the men are under extreme duress. It is not just the court, it is also a state-run social system, ran by a populist mob, with a populist rhetoric all its own. To herd the sheeple, all you need to know are the trigger words, trigger words which enable you to dog whistle the submissive into position. With most separations happening in lower socio-economic groups, there is a chasm between the have, and the have nots. That chasm extends to where the have nots children end up doing their domestic service, or labouring jobs for the rich, and it is starkly statistically evident. Yes, just like the first stolen generation, the stolen children are prepared for a life of service. A life of service to those considered better than them. On the modern-day mission, constructed of state sanctions, is a subsidised commission house, the state subsidised school, the state subsidized childcare, state subsidized health care, and state subsidized and promoted single parent further education. Under this system of reward, where is the incentive to allow children to grow up in close, and constant contact, with their father? The result is state built expectations for the dreams of the children involved. As a parent, Martin Luther King may have had a dream for his children, but in Australia, if you are blue collar, the state does it for you, not the parents. They will on average, never go onto receive equality of opportunity, when it comes to raising their children. Fathers that are someone’s son, uncle, nephew, grandfather, brother, and father, will never see feminism’s final objective, when it comes to equality of opportunity. Because it currently does not exist and has not existed. At lower wages, and lower salaries, there is no financial incentive for a woman to stay with the father of her children. The only incentive is that her children will be statistically less likely to go to jail, and or have better social outcomes on average if she stays with her male partner. Ironically, this does not seem to be enough. The fact is, the math is simple, and commonly known in the lower socioeconomic groups of both woman and men. The subsidies push for a separation of the family. The accounting is not hard, and it is in gross favour of the destruction of the family unit.
The result of this neo feminist abuse in the name of feminism, has resulted in most men who separate from their partners being denied the human right, of raising their children. For some men it is deprived even on a part time basis. Most will have their children taken away from them by the state, one way, or another. With what is a rebirth of the processes of the old Aboriginal state protectorate board, children are stolen regardless of race from their parents. It is done under the guise that it is for the benefit of both the children and society. It is part of the state propagated and sponsored system, and it is backed by the social sciences. What type of science relies on statistical outliers for the absolute stifling via political debate on the subject? Given the growth of jails, jails first filled with the males of the first stolen generation, that now filled with males of the second stolen generations, when will this process of child abduction be admitted, that it is an unmitigated failure by the social sciences. If it cannot be seen for what it graphically is, what would be the motives for this? If the plan were to have as many men in jail as possible, they have backed the proverbial winner. If the plan were to produce as many single mothers as possible, they could not have tried harder or been much more successful. How can the raising of children be reduced to political catch phrases, catch phrases that site statistical outliers as the average or the norm? It has produced a state sanctioned system, that with huge sweeps of the political and social broad sword, has decimated the functioning of Australian family units. So, who was put to the metaphoric sword for crimes they did not commit, denied basic human rights, that where legitimized with legal judgments? Legal judgments that ended in deaths for many of those subjected to their mandates? And to be utterly factious. Who would have thought that stealing or abducting a person’s child, or children, would drive so many to commit suicide? If death was an all-too-common outcome, did this new process become a process of statistically generated murder, or wilful collateral damage. Was this the cost for an objective that did not and does not serve the greater good of society? Add in a social narrative, where the patriarchy is responsible for all the world’s past evils, and it becomes highly ironic, that the reality is, that many Aboriginal missions were staffed by mostly woman, and that most schools are currently staffed by a majority of woman. Do not let the labelling or othering misdirect you though, all you need to do is just do a few substitutions for the new perpetrators of the new stolen generation, and you will get the picture. And it should be noted, that trying to find out the number of women involved in the first stolen generation is another statistic that the internet seems to have put off the search engine radar. How many women were involved or were instigators in both stolen generations? Well, the internet does not seem to have a number. It is essentially a narrative omission, one that suits a university spread historical take on the evils of colonialism and the patriarchy. I suppose the women involved where just following orders? An excuse that Nazi prison guards of the World War two death camps where not allowed to use. What will be the excuse, when it is widely recognised, that a second stolen generation has occurred? Who will be blamed, and who will say sorry? And when will it be admitted that the children of the second stolen generation suffer just like the first.
The ethical and moral dilemma did not end there, it has turned into a veritable sexual, and reproductive Smorgasbord, with one in five woman having children to more than one father in the west. Just turn the lazy Suzanne past the not so tasty ones. Males once catered for in the antiquated old system of marriage, are not so much anymore. More concerning was, and is, the beath of blood lines, with some men fathering many children to many women, and some men fathering none. These males are among the unseen, and not so readily available statistics, of state sanctioned or generated genocide. A genocide of undesirable breeding males? Why would these statistics be hard to find? It must be unpopular to count the numbers of dead males, and to attribute those dead people a cause of death, let alone to count, all the millions of children, and their descendance, that have been adversely affected. Why would a university, which teaches the universal evil of males, instruct about the abuses inflicted on males? Who will pay for those statistics on crimes against humanity to be generated, and who will make them publicly available? What arts faculty which preaches ad verbatim the evils of the patriarchy, will disseminate those statistics? When will relevant word searches find or highlight those statistics, without wading through irrelevant internet search results, search results carefully worded about the inadequacies of men? Search results, not related to the theft of their children, and the death of those fathers. Men who were someone’s son.
Considering the worst-case scenario is like reading the communist manifesto, of Marx, with a few modern twists. Was it a deliberate act by those in positions of power to create a new proletariat class, and have them used as statistical cannon fodder? Was it a heinous statisticians act to use expendable males in a new form of class warfare? Class warfare where they were written off, and culled with hidden statistics? If the males did not like it, will they be given a metaphoric white feather like those that were non-combatants of the first world war? Ridiculed for their lack of new age moral stoicism? Just like a war, the theft of children has caused many men to die. And to ask a rhetorical question. Does that number exceed some of the West’s modern wars?
The theft of children has undoubtably once again caused a deprivation of human rights, in a systemic process, of state sanctioned discrimination. More children than the number who suffer a process of state sanctioned, and state subsidised bastardisation of their children have been affected. Is it systemic state sanctioned discrimination? Yes. And just like the first stolen generation we are seeing a higher incidence of crime and incarceration produced. Additionally, like the first stolen generation, we also see education standards dropping. As a result of the enforcement of this new well-meaning sate sanctioned atrocity, those that instigate and enforce it via law, do it without due regard for the on average poorer outcomes that it produces for all families. For if they cared, why would they keep doing something they know fails. Why would they keep applying dogma, that on average fails to produce good outcomes? It is yet another well-meaning state system that has failed. In the process of its production, they did not shatter the nuclear family; they attacked or mutated all types of families in the west. And like most cellular mutations they were predominantly unfavourable mutations; mutations that resulted in a cancer or a sickness. Is this what has become of the feminist movement? The destruction of the family unit, replaced by the pseudo utopian fallacy that a village raises a child? It made me consider the satirical proposition. Where is this magical Smurf village? In a world where mega cities contain approximately half of the world’s population? Cities so large, that they metaphorically step over the living dead in the street. Where is the humanity in this lie, a lie that sees children once again stolen from their parents? Children stolen from their parents for their best interests, and for the greater good.
Is this what feminism has become? Not equality of opportunity like my grandmother taught me, but a process where the males in neo feminists societies pay disproportionality for the privileges of males and females they were never to be included in the lives of? And do those newly acquired rights, include the ability to destroy the lives on average of those stolen children? The rhetorical question is, did a minority of men and the majority of woman gain rights in a finite system, and thus take away justice from the innocent males in their own families? Did they gain their freedoms by taking away rights from someone else’s male children, including their own? What has happened, does not even approach equality of outcome, let alone equality of opportunity. For if that was the objective of neo feminism, it has failed! There is no equality in a system that steals children from their parents, and then sees the children on average worse off.
With the race now on to hit fourteen billion, l asked the question who will be allowed to breed when we hit that number? Will it be the children of broken families? Families that on average show a higher chance of both having poor social outcomes, and being burdens on society? Did they, (they, being those that help set up this democratically undebatable hot potato,) know selective breeding will or must happen, and did they not inform the public? If they are not truthful and forth right with the public, how does, or will, democracy work? How will democracy function, when its most fundamental asset its citizens, cannot make an informed decision? When will informed consent be allowed, and thus given? And was, or has informed consent been taken away from lower socio-economic sons, fathers, uncles, brothers, and grandfathers? It is a rhetorical question, as how can they consent when they have no other option? Consent cannot be given when only one option is presented. Without informed consent the neo feminists have done exactly that, they have taken away informed consent. For some men, or sons, it is a death sentence. For some families it is a form of genocide, with no chance of their males having male children.
In this now neo feminist western world, is every position of power to be held or filled with a failed neo feminist? One that expects the freedoms they push for, to be paid for by someone other than themselves? Is not that a variation of the old class system? Are all positions of power to be held by a social engineering arts degree holder, as opposed to the mathematician, scientist, or the no academic? Modern day neo feminism has become not about gaining equal personal rights and freedoms like traditional feminism wanted, but taking those rights away from others, and having others pay for those newly acquired rights. It was a finite system, and once equality was exceeded in the family court, it was boys and men in families that paid the price. They paid for it by becoming involuntary subjects in an experiment, an unethical experiment. It saw them become indentured labourers, or logic gated like cattle, for both breeding and function. As a result, they have had their children stolen on mass. Logically it forced me to think of a foul consideration if l had a son, the consideration was, “would I like the chance that my son was to be considered a steer, a steer in a cattle yard, presented with little choice but the slaughter gate in a system that is manifestly designed not to serve them?” Or do we, including me, believe he whomever he is, as in your son, my son, is, or will be, the breeding bull? This degradation of human rights, involving the theft of children, has become about men paying for those newly acquired breeding powers of the state. Not the breeding powers of females. And it has seen many men written off as genetically unworthy, financial burdens, and or unfashionably undesirable.
Who paid for this power transfer? In the majority in the west, and to reiterate ad nauseum once again, it was the brothers, the sons, the fathers, the uncles, and the grandfathers, of lower income families. Who does it tax? Mostly, new sons. And who is most likely to die? Mostly, new sons. Just like in the world wars. Recently it was repeatedly and publicly stated in the US, that society should be about emotive feelings and not mathematics. In that math less future that selectively counts the dead, have the West’s female neo feminists and their male sycophants become the ultimate narcissists? What used to be about the feelings of the majority as in democracy, has become the feelings of a minority, and the majority are not being served. And to sight the doctrine of Engels and Marx, there is an oppressor and the repressed. Not so ironically Engels and Marx where right, the ruling class can and sometimes do become the oppressors. Just like the first stolen generation, those in power, took the children away from the those with no power, and the market economy that produced both these travesties was politics. And just like the first stolen generation the second stolen generation are used for sex, and bred like cattle, by those in positions of power. Was this all done in the name of so-called reproductive and sexual freedom? To produce on mass, a modern-day proletariat class. Was it done for feminist rights? Who were these new freedoms for? Freedoms that with absolute mathematical certainty will end unless Musk and Co can find us a new planet? What a dark period in history it will be remember as. What type of blindness sees the facade of reproductive freedom used so that breeding in all countries will be eventually limited, to a certain few. If we extrapolate for its occurrence, it is already happening. And who will be this breeding few? Do the people instigating this system think it is them? In a derivation of Marx and Engle’s conversation on economy, the ruling class no longer deal in money, they deal in children. And if the ruling class’s children are competing against the children of single mothers, they statistically have a better chance of attaining positions of power over them. But unlike the old class system, as identified by Marx and Engels, those classed as better in the future, will have an increased chance of breeding if it comes down to an engineered fallacy of social or genetic merit. Future breeding events may not ironically include neo feminist blood lines regardless of their families’ countries of origin or race. Are these people and their political associates’ regardless of sex, poor at mathematics? Do they believe that they are the chosen ones, as they surround themselves with sycophants, in an echo chamber?
How quickly, these persecuted pacifists or people of peace, have ascended to positions of power. But if we are permitted, or allowed, to count the dead, or those in prison, they are far from peaceful, nor powerless. Despite the numbers of the dead, and the sure failure of their new breeding system, the fallacy of reproductive freedom is still being sold and wielded by neo feminists. Like snake oil salespeople they and their political associates sell it as one of the panaceas for all the world’s problems. But wholistically, it is a betrayal of their families, themselves, and especially their sons. If they say they cannot do exponential population growth extrapolations, they are either lying or incompetent. It produces a graph, one that l have been instructed at university level, will end at a very blunt fourteen billion. Provided that the narcissist neo feminist’s mirror has an immediate sexual gratification, who should care about the brutal reality of maths, and what will most certainly happen? Provided someone other than mothers pay for the raising of their children, l suppose it is clear sailing till we hit an iceberg, an iceberg that is the size of a mountain sitting in plain sight. An iceberg with two thirds of its body hidden below the surface of the water. An iceberg, hidden in the dark unnoticed due to hard to acquire statistics, and unavailable definitive finite numbers. And to paraphrase Edward John Smith, (the captain of the Titanic), it is “…full steam ahead…”, “…this ship is unsinkable…”, while the rich danced, and the poor where locked in the lower decks to drown.
“Short memory” ...
The reproductive parts of the Hibiscus flower. The female reproductive part, the pistil, is the red central stalk up to the five red tips (the stigma which receives pollen for fertilization). The yellow part is the male reproductive part which is called the stamen. The stamen is composed of the filament and the anther (pollen sac).
pistil, the female reproductive part of a flower. The pistil, centrally located, typically consists of a swollen base, the ovary, which contains the potential seeds, or ovules; a stalk, or style, arising from the ovary; and a pollen-receptive tip, the stigma, variously shaped and often sticky.
Differences in the composition and form of the pistil are useful in determining taxonomic relationships. There may be a single pistil, as in the lily, or several to many pistils, as in the buttercup. Each pistil is constructed of from one to many enrolled leaflike structures, or carpels. The carpel is a single megasporophyll, or modified seed-bearing leaf. A pistil then may be composed of one carpel (simple pistil), as in the sweet pea, or of two or more carpels (compound pistil) partially or completely joined, as in the mustard (two carpels) or lily (three carpels).
A flower that contains separate pistils (and therefore separate carpels) is termed apocarpous; if it contains a single pistil with two or more united carpels, it is syncarpous.
Pistils in the collective sense form the gynoecium, in distinction to the male reproductive parts, or androecium.
- From Encyclopedia Britannica
Male reproductive organs are at the end of the abdomen but his copulatory organs are at the front of the abdomen. Before searching for a mate he has to transfer the sperm from the tip of the abdomen to the front so he can use the claspers at the tip to grasp and hold the female by the neck to keep her from getting away. She bends her body so the tip of her abdomen makes contact with his copulatory organs to collect the sperm. This is known as the copulation wheel.
Apis Mellifera, Western Honey Bee,
Like all Honey Bees the Western Honey Bee is eusocial, creating colonies. One single fertile female known as the “Queen” the other non-reproductive females in the colony are known as “workers”. “Drones” are fertile males that only represent a small number of bees in a colony.
Apis is Latin for “Bee” and mellifera is the Latin for "honey-bearing.
Apis Mellifera is the most common species of Honey Bee.
Colony behaviour is organised by complex communication between fellow individuals by the way of dance language and pheromones.
This species was one of the first domesticated insects and is the primary species preserved by beekeepers to present day and also a very important pollinator for agriculture world-wide. All Honey Bees are threatened by pests and diseases, especially the varroa mite and colony collapse disorder; not mention countless other insects that prey on the “Honey Bee.” It is believed to have originated in Africa, with human assistance; the western honey bee now occupies every continent except Antarctica.
Honey bees have perennial colonies unlike most other bee species, these colonies survive year after year because of this high degree of sociality and permanence, honey bee colonies similar to “ant colonies” can be considered superorganisms. meaning that reproduction of the colony, rather than individual bees; is the biologically significant unit. Honey bee colonies reproduce through a process called "swarming."
In most climates swarming usually takes place in the spring to early summer, when there is a plentiful supply of nectar and pollen. This is when the hive creates one to two dozen new queens. Just as the pupal stages of these "daughter queens" are nearly complete, the present queen and approximately two-thirds of the adult workers leave the colony in a swarm, traveling some distance to find a new location suitable for building a hive (e.g., a hollow tree trunk). In the old colony, the daughter queens often start "piping", just prior to emerging as adults. When the new young queens eventually emerge, they fight each other until only one remains; the survivor then becomes the new queen. If one of the sister queens emerges before the others, she has the chance to kill her siblings while they are still pupae.
Once the new queen has no rivals she becomes the only fertile female and begins to lay all the eggs for the already established colony; which her mother has left. Virgin females are able to lay eggs, which develop into males (a trait shared with wasps, bees, and ants because of haplodiploidy.). However, she requires a mate to produce female offspring, which comprise 90% or more of bees in the colony at any given time. Thus, the new queen goes on one or more nuptial flights, each time mating with 1–17 drones. Once she has finished mating, usually within two weeks of emerging, she remains in the hive, laying eggs.
Throughout the rest of the growing season, the colony produces many workers, who gather pollen and nectar as cold-season food; the average population of a healthy hive in midsummer may be as high as 40,000 to 80,000 bees. Nectar from flowers is processed by the “workers” who evaporate it until the moisture content is low enough to discourage mould, transforming it into honey which can then be capped over with wax and stored almost indefinitely. In the temperate climates to which western honey bees are adapted, the bees gather in their hive and wait out the cold season, during which the queen may stop laying. During this time, activity is slow, and the colony consumes its stores of honey used for metabolic heat production in the cold season. In mid- through late winter, the queen starts laying again. This is probably triggered by day- light hours increasing. Depending on the subspecies, new queens (and swarms) may be produced every year, or less frequently, depending on local environmental conditions.
Like other insects that undergo complete metamorphosis western honey bee has four distinct life stages: egg, larva, pupa and eventually adult stage. The complex social structure of honey bee hives means that all of these life stages occur simultaneously throughout much of the year. The queen deposits a single egg into each cell of a honeycomb prepared by worker bees. The egg hatches into a legless, eyeless larva fed by "nurse" bees (nurse bees are worker bees who maintain the interior of the colony). After about a week, the larva is sealed in its cell by the nurse bees and begins its pupal stage. After another week, it emerges as an adult bee. It is common for defined regions of the comb to be filled with young bees (also called "brood"), while others are filled with pollen and honey stores.
Worker bees secrete the wax used to build the hive, clean, maintain and guard it, raise the young and forage for nectar and pollen; the nature of the worker's role varies with age. For the first ten days of their lives, worker bees clean the hive and feed the larvae. After this, they begin building comb cells. On days 16 through 20, workers receive nectar and pollen from older workers and store it. After the 20th day, a worker leaves the hive and spends the remainder of its life as a forager. Although worker bees are usually infertile females, when some subspecies are stressed they then have a chance of laying fertile eggs. Since workers are not fully sexually developed, they do not mate with drones and thus can only produce haploid (male) offspring.
Queens and workers have a modified ovipositor, which converts into stinger with which they defend the hive. Unlike bees of any other genus and the queens of their own species, the stinger of worker bee is barbed. Contrary to popular belief, a bee does not always die soon after stinging; this misconception is based on the fact that a bee will usually die after stinging a human or other “thick” skinned mammal. The stinger and its venom sac, with musculature and a ganglion allowing them to continue delivering venom after they are detached, are designed to pull free from the body when they lodge. This apparatus (including barbs on the stinger) is thought to have evolved in response to predation by vertebrates, since the barbs do not function (and the stinger apparatus does not detach) unless the stinger is embedded in elastic material. The barbs do not always "catch", so a bee may occasionally pull its stinger free and fly off unharmed (or sting again).
Normal lifespan for the queen “Honey Bees” is three to five years, beekeepers often replace queens every year or two because their fertility rate decreases with age.
The lifespan of workers varies considerably over the year in regions with long winters. Workers born in spring and summer will work hard, living only a few weeks, but those born in autumn will remain inside for several months as the colony clusters. On average during the year, about one percent of a colony's worker bees die naturally per day. Except for the queen, all of a colony's workers are replaced about every four months.
This evening, I was eating some leftover pasta that I had just taken out of the microwave. It had been in there a bit too long, and when I went to take a bite, a piece fell from my fork and landed on my wrist. I could feel it burning into the outer layer of skin. It hurt quite a lot, but my hands were full and there was nothing I could do quickly without making a mess. I remember the pain, sure, but I recall no reaction. Sometimes I wonder how many of our emotional outbursts and sensory reactions are merely a performance for whoever happens to be watching. Why do we shout in response to reality? Why do we swear over the simplest things? The more pain I feel, emotion or physical, the closer I am drawn to silence. Everything pulls inward, like a tortoise to its shell. The sound and fury suggest that things have not yet reached their worst. When quiet comes, only then is the pain truly unbearable.
Reproductive (alates) Rough Harvester Ants (Pogonomyrmex rugosus) mating; Agate House; Petrified Forest National Park, E of Holbrook, AZ
无数的人从边缘而来，是因为被它灯红酒绿的迷幻吸引，无数耸立的高楼大厦只代表了生殖崇拜的图腾，出卖身体向着权贵仰望财富，出卖灵魂看到的是欲望无边的天际线；城市之光太过于耀眼，以至于他们有的迷失在夜的边缘，有的已忘记了来时的方向。
摩天大楼是人们心中生殖崇拜的“图腾柱”
摩天大楼是技术、财富、想象力的物化。“天人合一”的集体意识是建造摩天大楼动因之一，在人类社会历史中，男性的身体、思维和能力在很长一段时期左右着社会发展，并渐渐形成了以男性阳具为主的生殖崇拜。中国科学院心理学研究所心理分析师朱松认为这种生殖崇拜在原始社会以“图腾柱”的形式表现，它不仅是现代大楼的前生，而且还是各种向上挺立的建筑物的共同祖先。而摩天大楼无疑是最好的阳刚代表。
Sex and City，We feel lost and desperate in night life.
欲望都市中，我们迷失了来时的方向。
" One Of The Many Fine Samba Dancers Taking Part In This Years Brazilica Carnival Parade Way Back In July This Year...Up-Loaded To Brighten Up The Misery That Is GB In November...(overcast skies and wet, or, clear skies and bloody freezing)
Copyright ©
All My Photographic Images Are Subject To Copyright ! Each Of My Photographs Remain My Intellectual Property ! All Rights Are Reserved And As Such, Do Not Use, Modify, Copy, Edit, Distribute Or Publish Any Of My Photographs ! If You Wish To Use Any Of My Photographs For Any Reproductive Purposes, Or Other Uses, My Written Permission Is Specifically Required, Contact Me Via Flickr Mail !
This guy has a very special reproductive behaviour. After she has selected the cockroach of its choice. The wasp would then surgically and strategically stings this baby to paralyse and turning it into a host for her offspring to feed on.
size : 20mm
No wonder these folks always hang around dustbins and rubbish dumps where there is a plentiful supply of their prey.
Looks like she is dressed in a shiny green body armour.
@bt panjag, sg
Lately have came to know the cockroach has just revealed another secret to the researchers. Its amazing reproductive rate suggest that they ought to be great fuckers, making love all the time. But in reality, the truth is far from it. In fact the female only mate once in its entire life. Its possess a very special ability to store and maintain healthy sperm in its body. This unique behaviour allows the female to fertilize the eggs herself without the need to seek the help of a mate. Thus allowing the reproductive cycle to takes place anytime anywhere anyhow.
No wonder they just simply can't be eliminated. Their hardiness is another major contributing factor to their survival.
Not only they are able to withstand the most extreme weather condition they are also able to withstand extremely high level of harmful radiation which most living things can't.
These fuckers is probably the only creature to emerge unscathed after a nuclear holocaust broke out on earth where all humans and along with the plants and animals that we are associated with are completely wipe out.
Hmmm...that makes me wonder if one day we are able to make them surrender their blueprint of their unique properties we might be able to survive a little bit longer here on mother earth.
One thing for sure I won't adapt from them if I'm a female is their sexual behaviour kind of boring.....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_flying_fox
The Indian flying fox (Pteropus giganteus), also known as the greater Indian fruit bat, is a species of flying fox in the Pteropodidae family. It is nocturnal and feeds mainly on ripe fruits, such as mangoes and bananas, and nectar.
Habitat
The Indian flying fox lives in rain forests and swamps, where a large body of water is nearby.[2] It is found in Bangladesh, China, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Culture
Known as මා වවුලා (maa wawula) in Sinhala.
Feeding
The Indian flying fox is frugivorous or nectarivorous, i.e., they eat fruits or lick nectar from flowers. At dusk, these bats forage for ripe fruit. While ingesting fruit, these bats expel waste that pollinates and disperse seeds.
Reproduction
Mating System: P. giganteus is a polygynandrous species, and breeds yearly from July to October. Births occur from February to May. Gestation period is typically 140 to 150 days. The average birth number is 1 to 2 pups. Among members of the genus Pteropus, pups are carried by the mother for the first few weeks of life, with weaning occurring around 5 months of age. Males do not participate in parental care. Young bats learn to fly at approximately 11 weeks of age. Reproductive maturity occurs at 1.5 years. [3]
Natural reservoirs of disease
Like other fruit bats, the Indian flying fox may be a natural reservoir for a number of diseases including members of the groups Henipavirus and Coronavirus. These can prove fatal to humans and domestic animals.[4][5] Fruit bats are considered a delicacy by South Pacific Islanders as well as in Micronesia where, on the island of Guam, consumption has been suggested as a possible cause of Lytico-Bodig disease.[
and........
Just in case you might want to know or are in need of a refresher :~)
The Stamens.
The stamens form the third whorl on the inside of the corolla. Each stamen is made up of a slender flexible filament which supports the anther at its end. The anther is the male reproductive organ in a flower.
Functions
* The anther produces pollen grains which contain the male reproductive cells;<
* The filament bears and supports the anther in the most suitable position for pollen transfer to take place.
The Pistils.
The pistil is the fourth and the innermost whorl of the flower. It consists of a basal, swollen portion, the ovary, from which a long and slender style arises. The stigma is found at the tip of the style. The pistil is the female reproductive organ.
Functions
* The ovary is a hollow cavity which contains the ovules.
* Each ovule contains an egg cell.
* The elongated style bears the stigma in the most suitable position for receiving pollen during pollination.
* The sticky stigma at the tip of the style can receive or trap the pollen grains.
The stamens and pistils usually occur in the same flower. These are essential whorls. A flower bearing both the essential whorls is bisexual. Sometimes a flower has only the stamens or only the pistils, in which case it is referred to as a unisexual flower (i.e. the flower bears only one of the essential organs).
The calyx and the corolla are referred to as the non-essential whorls , since they are not responsible for the formation of gametes and seeds. This formation can occur in the absence of the outer whorls.
A flower in which all four whorls are present is said to be a complete flower. If any one of the non-essential whorls is not present, the flower is incomplete.
#AbFav_MACRO
The reproductive structure of some seed-bearing plants like the violas (pansies) characteristically having either specialised male or female organs or both male and female organs, such as stamens and a pistil, enclosed in an outer envelope of petals and sepals.
The flowers of violets have 5 sepals (Sepals are one of the four basic parts of a flower.
They are found below the petals, that are persistent (remaining attached beyond the usual time) after blooming, and in some species the sepals enlarge after blooming.
The flowers have five free stamens with short filaments that are oppressed against the ovary, only the lower two stamens have nectary spurs that are inserted on the lowest petal into the spur or a pouch.
The flower styles are thickened near the top and the stigmas are head-like, narrowed or often beaked.
The flowers have a superior ovary with one cell, which has three placentae, containing many ovules.
Wishing you well and stay safe
Have a wonderful day, filled with love and beauty, M, (*_*)
Please do not COPY or use any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
viola, violet, pansy, orange, reproductive organs, sexuality, macro, colour, square, flower, black-background, center, stigmas, styles, "magda indigo"
The stamen is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower, and on these Lillies the stamens have pollen that will stain anything it touches so must be handled with care. I managed to capture these before the wife cut them out, to avoid any mishaps. Happy Macro Mondays to all.
A mass of reproductive bulbils and flowers of this introduced plant to the UK in the amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae)
Carrie Buck was the first woman to be forcibly sterilized by order of the U.S. Supreme Court. The embroidered image is based on a photo of Buck and her mother, Emma, taken in 1924.
Explore # 368 ! 19-09-'11 !
The UK's Only Naturalised Parrot ~ It Is Large, Long-tailed And Green With a Red Beak And a Pink And Black Ring Around Its Face And Neck (Absent In The Female) !
In Flight It Has Pointed Wings, a Long Tail And Very Steady, Direct Flight ! Often Found In Flocks, Numbering Hundreds At a Roost Site, It Can Be Very Noisy (Sounds Like a ' Squeaky ' Toy)!
Able To Adapt Due To A Varied Diet Of Fruit, Berries, Nuts and Seeds.
These Are a Recent Addition To the Diversity Of Birds In And Around Sefton Park !
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Copyright ©
All My Photographic Images Are Subject To Copyright ! Each Of My Photographs Remain My Intellectual Property ! All Rights Are Reserved And As Such, Do Not Use, Modify, Copy, Edit, Distribute Or Publish Any Of My Photographs ! If You Wish To Use Any Of My Photographs For Any Reproductive Purposes, Or Other Uses, My Written Permission Is Specifically Required, Contact Me Via Flickr Mail !
Common brown algae with distinct channel on underside and warty terminal reproductive receptacles, on British coast
No matter how many times I've seen and heard this, swarming remains to be one of the most amazing events in nature.
Laws ELIMINATING a woman’s right to choose, with her physician, what type of outcome a pregnancy might have has evaporated under Republican (so called) leadership.
It is about time a religious institution recognized, in the window’s pane, the pain involved with the oestrous cycle.
Ok. I know it refer to mammals, but aren’t we all Beasts after all?
[Pisaura Simon 1885: 13 (IT: 4) spp]
Cfr. notes¹ over the above image.
Pisauridæ and Trechaleidæ appear to be monophyletic sister clades, separated from Dolomedes clade. The nuptial gift-giving trait could have evolved & lost either once in their lycosoid LCA or independently, or evolved convergently as opportunistic MS.
NOTES
1. TBL 8 mm.
REFERENCES
W. Nentwig & al. 2022: All you need to know about spiders.
S. Pekár & al. 2021: World Spider Trait Database.
J. Hernández-Corral & al. 2021: Spiders in Quercus forests.
G. Greco & al. 2021: Spider silks & webs.
D. Heimerl & al. 2021: Pisaura mirabilis reproductive tactics.
M. Beyer & al. 2021: Pisaura mirabilis nuptial gift acceptance.
M.J.B. Eberhard & al. 2020: Pisaura mirabilis courtship.
J.O. Wolff 2020: Spider silk thread anchorage.
J. Cowles 2018: Amazing Arachnida.
M.J. Albo & al. 2017: Lycosoidea relationships.
Columbia Children's Arboretum, NE Portland, Multnomah Co., Oregon (July 16th, 2020). 4. Suburban arboretum and park.
Pair in copula on a phragmites stem along a narrow slough.
Blue-eyed Darner copulation (and that of many other dragonflies) takes the visually striking form illustrated by the photograph. In both sexes the gamete producing organs are near the tip of the abdomen (9th segment) but prior to copulation the male transfers his sperm to a “seminal vesicle” located far forward along the abdomen on the 2nd segment near the junction with the thorax. The process culminates when the male grasps the female’s head with hooks at the tip of his abdomen and bends her abdomen forward to bring its tip in apposition to the seminal vesicle as per the photo. It is at this point that the sperm are transferred from the male’s reproductive tract to the female’s. [If the male encounters sperm from another male already in the female"s reproductive tract during this process, he scrapes it out first before depositing his own.]
Blue-eyed Darner females come in 2 color varieties: "heteromorph" (brownish eyes and face and yellow body markings) and "andromorph" (a faded version of the male coloration as here).
Copulating pair with heteromorph female--
www.flickr.com/photos/fugl/50102032091/in/photostream/
Blue Dasher in-copula--
www.flickr.com/photos/fugl/48261148777/in/dateposted/
More odonate photos--
On 27 July 2014, a few of us had a "tour" of a naturalist's garden, as part of an Open House here in the city. I was glad to have the chance to take a few photos of some colourful flowers, including the Showy Milkweed that I posted yesterday. This tiny Crab Spider had obviously slowly changed its colour to camouflage itself against the yellow flowers.
"Thomisidae do not build webs to trap prey, though all of them produce silk for drop lines and sundry reproductive purposes; some are wandering hunters and the most widely known are ambush predators. Some species sit on or beside flowers or fruit, where they grab visiting insects. Individuals of some species, such as Misumena vatia, are able to change color over a period of some days, to match the flower on which they are sitting. Some species frequent promising positions among leaves or bark, where they await prey, and some of them will sit in the open, where they are startlingly good mimics of bird droppings.
These spiders may be yellow or white, depending on the flower in which they are hunting. Especially younger females, which may hunt on a variety of flowers such as daisies and sunflowers, may change color "at will". Older females require large amounts of relatively large prey to produce the best possible clutch of eggs. They are therefore, in North America, most commonly found in goldenrod (Solidago sp.), a bright yellow flower which attracts large numbers of insects, especially in autumn. It is often very hard even for a searching human to recognize one of these spiders on a yellow flower. The color change from white to yellow takes between 10 and 25 days, the reverse about six days." From Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misumena_vatia
It's supposed to get up to 34C (93.2F) this afternoon! Far too hot without air-conditioning! Maybe thunderstorms, which would feel great. After my volunteer shift, I need to go food shopping - can't wait to stand in the frozen foods section : )
Climate
Small Planet
Dwindling Resources
Reproductive Health
Choice
Climate
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XPYIJdVOhw
More Stars than there are in Heaven/Yo la Tengo