View allAll Photos Tagged coevolution
Nota: Esta foto No es ni Close up, ni por supuesto macro, el objetivo de 200 mm no tiene funcion macro.
FELIZ SEMANA A TOD@S Feliz Quinta!!!
Reino: Plantae
División: Magnoliophyta
Clase: Magnoliopsida
Orden: Caryophyllales
Familia: Cactaceae
Subfamilia: Opuntioideae
Tribu: Opuntieae
Género: Opuntia
Subgénero: Opuntia
Especie: O. ficus- Indica. Me queda una duda, ya que normalmente las flores de la indica son amarillas.
www.regmurcia.com/servlet/s.Sl?sit=c,365,m,1050&r=ReP...
Chumbera (8), chumbo, higo, higo chumbo (5), higo de tuna, higochumbo (2), higos blancos, higos blanquillos, higos de viña, higos malagueños amarillos, higos moscateles, higuera chumba (5), higuera de Indias, higuera de la India, higuera de pala (2), higuera de tuna, higuera tuna, nopal (4), nopalera (4), pala, penca, tuna (4), tunal. Los números entre paréntesis indican la frecuencia del vocablo.7 En Canarias: higo pico o tuno; se llama tunera a la planta, y penca a la hoja.
Cladodios
Los cladodios ( pencas ) transforman la luz en energía química a través de la fotosíntesis, están recubiertos por una cutícula del tipo lipidica, interrumpida por la presencia de los estomas mismos que permanecen cerrados durante el día.
La cutícula del cladodio evita la deshidratación provocada por las altas temperaturas del verano. La hidratación normal del cladodio alcanza hasta un 95% de agua en peso.
En infor, de diferentes links consutados, y gracias a TeresalaLoba coinciden en que son las Abejas HYMENOPTERA APOIDEA; los que polinizan.
Pero allí había una mariposa. Mas abajo añado la foto, de no muy buena calidad. La mariposa media como 5 mm.
Polinización: Se realiza por abejas, aves como el colibrí, murciélagos o mariposas nocturnas.
cala.unex.es/cala/epistemowikia/index.php?title=Opuntia_m...
Seguire.
Nota en ingles. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196305001564
A review of the reproductive biology of fleshy-fruited species of Opuntia sensu stricto was conducted. Among Cactaceae, Opuntia is the most diverse and widely distributed genus in the Americas. The genus is strongly associated with bee pollination and coevolution with at least two bee genera is suggested. Fruits and vegetative parts, such as spiny cladodes, are closely linked with seed dispersal and highly efficient vegetative dissemination by animals. Vegetative multiplication appears to be more efficient than sexual reproduction for plant recruitment. Both sexual reproduction and plant multiplication seem to have contributed to the ecological and evolutionary success of the genus, but empirical evidence is lacking.
Experimenting with the color Red: my interpretation of the "Red Queen" ... and... the hypothesis of Coevolution...
Image created for Spotlight Your Best April contest: "REDS".
Join the contest at: www.flickr.com/groups/2729648@N21/discuss/72157666034959131/
From: Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. The Red Queen says to Alice: " Now here you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place"...
The intriguing "Red Queen Hypothesis" has been used to explain concepts of Adaption, Extinction, Coevolution, Predator-Prey, Evolutionary Arms Race and Human Conflict... We have to run or "evolve" to stay in the same place or face extinction...
Custom background work created on iPhone 6S. Starting model image from the amazing work of Christian Togliavini (Lugano Switzerland).
Co-Evolution...
Interactions between organisms can produce both conflict and co-operation. When the interaction is between pairs of species, such as a pathogen and a host, or a predator and its prey, these species can develop matched sets of adaptations. Here, the evolution of one species causes adaptations in a second species. These changes in the second species then, in turn, cause new adaptations in the first species. This cycle of selection and response is called co-evolution. ~ Wikipedia
Oshin and I are constantly challenging each other in our existence, creating a harmonious co-evolution in a long run, we depend on each other :)
Image created with Midjourney that was altered with the Topaz Gigapixel AI plug-in, then the Exposure X6 plug-in (blow up), then the Luminar Neo plug-in (accent AI effect as well as midtone contrast, color contrast, and color balance adjustments), then the Exposure X6 plug-in (luminance adjustments), and then numerous edits with built-in Photoshop tools.
Flor do gênero Datura, fotografada nos Andes Equatorianos. É polinizada pelo beija-flor-bico-de-espada (Ensifera ensifera), a ave com bico mais comprido do mundo. Um dos exemplos mais bonitos de coevolução entre um animal e uma planta.
This is a Datura flower, photographed in the Ecuadorian Andes. It is pollinated by the Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera), the bird with the longest beak of the world, in relation to its body size. One of the most beautiful examples of coevolution between an animal and a plant.
Feliz quinta flower!
Hyles lineata
Species of moth
Hyles lineata, also known as the white-lined sphinx, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. They are sometimes known as a "hummingbird moth" because of their bird-like size (2-3 inch wingspan) and flight patterns.
Quick Facts White-lined sphinx, Scientific classification ...
As caterpillars, they have a wide range of color phenotypes but show consistent adult coloration. With a wide geographic range throughout Central and North America, H. lineata is known to feed on many different host plants as caterpillars and pollinate a variety of flowers as adults.
Larvae are powerful eaters and are known to form massive groupings capable of damaging crops and gardens. As adults, they use both visual and olfactory perception to locate plants from which they collect nectar.
Description
Caterpillar
Larvae show wide variation in color. The larvae are black with orange spots arranged in lines down the whole body. Their head's prothoracic shield, and the anal plate, are one color, either green or orange with small black dots. A tail-like spine protruding from the back of the body is a typical for sphingid moth caterpillars, known as “hornworms”. This horn, which may sometimes be yellow and have a black tip, is not a stinger, and the caterpillars are not harmful to humans. The larvae can also sometimes be lime green and black.
Dark green larva
Light green larva in Colorado
Yellow larvae in Arizona
Adult
The forewing is dark brown with a tan stripe which extends from the base to the apex. There are also white lines that cover the veins. The black hindwing has a broad pink median band. It has a wingspan of 2 to 3 inches. This moth is large and has a stout furry body. The dorsal hind region is crossed by six distinct white stripes and similar striping patterns on the wings. The hindwings are black with a thick, red-pink stripe in the middle.
Geographic range
Hyles lineata is one of the most abundant hawk moths in North America and has a very wide geographic range. This range extends from Central America to southern Canada through Mexico and most of the United States. Some regions of South Asia like Sindh, Pakistan are reported to have habitates to these Moths. They can also be found occasionally in the West Indies. Rarely, specimens have also been reported in Eurasia and Africa.[additional citation(s) needed]
The abundance of Hyles lineata populations in specific locations varies significantly from year to year, and has been thought to influence selection on flower phenotypes, although studies throughout the years show mixed results.
Habitat
White-lined Sphinx hovering over flowers in Vail Village. Vail, CO.
Hovering over flowers in Vail Village. Vail, Colorado
With such a wide geographic range, H. lineata are known to live in a variety of habitats, including deserts, gardens and suburbs. They have also been seen in abundance in the mountains of Colorado, but their presence varies from year to year in many places.
White-lined Sphinx moth hovering over Honeysuckle in Fort Collins, Colorado
Food resources
Caterpillars
Source:
Willow weed (Epilobium)
Four o'clock (Mirabilis)
Apple (Malus)
Evening primrose (Oenothera)
Elm (Ulmus)
Grape (Vitis)
Tomato (Solanum)
Purslane (Portulaca)
Fuchsia
Clarkia
Adults
Source:
Columbines
Larkspurs
Four o'clock (Mirabilis)
Petunia
Honeysuckle
Moonvine
Bouncing bet
Lilac
Clovers
Thistles
Jimson weed
Trumpet Vine
The adults will feed on different flowers depending on time of day. If at night, they will choose flowers that are white or pale colored, which are easier to identify in contrast to the dark foliage surrounding the flower. If during daylight, they will choose flowers that are more brightly colored.
Behavior
The foraging patterns of H. lineata varies according to altitude, temperature and other factors, all of which are highly variable over its vast geographic distribution.
White-lined sphinx resting on an outdoor structure near grape leaves at dusk in Santa Barbara, CA
Resting near grape leaves at dusk. Santa Barbara, California.
Hyles lineata prefer flying at night but also sometimes fly during the day. They are most commonly seen at dusk and dawn.
Pollination
H. lineata are common pollinators and are known to collect nectar from flowers. As caterpillars they feed on a huge diversity of host plants and as adults they prefer nectar over flowers. A study from the 1970s focused on H. lineata nectar feeding patterns in Emerald Lake, Colorado, specifically on Aquilegia coerulea flowers. Of the H. lineata individuals that had visited A. coerulea flowers, two groups of moths were identified, one with patches of pollen near their eyes and ones with no detectable pollen on their bodies. Between the two groups, tongue length was significantly different, with longer-tongued individuals having no pollen and shorter-tongued individuals having pollen. These results suggest that within H. lineata, some individuals are effective pollinators while some are not pollinating at all, with shorter-tongued individuals carrying out the most effective pollination.
Other studies have investigated its role as pollinators in flower morphology. Individuals visiting Aquilegia chrysantha flowers in Pima County, AZ, had proboscis lengths very similar to the length of the nectar spur of the flower, suggesting coevolution.
Hawk moths, including H. lineata, are considered long-tongued nectar foragers, although nearly 20% of all hawk moth species have very short tongues compared to H. lineata. A 1997 study found correlations between tongue length and latitude distribution: mean tongue length declines from around 40 mm to as short as 15 mm as northern latitude increase from 0 to 50 degrees. The author speculates that tongues have lengthened in hawk moths of extratropical regions where it is more difficult and energetically costly to find larval food plants that are often inconspicuous, thus they need to take up more nectar at once to fuel their longer flights. Conversely, in more northern regions, short tongues are sufficient because finding larval food plants is an easier task and they do not need to take up as much nectar to fuel their flights.
One 2009 study showed that whiter flowers are associated with an annual presence of hawk moths, including H. lineata. Their data also showed that the annual presence of H. lineata populations selects for whiter flowers. Other hawk moth species with similar range overlap, specifically Sphinx vashti, show a correlation of annual presence with longer spurs on flowers. Thus hawk moths in general have been demonstrated to impact selection on flower morphology.
Life history
Oviposition
In the spring, adult females lay eggs on various types of plants, on which the resulting larvae feed. Each individual female can produce hundreds of eggs over her life.
Seasonality
Larvae overwinter and can emerge between February and November, at which point they begin to feed on a variety of host plants. Caterpillars are known to be ardent eaters. When preparing to transition into the pupal stage, caterpillars dig shallow burrows in the ground where they then stay for 2 to 3 weeks, at which point they emerge as adults. As they get closer to pupating, they will wiggle up closer to the surface which makes it easier to emerge.
Adults typically do not survive cold northern winters, but larvae overwinter and moths begin to appear in mid-May. Depending on abundance, a second flight may occur in late August or early September. Larvae are known to gather and form giant hordes in search of host plants, and they can eat entire plants, cover entire roadways and form huge slick masses as they go.
Typically there are two generations per year, but warmer climate see more generations.
Physiology
Flight
H. lineata, when feeding, tend to hover in front of flowers and control their hovering by visual cues from the flowers.
Vision
Close-up of eye & head
Though hawk moths can be both diurnal or nocturnal (or both), they all have three spectral receptors that are sensitive to blue light, green light and ultraviolet. Though it was originally assumed that hawk moths relied primarily on olfactory cues to locate flowers, due to their prevalence at particularly odorous plants, studies have shown that hawk moths actually have great vision and are very sensitive to light.
Olfaction
Though vision is a key component of H. lineata physiology, they do also have strong olfactory capabilities. They have been shown to be very sensitive to odors coming from flowers, and they have a strong ability to learn flower odors quickly.
Interactions with humans
Food source
The caterpillars have been (and in some places still are) gathered and eaten by Native Americans (e.g.,). After collection, they would be skewered and roasted for a feast, and any leftovers were stored whole or ground up after being dried. The nutritional value of the larvae has been analyzed, and found to be significant; they contain almost as much fat as hamburger meat, but have almost one-third less saturated fat, and more energy (in calories), protein, carbohydrate, riboflavin, and niacin than hamburger meat.
Pest of crop plants
Caterpillars often form massive groups in search for food. Outbreaks have been reported in Utah that have damaged grapes, tomatoes and garden crops.
References
The Original image was taken at the blue reef aquarium Hastings :)
Clownfish and sea anemones have a symbiotic, mutualistic relationship, each providing a number of benefits to the other. The individual species are generally highly host specific, and especially the genera Heteractis and Stichodactyla, and the species Entacmaea quadricolor are frequent clownfish partners. The sea anemone protects the clownfish from predators, as well as providing food through the scraps left from the anemone's meals and occasional dead anemone tentacles. In return, the clownfish defends the anemone from its predators, and parasites.
The anemone also picks up nutrients from the clownfish's excrement, and functions as a safe nest site. The nitrogen excreted from Clownfish increases the amount of algae incorporated into the tissue of their hosts, which aids the anemone in tissue growth and regeneration. It has been theorized that the clownfish use their bright coloring to lure small fish to the anemone,and that the activity of the clownfish results in greater water circulation around the sea anemone.
Clownfish and certain damselfish are among the few species of fish that can avoid the potent poison of a sea anemone. There are several theories about how they can survive the sea anemone poison:
The mucus coating of the fish may be based on sugars rather than proteins. This would mean that anemones fail to recognize the fish as a potential food source and do not fire their nematocysts, or sting organelles.
The coevolution of certain species of clownfish with specific anemone host species and may have acquired an immunity to the nematocysts and toxins of their host anemone. Experimentation has shown that Amphiprion percula may develop resistance to the toxin from Heteractis magnifica, but it is not totally protected, since it was shown experimentally to die when its skin, devoid of mucus, was exposed to the nematocysts of its host.
Bumblebees have elongated tongues, which allows them to reach the bottom of most flowers and thus achieve nectar. But sometimes some flowers have too deep nectar. The bumblebees cheat!
They bite the corolla until they make a hole through which they access the nectar!
The problem is that the plant is left without a large pollinating agent. What will be the next chapter in the incredible story of the coevolution of insects and plants?
As we have seen, the repercussions are not over here. Other pollinating insects, perceiving that nectar is accessible by another path, also use it and therefore do not pollinate these flowers either.
Los abejorros tienen lenguas alargadas, lo que les permite llegar hasta el fondo de la mayoría de las flores y así lograr el néctar. Pero a veces algunas flores tienen el néctar demasiado profundo. Los abejorros hacen trampa!
Muerden la corola hasta lograr hacer un agujero por el cual acceden al néctar!
El problema es que la planta se queda sin un gran agente polinizador. ¿Cual será el siguiente capítulo de la increíble historia de la coevolución de los insectos y las plantas?
Según hemos podido observar, aquí no se acaban las repercusiones. Otros insectos polinizadores, al percibir que el néctar está adcesible por otro camino, también lo utilizan y por tanto tampoco polinizan a estas flores.
©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. My pictures may not be downloaded, copied, published, reproduced, uploaded, edited or used in any way without my written permission
Copepods linger on a dead gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) that washed up on Arroyo Beach in Western Seattle, Washington. Whales provide a mobile ecosystem to thousands of creatures, both when alive, and after their bodies reach the sea floor; Wednesday, April 15, 2010. (Photo/William Byrne Drumm)
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, le 16 février 2015.
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#photo: ValK.
série Resilience : frama.link/valk-resilience
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| autres photos : frama.link/valk
| infos / audios : frama.link/karacole
| oripeaux : frama.link/kolavalk
| me soutenir : liberapay.com/ValK
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the group of viruses. For the disease involved in the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, see Coronavirus disease 2019. For the virus that causes this disease, see Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
Orthocoronavirinae
Coronaviruses 004 lores.jpg
Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of avian infectious bronchitis virus
SARS-CoV-2 without background.png
Illustration of the morphology of coronaviruses; the club-shaped viral spike peplomers, colored red, create the look of a corona surrounding the virion when observed with an electron microscope.
Virus classification e
(unranked):Virus
Realm:Riboviria
Phylum:incertae sedis
Order:Nidovirales
Family:Coronaviridae
Subfamily:Orthocoronavirinae
Genera[1]
Alphacoronavirus
Betacoronavirus
Gammacoronavirus
Deltacoronavirus
Synonyms[2][3][4]
Coronavirinae
Coronaviruses are a group of related viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses include some cases of the common cold (which has other possible causes, predominantly rhinoviruses), while more lethal varieties can cause SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. Symptoms in other species vary: in chickens, they cause an upper respiratory tract disease, while in cows and pigs they cause diarrhea. There are yet to be vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent or treat human coronavirus infections.
Coronaviruses constitute the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, in the family Coronaviridae, order Nidovirales, and realm Riboviria.[5][6] They are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a nucleocapsid of helical symmetry. The genome size of coronaviruses ranges from approximately 26 to 32 kilobases, one of the largest among RNA viruses.[7] They have characteristic club-shaped spikes that project from their surface, which in electron micrographs create an image reminiscent of the solar corona from which their name derives.[8]
Contents
1Discovery
2Etymology
3Morphology
4Genome
5Life cycle
5.1Entry
5.2Replication
5.3Release
6Transmission
7Taxonomy
8Evolution
9Human coronaviruses
10Outbreaks of coronavirus diseases
10.1Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
10.2Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
10.3Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
11Other animals
11.1Diseases caused
11.2Domestic animals
12Genomic cis-acting elements
13Genome packaging
14See also
15References
16Further reading
Discovery
Coronaviruses were first discovered in the 1930s when an acute respiratory infection of domesticated chickens was shown to be caused by infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). In the 1940s, two more animal coronaviruses, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), were isolated.[9]
Human coronaviruses were discovered in the 1960s.[10] The earliest ones studied were from human patients with the common cold, which were later named human coronavirus 229E and human coronavirus OC43.[11] Other human coronaviruses have since been identified, including SARS-CoV in 2003, HCoV NL63 in 2004, HKU1 in 2005, MERS-CoV in 2012, and SARS-CoV-2 in 2019. Most of these have involved serious respiratory tract infections.
Etymology
The name "coronavirus" is derived from Latin corona, meaning "crown" or "wreath", itself a borrowing from Greek κορώνη korṓnē, "garland, wreath". The name refers to the characteristic appearance of virions (the infective form of the virus) by electron microscopy, which have a fringe of large, bulbous surface projections creating an image reminiscent of a crown or of a solar corona. This morphology is created by the viral spike peplomers, which are proteins on the surface of the virus.[8][12]
Morphology
Cross-sectional model of a coronavirus
Cross-sectional model of a coronavirus
Coronaviruses are large pleomorphic spherical particles with bulbous surface projections.[13] The average diameter of the virus particles is around 120 nm (.12 μm). The diameter of the envelope is ~80 nm (.08 μm) and the spikes are ~20 nm (.02 μm) long. The envelope of the virus in electron micrographs appears as a distinct pair of electron dense shells.[14][15]
The viral envelope consists of a lipid bilayer where the membrane (M), envelope (E) and spike (S) structural proteins are anchored.[16] A subset of coronaviruses (specifically the members of betacoronavirus subgroup A) also have a shorter spike-like surface protein called hemagglutinin esterase (HE).[5]
Inside the envelope, there is the nucleocapsid, which is formed from multiple copies of the nucleocapsid (N) protein, which are bound to the positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome in a continuous beads-on-a-string type conformation.[15][17] The lipid bilayer envelope, membrane proteins, and nucleocapsid protect the virus when it is outside the host cell.[18]
Genome
See also: Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus § Genome
Schematic representation of the genome organization and functional domains of S protein for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV
Coronaviruses contain a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA genome. The genome size for coronaviruses ranges from 26.4 to 31.7 kilobases.[7] The genome size is one of the largest among RNA viruses. The genome has a 5′ methylated cap and a 3′ polyadenylated tail.[15]
The genome organization for a coronavirus is 5′-leader-UTR-replicase/transcriptase-spike (S)-envelope (E)-membrane (M)-nucleocapsid (N)-3′UTR-poly (A) tail. The open reading frames 1a and 1b, which occupy the first two-thirds of the genome, encode the replicase/transcriptase polyprotein. The replicase/transcriptase polyprotein self cleaves to form nonstructural proteins.[15]
The later reading frames encode the four major structural proteins: spike, envelope, membrane, and nucleocapsid.[19] Interspersed between these reading frames are the reading frames for the accessory proteins. The number of accessory proteins and their function is unique depending on the specific coronavirus.[15]
Life cycle
Entry
The life cycle of a coronavirus
Infection begins when the viral spike (S) glycoprotein attaches to its complementary host cell receptor. After attachment, a protease of the host cell cleaves and activates the receptor-attached spike protein. Depending on the host cell protease available, cleavage and activation allows the virus to enter the host cell by endocytosis or direct fusion of the viral envelop with the host membrane.[20]
On entry into the host cell, the virus particle is uncoated, and its genome enters the cell cytoplasm.[15] The coronavirus RNA genome has a 5′ methylated cap and a 3′ polyadenylated tail, which allows the RNA to attach to the host cell's ribosome for translation.[15] The host ribosome translates the initial overlapping open reading frame of the virus genome and forms a long polyprotein. The polyprotein has its own proteases which cleave the polyprotein into multiple nonstructural proteins.[15]
Replication
A number of the nonstructural proteins coalesce to form a multi-protein replicase-transcriptase complex (RTC). The main replicase-transcriptase protein is the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). It is directly involved in the replication and transcription of RNA from an RNA strand. The other nonstructural proteins in the complex assist in the replication and transcription process. The exoribonuclease nonstructural protein, for instance, provides extra fidelity to replication by providing a proofreading function which the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase lacks.[21]
One of the main functions of the complex is to replicate the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense genomic RNA from the positive-sense genomic RNA. This is followed by the replication of positive-sense genomic RNA from the negative-sense genomic RNA.[15] The other important function of the complex is to transcribe the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules from the positive-sense genomic RNA. This is followed by the transcription of these negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules to their corresponding positive-sense mRNAs.[15]
Release
The replicated positive-sense genomic RNA becomes the genome of the progeny viruses. The mRNAs are gene transcripts of the last third of the virus genome after the initial overlapping reading frame. These mRNAs are translated by the host's ribosomes into the structural proteins and a number of accessory proteins.[15] RNA translation occurs inside the endoplasmic reticulum. The viral structural proteins S, E, and M move along the secretory pathway into the Golgi intermediate compartment. There, the M proteins direct most protein-protein interactions required for assembly of viruses following its binding to the nucleocapsid.[22] Progeny viruses are then released from the host cell by exocytosis through secretory vesicles.[22]
Transmission
The interaction of the coronavirus spike protein with its complement host cell receptor is central in determining the tissue tropism, infectivity, and species range of the virus.[23][24] The SARS coronavirus, for example, infects human cells by attaching to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor.[25]
Taxonomy
For a more detailed list of members, see Coronaviridae.
Phylogenetic tree of coronaviruses
The scientific name for coronavirus is Orthocoronavirinae or Coronavirinae.[2][3][4] Coronavirus belongs to the family of Coronaviridae.
Genus: Alphacoronavirus
Species: Human coronavirus 229E, Human coronavirus NL63, Miniopterus bat coronavirus 1, Miniopterus bat coronavirus HKU8, Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, Rhinolophus bat coronavirus HKU2, Scotophilus bat coronavirus 512
Genus Betacoronavirus; type species: Murine coronavirus
Species: Betacoronavirus 1 (Human coronavirus OC43), Human coronavirus HKU1, Murine coronavirus, Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5, Rousettus bat coronavirus HKU9, Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2), Tylonycteris bat coronavirus HKU4, Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, Hedgehog coronavirus 1 (EriCoV)
Genus Gammacoronavirus; type species: Infectious bronchitis virus
Species: Beluga whale coronavirus SW1, Infectious bronchitis virus
Genus Deltacoronavirus; type species: Bulbul coronavirus HKU11
Species: Bulbul coronavirus HKU11, Porcine coronavirus HKU15
Evolution
The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all coronaviruses has been estimated to have existed as recently as 8000 BCE, though some models place the MRCA as far back as 55 million years or more, implying long term coevolution with bats.[26] The MRCAs of the alphacoronavirus line has been placed at about 2400 BCE, the betacoronavirus line at 3300 BCE, the gammacoronavirus line at 2800 BCE, and the deltacoronavirus line at about 3000 BCE. It appears that bats and birds, as warm-blooded flying vertebrates, are ideal hosts for the coronavirus gene source (with bats for alphacoronavirus and betacoronavirus, and birds for gammacoronavirus and deltacoronavirus) to fuel coronavirus evolution and dissemination.[27]
Bovine coronavirus and canine respiratory coronaviruses diverged from a common ancestor recently (~ 1950).[28] Bovine coronavirus and human coronavirus OC43 diverged around the 1890s. Bovine coronavirus diverged from the equine coronavirus species at the end of the 18th century.[29]
The MRCA of human coronavirus OC43 has been dated to the 1950s.[30]
MERS-CoV, although related to several bat coronavirus species, appears to have diverged from these several centuries ago.[31] The human coronavirus NL63 and a bat coronavirus shared an MRCA 563–822 years ago.[32]
The most closely related bat coronavirus and SARS-CoV diverged in 1986.[33] A path of evolution of the SARS virus and keen relationship with bats have been proposed. The authors suggest that the coronaviruses have been coevolved with bats for a long time and the ancestors of SARS-CoV first infected the species of the genus Hipposideridae, subsequently spread to species of the Rhinolophidae and then to civets, and finally to humans.[34][35]
Alpaca coronavirus and human coronavirus 229E diverged before 1960.[36]
Human coronaviruses
Illustration of SARSr-CoV virion
Coronaviruses vary significantly in risk factor. Some can kill more than 30% of those infected (such as MERS-CoV), and some are relatively harmless, such as the common cold.[15] Coronaviruses cause colds with major symptoms, such as fever, and a sore throat from swollen adenoids, occurring primarily in the winter and early spring seasons.[37] Coronaviruses can cause pneumonia (either direct viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia) and bronchitis (either direct viral bronchitis or secondary bacterial bronchitis).[38] The human coronavirus discovered in 2003, SARS-CoV, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), has a unique pathogenesis because it causes both upper and lower respiratory tract infections.[38]
Six species of human coronaviruses are known, with one species subdivided into two different strains, making seven strains of human coronaviruses altogether. Four of these strains produce the generally mild symptoms of the common cold:
Human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43), of the genus β-CoV
Human coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1), β-CoV, its genome has 75% similarity to OC43[39]
Human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E), α-CoV
Human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63), α-CoV
Three strains (two species) produce symptoms that are potentially severe; all three of these are β-CoV strains:
Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
The coronaviruses HCoV-229E, -NL63, -OC43, and -HKU1 continually circulate in the human population and cause respiratory infections in adults and children worldwide.[40]
Outbreaks of coronavirus diseases
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
Main article: Severe acute respiratory syndrome
Characteristics of human coronavirus strains
MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2,
and related diseases
MERS-CoVSARS-CoVSARS-CoV-2
DiseaseMERSSARSCOVID-19
Outbreaks2012, 2015,
20182002–20042019–2020
pandemic
Epidemiology
Date of first
identified caseJune
2012November
2002December
2019[41]
Location of first
identified caseJeddah,
Saudi ArabiaShunde,
ChinaWuhan,
China
Age average5644[42][a]56[43]
Sex ratio3.3:10.8:1[44]1.6:1[43]
Confirmed cases24948096[45]1,601,018[46][b]
Deaths858774[45]95,718[46][b]
Case fatality rate37%9.2%6.0%[46]
Symptoms
Fever98%99–100%87.9%[47]
Dry cough47%29–75%67.7%[47]
Dyspnea72%40–42%18.6%[47]
Diarrhea26%20–25%3.7%[47]
Sore throat21%13–25%13.9%[47]
Ventilatory support24.5%[48]14–20%4.1%[49]
Notes
^ Based on data from Hong Kong.
^ Jump up to: a b Data as of 10 April 2020.
vte
In 2003, following the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which had begun the prior year in Asia, and secondary cases elsewhere in the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a press release stating that a novel coronavirus identified by a number of laboratories was the causative agent for SARS. The virus was officially named the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). More than 8,000 people were infected, about ten percent of whom died.[25]
Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
Main article: Middle East respiratory syndrome
In September 2012, a new type of coronavirus was identified, initially called Novel Coronavirus 2012, and now officially named Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).[50][51] The World Health Organization issued a global alert soon after.[52] The WHO update on 28 September 2012 said the virus did not seem to pass easily from person to person.[53] However, on 12 May 2013, a case of human-to-human transmission in France was confirmed by the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.[54] In addition, cases of human-to-human transmission were reported by the Ministry of Health in Tunisia. Two confirmed cases involved people who seemed to have caught the disease from their late father, who became ill after a visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Despite this, it appears the virus had trouble spreading from human to human, as most individuals who are infected do not transmit the virus.[55] By 30 October 2013, there were 124 cases and 52 deaths in Saudi Arabia.[56]
After the Dutch Erasmus Medical Centre sequenced the virus, the virus was given a new name, Human Coronavirus—Erasmus Medical Centre (HCoV-EMC). The final name for the virus is Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The only U.S. cases (both survived) were recorded in May 2014.[57]
In May 2015, an outbreak of MERS-CoV occurred in the Republic of Korea, when a man who had traveled to the Middle East, visited four hospitals in the Seoul area to treat his illness. This caused one of the largest outbreaks of MERS-CoV outside the Middle East.[58] As of December 2019, 2,468 cases of MERS-CoV infection had been confirmed by laboratory tests, 851 of which were fatal, a mortality rate of approximately 34.5%.[59]
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Main article: Coronavirus disease 2019
In December 2019, a pneumonia outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China.[60] On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus,[61] which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO),[62][63][64] later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Some researchers have suggested the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market may not be the original source of viral transmission to humans.[65][66]
As of 10 April 2020, there have been at least 95,718[46] confirmed deaths and more than 1,601,018[46] confirmed cases in the coronavirus pneumonia pandemic. The Wuhan strain has been identified as a new strain of Betacoronavirus from group 2B with approximately 70% genetic similarity to the SARS-CoV.[67] The virus has a 96% similarity to a bat coronavirus, so it is widely suspected to originate from bats as well.[65][68] The pandemic has resulted in travel restrictions and nationwide lockdowns in several countries.
Other animals
Coronaviruses have been recognized as causing pathological conditions in veterinary medicine since the 1930s.[9] Except for avian infectious bronchitis, the major related diseases have mainly an intestinal location.[69]
Diseases caused
Coronaviruses primarily infect the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds. They also cause a range of diseases in farm animals and domesticated pets, some of which can be serious and are a threat to the farming industry. In chickens, the infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), a coronavirus, targets not only the respiratory tract but also the urogenital tract. The virus can spread to different organs throughout the chicken.[70] Economically significant coronaviruses of farm animals include porcine coronavirus (transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus, TGE) and bovine coronavirus, which both result in diarrhea in young animals. Feline coronavirus: two forms, feline enteric coronavirus is a pathogen of minor clinical significance, but spontaneous mutation of this virus can result in feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a disease associated with high mortality. Similarly, there are two types of coronavirus that infect ferrets: Ferret enteric coronavirus causes a gastrointestinal syndrome known as epizootic catarrhal enteritis (ECE), and a more lethal systemic version of the virus (like FIP in cats) known as ferret systemic coronavirus (FSC).[71] There are two types of canine coronavirus (CCoV), one that causes mild gastrointestinal disease and one that has been found to cause respiratory disease. Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is a coronavirus that causes an epidemic murine illness with high mortality, especially among colonies of laboratory mice.[72] Sialodacryoadenitis virus (SDAV) is highly infectious coronavirus of laboratory rats, which can be transmitted between individuals by direct contact and indirectly by aerosol. Acute infections have high morbidity and tropism for the salivary, lachrymal and harderian glands.[73]
A HKU2-related bat coronavirus called swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) causes diarrhea in pigs.[74]
Prior to the discovery of SARS-CoV, MHV had been the best-studied coronavirus both in vivo and in vitro as well as at the molecular level. Some strains of MHV cause a progressive demyelinating encephalitis in mice which has been used as a murine model for multiple sclerosis. Significant research efforts have been focused on elucidating the viral pathogenesis of these animal coronaviruses, especially by virologists interested in veterinary and zoonotic diseases.[75]
Domestic animals
Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) causes avian infectious bronchitis.
Porcine coronavirus (transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus of pigs, TGEV).[76][77]
Bovine coronavirus (BCV), responsible for severe profuse enteritis in of young calves.
Feline coronavirus (FCoV) causes mild enteritis in cats as well as severe Feline infectious peritonitis (other variants of the same virus).
the two types of canine coronavirus (CCoV) (one causing enteritis, the other found in respiratory diseases).
Turkey coronavirus (TCV) causes enteritis in turkeys.
Ferret enteric coronavirus causes epizootic catarrhal enteritis in ferrets.
Ferret systemic coronavirus causes FIP-like systemic syndrome in ferrets.[78]
Pantropic canine coronavirus.
Rabbit enteric coronavirus causes acute gastrointestinal disease and diarrhea in young European rabbits. Mortality rates are high.[79]
Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PED or PEDV), has emerged around the world.[80]
Genomic cis-acting elements
In common with the genomes of all other RNA viruses, coronavirus genomes contain cis-acting RNA elements that ensure the specific replication of viral RNA by a virally encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. The embedded cis-acting elements devoted to coronavirus replication constitute a small fraction of the total genome, but this is presumed to be a reflection of the fact that coronaviruses have the largest genomes of all RNA viruses. The boundaries of cis-acting elements essential to replication are fairly well-defined, and the RNA secondary structures of these regions are understood. However, how these cis-acting structures and sequences interact with the viral replicase and host cell components to allow RNA synthesis is not well understood.[81][5]
Genome packaging
The assembly of infectious coronavirus particles requires the selection of viral genomic RNA from a cellular pool that contains an abundant excess of non-viral and viral RNAs. Among the seven to ten specific viral mRNAs synthesized in virus-infected cells, only the full-length genomic RNA is packaged efficiently into coronavirus particles. Studies have revealed cis-acting elements and trans-acting viral factors involved in the coronavirus genome encapsidation and packaging. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of genome selection and packaging is critical for developing antiviral strategies and viral expression vectors based on the coronavirus genome.[81][5]
Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. About twenty-nine species are recognized, one in the genus Premnas, while the remaining are in the genus Amphiprion. In the wild they all form symbiotic mutualisms with sea anemones. Depending on species, clownfish are overall yellow, orange, reddish or blackish, and many show white bars or patches. The largest can reach a length of 18 centimetres (7.1 in), while some barely can reach 10 centimetres (3.9 in).
In popular culture, "Finding Nemo" by Pixar prominently features clownfish as the main characters.
Clownfish and certain damselfish are the only species of fishes that can avoid the potent poison of a sea anemone. There are several theories about how this is accomplished:
- The mucus coating of the fish may be based on sugars rather than proteins. This would mean that anemones fail to recognize the fish as a potential food source and do not fire their nematocysts, or sting organelles.
- The coevolution of certain species of clownfish with specific anemone host species and may have acquired an immunity to the nematocysts and toxins of their host anemone. Experimentation has shown that Amphiprion percula may develop resistance to the toxin from Heteractis magnifica, but it is not totally protected, since it was shown experimentally to die when its skin, devoid of mucus, was exposed to the nematocysts of its host.
from Wikipedia
Field Galaxy NGC 2903, Satellite Galaxy UGC 5086, and Four Quasars, Leo
NGC 2903 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Leo, first documented by William Herschel in 1784. Although it is bright and fairly large, easily seen in binoculars, it escaped the attention of Charles Messier and his associate Pierre Mechain. On a large scale, NGC 2903 lies within the Virgo Supercluster which includes the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. Except for dwarf elliptical galaxy UGC 5086, at a distance of 2 million ly, it has no nearby neighbors, and does not belong to any local galaxy cluster. Such isolated galaxies, undisturbed by gravitational fields of large neighbors, are called "field galaxies", constitute 10-20% of the total galaxy population, and follow different evolutionary pathways than "cluster galaxies". Unaffected by major tidal forces and mergers, large field galaxies are most commonly low-surface-brightness (LSB) spirals with delicate and symmetrical spiral arm structure, and usually manifest low star formation rates (SFR). However, NGC 2903 is far from quiescent. Although its energy output is insufficient to qualify it as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), its nucleus is still bright in all bands, from radio waves to X-rays, suggesting the presence of a central supermassive black hole (SMBH) with polar jets and an accretion disk. Photometric and spectroscopic analysis of the central region reveals increased star formation rates generated by interstellar medium turbulence initiated by radiation pressure and feedback outflows from the central SMBH. The turbulence then extends outward, augmented by stellar winds and supernovae, enhancing new star formation further afield. The distinct blue floccules in the spiral arms represent "OB associations", huge clusters of very hot young stars.
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...
From its measurable properties, using the redshift-independent distance method, it can be calculated that NGC 2903 is about 24 million ly distant, and 98,000 light years in diameter, roughly 30% smaller than the Milky Way, and proportionally less luminous. Several interesting features within the galaxy are marked on the annotated image. Some sources define object NGC 2905 as a bright region south of the nucleus. Opinions differ whether the object is a large collection of stars or a very hot ionized hydrogen (Hii) region. Meanwhile, both NED and SIMBAD extragalactic databases list NGC 2905 simply as a duplicate identifier for the main galaxy. Along the NE perimeter of the galaxy, marked with "S" on the annotated chart, there is evidence of a curved luminous region which does not seem to be a part of the spiral arm. I speculate it may be a small satellite galaxy in the process of merging, stretched into a "stellar stream" by the tidal forces of the main galaxy. Computer models show that stellar streams can persist for billions of years through multiple galactic orbits before they are ultimately dispersed into anonymity. Gaps in stellar streams are thought to be caused by encounters with dark matter overdensities (subhalos) within the galactic halo. In the west quadrant of the galaxy, marked with letter "x" on the annotated image", are located two ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULX). Such objects can be associated with intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH), and may emit optical transients during the periods of more active accretion.
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...
Numerous distant galaxies are visible in the background, many of which have no identifier. Of the more prominent ones, the most formidable is SDSS J093239.53+214555.7, a hyperluminous giant galaxy, at least 160,000 ly in diameter, lying at a distance around 3.2 billion ly. Near the threshold of the limiting magnitude can be seen four quasars (QSOs) listed in the chart below. The most luminous one is QSO B0929+2128, nearly 2,500 times brighter than the Miky Way.The most remote is QSO B0929+218 whose light travelled 11.1 billion years before reching us. When its photons were emitted, the quasar was receding at 255,249 km/s from the past location of our Galaxy (relativistic or redshift recession velocity). In the present epoch, it lies at a "comoving = proper distance" of 19.4 billion ly, receding at a superluminal "proper recession velocity" of 416,815 km/s. The quasar is now located well beyond the "cosmic event horizon". Since the space between us is expanding faster than its light is moving toward us, the photons it is presently emitting can never reach us.
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105mm, Paramount GT GEM
-27 x 300 sec subs, OSC, 2x drizzle, 60% linear crop
-Software: DSS, XnView, StarNet++ v2, StarTools v 1.3 and 1.8
The avocado (Persea americana), a tree with probable origin in south-central Mexico, is classified as a member of the flowering plant family Lauraceae. The fruit of the plant, also called an avocado (or avocado pear or alligator pear), is botanically a large berry containing a single large seed.
Avocados are commercially valuable and are cultivated in tropical and Mediterranean climates throughout the world. They have a green-skinned, fleshy body that may be pear-shaped, egg-shaped, or spherical. Commercially, they ripen after harvesting. Avocado trees are partially self-pollinating, and are often propagated through grafting to maintain predictable fruit quality and quantity.[6] In 2017, Mexico produced 34% of the world supply of avocados.
BOTANY
Persea americana is a tree that grows to 20 m, with alternately arranged leaves 12–25 cm long. Panicles of flowers with deciduous bracts arise from new growth or the axils of leaves. The flowers are inconspicuous, greenish-yellow, 5–10 mm wide.
The species is variable because of selection pressure by humans to produce larger, fleshier fruits with a thinner exocarp. The avocado fruit is a climacteric, single-seeded berry, due to the imperceptible endocarp covering the seed rather than a drupe. The pear-shaped fruit is 7–20 cm long, weighs between 100 and 1,000 g, and has a large central seed, 5–6.4 cm long.
HISTORY
Persea americana, or the avocado, possibly originated in the Tehuacan Valley in the state of Puebla, Mexico, although fossil evidence suggests similar species were much more widespread millions of years ago. However, there is evidence for three possible separate domestications of the avocado, resulting in the currently recognized Mexican (aoacatl), Guatemalan (quilaoacatl), and West Indian (tlacacolaocatl) landraces. The Mexican and Guatemalan landraces originated in the highlands of those countries, while the West Indian landrace is a lowland variety that ranges from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador to Peru, achieving a wide range through human agency before the arrival of the Europeans. The three separate landraces were most likely to have already intermingled[a] in pre-Columbian America and were described in the Florentine Codex.
The earliest residents were living in temporary camps in an ancient wetland eating avocados, chilies, mollusks, sharks, birds, and sea lions. The oldest discovery of an avocado pit comes from Coxcatlan Cave, dating from around 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. Other caves in the Tehuacan Valley from around the same time period also show early evidence for the presence of avocado. There is evidence for avocado use at Norte Chico civilization sites in Peru by at least 3,200 years ago and at Caballo Muerto in Peru from around 3,800 to 4,500 years ago.
The native, undomesticated variety is known as a criollo, and is small, with dark black skin, and contains a large seed. It probably coevolved with extinct megafauna. The avocado tree also has a long history of cultivation in Central and South America, likely beginning as early as 5,000 BC. A water jar shaped like an avocado, dating to AD 900, was discovered in the pre-Incan city of Chan Chan.
The earliest known written account of the avocado in Europe is that of Martín Fernández de Enciso (circa 1470–1528) in 1519 in his book, Suma De Geographia Que Trata De Todas Las Partidas Y Provincias Del Mundo. The first detailed account that unequivocally describes the avocado was given by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés in his work Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias [es] in 1526. The first written record in English of the use of the word 'avocado' was by Hans Sloane, who coined the term, in a 1696 index of Jamaican plants. The plant was introduced to Spain in 1601, Indonesia around 1750, Mauritius in 1780, Brazil in 1809, the United States mainland in 1825, South Africa and Australia in the late 19th century, and Israel in 1908. In the United States, the avocado was introduced to Florida and Hawaii in 1833 and in California in 1856.
Before 1915, the avocado was commonly referred to in California as ahuacate and in Florida as alligator pear. In 1915, the California Avocado Association introduced the then-innovative term avocado to refer to the plant.
ETYMOLOGY
The word "avocado" comes from the Spanish aguacate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word āhuacatl [aːˈwakat͡ɬ], which goes back to the proto-Aztecan *pa:wa which also meant "avocado". Sometimes the Nahuatl word was used with the meaning "testicle", probably because of the likeness between the fruit and the body part.
The modern English name comes from an English rendering of the Spanish aguacate as avogato. The earliest known written use in English is attested from 1697 as "avogato pear", a term which was later corrupted as "alligator pear". Because the word avogato sounded like "advocate", several languages reinterpreted it to have that meaning. French uses avocat, which also means lawyer, and "advocate" — forms of the word appear in several Germanic languages, such as the (now obsolete) German Advogato-Birne, the old Danish advokat-pære (today it is called avocado) and the Dutch advocaatpeer.
REGIONAL NAMES
In other Central American and Caribbean Spanish-speaking countries, it is known by the Mexican name, while South American Spanish-speaking countries use a Quechua-derived word, palta. In Portuguese, it is abacate. The fruit is sometimes called an avocado pear or alligator pear (due to its shape and the rough green skin of some cultivars). The Nahuatl āhuacatl can be compounded with other words, as in ahuacamolli, meaning avocado soup or sauce, from which the Spanish word guacamole derives.
In the United Kingdom, the term avocado pear is still sometimes misused as applied when avocados first became commonly available in the 1960s.
Originating as a diminutive in Australian English, a clipped form, avo, has since become a common colloquialism in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
It is known as "butter fruit" in parts of India.
CULTIVATION
The subtropical species needs a climate without frost and with little wind. High winds reduce the humidity, dehydrate the flowers, and affect pollination. When even a mild frost occurs, premature fruit drop may occur, although the 'Hass' cultivar can tolerate temperatures down to −1 °C. Several cold-hardy varieties are planted in the region of Gainesville, Florida, which survive temperatures as low as −6.5 °C with only minor leaf damage. The trees also need well-aerated soils, ideally more than 1 m deep.
According to information published by the Water Footprint Network, it takes an average of approximately 70 litres of applied fresh ground or surface water, not including rainfall or natural moisture in the soil, to grow one avocado. However, the amount of water needed depends on where it is grown; for example, in the main avocado-growing region of Chile, about 320 litres of applied water are needed to grow one avocado.
Yield is reduced when the irrigation water is highly saline. These soil and climate conditions are available in southern and eastern Colombia, Morocco, the Levant, South Africa, Venezuela, Spain, Peru, parts of central and northern Chile, Vietnam, Indonesia, parts of southern India, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, southern California, Arizona, Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, Ecuador, and Rwanda. Each region has different cultivars.
HARVEST AND POSTHARVEST
Commercial orchards produce an average of seven tonnes per hectare each year, with some orchards achieving 20 tonnes per hectare. Biennial bearing can be a problem, with heavy crops in one year being followed by poor yields the next.
Like the banana, the avocado is a climacteric fruit, which matures on the tree, but ripens off the tree. Avocados used in commerce are picked hard and green and kept in coolers at 3.3 to 5.6 °C until they reach their final destination. Avocados must be mature to ripen properly. Avocados that fall off the tree ripen on the ground. Generally, the fruit is picked once it reaches maturity; Mexican growers pick 'Hass' avocados when they have more than 23% dry matter, and other producing countries have similar standards. Once picked, avocados ripen in one to two weeks (depending on the cultivar) at room temperature (faster if stored with other fruits such as apples or bananas, because of the influence of ethylene gas). Some supermarkets sell ripened avocados which have been treated with synthetic ethylene to hasten ripening. The use of an ethylene gas "ripening room", which is now an industry standard, was pioneered in the 1980s by farmer Gil Henry of Escondido, California, in response to footage from a hidden supermarket camera which showed shoppers repeatedly squeezing hard, unripe avocados, putting them "back in the bin," and moving on without making a purchase. In some cases, avocados can be left on the tree for several months, which is an advantage to commercial growers who seek the greatest return for their crop, but if the fruit remains unpicked for too long, it falls to the ground.
BREEDING
The species is only partially able to self-pollinate because of dichogamy in its flowering. This limitation, added to the long juvenile period, makes the species difficult to breed. Most cultivars are propagated by grafting, having originated from random seedling plants or minor mutations derived from cultivars. Modern breeding programs tend to use isolation plots where the chances of cross-pollination are reduced. That is the case for programs at the University of California, Riverside, as well as the Volcani Centre and the Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias in Chile.
The avocado is unusual in that the timing of the male and female flower phases differs among cultivars. The two flowering types are A and B. A-cultivar flowers open as female on the morning of the first day and close in late morning or early afternoon. Then they open as male in the afternoon of the second day. B varieties open as female on the afternoon of the first day, close in late afternoon and reopen as male the following morning.
A cultivars: 'Hass', 'Gwen', 'Lamb Hass', 'Pinkerton', 'Reed'
B cultivars: 'Fuerte', 'Sharwil', 'Zutano', 'Bacon', 'Ettinger', 'Sir Prize', 'Walter Hole'
Certain cultivars, such as the 'Hass', have a tendency to bear well only in alternate years. After a season with a low yield, due to factors such as cold (which the avocado does not tolerate well), the trees tend to produce abundantly the next season. In addition, due to environmental circumstances during some years, seedless avocados may appear on the trees.[36] Known in the avocado industry as "cukes", they are usually discarded commercially due to their small size.
PROPAGATION AND ROOTSTOCKS
Avocados can be propagated by seed, taking roughly four to six years to bear fruit, although in some cases seedlings can take 10 years to come into bearing. The offspring is unlikely to be identical to the parent cultivar in fruit quality. Prime quality varieties are therefore propagated by grafting to rootstocks that are propagated by seed (seedling rootstocks) or by layering (clonal rootstocks). After about a year of growing in a greenhouse, the young rootstocks are ready to be grafted. Terminal and lateral grafting is normally used. The scion cultivar grows for another 6–12 months before the tree is ready to be sold. Clonal rootstocks are selected for tolerance of specific soil and disease conditions, such as poor soil aeration or resistance to the soil-borne disease (root rot) caused by Phytophthora.
Commercial avocado production is limited to a small fraction of the vast genetic diversity in the species. Conservation of this genetic diversity has relied largely on field collection, as avocado seeds often do not survive storage in seed banks. This is problematic, as field preservation of living cultivars is expensive, and habitat loss threatens wild cultivars. More recently, an alternate method of conservation has been developed based on cryopreservation of avocado somatic embryos with reliable methods for somatic embryogenesis and reconstitution into living trees.
GROWING INDOORS
Indoors, an avocado tree is usually grown from the pit of an avocado fruit. This is often done by removing the pit from a ripe, unrefrigerated avocado fruit. The pit is then stabbed with three or four toothpicks, about one-third of the way up from the flat end. The pit is placed in a jar or vase containing tepid water. It should split in four to six weeks and yield roots and a sprout. If there is no change by this time, the avocado pit is discarded. Once the stem has grown a few inches, it is placed in a pot with soil. It should be watered every few days. Avocados have been known to grow large, so owners must be ready to re-pot the plant several times.
DISEASES
Avocado trees are vulnerable to bacterial, viral, fungal, and nutritional diseases (excesses and deficiencies of key minerals). Disease can affect all parts of the plant, causing spotting, rotting, cankers, pitting, and discoloration.
CULTIVATION IN MEXICO
Mexico is by far the world's largest avocado growing country, producing several times more than the second largest producer. In 2013, the total area dedicated to avocado production was 188,723 hectares, and the harvest was 2.03 million tonnes in 2017. The states that produce the most are México, Morelos, Nayarit, Puebla, and Michoacan, accounting for 86% of the total. In Michoacán, the cultivation is complicated by the existence of drug cartels that extort protection fees from cultivators. They are reported to exact 2000 Mexican pesos per hectare from avocado farmers and 1 to 3 pesos/kg of harvested fruit.
CULTIVATION IN CALIFORNIA
The avocado was introduced from Mexico to California in the 19th century, and has become a successful cash crop. About 240 km2 – some 95% of United States avocado production – is located in Southern California, with 60% in San Diego County. Fallbrook, California, claims, without official recognition, the title of "Avocado Capital of the World" (also claimed by the town of Uruapan in Mexico), and both Fallbrook and Carpinteria, California, host annual avocado festivals. Avocado is the official fruit of the state of California.
CULTIVATION IN PERU
'Hass' avocado production in Peru encompasses thousands of hectares in central and western Peru. Peru has now become the largest supplier of avocados imported to the European Union and the second largest supplier to Asia and the United States. Peru's location near the equator and along the Pacific Ocean creates consistently mild temperatures all year.
'Hass' avocados from Peru are seasonally available to consumers from May through September and are promoted under the auspices of the Peruvian Avocado Commission, headquartered in Washington, D.C.
A CULTIVARS
'Choquette'A seedling from Miami, Florida. 'Choquette' bore large fruit of good eating quality in large quantities and had good disease resistance, and thus became a major cultivar. Today 'Choquette' is widely propagated in south Florida both for commercial growing and for home growing.
'GWEN'
A seedling bred from 'Hass' x 'Thille' in 1982, 'Gwen' is higher yielding and more dwarfing than 'Hass' in California. The fruit has an oval shape, slightly smaller than 'Hass' (100–200 g), with a rich, nutty flavor. The skin texture is more finely pebbled than 'Hass', and is dull green when ripe. It is frost-hardy down to −1 °C.
'HASS'
The 'Hass' is the most common cultivar of avocado. It produces fruit year-round and accounts for 80% of cultivated avocados in the world. All 'Hass' trees are descended from a single "mother tree" raised by a mail carrier named Rudolph Hass, of La Habra Heights, California. Hass patented the productive tree in 1935. The "mother tree", of uncertain subspecies, died of root rot and was cut down in September 2002. 'Hass' trees have medium-sized (150–250 g), ovate fruit with a black, pebbled skin. The flesh has a nutty, rich flavor with 19% oil. A hybrid Guatemalan type can withstand temperatures to −1 °C.
'LULA'
A seedling reportedly grown from a 'Taft' avocado planted in Miami on the property of George Cellon, it is named after Cellon's wife, Lula. It was likely a cross between Mexican and Guatemalan types. 'Lula' was recognized for its flavor and high oil content and propagated commercially in Florida. It is also very commonly used as a rootstock for nursery production, and is hardy to −4 °C.
'MALUMA'
A relatively new cultivar, it was discovered in South Africa in the early 1990s by Mr. A.G. (Dries) Joubert. It is a chance seedling of unknown parentage.
'PINKERTON'
First grown on the Pinkerton Ranch in Saticoy, California, in the early 1970s, 'Pinkerton' is a seedling of 'Hass' x 'Rincon'. The large fruit has a small seed, and its green skin deepens in color as it ripens. The thick flesh has a smooth, creamy texture, pale green color, good flavor, and high oil content. It shows some cold tolerance, to −1 °C and bears consistently heavy crops. A hybrid Guatemalan type, it has excellent peeling characteristics.'Reed'Developed from a chance seedling found in 1948 by James S. Reed in California, this cultivar has large, round, green fruit with a smooth texture and dark, thick, glossy skin. Smooth and delicate, the flesh has a slightly nutty flavor. The skin ripens green. A Guatemalan type, it is hardy to −1 °C. Tree size is about 5 by 4 m.
B CULTIVARS
'BACON'
Developed by a farmer, James Bacon, in 1954, Bacon has medium-sized fruit with smooth, green skin with yellow-green, light-tasting flesh. When ripe, the skin remains green, but darkens slightly, and fruit yields to gentle pressure. It is cold-hardy down to −5 °C.
'BROGDEN'
Possibly a cross between Mexican and West Indian types, 'Brogden' originated as a seedling grown in Winter Haven, Florida, on the property of Tom W. Brogden. The variety was recognized for its cold-hardiness to −5 °C and became commercially propagated as nursery stock for home growing. It is noted for its dark purple skin at maturity.
'CLEOPATRA'
Heavy flowering. In cooler climates opening and closing of the flower tends to overlap making them more self-fertile. Medium-sized pear shaped black fruit with a shiny skin, larger than Hass. Yellow creamy flesh of creamy rich flavour. The skin turns black prior to harvest. Tree size 3m x 3m, marketed as dwarf.
'ETTINGER'
A Mexican-Guatemalan cross seedling of 'Fuerte', this cultivar originated in Israel, and was put into production there in 1947. Mature trees tolerate four hours at −6 °C. The fruit has a smooth, thin, green skin that does not peel easily. The flesh is very pale green.
'FUERTE'
A Mexican-Guatemalan cross originating in Puebla, the 'Fuerte' earned its name, which means strong in Spanish, after it withstood a severe frost in California in 1913. Hardy to −3 °C it has medium-sized, pear-shaped fruit with a green, leathery, easy-to-peel skin. The creamy flesh of mild and rich flavor has 18% oil. The skin ripens green. Tree size is 6 by 4 m .
'MONROE'
A Guatemalan/West Indian cross that originated from a seedling grown in Homestead, Florida, on the property of J.J.L. Phillips, 'Monroe' was patented in 1937 and became a major commercial cultivar due to its cold hardiness and production qualities. The fruit is large, averaging over 0.91 kg in weight, has an elliptical shape, and green, glossy skin. Hardy to −3 °C.
'SHARWIL'
Predominantly Guatemalan, with some Mexican race genes, 'Sharwil' was developed in 1951 by Sir Frank Sharpe at Redland Bay, southern Queensland. The name "Sharwil" is an amalgamation of Sharpe and Wilson (J.C. Wilson being the first propagator). Scions were sent from Australia to Hawaii in 1966. A medium-sized fruit with rough green skin, it closely resembles the 'Fuerte', but is slightly more oval in shape. The fruit has greenish-yellow flesh with a rich, nutty flavor and high oil content (20–24%), and a small seed. The skin is green when ripe. It represents more than 57% of the commercial farming in Hawaii, and represents up to 20% of all avocados grown in New South Wales, Australia. It is a regular and moderate bearer with excellent quality fruit, but is sensitive to frost. Disease and pest resistance are superior to 'Fuerte'.
`ZUTANO`
Originated by R.L. Ruitt in Fallbrook in 1926, this Mexican variety is hardy to −4 °C. The large, pear-shaped fruit has a shiny, thin, yellow-green skin that peels moderately easily. The flesh is pale green with fibers and has a light flavor.
OTHER CULTIVARS
Other avocado cultivars include 'Spinks'. Historically attested varieties (which may or may not survive among horticulturists) include the 'Challenge', 'Dickinson', 'Kist', 'Queen', 'Rey', 'Royal', 'Sharpless', and 'Taft'.
STONELESS AVOCADO
A stoneless avocado, marketed as a "cocktail avocado," which does not contain a pit, is available on a limited basis. They are five to eight centimetres long; the whole fruit may be eaten, including the skin. It is produced from an unpollinated blossom in which the seed does not develop. Seedless avocados regularly appear on trees. Known in the avocado industry as "cukes", they are usually discarded commercially due to their small size.
PRODUCTION
In 2017, world production of avocados was 5.9 million tonnes, led by Mexico with 34% (2.01 million tonnes) of the total (table). Other major producers were Dominican Republic, Peru, Indonesia, and Colombia, together producing 30% of the world total (table). In 2018, the US Department of Agriculture estimated that 231,028 hectares in total were under cultivation for avocado production in Mexico, a 6% increase over the previous year, and that 2 million tonnes would be exported. The Mexican state of Michoacán is the world leader in avocado production, accounting for 80% of all Mexican output. Most Mexican growers produce the Hass variety due to its high demand worldwide and longer shelf life.
AVOCADO-RELATED INTERNATIONAL TRADE ISSUES
After the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect in 1994, Mexico tried exporting avocados to the US. The US government resisted, claiming the trade would introduce Tephritidae fruit flies that would destroy California's crops. The Mexican government responded by inviting USDA inspectors to Mexico, but the US government declined, claiming fruit fly inspection was not feasible. The Mexican government then proposed to sell avocados only to the northeastern US in the winter (fruit flies cannot withstand extreme cold). The US government balked, but gave in when the Mexican government started erecting barriers to US corn.
Imports from Mexico in the 2005–2006 season exceeded 130,000 metric tons.
In 2009, Peru joined Chile and Mexico as an exporter of avocados to the US.
In the US, avocados are grown in California and Florida, where land, labor, and water are expensive. Avocado trees require frequent, deep watering to bear optimally, particularly in spring, summer, and fall. Due to increased Southern California water costs, they are now costly to grow. California produces 90% of the United States' avocados.
As of 2013, Mexico leads international exports, with other significant production in California, New Zealand, Peru, and South Africa.
CULINARY USES
The fruit of horticultural cultivars has a markedly higher fat content than most other fruit, mostly monounsaturated fat, and as such serves as an important staple in the diet of consumers who have limited access to other fatty foods (high-fat meats and fish, dairy products). Having a high smoke point, avocado oil is expensive compared to common salad and cooking oils, and mostly used for salads or dips.
A ripe avocado yields to gentle pressure when held in the palm of the hand and squeezed. The flesh is prone to enzymatic browning, quickly turning brown after exposure to air. To prevent this, lime or lemon juice can be added to avocados after peeling.
The fruit is not sweet, but distinctly and subtly flavored, with smooth texture. It is used in both savory and sweet dishes, though in many countries not for both. The avocado is common in vegetarian cuisine as a substitute for meats in sandwiches and salads because of its high fat content.
Generally, avocado is served raw, though some cultivars, including the common 'Hass', can be cooked for a short time without becoming bitter. The flesh of some avocados may be rendered inedible by heat. Prolonged cooking induces this chemical reaction in all cultivars.
It is used as the base for the Mexican dip known as guacamole, as well as a spread on corn tortillas or toast, served with spices.
In the Philippines, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, and southern India (especially the coastal Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka region), avocados are frequently used for milkshakes and occasionally added to ice cream and other desserts. In Brazil, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, a dessert drink is made with sugar, milk or water, and pureed avocado. Chocolate syrup is sometimes added. In Morocco, a similar chilled avocado and milk drink is sweetened with confectioner's sugar and flavored with a touch of orange flower water.
In Ethiopia, avocados are made into juice by mixing them with sugar and milk or water, usually served with Vimto and a slice of lemon. It is also common to serve layered multiple fruit juices in a glass (locally called Spris) made of avocados, mangoes, bananas, guavas, and papayas. Avocados are also used to make salads.
Avocados in savory dishes, often seen as exotic, are a relative novelty in Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Brazil, where the traditional preparation is mashed with sugar and lime, and eaten as a dessert or snack. This contrasts with Spanish-speaking countries such as Chile, Mexico, or Argentina, where the opposite is true and sweet preparations are rare.
In Australia and New Zealand, avocados are commonly served on sandwiches, sushi, toast, or with chicken. In Ghana, they are often eaten alone on sliced bread as a sandwich. In Sri Lanka, their well-ripened flesh, thoroughly mashed or pureed with milk and kitul treacle (a liquid jaggery made from the sap of the inflorescence of jaggery palms), is a common dessert. In Haiti, they are often consumed with cassava or regular bread for breakfast.
In Mexico and Central America, avocados are served mixed with white rice, in soups, salads, or on the side of chicken and meat. In Peru, they are consumed with tequeños as mayonnaise, served as a side dish with parrillas, used in salads and sandwiches, or as a whole dish when filled with tuna, shrimp, or chicken. In Chile, it is used as a puree-like sauce with chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs; and in slices for celery or lettuce salads. The Chilean version of Caesar salad contains large slices of mature avocado. In Kenya and Nigeria, the avocado is often eaten as a fruit alone or mixed with other fruits in a fruit salad, or as part of a vegetable salad.
Avocado is a primary ingredient in avocado soup. Avocado slices are frequently added to hamburgers, tortas, hot dogs, and carne asada. Avocado can be combined with eggs (in scrambled eggs, tortillas, or omelettes), and is a key ingredient in California rolls and other makizushi ("maki", or rolled sushi).
In the United Kingdom, the avocado became available during the 1960s when introduced by Sainsbury's under the name 'avocado pear'.
LEAVES
In addition to the fruit, the leaves of Mexican avocados (Persea americana var. drymifolia) are used in some cuisines as a spice, with a flavor somewhat reminiscent of anise. They are sold both dried and fresh, toasted before use, and either crumbled or used whole, commonly in bean dishes. Leaves of P. americana, Guatemalan variety, are toxic to goats, sheep, and horses.
NUTRITIONAL VALUE
NUTRIENTS AND FAT COMPOSITION
A typical serving of avocado (100 g) is moderate to rich in several B vitamins and vitamin K, with good content of vitamin C, vitamin E and potassium (right table, USDA nutrient data). Avocados also contain phytosterols and carotenoids, such as lutein and zeaxanthin.
Avocados have diverse fats.[68] For a typical avocado:
About 75% of an avocado's energy comes from fat, most of which (67% of total fat) is monounsaturated fat as oleic acid.
Other predominant fats include palmitic acid and linoleic acid.
The saturated fat content amounts to 14% of the total fat.
Typical total fat composition is roughly: 1% ω-3, 14% ω-6, 71% ω-9 (65% oleic and 6% palmitoleic), and 14% saturated fat (palmitic acid).
Although costly to produce, nutrient-rich avocado oil has diverse uses for salads or cooking and in cosmetics and soap products. Avocados are also a good source of vitamins B, E, and C, copper and fiber; their potassium content is higher than bananas.
AS A HOUSEPLANT
The avocado tree can be grown domestically and used as a (decorative) houseplant. The pit germinates in normal soil conditions or partially submerged in a small glass (or container) of water. In the latter method, the pit sprouts in four to six weeks, at which time it is planted in standard houseplant potting soil. The plant normally grows large enough to be prunable; it does not bear fruit unless it has ample sunlight. Home gardeners can graft a branch from a fruit-bearing plant to speed maturity, which typically takes four to six years to bear fruit.
ALLERGIES
Some people have allergic reactions to avocado. There are two main forms of allergy: those with a tree-pollen allergy develop local symptoms in the mouth and throat shortly after eating avocado; the second, known as latex-fruit syndrome, is related to latex allergy and symptoms include generalised urticaria, abdominal pain, and vomiting and can sometimes be life-threatening.
TOXICITY TO ANIMALS
Avocado leaves, bark, skin, or pit are documented to be harmful to animals; cats, dogs, cattle, goats, rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, birds, fish, and horses can be severely harmed or even killed when they consume them. The avocado fruit is poisonous to some birds, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) lists it as toxic to horses.
Avocado leaves contain a toxic fatty acid derivative, persin, which in sufficient quantity can cause colic in horses and without veterinary treatment, death. The symptoms include gastrointestinal irritation, vomiting, diarrhea, respiratory distress, congestion, fluid accumulation around the tissues of the heart, and even death. Birds also seem to be particularly sensitive to this toxic compound. A line of premium dog and cat food, AvoDerm, uses oils and meal made from avocado meat as main ingredients. The manufacturer says the avocado's leaves and pit are the source of toxicity, and only in the Guatemalan variety of avocados, and the fruit is often eaten by orchard dogs as well as wildlife such as bears and coyotes.
COEVOLUTION
In 1982, evolutionary biologist Daniel H. Janzen concluded that the avocado is an example of an 'evolutionary anachronism', a fruit adapted for ecological relationship with now-extinct large mammals (such as giant ground sloths or gomphotheres). Most large fleshy fruits serve the function of seed dispersal, accomplished by their consumption by large animals. There are some reasons to think that the fruit, with its mildly toxic pit, may have coevolved with Pleistocene megafauna to be swallowed whole and excreted in their dung, ready to sprout. No extant native animal is large enough to effectively disperse avocado seeds in this fashion.
WIKIPEDIA
A tight hold on a sunflower (Helianthus) a metaphor for Plants and peoples' trip together through evolution.
See all Sunflowers in Helianthus Album
NGC 4535, Virgo, The Lost Galaxy of Copeland, and Five Quasars
NGC 4535 is a low surface brightness (LSB) barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo, first documented by William Herschel in 1785. Due to its hazy and "ghostly" visual presentation prominent amateur astronomer Leland Copeland named it "The Lost Galaxy" in the 1950s. Based on its median redshift-independent distance measurement of 51.53 Mly, apparent magnitude of 10.32 (g), and angular size of 7.80 arcmin, the galaxy is approximately 116,000 ly in diameter and 90% as bright as the Milky Way. Its redshift of 0.00657 corresponds to a recession velocity of 1,963 km/s, which is in part due to the expansion of space, and in part to its "peculiar velocity" through space relative to us. Its morphological classification is SAB(s)c, indicating an intermediate-barred spiral galaxy without a central ring, and with moderately wound spiral arms. The galaxy is one of the larger members of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster that includes up to 2,000 members. Like most "cluster spirals" it shows evidence of tidal interaction with other members in the form of spiral arm deformation and splitting, gas depletion, and low average star formation rate (SFR) in the current cosmological epoch. The blue floccules in the spiral structure represent "OB Associations", immense clusters of large and very hot young stars. However, unlike in similar galaxies, these are present in relatively low numbers due to gas depletion in the galactic disk. For this reason, NGC 4535 is regarded as a low surface brightness (LSB) galaxy. A number of curved, elongated structures in the disk strongly resemble "stellar streams", or gravitationally stretched remnants of merged dwarf galaxies. Many major galaxies in the Virgo Cluster show evidence of rapid mass assembly through the process of dwarf galaxy accretion.
NGC 4535 has been extensively investigated regarding the presence of a central supermassive black hole (SMBH). Central black holes have been detected in virtually all substantial galaxies studied. Spectroscopic analysis of the central region in the optical band shows evidence of numerous ionized hydrogen (Hii) clouds. These originate from molecular gas clouds ionized by the powerful ultraviolet radiation emanating either from an SMBH accretion disk and/or circumnuclear regions of new star formation. The width of the spectral lines indicates the "velocity dispersion" of luminous matter near the nucleus, which in turn depends on the intensity of the gravitational field generated by the mass in the galactic center. Studies of NGC 4535 refined the understanding of the relationship between the mass and activity of the central SMBH and the evolution of the galaxy within which it resides. For example, this galaxy's gas depletion and current low average star formation rate are in part due to the return of mass momentum and energy from the black hole to the galaxy by the mechanisms of "SMBH outflows" and "radiation pressure" respectively. These processes expel gas and dust from the galaxy, and are explained in more detail in section 40 here:
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...
While NGC 4535 does not have a central starburst ring structure visible in the optical band, it has been one of the major subjects in recent studies on galactic ring formation (Jiayi Sun et al. 2018). Observational evidence reveals a close association between galactic star formation rate (SFR), molecular gas clouds which are the gas reservoir for star formation, and ionized hydrogen (Hii) regions formed when molecular gas is exposed to ionizing ultraviolet radiation from newborn stars. The hydrogen molecule, H2, originating from the big bang, is by far the main component of molecular gas. The second most abundant component is the carbon monoxide molecule, CO, whose constituent atoms were formed during the preceding generations of "stellar nucleosynthesis". Its emission line at the wavelength of 2.6 mm is used in radio-astronomy to map the distribution of galactic molecular gas clouds. While low mass galaxies show faint and scattered CO emissions, massive spiral galaxies exhibit bright, contiguous ring-like emissions within the galactic bulge (Hughes et al. 2013a). These structures, named "Resonance Rings", are thought to accumulate in regions where the outward acting-forces on the molecules balance the centrally-acting gravitational forces. More precisely, resonance rings form where the kinetic energy of gas molecules, defined by the average "velocity dispersion", balances the gravitational potential energy. The evolution of molecular resonance rings also depends on other mechanisms, such as magnetic fields, central SMBH outflows and radiation pressure, and external gravitational effects and matter exchange related to merging or interacting galaxies. In NGC 4535, a resonance ring was detected approximately 1,500 ly from the center. Under favorable circumstances molecular resonance rings evolve into star-forming regions, and eventually become brightly luminous in the visible band.
Derived properties of identified faint objects are listed in the chart on the annotated image. The most remote are five quasars, four of which lie beyond the "cosmic event horizon", as their recession velocities in the present cosmological epoch are superluminal. Two of them, marked with (+) appear significantly brighter than their listed apparent magnitudes. Many quasars are variable up to several magnitudes with periods ranging from days to years, depending on the inflow of matter available for accretion. The most intrinsically luminous object is LBQS 1232+0815, which is nearly 5,000 times brighter than the Milky Way. The most distant quasar is SDSS J123352.16+080527.4 (z = 2.76700), lying at a light travel distance (lookback time) of 11.33 Bly.
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105 mm
-OSC 36 x 300 sec, (2021 + 2022), 2x drizzle, 40% linear crop, FOV 31x21 arcmin
-Software: DSS, XnView, Starnet++ v2, StarTools 1.3 and 1.8, Cosmological Calculator 3
#photo 2 out of 3
The Spider & the Bee. I am afraid to tell you but the Bee lost!
www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/goldenrod_spider.htm
PS: And I lost because I did not have my close up filters with me.
The avocado (Persea americana), a tree with probable origin in south-central Mexico,[2][3][4] is classified as a member of the flowering plant family Lauraceae.[2] The fruit of the plant, also called an avocado (or avocado pear or alligator pear), is botanically a large berry containing a single large seed.[5]
Avocados are commercially valuable and are cultivated in tropical and Mediterranean climates throughout the world.[2] They have a green-skinned, fleshy body that may be pear-shaped, egg-shaped, or spherical. Commercially, they ripen after harvesting. Avocado trees are partially self-pollinating, and are often propagated through grafting to maintain predictable fruit quality and quantity.[6] In 2017, Mexico produced 34% of the world supply of avocados.
Botany
Persea americana is a tree that grows to 20 m, with alternately arranged leaves 12–25 cm long. Panicles of flowers with deciduous bracts arise from new growth or the axils of leaves. The flowers are inconspicuous, greenish-yellow, 5–10 mm wide.
The species is variable because of selection pressure by humans to produce larger, fleshier fruits with a thinner exocarp. The avocado fruit is a climacteric, single-seeded berry, due to the imperceptible endocarp covering the seed rather than a drupe. The pear-shaped fruit is 7–20 cm long, weighs between 100 and 1,000 g, and has a large central seed, 5–6.4 cm long.
HISTORY
Persea americana, or the avocado, possibly originated in the Tehuacan Valley in the state of Puebla, Mexico, although fossil evidence suggests similar species were much more widespread millions of years ago. However, there is evidence for three possible separate domestications of the avocado, resulting in the currently recognized Mexican (aoacatl), Guatemalan (quilaoacatl), and West Indian (tlacacolaocatl) landraces. The Mexican and Guatemalan landraces originated in the highlands of those countries, while the West Indian landrace is a lowland variety that ranges from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador to Peru, achieving a wide range through human agency before the arrival of the Europeans. The three separate landraces were most likely to have already intermingled[a] in pre-Columbian America and were described in the Florentine Codex.
The earliest residents were living in temporary camps in an ancient wetland eating avocados, chilies, mollusks, sharks, birds, and sea lions. The oldest discovery of an avocado pit comes from Coxcatlan Cave, dating from around 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. Other caves in the Tehuacan Valley from around the same time period also show early evidence for the presence of avocado. There is evidence for avocado use at Norte Chico civilization sites in Peru by at least 3,200 years ago and at Caballo Muerto in Peru from around 3,800 to 4,500 years ago.
The native, undomesticated variety is known as a criollo, and is small, with dark black skin, and contains a large seed. It probably coevolved with extinct megafauna. The avocado tree also has a long history of cultivation in Central and South America, likely beginning as early as 5,000 BC. A water jar shaped like an avocado, dating to AD 900, was discovered in the pre-Incan city of Chan Chan.
The earliest known written account of the avocado in Europe is that of Martín Fernández de Enciso (circa 1470–1528) in 1519 in his book, Suma De Geographia Que Trata De Todas Las Partidas Y Provincias Del Mundo. The first detailed account that unequivocally describes the avocado was given by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés in his work Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias [es] in 1526. The first written record in English of the use of the word 'avocado' was by Hans Sloane, who coined the term, in a 1696 index of Jamaican plants. The plant was introduced to Spain in 1601, Indonesia around 1750, Mauritius in 1780, Brazil in 1809, the United States mainland in 1825, South Africa and Australia in the late 19th century, and Israel in 1908. In the United States, the avocado was introduced to Florida and Hawaii in 1833 and in California in 1856.
Before 1915, the avocado was commonly referred to in California as ahuacate and in Florida as alligator pear. In 1915, the California Avocado Association introduced the then-innovative term avocado to refer to the plant.
ETYMOLOGY
The word "avocado" comes from the Spanish aguacate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word āhuacatl [aːˈwakat͡ɬ], which goes back to the proto-Aztecan *pa:wa which also meant "avocado". Sometimes the Nahuatl word was used with the meaning "testicle", probably because of the likeness between the fruit and the body part.
The modern English name comes from an English rendering of the Spanish aguacate as avogato. The earliest known written use in English is attested from 1697 as "avogato pear", a term which was later corrupted as "alligator pear". Because the word avogato sounded like "advocate", several languages reinterpreted it to have that meaning. French uses avocat, which also means lawyer, and "advocate" — forms of the word appear in several Germanic languages, such as the (now obsolete) German Advogato-Birne, the old Danish advokat-pære (today it is called avocado) and the Dutch advocaatpeer.
REGIONAL NAMES
In other Central American and Caribbean Spanish-speaking countries, it is known by the Mexican name, while South American Spanish-speaking countries use a Quechua-derived word, palta. In Portuguese, it is abacate. The fruit is sometimes called an avocado pear or alligator pear (due to its shape and the rough green skin of some cultivars). The Nahuatl āhuacatl can be compounded with other words, as in ahuacamolli, meaning avocado soup or sauce, from which the Spanish word guacamole derives.
In the United Kingdom, the term avocado pear is still sometimes misused as applied when avocados first became commonly available in the 1960s.
Originating as a diminutive in Australian English, a clipped form, avo, has since become a common colloquialism in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
It is known as "butter fruit" in parts of India.
CULTIVATION
The subtropical species needs a climate without frost and with little wind. High winds reduce the humidity, dehydrate the flowers, and affect pollination. When even a mild frost occurs, premature fruit drop may occur, although the 'Hass' cultivar can tolerate temperatures down to −1 °C. Several cold-hardy varieties are planted in the region of Gainesville, Florida, which survive temperatures as low as −6.5 °C with only minor leaf damage. The trees also need well-aerated soils, ideally more than 1 m deep.
According to information published by the Water Footprint Network, it takes an average of approximately 70 litres of applied fresh ground or surface water, not including rainfall or natural moisture in the soil, to grow one avocado. However, the amount of water needed depends on where it is grown; for example, in the main avocado-growing region of Chile, about 320 litres of applied water are needed to grow one avocado.
Yield is reduced when the irrigation water is highly saline. These soil and climate conditions are available in southern and eastern Colombia, Morocco, the Levant, South Africa, Venezuela, Spain, Peru, parts of central and northern Chile, Vietnam, Indonesia, parts of southern India, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, southern California, Arizona, Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, Ecuador, and Rwanda. Each region has different cultivars.
HARVEST AND POSTHARVEST
Commercial orchards produce an average of seven tonnes per hectare each year, with some orchards achieving 20 tonnes per hectare. Biennial bearing can be a problem, with heavy crops in one year being followed by poor yields the next.
Like the banana, the avocado is a climacteric fruit, which matures on the tree, but ripens off the tree. Avocados used in commerce are picked hard and green and kept in coolers at 3.3 to 5.6 °C until they reach their final destination. Avocados must be mature to ripen properly. Avocados that fall off the tree ripen on the ground. Generally, the fruit is picked once it reaches maturity; Mexican growers pick 'Hass' avocados when they have more than 23% dry matter, and other producing countries have similar standards. Once picked, avocados ripen in one to two weeks (depending on the cultivar) at room temperature (faster if stored with other fruits such as apples or bananas, because of the influence of ethylene gas). Some supermarkets sell ripened avocados which have been treated with synthetic ethylene to hasten ripening. The use of an ethylene gas "ripening room", which is now an industry standard, was pioneered in the 1980s by farmer Gil Henry of Escondido, California, in response to footage from a hidden supermarket camera which showed shoppers repeatedly squeezing hard, unripe avocados, putting them "back in the bin," and moving on without making a purchase. In some cases, avocados can be left on the tree for several months, which is an advantage to commercial growers who seek the greatest return for their crop, but if the fruit remains unpicked for too long, it falls to the ground.
BREEDING
The species is only partially able to self-pollinate because of dichogamy in its flowering. This limitation, added to the long juvenile period, makes the species difficult to breed. Most cultivars are propagated by grafting, having originated from random seedling plants or minor mutations derived from cultivars. Modern breeding programs tend to use isolation plots where the chances of cross-pollination are reduced. That is the case for programs at the University of California, Riverside, as well as the Volcani Centre and the Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias in Chile.
The avocado is unusual in that the timing of the male and female flower phases differs among cultivars. The two flowering types are A and B. A-cultivar flowers open as female on the morning of the first day and close in late morning or early afternoon. Then they open as male in the afternoon of the second day. B varieties open as female on the afternoon of the first day, close in late afternoon and reopen as male the following morning.
A cultivars: 'Hass', 'Gwen', 'Lamb Hass', 'Pinkerton', 'Reed'
B cultivars: 'Fuerte', 'Sharwil', 'Zutano', 'Bacon', 'Ettinger', 'Sir Prize', 'Walter Hole'
Certain cultivars, such as the 'Hass', have a tendency to bear well only in alternate years. After a season with a low yield, due to factors such as cold (which the avocado does not tolerate well), the trees tend to produce abundantly the next season. In addition, due to environmental circumstances during some years, seedless avocados may appear on the trees.[36] Known in the avocado industry as "cukes", they are usually discarded commercially due to their small size.
PROPAGATION AND ROOTSTOCKS
Avocados can be propagated by seed, taking roughly four to six years to bear fruit, although in some cases seedlings can take 10 years to come into bearing. The offspring is unlikely to be identical to the parent cultivar in fruit quality. Prime quality varieties are therefore propagated by grafting to rootstocks that are propagated by seed (seedling rootstocks) or by layering (clonal rootstocks). After about a year of growing in a greenhouse, the young rootstocks are ready to be grafted. Terminal and lateral grafting is normally used. The scion cultivar grows for another 6–12 months before the tree is ready to be sold. Clonal rootstocks are selected for tolerance of specific soil and disease conditions, such as poor soil aeration or resistance to the soil-borne disease (root rot) caused by Phytophthora.
Commercial avocado production is limited to a small fraction of the vast genetic diversity in the species. Conservation of this genetic diversity has relied largely on field collection, as avocado seeds often do not survive storage in seed banks. This is problematic, as field preservation of living cultivars is expensive, and habitat loss threatens wild cultivars. More recently, an alternate method of conservation has been developed based on cryopreservation of avocado somatic embryos with reliable methods for somatic embryogenesis and reconstitution into living trees.
GROWING INDOORS
Indoors, an avocado tree is usually grown from the pit of an avocado fruit. This is often done by removing the pit from a ripe, unrefrigerated avocado fruit. The pit is then stabbed with three or four toothpicks, about one-third of the way up from the flat end. The pit is placed in a jar or vase containing tepid water. It should split in four to six weeks and yield roots and a sprout. If there is no change by this time, the avocado pit is discarded. Once the stem has grown a few inches, it is placed in a pot with soil. It should be watered every few days. Avocados have been known to grow large, so owners must be ready to re-pot the plant several times.
DISEASES
Avocado trees are vulnerable to bacterial, viral, fungal, and nutritional diseases (excesses and deficiencies of key minerals). Disease can affect all parts of the plant, causing spotting, rotting, cankers, pitting, and discoloration.
CULTIVATION IN MEXICO
Mexico is by far the world's largest avocado growing country, producing several times more than the second largest producer. In 2013, the total area dedicated to avocado production was 188,723 hectares, and the harvest was 2.03 million tonnes in 2017. The states that produce the most are México, Morelos, Nayarit, Puebla, and Michoacan, accounting for 86% of the total. In Michoacán, the cultivation is complicated by the existence of drug cartels that extort protection fees from cultivators. They are reported to exact 2000 Mexican pesos per hectare from avocado farmers and 1 to 3 pesos/kg of harvested fruit.
CULTIVATION IN CALIFORNIA
The avocado was introduced from Mexico to California in the 19th century, and has become a successful cash crop. About 240 km2 – some 95% of United States avocado production – is located in Southern California, with 60% in San Diego County. Fallbrook, California, claims, without official recognition, the title of "Avocado Capital of the World" (also claimed by the town of Uruapan in Mexico), and both Fallbrook and Carpinteria, California, host annual avocado festivals. Avocado is the official fruit of the state of California.
CULTIVATION IN PERU
'Hass' avocado production in Peru encompasses thousands of hectares in central and western Peru. Peru has now become the largest supplier of avocados imported to the European Union and the second largest supplier to Asia and the United States. Peru's location near the equator and along the Pacific Ocean creates consistently mild temperatures all year.
'Hass' avocados from Peru are seasonally available to consumers from May through September and are promoted under the auspices of the Peruvian Avocado Commission, headquartered in Washington, D.C.
A CULTIVARS
'Choquette'A seedling from Miami, Florida. 'Choquette' bore large fruit of good eating quality in large quantities and had good disease resistance, and thus became a major cultivar. Today 'Choquette' is widely propagated in south Florida both for commercial growing and for home growing.
'GWEN'
A seedling bred from 'Hass' x 'Thille' in 1982, 'Gwen' is higher yielding and more dwarfing than 'Hass' in California. The fruit has an oval shape, slightly smaller than 'Hass' (100–200 g), with a rich, nutty flavor. The skin texture is more finely pebbled than 'Hass', and is dull green when ripe. It is frost-hardy down to −1 °C.
'HASS'
The 'Hass' is the most common cultivar of avocado. It produces fruit year-round and accounts for 80% of cultivated avocados in the world. All 'Hass' trees are descended from a single "mother tree" raised by a mail carrier named Rudolph Hass, of La Habra Heights, California. Hass patented the productive tree in 1935. The "mother tree", of uncertain subspecies, died of root rot and was cut down in September 2002. 'Hass' trees have medium-sized (150–250 g), ovate fruit with a black, pebbled skin. The flesh has a nutty, rich flavor with 19% oil. A hybrid Guatemalan type can withstand temperatures to −1 °C.
'LULA'
A seedling reportedly grown from a 'Taft' avocado planted in Miami on the property of George Cellon, it is named after Cellon's wife, Lula. It was likely a cross between Mexican and Guatemalan types. 'Lula' was recognized for its flavor and high oil content and propagated commercially in Florida. It is also very commonly used as a rootstock for nursery production, and is hardy to −4 °C.
'MALUMA'
A relatively new cultivar, it was discovered in South Africa in the early 1990s by Mr. A.G. (Dries) Joubert. It is a chance seedling of unknown parentage.
'PINKERTON'
First grown on the Pinkerton Ranch in Saticoy, California, in the early 1970s, 'Pinkerton' is a seedling of 'Hass' x 'Rincon'. The large fruit has a small seed, and its green skin deepens in color as it ripens. The thick flesh has a smooth, creamy texture, pale green color, good flavor, and high oil content. It shows some cold tolerance, to −1 °C and bears consistently heavy crops. A hybrid Guatemalan type, it has excellent peeling characteristics.'Reed'Developed from a chance seedling found in 1948 by James S. Reed in California, this cultivar has large, round, green fruit with a smooth texture and dark, thick, glossy skin. Smooth and delicate, the flesh has a slightly nutty flavor. The skin ripens green. A Guatemalan type, it is hardy to −1 °C. Tree size is about 5 by 4 m.
B CULTIVARS
'BACON'
Developed by a farmer, James Bacon, in 1954, Bacon has medium-sized fruit with smooth, green skin with yellow-green, light-tasting flesh. When ripe, the skin remains green, but darkens slightly, and fruit yields to gentle pressure. It is cold-hardy down to −5 °C.
'BROGDEN'
Possibly a cross between Mexican and West Indian types, 'Brogden' originated as a seedling grown in Winter Haven, Florida, on the property of Tom W. Brogden. The variety was recognized for its cold-hardiness to −5 °C and became commercially propagated as nursery stock for home growing. It is noted for its dark purple skin at maturity.
'CLEOPATRA'
Heavy flowering. In cooler climates opening and closing of the flower tends to overlap making them more self-fertile. Medium-sized pear shaped black fruit with a shiny skin, larger than Hass. Yellow creamy flesh of creamy rich flavour. The skin turns black prior to harvest. Tree size 3m x 3m, marketed as dwarf.
'ETTINGER'
A Mexican-Guatemalan cross seedling of 'Fuerte', this cultivar originated in Israel, and was put into production there in 1947. Mature trees tolerate four hours at −6 °C. The fruit has a smooth, thin, green skin that does not peel easily. The flesh is very pale green.
'FUERTE'
A Mexican-Guatemalan cross originating in Puebla, the 'Fuerte' earned its name, which means strong in Spanish, after it withstood a severe frost in California in 1913. Hardy to −3 °C it has medium-sized, pear-shaped fruit with a green, leathery, easy-to-peel skin. The creamy flesh of mild and rich flavor has 18% oil. The skin ripens green. Tree size is 6 by 4 m .
'MONROE'
A Guatemalan/West Indian cross that originated from a seedling grown in Homestead, Florida, on the property of J.J.L. Phillips, 'Monroe' was patented in 1937 and became a major commercial cultivar due to its cold hardiness and production qualities. The fruit is large, averaging over 0.91 kg in weight, has an elliptical shape, and green, glossy skin. Hardy to −3 °C.
'SHARWIL'
Predominantly Guatemalan, with some Mexican race genes, 'Sharwil' was developed in 1951 by Sir Frank Sharpe at Redland Bay, southern Queensland. The name "Sharwil" is an amalgamation of Sharpe and Wilson (J.C. Wilson being the first propagator). Scions were sent from Australia to Hawaii in 1966. A medium-sized fruit with rough green skin, it closely resembles the 'Fuerte', but is slightly more oval in shape. The fruit has greenish-yellow flesh with a rich, nutty flavor and high oil content (20–24%), and a small seed. The skin is green when ripe. It represents more than 57% of the commercial farming in Hawaii, and represents up to 20% of all avocados grown in New South Wales, Australia. It is a regular and moderate bearer with excellent quality fruit, but is sensitive to frost. Disease and pest resistance are superior to 'Fuerte'.
'ZUTANO'
Originated by R.L. Ruitt in Fallbrook in 1926, this Mexican variety is hardy to −4 °C. The large, pear-shaped fruit has a shiny, thin, yellow-green skin that peels moderately easily. The flesh is pale green with fibers and has a light flavor.
OTHER CULTIVARS
Other avocado cultivars include 'Spinks'. Historically attested varieties (which may or may not survive among horticulturists) include the 'Challenge', 'Dickinson', 'Kist', 'Queen', 'Rey', 'Royal', 'Sharpless', and 'Taft'.
STONELESS AVOCADO
A stoneless avocado, marketed as a "cocktail avocado," which does not contain a pit, is available on a limited basis. They are five to eight centimetres long; the whole fruit may be eaten, including the skin. It is produced from an unpollinated blossom in which the seed does not develop. Seedless avocados regularly appear on trees. Known in the avocado industry as "cukes", they are usually discarded commercially due to their small size.
PRODUCTION
In 2017, world production of avocados was 5.9 million tonnes, led by Mexico with 34% (2.01 million tonnes) of the total (table). Other major producers were Dominican Republic, Peru, Indonesia, and Colombia, together producing 30% of the world total (table). In 2018, the US Department of Agriculture estimated that 231,028 hectares in total were under cultivation for avocado production in Mexico, a 6% increase over the previous year, and that 2 million tonnes would be exported. The Mexican state of Michoacán is the world leader in avocado production, accounting for 80% of all Mexican output. Most Mexican growers produce the Hass variety due to its high demand worldwide and longer shelf life.
AVOCADO-RELATED INTERNATIONAL TRADE ISSUES
After the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect in 1994, Mexico tried exporting avocados to the US. The US government resisted, claiming the trade would introduce Tephritidae fruit flies that would destroy California's crops. The Mexican government responded by inviting USDA inspectors to Mexico, but the US government declined, claiming fruit fly inspection was not feasible. The Mexican government then proposed to sell avocados only to the northeastern US in the winter (fruit flies cannot withstand extreme cold). The US government balked, but gave in when the Mexican government started erecting barriers to US corn.
Imports from Mexico in the 2005–2006 season exceeded 130,000 metric tons.
In 2009, Peru joined Chile and Mexico as an exporter of avocados to the US.
In the US, avocados are grown in California and Florida, where land, labor, and water are expensive. Avocado trees require frequent, deep watering to bear optimally, particularly in spring, summer, and fall. Due to increased Southern California water costs, they are now costly to grow. California produces 90% of the United States' avocados.
As of 2013, Mexico leads international exports, with other significant production in California, New Zealand, Peru, and South Africa.
CULINARY USES
The fruit of horticultural cultivars has a markedly higher fat content than most other fruit, mostly monounsaturated fat, and as such serves as an important staple in the diet of consumers who have limited access to other fatty foods (high-fat meats and fish, dairy products). Having a high smoke point, avocado oil is expensive compared to common salad and cooking oils, and mostly used for salads or dips.
A ripe avocado yields to gentle pressure when held in the palm of the hand and squeezed. The flesh is prone to enzymatic browning, quickly turning brown after exposure to air. To prevent this, lime or lemon juice can be added to avocados after peeling.
The fruit is not sweet, but distinctly and subtly flavored, with smooth texture. It is used in both savory and sweet dishes, though in many countries not for both. The avocado is common in vegetarian cuisine as a substitute for meats in sandwiches and salads because of its high fat content.
Generally, avocado is served raw, though some cultivars, including the common 'Hass', can be cooked for a short time without becoming bitter. The flesh of some avocados may be rendered inedible by heat. Prolonged cooking induces this chemical reaction in all cultivars.
It is used as the base for the Mexican dip known as guacamole, as well as a spread on corn tortillas or toast, served with spices.
In the Philippines, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, and southern India (especially the coastal Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka region), avocados are frequently used for milkshakes and occasionally added to ice cream and other desserts. In Brazil, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, a dessert drink is made with sugar, milk or water, and pureed avocado. Chocolate syrup is sometimes added. In Morocco, a similar chilled avocado and milk drink is sweetened with confectioner's sugar and flavored with a touch of orange flower water.
In Ethiopia, avocados are made into juice by mixing them with sugar and milk or water, usually served with Vimto and a slice of lemon. It is also common to serve layered multiple fruit juices in a glass (locally called Spris) made of avocados, mangoes, bananas, guavas, and papayas. Avocados are also used to make salads.
Avocados in savory dishes, often seen as exotic, are a relative novelty in Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Brazil, where the traditional preparation is mashed with sugar and lime, and eaten as a dessert or snack. This contrasts with Spanish-speaking countries such as Chile, Mexico, or Argentina, where the opposite is true and sweet preparations are rare.
In Australia and New Zealand, avocados are commonly served on sandwiches, sushi, toast, or with chicken. In Ghana, they are often eaten alone on sliced bread as a sandwich. In Sri Lanka, their well-ripened flesh, thoroughly mashed or pureed with milk and kitul treacle (a liquid jaggery made from the sap of the inflorescence of jaggery palms), is a common dessert. In Haiti, they are often consumed with cassava or regular bread for breakfast.
In Mexico and Central America, avocados are served mixed with white rice, in soups, salads, or on the side of chicken and meat. In Peru, they are consumed with tequeños as mayonnaise, served as a side dish with parrillas, used in salads and sandwiches, or as a whole dish when filled with tuna, shrimp, or chicken. In Chile, it is used as a puree-like sauce with chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs; and in slices for celery or lettuce salads. The Chilean version of Caesar salad contains large slices of mature avocado. In Kenya and Nigeria, the avocado is often eaten as a fruit alone or mixed with other fruits in a fruit salad, or as part of a vegetable salad.
Avocado is a primary ingredient in avocado soup. Avocado slices are frequently added to hamburgers, tortas, hot dogs, and carne asada. Avocado can be combined with eggs (in scrambled eggs, tortillas, or omelettes), and is a key ingredient in California rolls and other makizushi ("maki", or rolled sushi).
In the United Kingdom, the avocado became available during the 1960s when introduced by Sainsbury's under the name 'avocado pear'.
LEAVES
In addition to the fruit, the leaves of Mexican avocados (Persea americana var. drymifolia) are used in some cuisines as a spice, with a flavor somewhat reminiscent of anise. They are sold both dried and fresh, toasted before use, and either crumbled or used whole, commonly in bean dishes. Leaves of P. americana, Guatemalan variety, are toxic to goats, sheep, and horses.
NUTRITIONAL VALUE
NUTRIENTS AND FAT COMPOSITION
A typical serving of avocado (100 g) is moderate to rich in several B vitamins and vitamin K, with good content of vitamin C, vitamin E and potassium (right table, USDA nutrient data). Avocados also contain phytosterols and carotenoids, such as lutein and zeaxanthin.
Avocados have diverse fats.[68] For a typical avocado:
About 75% of an avocado's energy comes from fat, most of which (67% of total fat) is monounsaturated fat as oleic acid.
Other predominant fats include palmitic acid and linoleic acid.
The saturated fat content amounts to 14% of the total fat.
Typical total fat composition is roughly: 1% ω-3, 14% ω-6, 71% ω-9 (65% oleic and 6% palmitoleic), and 14% saturated fat (palmitic acid).
Although costly to produce, nutrient-rich avocado oil has diverse uses for salads or cooking and in cosmetics and soap products. Avocados are also a good source of vitamins B, E, and C, copper and fiber; their potassium content is higher than bananas.
AS A HOUSEPLANT
The avocado tree can be grown domestically and used as a (decorative) houseplant. The pit germinates in normal soil conditions or partially submerged in a small glass (or container) of water. In the latter method, the pit sprouts in four to six weeks, at which time it is planted in standard houseplant potting soil. The plant normally grows large enough to be prunable; it does not bear fruit unless it has ample sunlight. Home gardeners can graft a branch from a fruit-bearing plant to speed maturity, which typically takes four to six years to bear fruit.
ALLERGIES
Some people have allergic reactions to avocado. There are two main forms of allergy: those with a tree-pollen allergy develop local symptoms in the mouth and throat shortly after eating avocado; the second, known as latex-fruit syndrome, is related to latex allergy and symptoms include generalised urticaria, abdominal pain, and vomiting and can sometimes be life-threatening.
TOXICITY TO ANIMALS
Avocado leaves, bark, skin, or pit are documented to be harmful to animals; cats, dogs, cattle, goats, rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, birds, fish, and horses can be severely harmed or even killed when they consume them. The avocado fruit is poisonous to some birds, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) lists it as toxic to horses.
Avocado leaves contain a toxic fatty acid derivative, persin, which in sufficient quantity can cause colic in horses and without veterinary treatment, death. The symptoms include gastrointestinal irritation, vomiting, diarrhea, respiratory distress, congestion, fluid accumulation around the tissues of the heart, and even death. Birds also seem to be particularly sensitive to this toxic compound. A line of premium dog and cat food, AvoDerm, uses oils and meal made from avocado meat as main ingredients. The manufacturer says the avocado's leaves and pit are the source of toxicity, and only in the Guatemalan variety of avocados, and the fruit is often eaten by orchard dogs as well as wildlife such as bears and coyotes.
COEVOLUTION
In 1982, evolutionary biologist Daniel H. Janzen concluded that the avocado is an example of an 'evolutionary anachronism', a fruit adapted for ecological relationship with now-extinct large mammals (such as giant ground sloths or gomphotheres). Most large fleshy fruits serve the function of seed dispersal, accomplished by their consumption by large animals. There are some reasons to think that the fruit, with its mildly toxic pit, may have coevolved with Pleistocene megafauna to be swallowed whole and excreted in their dung, ready to sprout. No extant native animal is large enough to effectively disperse avocado seeds in this fashion.
WIKIPEDIA
Field Galaxy NGC 2903, Satellite Galaxy UGC 5086, and Three Quasars, Leo
NGC 2903 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Leo, first documented by William Herschel in 1784. Although it is bright and fairly large, easily seen in binoculars, it escaped the attention of Charles Messier and his associate Pierre Mechain. On a large scale, NGC 2903 lies within the Virgo Supercluster which includes the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. Except for dwarf elliptical galaxy UGC 5086, at a distance of 2 million ly, it has no near neighbors, and does not belong to any local galaxy cluster. Such isolated galaxies, undisturbed by gravitational fields of large neighbors, are called "field galaxies", constitute 10-20% of the total galaxy population, and follow different evolutionary pathways than "cluster galaxies". Unaffected by major tidal forces and mergers, large field galaxies are most commonly low-surface-brightness (LSB) spirals with delicate and symmetrical spiral arm structure, and usually with low star formation rates (SFR). However, NGC 2903 is far from quiescent. Although its energy output is insufficient to qualify it as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), the nucleus is still bright in all bands, from radio waves to X-rays, suggesting the presence of a central supermassive black hole (SMBH) with polar jets and an accretion disk. Photometric and spectroscopic analysis of the central region reveals increased star formation rates generated by interstellar medium turbulence initiated by radiation pressure and feedback outflows from the central SMBH. The turbulence then extends outward, augmented by stellar winds and supernovae, enhancing new star formation further afield. The distinct blue floccules in the spiral arms represent "OB associations", huge clusters of very hot young stars.
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...
From its measurable properties it can be calculated that NGC 2903 is about 26 million ly distant, and 100,000 light years in diameter, roughly 30% smaller than the Milky Way, and proportionally less luminous. Several interesting features within the galaxy are marked on the annotated image. Some sources define object NGC 2905 as a bright region near the nucleus, at the S end of the bulge. Opinions differ whether the object is a large collection of stars or a very hot ionized hydrogen (Hii) region. Meanwhile, both NED and SIMBAD extragalactic databases list NGC 2905 simply as a duplicate identifier for the main galaxy, NGC 2903. At the NE extremity of the galaxy there is evidence of a curved luminous region which does not seem to be a part of the spiral arm. I speculate it may be a small satellite galaxy in the process of merging, stretched into a "stellar stream" by the tidal forces of the main galaxy. Computer models show that stellar streams can persist through multiple galactic orbits, for billions of years, before they are ultimately dispersed into anonymity. Gaps in stellar streams are thought to be caused by encounters with dark matter overdensities (subhalos) within the galactic halo. At the W perimeter of the galaxy, ULX marks the location of an ultra-luminous X-ray source. Such objects can be associated with intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH), and may emit optical transients during the periods of more active accretion.
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...
Numerous distant galaxies are visible on close inspection of the background, many of which have no identifier. Of the more prominent ones, the most formidable is SDSS J093239.53+214555.7, a hyperluminous giant galaxy, at least 160,000 ly in diameter, lying at a distance around 3.2 billion ly. Near the threshold of the limiting magnitude are seen three quasars (QSOs) listed in the chart below. The most remote is QSO B0929+2128, nearly 3,000 times brighter than the Miky Way, whose light travelled 10.9 billion years before reching us. When its photons were emitted, the quasar was receding at 251,428 km/s (relativistic or redshift recession velocity). In the present epoch, it lies at a "comoving = proper distance" of 18.7 billion ly, receding at a superluminal "proper recession velocity" of 405,052 km/s. The quasar is now located well beyond the "cosmic event horizon". Since the space between us is expanding faster than its light is moving toward us, the photons it is presently emitting can never reach us.
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105mm, Paramount GT GEM
-27 x 300 sec subs, OSC, 2x drizzle, 50% linear crop
-Software: DSS, XnView, StarNet++, StarTools v 1.3 and 1.7
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their role in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are presently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 16,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. Some species – including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees – live socially in colonies while some species – including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat bees – are solitary.
Bees are found on every continent except for Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. The most common bees in the Northern Hemisphere are the Halictidae, or sweat bees, but they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies. Bees range in size from tiny stingless bee species, whose workers are less than 2 millimetres long, to Megachile pluto, the largest species of leafcutter bee, whose females can attain a length of 39 millimetres.
Bees feed on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for their larvae. Vertebrate predators of bees include birds such as bee-eaters; insect predators include beewolves and dragonflies.
Bee pollination is important both ecologically and commercially, and the decline in wild bees has increased the value of pollination by commercially managed hives of honey bees. The analysis of 353 wild bee and hoverfly species across Britain from 1980 to 2013 found the insects have been lost from a quarter of the places they inhabited in 1980.
Human beekeeping or apiculture has been practised for millennia, since at least the times of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. Bees have appeared in mythology and folklore, through all phases of art and literature from ancient times to the present day, although primarily focused in the Northern Hemisphere where beekeeping is far more common.
EVOLUTION
The ancestors of bees were wasps in the family Crabronidae, which were predators of other insects. The switch from insect prey to pollen may have resulted from the consumption of prey insects which were flower visitors and were partially covered with pollen when they were fed to the wasp larvae. This same evolutionary scenario may have occurred within the vespoid wasps, where the pollen wasps evolved from predatory ancestors. Until recently, the oldest non-compression bee fossil had been found in New Jersey amber, Cretotrigona prisca of Cretaceous age, a corbiculate bee. A bee fossil from the early Cretaceous (~100 mya), Melittosphex burmensis, is considered "an extinct lineage of pollen-collecting Apoidea sister to the modern bees". Derived features of its morphology (apomorphies) place it clearly within the bees, but it retains two unmodified ancestral traits (plesiomorphies) of the legs (two mid-tibial spurs, and a slender hind basitarsus), showing its transitional status. By the Eocene (~45 mya) there was already considerable diversity among eusocial bee lineages.
The highly eusocial corbiculate Apidae appeared roughly 87 Mya, and the Allodapini (within the Apidae) around 53 Mya. The Colletidae appear as fossils only from the late Oligocene (~25 Mya) to early Miocene. The Melittidae are known from Palaeomacropis eocenicus in the Early Eocene. The Megachilidae are known from trace fossils (characteristic leaf cuttings) from the Middle Eocene. The Andrenidae are known from the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, around 34 Mya, of the Florissant shale. The Halictidae first appear in the Early Eocene with species found in amber. The Stenotritidae are known from fossil brood cells of Pleistocene age.
COEVOLUTION
The earliest animal-pollinated flowers were shallow, cup-shaped blooms pollinated by insects such as beetles, so the syndrome of insect pollination was well established before the first appearance of bees. The novelty is that bees are specialized as pollination agents, with behavioral and physical modifications that specifically enhance pollination, and are the most efficient pollinating insects. In a process of coevolution, flowers developed floral rewards such as nectar and longer tubes, and bees developed longer tongues to extract the nectar. Bees also developed structures known as scopal hairs and pollen baskets to collect and carry pollen. The location and type differ among and between groups of bees. Most species have scopal hairs on their hind legs or on the underside of their abdomens. Some species in the family Apidae have pollen baskets on their hind legs, while very few lack these and instead collect pollen in their crops. The appearance of these structures drove the adaptive radiation of the angiosperms, and, in turn, bees themselves. Bees coevolved not only with flowers but it is believed that some species coevolved with mites. Some provide tufts of hairs called acarinaria that appear to provide lodgings for mites; in return, it is believed that mites eat fungi that attack pollen, so the relationship in this case may be mutualistc.
CHARACTERISTICS
Bees differ from closely related groups such as wasps by having branched or plume-like setae (hairs), combs on the forelimbs for cleaning their antennae, small anatomical differences in limb structure, and the venation of the hind wings; and in females, by having the seventh dorsal abdominal plate divided into two half-plates.
Bees have the following characteristics:
A pair of large compound eyes which cover much of the surface of the head. Between and above these are three small simple eyes (ocelli) which provide information on light intensity.
The antennae usually have 13 segments in males and 12 in females, and are geniculate, having an elbow joint part way along. They house large numbers of sense organs that can detect touch (mechanoreceptors), smell and taste; and small, hairlike mechanoreceptors that can detect air movement so as to "hear" sounds.
The mouthparts are adapted for both chewing and sucking by having both a pair of mandibles and a long proboscis for sucking up nectar.
The thorax has three segments, each with a pair of robust legs, and a pair of membranous wings on the hind two segments. The front legs of corbiculate bees bear combs for cleaning the antennae, and in many species the hind legs bear pollen baskets, flattened sections with incurving hairs to secure the collected pollen. The wings are synchronised in flight, and the somewhat smaller hind wings connect to the forewings by a row of hooks along their margin which connect to a groove in the forewing.
The abdomen has nine segments, the hindermost three being modified into the sting.
The largest species of bee is thought to be Wallace's giant bee Megachile pluto, whose females can attain a length of 39 millimetres. The smallest species may be dwarf stingless bees in the tribe Meliponini whose workers are less than 2 millimetres in length.
SOCIALITY
HAPLODIPLOID BREEDING SYSTEM
According to inclusive fitness theory, organisms can gain fitness not just through increasing their own reproductive output, but also that of close relatives. In evolutionary terms, individuals should help relatives when Cost < Relatedness * Benefit. The requirements for eusociality are more easily fulfilled by haplodiploid species such as bees because of their unusual relatedness structure.
In haplodiploid species, females develop from fertilized eggs and males from unfertilized eggs. Because a male is haploid (has only one copy of each gene), his daughters (which are diploid, with two copies of each gene) share 100% of his genes and 50% of their mother's. Therefore, they share 75% of their genes with each other. This mechanism of sex determination gives rise to what W. D. Hamilton termed "supersisters", more closely related to their sisters than they would be to their own offspring. Workers often do not reproduce, but they can pass on more of their genes by helping to raise their sisters (as queens) than they would by having their own offspring (each of which would only have 50% of their genes), assuming they would produce similar numbers. This unusual situation has been proposed as an explanation of the multiple (at least 9) evolutions of eusociality within Hymenoptera.
Haplodiploidy is neither necessary nor sufficient for eusociality. Some eusocial species such as termites are not haplodiploid. Conversely, all bees are haplodiploid but not all are eusocial, and among eusocial species many queens mate with multiple males, creating half-sisters that share only 25% of each-other's genes. But, monogamy (queens mating singly) is the ancestral state for all eusocial species so far investigated, so it is likely that haplodiploidy contributed to the evolution of eusociality in bees.
EUSOCIALIT
Bees may be solitary or may live in various types of communities. Eusociality appears to have originated from at least three independent origins in halictid bees. The most advanced of these are species with eusocial colonies; these are characterised by cooperative brood care and a division of labour into reproductive and non-reproductive adults, plus overlapping generations. This division of labour creates specialized groups within eusocial societies which are called castes. In some species, groups of cohabiting females may be sisters, and if there is a division of labour within the group, they are considered semisocial. The group is called eusocial if, in addition, the group consists of a mother (the queen) and her daughters (workers). When the castes are purely behavioural alternatives, with no morphological differentiation other than size, the system is considered primitively eusocial, as in many paper wasps; when the castes are morphologically discrete, the system is considered highly eusocial.True honey bees (genus Apis, of which seven species are currently recognized) are highly eusocial, and are among the best known insects. Their colonies are established by swarms, consisting of a queen and several hundred workers. There are 29 subspecies of one of these species, Apis mellifera, native to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Africanized bees are a hybrid strain of A. mellifera that escaped from experiments involving crossing European and African subspecies; they are extremely defensive.[Stingless bees are also highly eusocial. They practise mass provisioning, with complex nest architecture and perennial colonies also established via swarming.
Many bumblebees are eusocial, similar to the eusocial Vespidae such as hornets in that the queen initiates a nest on her own rather than by swarming. Bumblebee colonies typically have from 50 to 200 bees at peak population, which occurs in mid to late summer. Nest architecture is simple, limited by the size of the pre-existing nest cavity, and colonies rarely last more than a year. In 2011, the International Union for Conservation of Nature set up the Bumblebee Specialist Group to review the threat status of all bumblebee species worldwide using the IUCN Red List criteria.
There are many more species of primitively eusocial than highly eusocial bees, but they have been studied less often. Most are in the family Halictidae, or "sweat bees". Colonies are typically small, with a dozen or fewer workers, on average. Queens and workers differ only in size, if at all. Most species have a single season colony cycle, even in the tropics, and only mated females hibernate. A few species have long active seasons and attain colony sizes in the hundreds, such as Halictus hesperus. Some species are eusocial in parts of their range and solitary in others, or have a mix of eusocial and solitary nests in the same population. The orchid bees (Apidae) include some primitively eusocial species with similar biology. Some allodapine bees (Apidae) form primitively eusocial colonies, with progressive provisioning: a larva's food is supplied gradually as it develops, as is the case in honey bees and some bumblebees.
SOLITARY AND COMMUNAL BEES
Most other bees, including familiar insects such as carpenter bees, leafcutter bees and mason bees are solitary in the sense that every female is fertile, and typically inhabits a nest she constructs herself. There is no division of labor so these nests lack queens and worker bees for these species. Solitary bees typically produce neither honey nor beeswax. Bees collect pollen to feed their young, and have the necessary adaptations to do this. However, certain wasp species such as pollen wasps have similar behaviours, and a few species of bee scavenge from carcases to feed their offspring. Solitary bees are important pollinators; they gather pollen to provision their nests with food for their brood. Often it is mixed with nectar to form a paste-like consistency. Some solitary bees have advanced types of pollen-carrying structures on their bodies. Very few species of solitary bee are being cultured for commercial pollination. Most of these species belong to a distinct set of genera which are commonly known by their nesting behavior or preferences, namely: carpenter bees, sweat bees, mason bees, plasterer bees, squash bees, dwarf carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, alkali bees and digger bees.Most solitary bees nest in the ground in a variety of soil textures and conditions while others create nests in hollow reeds or twigs, holes in wood. The female typically creates a compartment (a "cell") with an egg and some provisions for the resulting larva, then seals it off. A nest may consist of numerous cells. When the nest is in wood, usually the last (those closer to the entrance) contain eggs that will become males. The adult does not provide care for the brood once the egg is laid, and usually dies after making one or more nests. The males typically emerge first and are ready for mating when the females emerge. Solitary bees are either stingless or very unlikely to sting (only in self-defense, if ever). While solitary, females each make individual nests. Some species, such as the European mason bee Hoplitis anthocopoides, and the Dawson's Burrowing bee, Amegilla dawsoni, are gregarious, preferring to make nests near others of the same species, and giving the appearance of being social. Large groups of solitary bee nests are called aggregations, to distinguish them from colonies. In some species, multiple females share a common nest, but each makes and provisions her own cells independently. This type of group is called "communal" and is not uncommon. The primary advantage appears to be that a nest entrance is easier to defend from predators and parasites when multiple females use that same entrance regularly
BIOLOGY
LIFE CYCLE
The life cycle of a bee, be it a solitary or social species, involves the laying of an egg, the development through several moults of a legless larva, a pupation stage during which the insect undergoes complete metamorphosis, followed by the emergence of a winged adult. Most solitary bees and bumble bees in temperate climates overwinter as adults or pupae and emerge in spring when increasing numbers of flowering plants come into bloom. The males usually emerge first and search for females with which to mate. The sex of a bee is determined by whether or not the egg is fertilised; after mating, a female stores the sperm, and determines which sex is required at the time each individual egg is laid, fertilised eggs producing female offspring and unfertilised eggs, males. Tropical bees may have several generations in a year and no diapause stage.
The egg is generally oblong, slightly curved and tapering at one end. Solitary bees, lay each egg in a separate cell with a supply of mixed pollen and nectar next to it. This may be rolled into a pellet or placed in a pile and is known as mass provisioning. Social bee species provision progressively, that is, they feed the larva regularly while it grows. The nest varies from a hole in the ground or in wood, in solitary bees, to a substantial structure with wax combs in bumblebees and honey bees.
In most species, larvae are whitish grubs, roughly oval and bluntly-pointed at both ends. They have 15 segments and spiracles in each segment for breathing. They have no legs but move within the cell, helped by tubercles on their sides. They have short horns on the head, jaws for chewing food and an appendage on either side of the mouth tipped with a bristle. There is a gland under the mouth that secretes a viscous liquid which solidifies into the silk they use to produce a cocoon. The cocoon is semi-transparent and the pupa can be seen through it. Over the course of a few days, the larva undergoes metamorphosis into a winged adult. When ready to emerge, the adult splits its skin dorsally and climbs out of the exuviae and breaks out of the cell.
FLIGHT
Antoine Magnan's 1934 book Le vol des insectes, says that he and André Sainte-Laguë had applied the equations of air resistance to insects and found that their flight could not be explained by fixed-wing calculations, but that "One shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality". This has led to a common misconception that bees "violate aerodynamic theory". In fact it merely confirms that bees do not engage in fixed-wing flight, and that their flight is explained by other mechanics, such as those used by helicopters. In 1996 it was shown that vortices created by many insects' wings helped to provide lift. High-speed cinematography and robotic mock-up of a bee wing showed that lift was generated by "the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency". Wing-beat frequency normally increases as size decreases, but as the bee's wing beat covers such a small arc, it flaps approximately 230 times per second, faster than a fruitfly (200 times per second) which is 80 times smaller.
NAVIGATION, COMMUNICATION AND FINDING FOOD
The ethologist Karl von Frisch studied navigation in the honey bee. He showed that honey bees communicate by the waggle dance, in which a worker indicates the location of a food source to other workers in the hive. He demonstrated that bees can recognize a desired compass direction in three different ways: by the sun, by the polarization pattern of the blue sky, and by the earth's magnetic field. He showed that the sun is the preferred or main compass; the other mechanisms are used under cloudy skies or inside a dark beehive. Bees navigate using spatial memory with a "rich, map-like organization".
DIGESTION
The gut of bees is relatively simple, but multiple metabolic strategies exist in the gut microbiota. Pollinating bees consume nectar and pollen, which require different digestion strategies by somewhat specialized bacteria. While nectar is a liquid of mostly monosaccharide sugars and so easily absorbed, pollen contains complex polysaccharides: branching pectin and hemicellulose. Approximately five groups of bacteria are involved in digestion. Three groups specialize in simple sugars (Snodgrassella and two groups of Lactobacillus), and two other groups in complex sugars (Gilliamella and Bifidobacterium). Digestion of pectin and hemicellulose is dominated by bacterial clades Gilliamella and Bifidobacterium respectively. Bacteria that cannot digest polysaccharides obtain enzymes from their neighbors, and bacteria that lack certain amino acids do the same, creating multiple ecological niches.
Although most bee species are nectarivorous and palynivorous, some are not. Particularly unusual are vulture bees in the genus Trigona, which consume carrion and wasp brood, turning meat into a honey-like substance.
ECOLOGY
FLORAL RELATIONSHIPS
Most bees are polylectic (generalist) meaning they collect pollen from a range of flowering plants, but some are oligoleges (specialists), in that they only gather pollen from one or a few species or genera of closely related plants. Specialist pollinators also include bee species which gather floral oils instead of pollen, and male orchid bees, which gather aromatic compounds from orchids (one of the few cases where male bees are effective pollinators). Bees are able to sense the presence of desirable flowers through ultraviolet patterning on flowers, floral odors, and even electromagnetic fields. Once landed, a bee then uses nectar quality and pollen taste to determine whether to continue visiting similar flowers.
In rare cases, a plant species may only be effectively pollinated by a single bee species, and some plants are endangered at least in part because their pollinator is also threatened. But, there is a pronounced tendency for oligolectic bees to be associated with common, widespread plants visited by multiple pollinator species. For example, the creosote bush in the arid parts of the United States southwest is associated with some 40 oligoleges.
AS MIMICS AND MODELS
Many bees are aposematically coloured, typically orange and black, warning of their ability to defend themselves with a powerful sting. As such they are models for Batesian mimicry by non-stinging insects such as bee-flies, robber flies and hoverflies, all of which gain a measure of protection by superficially looking and behaving like bees.
Bees are themselves Müllerian mimics of other aposematic insects with the same colour scheme, including wasps, lycid and other beetles, and many butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) which are themselves distasteful, often through acquiring bitter and poisonous chemicals from their plant food. All the Müllerian mimics, including bees, benefit from the reduced risk of predation that results from their easily recognised warning coloration.
Bees are also mimicked by plants such as the bee orchid which imitates both the appearance and the scent of a female bee; male bees attempt to mate (pseudocopulation) with the furry lip of the flower, thus pollinating it
AS BROOD PARASITES
Brood parasites occur in several bee families including the apid subfamily Nomadinae. Females of these species lack pollen collecting structures (the scopa) and do not construct their own nests. 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 often the host egg also. In particular, the Arctic bee species, Bombus hyperboreus is an aggressive species that attacks and enslaves other bees of the same subgenus. However, unlike many other bee brood parasites, they have pollen baskets and often collect pollen.
In Southern Africa, hives of African honeybees (A. mellifera scutellata) are being destroyed by parasitic workers of the Cape honeybee, A. m. capensis. These lay diploid eggs ("thelytoky"), escaping normal worker policing, leading to the colony's destruction; the parasites can then move to other hives.
The cuckoo bees in the Bombus subgenus Psithyrus are closely related to, and resemble, their hosts in looks and size. This common pattern gave rise to the ecological principle "Emery's rule". Others parasitize bees in different families, like Townsendiella, a nomadine apid, two species of which are cleptoparasites of the dasypodaid genus Hesperapis, while the other species in the same genus attacks halictid bees.
NOCTURNAL BEES
Four bee families (Andrenidae, Colletidae, Halictidae, and Apidae) contain some species that are crepuscular. Most are tropical or subtropical, but some live in arid regions at higher latitudes. These bees have greatly enlarged ocelli, which are extremely sensitive to light and dark, though incapable of forming images. Some have refracting superposition compound eyes: these combine the output of many elements of their compound eyes to provide enough light for each retinal photoreceptor. Their ability to fly by night enables them to avoid many predators, and to exploit flowers that produce nectar only or also at night.
PREDATORS, PARASITES AND PATHOGENS
Vertebrate predators of bees include bee-eaters, shrikes and flycatchers, which make short sallies to catch insects in flight. Swifts and swallows fly almost continually, catching insects as they go. The honey buzzard attacks bees' nests and eats the larvae. The greater honeyguide interacts with humans by guiding them to the nests of wild bees. The humans break open the nests and take the honey and the bird feeds on the larvae and the wax. Among mammals, predators such as the badger dig up bumblebee nests and eat both the larvae and any stored food.Specialist ambush predators of visitors to flowers include crab spiders, which wait on flowering plants for pollinating insects; predatory bugs, and praying mantises, some of which (the flower mantises of the tropics) wait motionless, aggressive mimics camouflaged as flowers. Beewolves are large wasps that habitually attack bees; the ethologist Niko Tinbergen estimated that a single colony of the beewolf Philanthus triangulum might kill several thousand honeybees in a day: all the prey he observed were honeybees. Other predatory insects that sometimes catch bees include robber flies and dragonflies. Honey bees are affected by parasites including acarine and Varroa mites. However, some bees are believed to have a mutualistic relationship with mites.
RELATIONSHIP WITH HUMANS
IN MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
Homer's Hymn to Hermes describes three bee-maidens with the power of divination and thus speaking truth, and identifies the food of the gods as honey. Sources associated the bee maidens with Apollo and, until the 1980s, scholars followed Gottfried Hermann (1806) in incorrectly identifying the bee-maidens with the Thriae. Honey, according to a Greek myth, was discovered by a nymph called Melissa ("Bee"); and honey was offered to the Greek gods from Mycenean times. Bees were also associated with the Delphic oracle and the prophetess was sometimes called a bee.
The image of a community of honey bees has been used from ancient to modern times, in Aristotle and Plato; in Virgil and Seneca; in Erasmus and Shakespeare; Tolstoy, and by political and social theorists such as Bernard Mandeville and Karl Marx as a model for human society. In English folklore, bees would be told of important events in the household, in a custom known as "Telling the bees".
IN ART AND LITERATURE
Some of the oldest examples of bees in art are rock paintings in Spain which have been dated to 15,000 BC.
W. B. Yeats's poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree (1888) contains the couplet "Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, / And live alone in the bee loud glade." At the time he was living in Bedford Park in the West of London. Beatrix Potter's illustrated book The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse (1910) features Babbity Bumble and her brood (pictured). Kit Williams' treasure hunt book The Bee on the Comb (1984) uses bees and beekeeping as part of its story and puzzle. Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees (2004), and the 2009 film starring Dakota Fanning, tells the story of a girl who escapes her abusive home and finds her way to live with a family of beekeepers, the Boatwrights.
The humorous 2007 animated film Bee Movie used Jerry Seinfeld's first script and was his first work for children; he starred as a bee named Barry B. Benson, alongside Renée Zellweger. Critics found its premise awkward and its delivery tame. Dave Goulson's A Sting in the Tale (2014) describes his efforts to save bumblebees in Britain, as well as much about their biology. The playwright Laline Paull's fantasy The Bees (2015) tells the tale of a hive bee named Flora 717 from hatching onwards.
BEEKEEPING
Humans have kept honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, for millennia. Beekeepers collect honey, beeswax, propolis, pollen, and royal jelly from hives; bees are also kept to pollinate crops and to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers.
Depictions of humans collecting honey from wild bees date to 15,000 years ago; efforts to domesticate them are shown in Egyptian art around 4,500 years ago. Simple hives and smoke were used; jars of honey were found in the tombs of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun. From the 18th century, European understanding of the colonies and biology of bees allowed the construction of the moveable comb hive so that honey could be harvested without destroying the colony. Among Classical Era authors, beekeeping with the use of smoke is described in Aristotle's History of Animals Book 9. The account mentions that bees die after stinging; that workers remove corpses from the hive, and guard it; castes including workers and non-working drones, but "kings" rather than queens; predators including toads and bee-eaters; and the waggle dance, with the "irresistible suggestion" of άpοσειονται ("aroseiontai", it waggles) and παρακολουθούσιν ("parakolouthousin", they watch).
Beekeeping is described in detail by Virgil in his Georgics; it is also mentioned in his Aeneid, and in Pliny's Natural History.
AS COMMERCIAL POLLINATORS
Bees play an important role in pollinating flowering plants, and are the major type of pollinator in many ecosystems that contain flowering plants. It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on pollination by insects, birds and bats, most of which is accomplished by bees, whether wild or domesticated. Over the last half century, there has been a general decline in the species richness of wild bees and other pollinators, probably attributable to stress from increased parasites and disease, the use of pesticides, and a general decrease in the number of wild flowers. Climate change probably exacerbates the problem.
Contract pollination has overtaken the role of honey production for beekeepers in many countries. After the introduction of Varroa mites, feral honey bees declined dramatically in the US, though their numbers have since recovered. The number of colonies kept by beekeepers declined slightly, through urbanization, systematic pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and the closure of beekeeping businesses. In 2006 and 2007 the rate of attrition increased, and was described as colony collapse disorder. In 2010 invertebrate iridescent virus and the fungus Nosema ceranae were shown to be in every killed colony, and deadly in combination. Winter losses increased to about 1/3. Varroa mites were thought to be responsible for about half the losses.
Apart from colony collapse disorder, losses outside the US have been attributed to causes including pesticide seed dressings, using neonicotinoids such as Clothianidin, Imidacloprid and Thiamethoxam. From 2013 the European Union restricted some pesticides to stop bee populations from declining further. In 2014 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned that bees faced increased risk of extinction because of global warming. In 2018 the European Union decided to ban field use of all three major neonicotinoids; they remain permitted in veterinary, greenhouse, and vehicle transport usage.
Farmers have focused on alternative solutions to mitigate these problems. By raising native plants, they provide food for native bee pollinators like Lasioglossum vierecki and L. leucozonium, leading to less reliance on honey bee populations.
AS FOOD PRODUCERS
Honey is a natural product produced by bees and stored for their own use, but its sweetness has always appealed to humans. Before domestication of bees was even attempted, humans were raiding their nests for their honey. Smoke was often used to subdue the bees and such activities are depicted in rock paintings in Spain dated to 15,000 BC.
Honey bees are used commercially to produce honey. They also produce some substances used as dietary supplements with possible health benefits, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly, though all of these can also cause allergic reactions.
AS FOOD (BE BROOD)
Bees are partly considered edible insects. Indigenous people in many countries eat insects, including the larvae and pupae of bees, mostly stingless species. They also gather larvae, pupae and surrounding cells, known as bee brood, for consumption. In the Indonesian dish botok tawon from Central and East Java, bee larvae are eaten as a companion to rice, after being mixed with shredded coconut, wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed.
Bee brood (pupae and larvae) although low in calcium, has been found to be high in protein and carbohydrate, and a useful source of phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, and trace minerals iron, zinc, copper, and selenium. In addition, while bee brood was high in fat, it contained no fat soluble vitamins (such as A, D, and E) but it was a good source of most of the water-soluble B-vitamins including choline as well as vitamin C. The fat was composed mostly of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids with 2.0% being polyunsaturated fatty acids.
AS ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Apitherapy is a branch of alternative medicine that uses honey bee products, including raw honey, royal jelly, pollen, propolis, beeswax and apitoxin (Bee venom). The claim that apitherapy treats cancer, which some proponents of apitherapy make, remains unsupported by evidence-based medicine.
STINGS
The painful stings of bees are mostly associated with the poison gland and the Dufour's gland which are abdominal exocrine glands containing various chemicals. In Lasioglossum leucozonium, the Dufour's Gland mostly contains octadecanolide as well as some eicosanolide. There is also evidence of n-triscosane, n-heptacosane, and 22-docosanolide. However, the secretions of these glands could also be used for nest construction.
WIKIPEDIA
Dernière balade sur la route des Chicanes D281 de ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes, le 21 janvier 2018.
Archives photos : www.flickr.com/photos/valkphotos/collections/721576321492...
I have a soft spot for pigeons (Columba livia), having volunteered with a pigeon & dove rescue in San Francisco. I particularly love seeing pigeons on cliffs -- the way they were meant to live, sometimes alongside Peregrines, with whom they co-evolved. I believe this pigeon is a "she," based on the courtship behavior I saw at this location. Olympus E-M1 + Zuiko 50-200mm
From a piece by Daniel Frazer, In Defense of Pigeons: "Pigeons are perhaps some of the most graceful fliers of our neighboring birds and owe this to their co-evolution with the peregrine falcon. Pigeons are prey animals to our many local birds of prey, but the pigeon has an especially long relationship with the peregrine falcon. Having evolved in close proximity to one another in the Northern African/Mediterranean region, the two have consistently developed advancing techniques to out perform the other."
[Adjustments: standard jpg edits w/light vignette]
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their role in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are presently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 16,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. Some species – including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees – live socially in colonies while some species – including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat bees – are solitary.
Bees are found on every continent except for Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. The most common bees in the Northern Hemisphere are the Halictidae, or sweat bees, but they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies. Bees range in size from tiny stingless bee species, whose workers are less than 2 millimetres long, to Megachile pluto, the largest species of leafcutter bee, whose females can attain a length of 39 millimetres.
Bees feed on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for their larvae. Vertebrate predators of bees include birds such as bee-eaters; insect predators include beewolves and dragonflies.
Bee pollination is important both ecologically and commercially, and the decline in wild bees has increased the value of pollination by commercially managed hives of honey bees. The analysis of 353 wild bee and hoverfly species across Britain from 1980 to 2013 found the insects have been lost from a quarter of the places they inhabited in 1980.
Human beekeeping or apiculture has been practised for millennia, since at least the times of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. Bees have appeared in mythology and folklore, through all phases of art and literature from ancient times to the present day, although primarily focused in the Northern Hemisphere where beekeeping is far more common.
EVOLUTION
The ancestors of bees were wasps in the family Crabronidae, which were predators of other insects. The switch from insect prey to pollen may have resulted from the consumption of prey insects which were flower visitors and were partially covered with pollen when they were fed to the wasp larvae. This same evolutionary scenario may have occurred within the vespoid wasps, where the pollen wasps evolved from predatory ancestors. Until recently, the oldest non-compression bee fossil had been found in New Jersey amber, Cretotrigona prisca of Cretaceous age, a corbiculate bee. A bee fossil from the early Cretaceous (~100 mya), Melittosphex burmensis, is considered "an extinct lineage of pollen-collecting Apoidea sister to the modern bees". Derived features of its morphology (apomorphies) place it clearly within the bees, but it retains two unmodified ancestral traits (plesiomorphies) of the legs (two mid-tibial spurs, and a slender hind basitarsus), showing its transitional status. By the Eocene (~45 mya) there was already considerable diversity among eusocial bee lineages.
The highly eusocial corbiculate Apidae appeared roughly 87 Mya, and the Allodapini (within the Apidae) around 53 Mya. The Colletidae appear as fossils only from the late Oligocene (~25 Mya) to early Miocene. The Melittidae are known from Palaeomacropis eocenicus in the Early Eocene. The Megachilidae are known from trace fossils (characteristic leaf cuttings) from the Middle Eocene. The Andrenidae are known from the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, around 34 Mya, of the Florissant shale. The Halictidae first appear in the Early Eocene with species found in amber. The Stenotritidae are known from fossil brood cells of Pleistocene age.
COEVOLUTION
The earliest animal-pollinated flowers were shallow, cup-shaped blooms pollinated by insects such as beetles, so the syndrome of insect pollination was well established before the first appearance of bees. The novelty is that bees are specialized as pollination agents, with behavioral and physical modifications that specifically enhance pollination, and are the most efficient pollinating insects. In a process of coevolution, flowers developed floral rewards such as nectar and longer tubes, and bees developed longer tongues to extract the nectar. Bees also developed structures known as scopal hairs and pollen baskets to collect and carry pollen. The location and type differ among and between groups of bees. Most species have scopal hairs on their hind legs or on the underside of their abdomens. Some species in the family Apidae have pollen baskets on their hind legs, while very few lack these and instead collect pollen in their crops. The appearance of these structures drove the adaptive radiation of the angiosperms, and, in turn, bees themselves. Bees coevolved not only with flowers but it is believed that some species coevolved with mites. Some provide tufts of hairs called acarinaria that appear to provide lodgings for mites; in return, it is believed that mites eat fungi that attack pollen, so the relationship in this case may be mutualistc.
CHARACTERISTICS
Bees differ from closely related groups such as wasps by having branched or plume-like setae (hairs), combs on the forelimbs for cleaning their antennae, small anatomical differences in limb structure, and the venation of the hind wings; and in females, by having the seventh dorsal abdominal plate divided into two half-plates.
Bees have the following characteristics:
A pair of large compound eyes which cover much of the surface of the head. Between and above these are three small simple eyes (ocelli) which provide information on light intensity.
The antennae usually have 13 segments in males and 12 in females, and are geniculate, having an elbow joint part way along. They house large numbers of sense organs that can detect touch (mechanoreceptors), smell and taste; and small, hairlike mechanoreceptors that can detect air movement so as to "hear" sounds.
The mouthparts are adapted for both chewing and sucking by having both a pair of mandibles and a long proboscis for sucking up nectar.
The thorax has three segments, each with a pair of robust legs, and a pair of membranous wings on the hind two segments. The front legs of corbiculate bees bear combs for cleaning the antennae, and in many species the hind legs bear pollen baskets, flattened sections with incurving hairs to secure the collected pollen. The wings are synchronised in flight, and the somewhat smaller hind wings connect to the forewings by a row of hooks along their margin which connect to a groove in the forewing.
The abdomen has nine segments, the hindermost three being modified into the sting.
The largest species of bee is thought to be Wallace's giant bee Megachile pluto, whose females can attain a length of 39 millimetres. The smallest species may be dwarf stingless bees in the tribe Meliponini whose workers are less than 2 millimetres in length.
SOCIALITY
HAPLODIPLOID BREEDING SYSTEM
According to inclusive fitness theory, organisms can gain fitness not just through increasing their own reproductive output, but also that of close relatives. In evolutionary terms, individuals should help relatives when Cost < Relatedness * Benefit. The requirements for eusociality are more easily fulfilled by haplodiploid species such as bees because of their unusual relatedness structure.
In haplodiploid species, females develop from fertilized eggs and males from unfertilized eggs. Because a male is haploid (has only one copy of each gene), his daughters (which are diploid, with two copies of each gene) share 100% of his genes and 50% of their mother's. Therefore, they share 75% of their genes with each other. This mechanism of sex determination gives rise to what W. D. Hamilton termed "supersisters", more closely related to their sisters than they would be to their own offspring. Workers often do not reproduce, but they can pass on more of their genes by helping to raise their sisters (as queens) than they would by having their own offspring (each of which would only have 50% of their genes), assuming they would produce similar numbers. This unusual situation has been proposed as an explanation of the multiple (at least 9) evolutions of eusociality within Hymenoptera.
Haplodiploidy is neither necessary nor sufficient for eusociality. Some eusocial species such as termites are not haplodiploid. Conversely, all bees are haplodiploid but not all are eusocial, and among eusocial species many queens mate with multiple males, creating half-sisters that share only 25% of each-other's genes. But, monogamy (queens mating singly) is the ancestral state for all eusocial species so far investigated, so it is likely that haplodiploidy contributed to the evolution of eusociality in bees.
EUSOCIALIT
Bees may be solitary or may live in various types of communities. Eusociality appears to have originated from at least three independent origins in halictid bees. The most advanced of these are species with eusocial colonies; these are characterised by cooperative brood care and a division of labour into reproductive and non-reproductive adults, plus overlapping generations. This division of labour creates specialized groups within eusocial societies which are called castes. In some species, groups of cohabiting females may be sisters, and if there is a division of labour within the group, they are considered semisocial. The group is called eusocial if, in addition, the group consists of a mother (the queen) and her daughters (workers). When the castes are purely behavioural alternatives, with no morphological differentiation other than size, the system is considered primitively eusocial, as in many paper wasps; when the castes are morphologically discrete, the system is considered highly eusocial.True honey bees (genus Apis, of which seven species are currently recognized) are highly eusocial, and are among the best known insects. Their colonies are established by swarms, consisting of a queen and several hundred workers. There are 29 subspecies of one of these species, Apis mellifera, native to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Africanized bees are a hybrid strain of A. mellifera that escaped from experiments involving crossing European and African subspecies; they are extremely defensive.[Stingless bees are also highly eusocial. They practise mass provisioning, with complex nest architecture and perennial colonies also established via swarming.
Many bumblebees are eusocial, similar to the eusocial Vespidae such as hornets in that the queen initiates a nest on her own rather than by swarming. Bumblebee colonies typically have from 50 to 200 bees at peak population, which occurs in mid to late summer. Nest architecture is simple, limited by the size of the pre-existing nest cavity, and colonies rarely last more than a year. In 2011, the International Union for Conservation of Nature set up the Bumblebee Specialist Group to review the threat status of all bumblebee species worldwide using the IUCN Red List criteria.
There are many more species of primitively eusocial than highly eusocial bees, but they have been studied less often. Most are in the family Halictidae, or "sweat bees". Colonies are typically small, with a dozen or fewer workers, on average. Queens and workers differ only in size, if at all. Most species have a single season colony cycle, even in the tropics, and only mated females hibernate. A few species have long active seasons and attain colony sizes in the hundreds, such as Halictus hesperus. Some species are eusocial in parts of their range and solitary in others, or have a mix of eusocial and solitary nests in the same population. The orchid bees (Apidae) include some primitively eusocial species with similar biology. Some allodapine bees (Apidae) form primitively eusocial colonies, with progressive provisioning: a larva's food is supplied gradually as it develops, as is the case in honey bees and some bumblebees.
SOLITARY AND COMMUNAL BEES
Most other bees, including familiar insects such as carpenter bees, leafcutter bees and mason bees are solitary in the sense that every female is fertile, and typically inhabits a nest she constructs herself. There is no division of labor so these nests lack queens and worker bees for these species. Solitary bees typically produce neither honey nor beeswax. Bees collect pollen to feed their young, and have the necessary adaptations to do this. However, certain wasp species such as pollen wasps have similar behaviours, and a few species of bee scavenge from carcases to feed their offspring. Solitary bees are important pollinators; they gather pollen to provision their nests with food for their brood. Often it is mixed with nectar to form a paste-like consistency. Some solitary bees have advanced types of pollen-carrying structures on their bodies. Very few species of solitary bee are being cultured for commercial pollination. Most of these species belong to a distinct set of genera which are commonly known by their nesting behavior or preferences, namely: carpenter bees, sweat bees, mason bees, plasterer bees, squash bees, dwarf carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, alkali bees and digger bees.Most solitary bees nest in the ground in a variety of soil textures and conditions while others create nests in hollow reeds or twigs, holes in wood. The female typically creates a compartment (a "cell") with an egg and some provisions for the resulting larva, then seals it off. A nest may consist of numerous cells. When the nest is in wood, usually the last (those closer to the entrance) contain eggs that will become males. The adult does not provide care for the brood once the egg is laid, and usually dies after making one or more nests. The males typically emerge first and are ready for mating when the females emerge. Solitary bees are either stingless or very unlikely to sting (only in self-defense, if ever). While solitary, females each make individual nests. Some species, such as the European mason bee Hoplitis anthocopoides, and the Dawson's Burrowing bee, Amegilla dawsoni, are gregarious, preferring to make nests near others of the same species, and giving the appearance of being social. Large groups of solitary bee nests are called aggregations, to distinguish them from colonies. In some species, multiple females share a common nest, but each makes and provisions her own cells independently. This type of group is called "communal" and is not uncommon. The primary advantage appears to be that a nest entrance is easier to defend from predators and parasites when multiple females use that same entrance regularly
BIOLOGY
LIFE CYCLE
The life cycle of a bee, be it a solitary or social species, involves the laying of an egg, the development through several moults of a legless larva, a pupation stage during which the insect undergoes complete metamorphosis, followed by the emergence of a winged adult. Most solitary bees and bumble bees in temperate climates overwinter as adults or pupae and emerge in spring when increasing numbers of flowering plants come into bloom. The males usually emerge first and search for females with which to mate. The sex of a bee is determined by whether or not the egg is fertilised; after mating, a female stores the sperm, and determines which sex is required at the time each individual egg is laid, fertilised eggs producing female offspring and unfertilised eggs, males. Tropical bees may have several generations in a year and no diapause stage.
The egg is generally oblong, slightly curved and tapering at one end. Solitary bees, lay each egg in a separate cell with a supply of mixed pollen and nectar next to it. This may be rolled into a pellet or placed in a pile and is known as mass provisioning. Social bee species provision progressively, that is, they feed the larva regularly while it grows. The nest varies from a hole in the ground or in wood, in solitary bees, to a substantial structure with wax combs in bumblebees and honey bees.
In most species, larvae are whitish grubs, roughly oval and bluntly-pointed at both ends. They have 15 segments and spiracles in each segment for breathing. They have no legs but move within the cell, helped by tubercles on their sides. They have short horns on the head, jaws for chewing food and an appendage on either side of the mouth tipped with a bristle. There is a gland under the mouth that secretes a viscous liquid which solidifies into the silk they use to produce a cocoon. The cocoon is semi-transparent and the pupa can be seen through it. Over the course of a few days, the larva undergoes metamorphosis into a winged adult. When ready to emerge, the adult splits its skin dorsally and climbs out of the exuviae and breaks out of the cell.
FLIGHT
Antoine Magnan's 1934 book Le vol des insectes, says that he and André Sainte-Laguë had applied the equations of air resistance to insects and found that their flight could not be explained by fixed-wing calculations, but that "One shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality". This has led to a common misconception that bees "violate aerodynamic theory". In fact it merely confirms that bees do not engage in fixed-wing flight, and that their flight is explained by other mechanics, such as those used by helicopters. In 1996 it was shown that vortices created by many insects' wings helped to provide lift. High-speed cinematography and robotic mock-up of a bee wing showed that lift was generated by "the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency". Wing-beat frequency normally increases as size decreases, but as the bee's wing beat covers such a small arc, it flaps approximately 230 times per second, faster than a fruitfly (200 times per second) which is 80 times smaller.
NAVIGATION, COMMUNICATION AND FINDING FOOD
The ethologist Karl von Frisch studied navigation in the honey bee. He showed that honey bees communicate by the waggle dance, in which a worker indicates the location of a food source to other workers in the hive. He demonstrated that bees can recognize a desired compass direction in three different ways: by the sun, by the polarization pattern of the blue sky, and by the earth's magnetic field. He showed that the sun is the preferred or main compass; the other mechanisms are used under cloudy skies or inside a dark beehive. Bees navigate using spatial memory with a "rich, map-like organization".
DIGESTION
The gut of bees is relatively simple, but multiple metabolic strategies exist in the gut microbiota. Pollinating bees consume nectar and pollen, which require different digestion strategies by somewhat specialized bacteria. While nectar is a liquid of mostly monosaccharide sugars and so easily absorbed, pollen contains complex polysaccharides: branching pectin and hemicellulose. Approximately five groups of bacteria are involved in digestion. Three groups specialize in simple sugars (Snodgrassella and two groups of Lactobacillus), and two other groups in complex sugars (Gilliamella and Bifidobacterium). Digestion of pectin and hemicellulose is dominated by bacterial clades Gilliamella and Bifidobacterium respectively. Bacteria that cannot digest polysaccharides obtain enzymes from their neighbors, and bacteria that lack certain amino acids do the same, creating multiple ecological niches.
Although most bee species are nectarivorous and palynivorous, some are not. Particularly unusual are vulture bees in the genus Trigona, which consume carrion and wasp brood, turning meat into a honey-like substance.
ECOLOGY
FLORAL RELATIONSHIPS
Most bees are polylectic (generalist) meaning they collect pollen from a range of flowering plants, but some are oligoleges (specialists), in that they only gather pollen from one or a few species or genera of closely related plants. Specialist pollinators also include bee species which gather floral oils instead of pollen, and male orchid bees, which gather aromatic compounds from orchids (one of the few cases where male bees are effective pollinators). Bees are able to sense the presence of desirable flowers through ultraviolet patterning on flowers, floral odors, and even electromagnetic fields. Once landed, a bee then uses nectar quality and pollen taste to determine whether to continue visiting similar flowers.
In rare cases, a plant species may only be effectively pollinated by a single bee species, and some plants are endangered at least in part because their pollinator is also threatened. But, there is a pronounced tendency for oligolectic bees to be associated with common, widespread plants visited by multiple pollinator species. For example, the creosote bush in the arid parts of the United States southwest is associated with some 40 oligoleges.
AS MIMICS AND MODELS
Many bees are aposematically coloured, typically orange and black, warning of their ability to defend themselves with a powerful sting. As such they are models for Batesian mimicry by non-stinging insects such as bee-flies, robber flies and hoverflies, all of which gain a measure of protection by superficially looking and behaving like bees.
Bees are themselves Müllerian mimics of other aposematic insects with the same colour scheme, including wasps, lycid and other beetles, and many butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) which are themselves distasteful, often through acquiring bitter and poisonous chemicals from their plant food. All the Müllerian mimics, including bees, benefit from the reduced risk of predation that results from their easily recognised warning coloration.
Bees are also mimicked by plants such as the bee orchid which imitates both the appearance and the scent of a female bee; male bees attempt to mate (pseudocopulation) with the furry lip of the flower, thus pollinating it
AS BROOD PARASITES
Brood parasites occur in several bee families including the apid subfamily Nomadinae. Females of these species lack pollen collecting structures (the scopa) and do not construct their own nests. 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 often the host egg also. In particular, the Arctic bee species, Bombus hyperboreus is an aggressive species that attacks and enslaves other bees of the same subgenus. However, unlike many other bee brood parasites, they have pollen baskets and often collect pollen.
In Southern Africa, hives of African honeybees (A. mellifera scutellata) are being destroyed by parasitic workers of the Cape honeybee, A. m. capensis. These lay diploid eggs ("thelytoky"), escaping normal worker policing, leading to the colony's destruction; the parasites can then move to other hives.
The cuckoo bees in the Bombus subgenus Psithyrus are closely related to, and resemble, their hosts in looks and size. This common pattern gave rise to the ecological principle "Emery's rule". Others parasitize bees in different families, like Townsendiella, a nomadine apid, two species of which are cleptoparasites of the dasypodaid genus Hesperapis, while the other species in the same genus attacks halictid bees.
NOCTURNAL BEES
Four bee families (Andrenidae, Colletidae, Halictidae, and Apidae) contain some species that are crepuscular. Most are tropical or subtropical, but some live in arid regions at higher latitudes. These bees have greatly enlarged ocelli, which are extremely sensitive to light and dark, though incapable of forming images. Some have refracting superposition compound eyes: these combine the output of many elements of their compound eyes to provide enough light for each retinal photoreceptor. Their ability to fly by night enables them to avoid many predators, and to exploit flowers that produce nectar only or also at night.
PREDATORS, PARASITES AND PATHOGENS
Vertebrate predators of bees include bee-eaters, shrikes and flycatchers, which make short sallies to catch insects in flight. Swifts and swallows fly almost continually, catching insects as they go. The honey buzzard attacks bees' nests and eats the larvae. The greater honeyguide interacts with humans by guiding them to the nests of wild bees. The humans break open the nests and take the honey and the bird feeds on the larvae and the wax. Among mammals, predators such as the badger dig up bumblebee nests and eat both the larvae and any stored food.Specialist ambush predators of visitors to flowers include crab spiders, which wait on flowering plants for pollinating insects; predatory bugs, and praying mantises, some of which (the flower mantises of the tropics) wait motionless, aggressive mimics camouflaged as flowers. Beewolves are large wasps that habitually attack bees; the ethologist Niko Tinbergen estimated that a single colony of the beewolf Philanthus triangulum might kill several thousand honeybees in a day: all the prey he observed were honeybees. Other predatory insects that sometimes catch bees include robber flies and dragonflies. Honey bees are affected by parasites including acarine and Varroa mites. However, some bees are believed to have a mutualistic relationship with mites.
RELATIONSHIP WITH HUMANS
IN MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
Homer's Hymn to Hermes describes three bee-maidens with the power of divination and thus speaking truth, and identifies the food of the gods as honey. Sources associated the bee maidens with Apollo and, until the 1980s, scholars followed Gottfried Hermann (1806) in incorrectly identifying the bee-maidens with the Thriae. Honey, according to a Greek myth, was discovered by a nymph called Melissa ("Bee"); and honey was offered to the Greek gods from Mycenean times. Bees were also associated with the Delphic oracle and the prophetess was sometimes called a bee.
The image of a community of honey bees has been used from ancient to modern times, in Aristotle and Plato; in Virgil and Seneca; in Erasmus and Shakespeare; Tolstoy, and by political and social theorists such as Bernard Mandeville and Karl Marx as a model for human society. In English folklore, bees would be told of important events in the household, in a custom known as "Telling the bees".
IN ART AND LITERATURE
Some of the oldest examples of bees in art are rock paintings in Spain which have been dated to 15,000 BC.
W. B. Yeats's poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree (1888) contains the couplet "Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, / And live alone in the bee loud glade." At the time he was living in Bedford Park in the West of London. Beatrix Potter's illustrated book The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse (1910) features Babbity Bumble and her brood (pictured). Kit Williams' treasure hunt book The Bee on the Comb (1984) uses bees and beekeeping as part of its story and puzzle. Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees (2004), and the 2009 film starring Dakota Fanning, tells the story of a girl who escapes her abusive home and finds her way to live with a family of beekeepers, the Boatwrights.
The humorous 2007 animated film Bee Movie used Jerry Seinfeld's first script and was his first work for children; he starred as a bee named Barry B. Benson, alongside Renée Zellweger. Critics found its premise awkward and its delivery tame. Dave Goulson's A Sting in the Tale (2014) describes his efforts to save bumblebees in Britain, as well as much about their biology. The playwright Laline Paull's fantasy The Bees (2015) tells the tale of a hive bee named Flora 717 from hatching onwards.
BEEKEEPING
Humans have kept honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, for millennia. Beekeepers collect honey, beeswax, propolis, pollen, and royal jelly from hives; bees are also kept to pollinate crops and to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers.
Depictions of humans collecting honey from wild bees date to 15,000 years ago; efforts to domesticate them are shown in Egyptian art around 4,500 years ago. Simple hives and smoke were used; jars of honey were found in the tombs of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun. From the 18th century, European understanding of the colonies and biology of bees allowed the construction of the moveable comb hive so that honey could be harvested without destroying the colony. Among Classical Era authors, beekeeping with the use of smoke is described in Aristotle's History of Animals Book 9. The account mentions that bees die after stinging; that workers remove corpses from the hive, and guard it; castes including workers and non-working drones, but "kings" rather than queens; predators including toads and bee-eaters; and the waggle dance, with the "irresistible suggestion" of άpοσειονται ("aroseiontai", it waggles) and παρακολουθούσιν ("parakolouthousin", they watch).
Beekeeping is described in detail by Virgil in his Georgics; it is also mentioned in his Aeneid, and in Pliny's Natural History.
AS COMMERCIAL POLLINATORS
Bees play an important role in pollinating flowering plants, and are the major type of pollinator in many ecosystems that contain flowering plants. It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on pollination by insects, birds and bats, most of which is accomplished by bees, whether wild or domesticated. Over the last half century, there has been a general decline in the species richness of wild bees and other pollinators, probably attributable to stress from increased parasites and disease, the use of pesticides, and a general decrease in the number of wild flowers. Climate change probably exacerbates the problem.
Contract pollination has overtaken the role of honey production for beekeepers in many countries. After the introduction of Varroa mites, feral honey bees declined dramatically in the US, though their numbers have since recovered. The number of colonies kept by beekeepers declined slightly, through urbanization, systematic pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and the closure of beekeeping businesses. In 2006 and 2007 the rate of attrition increased, and was described as colony collapse disorder. In 2010 invertebrate iridescent virus and the fungus Nosema ceranae were shown to be in every killed colony, and deadly in combination. Winter losses increased to about 1/3. Varroa mites were thought to be responsible for about half the losses.
Apart from colony collapse disorder, losses outside the US have been attributed to causes including pesticide seed dressings, using neonicotinoids such as Clothianidin, Imidacloprid and Thiamethoxam. From 2013 the European Union restricted some pesticides to stop bee populations from declining further. In 2014 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned that bees faced increased risk of extinction because of global warming. In 2018 the European Union decided to ban field use of all three major neonicotinoids; they remain permitted in veterinary, greenhouse, and vehicle transport usage.
Farmers have focused on alternative solutions to mitigate these problems. By raising native plants, they provide food for native bee pollinators like Lasioglossum vierecki and L. leucozonium, leading to less reliance on honey bee populations.
AS FOOD PRODUCERS
Honey is a natural product produced by bees and stored for their own use, but its sweetness has always appealed to humans. Before domestication of bees was even attempted, humans were raiding their nests for their honey. Smoke was often used to subdue the bees and such activities are depicted in rock paintings in Spain dated to 15,000 BC.
Honey bees are used commercially to produce honey. They also produce some substances used as dietary supplements with possible health benefits, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly, though all of these can also cause allergic reactions.
AS FOOD (BE BROOD)
Bees are partly considered edible insects. Indigenous people in many countries eat insects, including the larvae and pupae of bees, mostly stingless species. They also gather larvae, pupae and surrounding cells, known as bee brood, for consumption. In the Indonesian dish botok tawon from Central and East Java, bee larvae are eaten as a companion to rice, after being mixed with shredded coconut, wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed.
Bee brood (pupae and larvae) although low in calcium, has been found to be high in protein and carbohydrate, and a useful source of phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, and trace minerals iron, zinc, copper, and selenium. In addition, while bee brood was high in fat, it contained no fat soluble vitamins (such as A, D, and E) but it was a good source of most of the water-soluble B-vitamins including choline as well as vitamin C. The fat was composed mostly of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids with 2.0% being polyunsaturated fatty acids.
AS ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Apitherapy is a branch of alternative medicine that uses honey bee products, including raw honey, royal jelly, pollen, propolis, beeswax and apitoxin (Bee venom). The claim that apitherapy treats cancer, which some proponents of apitherapy make, remains unsupported by evidence-based medicine.
STINGS
The painful stings of bees are mostly associated with the poison gland and the Dufour's gland which are abdominal exocrine glands containing various chemicals. In Lasioglossum leucozonium, the Dufour's Gland mostly contains octadecanolide as well as some eicosanolide. There is also evidence of n-triscosane, n-heptacosane, and 22-docosanolide. However, the secretions of these glands could also be used for nest construction.
WIKIPEDIA
Coryanthes orchids, called Bucket orchids, have intrincate relationships with their pollinators, a clear example of co-evolution. Their flowers’ specialization has come to constitute a real trap to fool male euglossine bees in order to achieve pollination, the process, in this case, by which the bees carry pollen from flower to flower. The amazing adventure, which may last 40 to 50 minutes, includes fragrance, slippery precipices, dupery, swimming, climbing and tortuous escapes.
The flower has a bucket which is filled with a liquid secreted by special glands above it, drop by drop. The bee is attracted to the flower by fragrance (which he collects in his hind legs to attract females) and lands on a tubular, slippery section just above the bucket and starts collecting the scented wax from the hypochile.
But, OMG!, the bee slips or gets knocked down by another bee or by a droplet of liquid from the glands and falls into the bucket! He swims and tries to climb the slippery walls of the bucket, but fails. There’s only one way to escape: a narrow channel (its diameter size is that of the bee) that leads to the exterior and there’s a small step to get out of the liquid and into the channel. But this is not it! He has to squeeze his way through the channel and in doing so, a mechanism of the flower captures him and two sacks of pollinium get stuck on his back, between his thorax and abdomen. Just after the pollinia “glue” has dried, the walls of the channel relax, letting the bee fly free.
When the bee visits another flower, the pollinia are catched by a mechanism as he tries to escape through the channel, thus fertilizing the second flower.
Coevolution
According to the coevolution theory, the colors are warning signals to insects like aphids that use trees as a host for the winter. If the colors are linked to the amount of chemical defenses against insects, then the insects will avoid red leaves and increase their fitness; at the same time, trees with red leaves have an advantage because they reduce their parasite load. This has been shown in the case of apple trees where some domesticated apple varieties, unlike wild ones, lack red leaves in autumn. A greater proportion of aphids that avoid apple trees with red leaves manage to grow and develop compared to those that do not. A trade-off, moreover, exists between fruit size, leaf color, and aphids resistance as varieties with red leaves have smaller fruits, suggesting a cost to the production of red leaves linked to a greater need for reduced aphid infestation.
Shot with a Canon FD mount, Super Ozeck II, 135mm, F2.8 lens, at Chatsworth Derbyshire.
The lens was reviewed by Amateur Photographer in August 1982 - and the 135mm was reported to be excellent, the best of the Ozeck series and equal to the best named brands.
Google posted the video of my talk from their “Solve for X” brainspa retreat. It’s a subject I first spoke about in 2010, and I was asked to introduce a global problem to brainstorm better solutions. My talk was dedicated to income inequality.
What if the nature of technology leads to an accelerating rich-poor gap that is not self-rectifying?
What if technology raises the bottom of the pyramid for all, and democratizes upward mobility, yet at the same time, transforms it from a pyramid to a conical spike — where an ever shrinking percentage of the population controls an even-growing percentage of an information-economy embedded with winner-take-all network effects and power laws?
In short, I ask if the ironic byproduct of erasing the digital divide is a further acceleration of the rich-poor gap?
What happens to peoples who opt out of the vector of progress, as the sea change of destiny becomes the drumbeat of decades, instead of centuries? What is the nature of work in the future? And how can our culture and the very fabric of society co-evolve with our technologies during the transition?
Field Galaxy NGC 2903, Satellite Galaxy UGC 5086, and Three Quasars, Leo
NGC 2903 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Leo, first documented by William Herschel in 1784. Although it is bright and fairly large, easily seen in binoculars, it escaped the attention of Charles Messier and his associate Pierre Mechain. On a large scale, NGC 2903 lies within the Virgo Supercluster which includes the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. Except for dwarf elliptical galaxy UGC 5086, at a distance of 2 million ly, it has no near neighbors, and does not belong to any local galaxy cluster. Such isolated galaxies, undisturbed by gravitational fields of large neighbors, are called "field galaxies", constitute 10-20% of the total galaxy population, and follow different evolutionary pathways than "cluster galaxies". Unaffected by major tidal forces and mergers, large field galaxies are most commonly low-surface-brightness (LSB) spirals with delicate and symmetrical spiral arm structure, and usually with low star formation rates (SFR). However, NGC 2903 is far from quiescent. Although its energy output is insufficient to qualify it as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), the nucleus is still bright in all bands, from radio waves to X-rays, suggesting the presence of a central supermassive black hole (SMBH) with polar jets and an accretion disk. Photometric and spectroscopic analysis of the central region reveals increased star formation rates generated by interstellar medium turbulence initiated by radiation pressure and feedback outflows from the central SMBH. The turbulence then extends outward, augmented by stellar winds and supernovae, enhancing new star formation further afield. The distinct blue floccules in the spiral arms represent "OB associations", huge clusters of very hot young stars.
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...
From its measurable properties it can be calculated that NGC 2903 is about 26 million ly distant, and 100,000 light years in diameter, roughly 30% smaller than the Milky Way, and proportionally less luminous. Several interesting features within the galaxy are marked on the annotated image. Some sources define object NGC 2905 as a bright region near the nucleus, at the S end of the bulge. Opinions differ whether the object is a large collection of stars or a very hot ionized hydrogen (Hii) region. Meanwhile, both NED and SIMBAD extragalactic databases list NGC 2905 simply as a duplicate identifier for the main galaxy, NGC 2903. At the NE extremity of the galaxy there is evidence of a curved luminous region which does not seem to be a part of the spiral arm. I speculate it may be a small satellite galaxy in the process of merging, stretched into a "stellar stream" by the tidal forces of the main galaxy. Computer models show that stellar streams can persist through multiple galactic orbits, for billions of years, before they are ultimately dispersed into anonymity. Gaps in stellar streams are thought to be caused by encounters with dark matter overdensities (subhalos) within the galactic halo. At the W perimeter of the galaxy, ULX marks the location of an ultra-luminous X-ray source. Such objects can be associated with intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH), and may emit optical transients during the periods of more active accretion.
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...
Numerous distant galaxies are visible on close inspection of the background, many of which have no identifier. Of the more prominent ones, the most formidable is SDSS J093239.53+214555.7, a hyperluminous giant galaxy, at least 160,000 ly in diameter, lying at a distance around 3.2 billion ly. Near the threshold of the limiting magnitude are seen three quasars (QSOs) listed in the chart below. The most remote is QSO B0929+2128, nearly 3,000 times brighter than the Miky Way, whose light travelled 10.9 billion years before reching us. When its photons were emitted, the quasar was receding at 251,428 km/s (relativistic or redshift recession velocity). In the present epoch, it lies at a "comoving = proper distance" of 18.7 billion ly, receding at a superluminal "proper recession velocity" of 405,052 km/s. The quasar is now located well beyond the "cosmic event horizon". Since the space between us is expanding faster than its light is moving toward us, the photons it is presently emitting can never reach us.
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105mm, Paramount GT GEM
-27 x 300 sec subs, OSC, 2x drizzle, 50% linear crop
-Software: DSS, XnView, StarNet++, StarTools v 1.3 and 1.7
Vintage Summer 1977 issue of The CoEvolution Quarterly Magazine with an uncredited cover by artist Robert Crumb. Even though he was very popular at the time, Crumb’s name does not appear on the illustration nor is he given credit in the Table of Contents. This publication is an offshoot of the Whole Earth Catalog and contains articles/features on science, politics and the environment. It’s always a thrill when it’s from Vinnie DeVille!
NGC 4535, Virgo, The Lost Galaxy of Copeland, and Five Quasars
NGC 4535 is a low surface brightness (LSB) barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo, first documented by William Herschel in 1785. Due to its hazy and "ghostly" visual presentation prominent amateur astronomer Leland Copeland named it "The Lost Galaxy" in the 1950s. Based on its median redshift-independent distance measurement of 51.53 Mly, apparent magnitude of 10.32 (g), and angular size of 7.80 arcmin, the galaxy is approximately 116,000 ly in diameter and 90% as bright as the Milky Way. Its redshift of 0.00657 corresponds to a recession velocity of 1,963 km/s, which is in part due to the expansion of space, and in part to its "peculiar velocity" through space relative to us. Its morphological classification is SAB(s)c, indicating an intermediate-barred spiral galaxy without a central ring, and with moderately wound spiral arms. The galaxy is one of the larger members of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster that includes up to 2,000 members. Like most "cluster spirals" it shows evidence of tidal interaction with other members in the form of spiral arm deformation and splitting, gas depletion, and low average star formation rate (SFR) in the current cosmological epoch. The blue floccules in the spiral structure represent "OB Associations", immense clusters of large and very hot young stars. However, unlike in similar galaxies, these are present in relatively low numbers due to gas depletion in the galactic disk. For this reason, NGC 4535 is regarded as a low surface brightness (LSB) galaxy. A number of curved, elongated structures in the disk strongly resemble "stellar streams", or gravitationally stretched remnants of merged dwarf galaxies. Many major galaxies in the Virgo Cluster show evidence of rapid mass assembly through the process of dwarf galaxy accretion.
NGC 4535 has been extensively investigated regarding the presence of a central supermassive black hole (SMBH). Central black holes have been detected in virtually all substantial galaxies studied. Spectroscopic analysis of the central region in the optical band shows evidence of numerous ionized hydrogen (Hii) clouds. These originate from molecular gas clouds ionized by the powerful ultraviolet radiation emanating either from an SMBH accretion disk and/or circumnuclear regions of new star formation. The width of the spectral lines indicates the "velocity dispersion" of luminous matter near the nucleus, which in turn depends on the intensity of the gravitational field generated by the mass in the galactic center. Studies of NGC 4535 refined the understanding of the relationship between the mass and activity of the central SMBH and the evolution of the galaxy within which it resides. For example, this galaxy's gas depletion and current low average star formation rate are in part due to the return of mass momentum and energy from the black hole to the galaxy by the mechanisms of "SMBH outflows" and "radiation pressure" respectively. These processes expel gas and dust from the galaxy, and are explained in more detail in section 40 here:
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While NGC 4535 does not have a central starburst ring structure visible in the optical band, it has been one of the major subjects in recent studies on galactic ring formation (Jiayi Sun et al. 2018). Observational evidence reveals a close association between galactic star formation rate (SFR), molecular gas clouds which are the gas reservoir for star formation, and ionized hydrogen (Hii) regions formed when molecular gas is exposed to ionizing ultraviolet radiation from newborn stars. The hydrogen molecule, H2, originating from the big bang, is by far the main component of molecular gas. The second most abundant component is the carbon monoxide molecule, CO, whose constituent atoms were formed during the preceding generations of "stellar nucleosynthesis". Its emission line at the wavelength of 2.6 mm is used in radio-astronomy to map the distribution of galactic molecular gas clouds. While low mass galaxies show faint and scattered CO emissions, massive spiral galaxies exhibit bright, contiguous ring-like emissions within the galactic bulge (Hughes et al. 2013a). These structures, named "Resonance Rings", are thought to accumulate in regions where the outward acting-forces on the molecules balance the centrally-acting gravitational forces. More precisely, resonance rings form where the kinetic energy of gas molecules, defined by the average "velocity dispersion", balances the gravitational potential energy. The evolution of molecular resonance rings also depends on other mechanisms, such as magnetic fields, central SMBH outflows and radiation pressure, and external gravitational effects and matter exchange related to merging or interacting galaxies. In NGC 4535, a resonance ring was detected approximately 1,500 ly from the center. Under favorable circumstances molecular resonance rings evolve into star-forming regions, and eventually become brightly luminous in the visible band.
Derived properties of identified faint objects are listed in the chart on the annotated image. The most remote are five quasars, four of which lie beyond the "cosmic event horizon", as their recession velocities in the present cosmological epoch are superluminal. Two of them, marked with (+) appear significantly brighter than their listed apparent magnitudes. Many quasars are variable up to several magnitudes with periods ranging from days to years, depending on the inflow of matter available for accretion. The most intrinsically luminous object is LBQS 1232+0815, which is nearly 5,000 times brighter than the Milky Way. The most distant quasar is SDSS J123352.16+080527.4 (z = 2.76700), lying at a light travel distance (lookback time) of 11.33 Bly.
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105 mm
-OSC 36 x 300 sec, (2021 + 2022), 2x drizzle, 40% linear crop, FOV 31x21 arcmin
-Software: DSS, XnView, Starnet++ v2, StarTools 1.3 and 1.8, Cosmological Calculator 3
Hyles lineata
Species of moth
Hyles lineata, also known as the white-lined sphinx, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. They are sometimes known as a "hummingbird moth" because of their bird-like size (2-3 inch wingspan) and flight patterns.
Quick Facts White-lined sphinx, Scientific classification ...
As caterpillars, they have a wide range of color phenotypes but show consistent adult coloration. With a wide geographic range throughout Central and North America, H. lineata is known to feed on many different host plants as caterpillars and pollinate a variety of flowers as adults.
Larvae are powerful eaters and are known to form massive groupings capable of damaging crops and gardens. As adults, they use both visual and olfactory perception to locate plants from which they collect nectar.
Description
Caterpillar
Larvae show wide variation in color. The larvae are black with orange spots arranged in lines down the whole body. Their head's prothoracic shield, and the anal plate, are one color, either green or orange with small black dots. A tail-like spine protruding from the back of the body is a typical for sphingid moth caterpillars, known as “hornworms”. This horn, which may sometimes be yellow and have a black tip, is not a stinger, and the caterpillars are not harmful to humans. The larvae can also sometimes be lime green and black.
Dark green larva
Light green larva in Colorado
Yellow larvae in Arizona
Adult
The forewing is dark brown with a tan stripe which extends from the base to the apex. There are also white lines that cover the veins. The black hindwing has a broad pink median band. It has a wingspan of 2 to 3 inches. This moth is large and has a stout furry body. The dorsal hind region is crossed by six distinct white stripes and similar striping patterns on the wings. The hindwings are black with a thick, red-pink stripe in the middle.
Geographic range
Hyles lineata is one of the most abundant hawk moths in North America and has a very wide geographic range. This range extends from Central America to southern Canada through Mexico and most of the United States. Some regions of South Asia like Sindh, Pakistan are reported to have habitates to these Moths. They can also be found occasionally in the West Indies. Rarely, specimens have also been reported in Eurasia and Africa.[additional citation(s) needed]
The abundance of Hyles lineata populations in specific locations varies significantly from year to year, and has been thought to influence selection on flower phenotypes, although studies throughout the years show mixed results.
Habitat
White-lined Sphinx hovering over flowers in Vail Village. Vail, CO.
Hovering over flowers in Vail Village. Vail, Colorado
With such a wide geographic range, H. lineata are known to live in a variety of habitats, including deserts, gardens and suburbs. They have also been seen in abundance in the mountains of Colorado, but their presence varies from year to year in many places.
White-lined Sphinx moth hovering over Honeysuckle in Fort Collins, Colorado
Food resources
Caterpillars
Source:
Willow weed (Epilobium)
Four o'clock (Mirabilis)
Apple (Malus)
Evening primrose (Oenothera)
Elm (Ulmus)
Grape (Vitis)
Tomato (Solanum)
Purslane (Portulaca)
Fuchsia
Clarkia
Adults
Source:
Columbines
Larkspurs
Four o'clock (Mirabilis)
Petunia
Honeysuckle
Moonvine
Bouncing bet
Lilac
Clovers
Thistles
Jimson weed
Trumpet Vine
The adults will feed on different flowers depending on time of day. If at night, they will choose flowers that are white or pale colored, which are easier to identify in contrast to the dark foliage surrounding the flower. If during daylight, they will choose flowers that are more brightly colored.
Behavior
The foraging patterns of H. lineata varies according to altitude, temperature and other factors, all of which are highly variable over its vast geographic distribution.
White-lined sphinx resting on an outdoor structure near grape leaves at dusk in Santa Barbara, CA
Resting near grape leaves at dusk. Santa Barbara, California.
Hyles lineata prefer flying at night but also sometimes fly during the day. They are most commonly seen at dusk and dawn.
Pollination
H. lineata are common pollinators and are known to collect nectar from flowers. As caterpillars they feed on a huge diversity of host plants and as adults they prefer nectar over flowers. A study from the 1970s focused on H. lineata nectar feeding patterns in Emerald Lake, Colorado, specifically on Aquilegia coerulea flowers. Of the H. lineata individuals that had visited A. coerulea flowers, two groups of moths were identified, one with patches of pollen near their eyes and ones with no detectable pollen on their bodies. Between the two groups, tongue length was significantly different, with longer-tongued individuals having no pollen and shorter-tongued individuals having pollen. These results suggest that within H. lineata, some individuals are effective pollinators while some are not pollinating at all, with shorter-tongued individuals carrying out the most effective pollination.
Other studies have investigated its role as pollinators in flower morphology. Individuals visiting Aquilegia chrysantha flowers in Pima County, AZ, had proboscis lengths very similar to the length of the nectar spur of the flower, suggesting coevolution.
Hawk moths, including H. lineata, are considered long-tongued nectar foragers, although nearly 20% of all hawk moth species have very short tongues compared to H. lineata. A 1997 study found correlations between tongue length and latitude distribution: mean tongue length declines from around 40 mm to as short as 15 mm as northern latitude increase from 0 to 50 degrees. The author speculates that tongues have lengthened in hawk moths of extratropical regions where it is more difficult and energetically costly to find larval food plants that are often inconspicuous, thus they need to take up more nectar at once to fuel their longer flights. Conversely, in more northern regions, short tongues are sufficient because finding larval food plants is an easier task and they do not need to take up as much nectar to fuel their flights.
One 2009 study showed that whiter flowers are associated with an annual presence of hawk moths, including H. lineata. Their data also showed that the annual presence of H. lineata populations selects for whiter flowers. Other hawk moth species with similar range overlap, specifically Sphinx vashti, show a correlation of annual presence with longer spurs on flowers. Thus hawk moths in general have been demonstrated to impact selection on flower morphology.
Life history
Oviposition
In the spring, adult females lay eggs on various types of plants, on which the resulting larvae feed. Each individual female can produce hundreds of eggs over her life.
Seasonality
Larvae overwinter and can emerge between February and November, at which point they begin to feed on a variety of host plants. Caterpillars are known to be ardent eaters. When preparing to transition into the pupal stage, caterpillars dig shallow burrows in the ground where they then stay for 2 to 3 weeks, at which point they emerge as adults. As they get closer to pupating, they will wiggle up closer to the surface which makes it easier to emerge.
Adults typically do not survive cold northern winters, but larvae overwinter and moths begin to appear in mid-May. Depending on abundance, a second flight may occur in late August or early September. Larvae are known to gather and form giant hordes in search of host plants, and they can eat entire plants, cover entire roadways and form huge slick masses as they go.
Typically there are two generations per year, but warmer climate see more generations.
Physiology
Flight
H. lineata, when feeding, tend to hover in front of flowers and control their hovering by visual cues from the flowers.
Vision
Close-up of eye & head
Though hawk moths can be both diurnal or nocturnal (or both), they all have three spectral receptors that are sensitive to blue light, green light and ultraviolet. Though it was originally assumed that hawk moths relied primarily on olfactory cues to locate flowers, due to their prevalence at particularly odorous plants, studies have shown that hawk moths actually have great vision and are very sensitive to light.
Olfaction
Though vision is a key component of H. lineata physiology, they do also have strong olfactory capabilities. They have been shown to be very sensitive to odors coming from flowers, and they have a strong ability to learn flower odors quickly.
Interactions with humans
Food source
The caterpillars have been (and in some places still are) gathered and eaten by Native Americans (e.g.,). After collection, they would be skewered and roasted for a feast, and any leftovers were stored whole or ground up after being dried. The nutritional value of the larvae has been analyzed, and found to be significant; they contain almost as much fat as hamburger meat, but have almost one-third less saturated fat, and more energy (in calories), protein, carbohydrate, riboflavin, and niacin than hamburger meat.
Pest of crop plants
Caterpillars often form massive groups in search for food. Outbreaks have been reported in Utah that have damaged grapes, tomatoes and garden crops.
References
Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. About twenty-nine species are recognized, one in the genus Premnas, while the remaining are in the genus Amphiprion. In the wild they all form symbiotic mutualisms with sea anemones. Depending on species, clownfish are overall yellow, orange, reddish or blackish, and many show white bars or patches. The largest can reach a length of 18 centimetres (7.1 in), while some barely can reach 10 centimetres (3.9 in).
In popular culture, "Finding Nemo" by Pixar prominently features clownfish as the main characters.
Clownfish and certain damselfish are the only species of fishes that can avoid the potent poison of a sea anemone. There are several theories about how this is accomplished:
- The mucus coating of the fish may be based on sugars rather than proteins. This would mean that anemones fail to recognize the fish as a potential food source and do not fire their nematocysts, or sting organelles.
- The coevolution of certain species of clownfish with specific anemone host species and may have acquired an immunity to the nematocysts and toxins of their host anemone. Experimentation has shown that Amphiprion percula may develop resistance to the toxin from Heteractis magnifica, but it is not totally protected, since it was shown experimentally to die when its skin, devoid of mucus, was exposed to the nematocysts of its host.
from Wikipedia
Clark's Nutcracker, Nucifraga columbiana, gathering Whitebark Pine, Pinus albicaulis, seeds from cones in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Like others, I was waiting for the rain to clear so that we could snap Lake Matheson reflect the Southern Alps. No one else seemed to see this Tui come down to drink the nectar from the flax plant, so in to the bag went the Pentax and out of the bag came the D300.
Tui are considered to be very intelligent, much like parrots. They also resemble parrots in their ability to clearly imitate human speech and are known for their noisy, unusual call, different for each individual, that combine bellbird-like notes with clicks, cackles, timber-like creaks and groans, and wheezing sounds—the unusual possession of 2 voiceboxes enable Tui to perform such a myriad of vocalisations
Some of the huge range of Tui sounds are beyond the human register. Watching a Tui sing, one can observe gaps in the sound when the beak is agape and throat tufts throbbing. Tui will also sing at night, especially around the full moon period.
Nectar is the normal diet but fruit and insects are frequently eaten, and pollen and seeds more occasionally. Particularly popular is the New Zealand flax, whose nectar sometimes ferments, resulting in the Tui flying in a fashion that suggests that they might be drunk. Tui are the main pollinators of flax, kowhai, kaka beak and some other plants. Note that the flowers of the three plants mentioned are similar in shape to the Tui's beak—a vivid example of mutualistic coevolution (Wiki)
Balade aux Fosses Noires, les 100 Noms, Le Port, ... : ZAD NDDL, Notre-Dame-des-Landes, le 2 octobre 2014
This milkweed stem is covered in tiny yellow Oleander Aphids (Aphis nerii) that feed upon the sap of the plant. This little colony just got a face full of soap from a squirt bottle. Sorry, guys.
#backyard #botany #coevolution #insects
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mleann23: I think I cleared something like this off my mom's fence last weekend and my hands were basically yellow. Haha
// 25/26 juin 2016 : week-end "REFAIRE UN DÔME" sur la Zone à Défendre de #Notre-Dame-des-Landes : zad.nadir.org
Passiflora, known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae.
They are mostly tendril-bearing vines, with some being shrubs or trees. They can be woody or herbaceous. Passion flowers produce regular and usually showy flowers with a distinctive corona. The flower is pentamerous and ripens into an indehiscent fruit with numerous seeds. For more information about the fruit of the Passiflora plant, see passionfruit.
DISTRIBUTION
Passiflora has a largely neotropic distribution, unlike its family Passifloraceae, which includes more Old World species (such as the genus Adenia). The vast majority of Passiflora are found in Mexico, Central and South America, although there are additional representatives in the United States, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. New species continue to be identified: for example, P. xishuangbannaensis and P. pardifolia have only been known to the scientific community since 2005 and 2006, respectively.
Some species of Passiflora have been naturalised beyond their native ranges. For example, the blue passion flower (P. caerulea) now grows wild in Spain. The purple passionfruit (P. edulis) and its yellow relative flavicarpa have been introduced in many tropical regions as commercial crops.
ECOLOGY
Passion flowers have unique floral structures, which in most cases require biotic pollination. Pollinators of Passiflora include bumble bees, Carpenter bees (Xylocopa varipuncta), wasps, bats, and hummingbirds (especially hermits like Phaethornis); some others are additionally capable of self-pollination. Passiflora often exhibit high levels of pollinator specificity, which has led to frequent coevolution across the genus. The sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is a notable example: it, with its immensely elongated bill, is the sole pollinator of 37 species of high Andean Passiflora in the supersection Tacsonia.
The leaves are used for feeding by the larvae of a number of species of Lepidoptera. Famously, they are exclusively targeted by many butterfly species of the tribe Heliconiini. The many defensive adaptations visible on Passiflora include diverse leaf shapes (which help disguise their identity), colored nubs (which mimic butterfly eggs and can deter Heliconians from ovipositing on a seemingly crowded leaf), extrafloral nectaries, trichomes, variegation, and chemical defenses. These, combined with adaptations on the part of the butterflies, were important in the foundation of coevolutionary theory.
The following lepidoptera larvae are known to feed on Passiflora:
Longwing butterflies (Heliconiinae)
Cydno longwing (Heliconius cydno), one of few Heliconians to feed on multiple species of Passiflora
Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae), which feeds on several species of Passiflora, such as Passiflora lutea, Passiflora affinis, stinking passion flower (P. foetida), and Maypop (P. incarnata)
American Sara longwing (Heliconius sara)
Red postman (Heliconius erato)
Asian leopard lacewing (Cethosia cyane).
Postman butterfly (Heliconius melpomene) prefer P. menispermifolia and P. oerstedii
Zebra longwing (Heliconius charithonia) feed on yellow passion flower, two-flowered passion flower (P. biflora), and corky-stemmed passion flower (P. suberosa)
Banded orange (Dryadula phaetusa) feed on P. tetrastylis
Julia butterfly (Dryas iulia) feed on yellow passion flower and P. affinis
Swift moth Cibyra serta
The generally high pollinator and parasite specificity in Passiflora may have led to the tremendous morphological variation in the genus. It is thought to have among the highest foliar diversity among all plant genera, with leaf shapes ranging from unlobed to five-lobed frequently found on the same plant. Coevolution can be a major driver of speciation, and may be responsible for the radiation of certain clades of Passiflora such as Tacsonia.
The bracts of the stinking passion flower are covered by hairs which exude a sticky fluid. Many small insects get stuck to this and get digested to nutrient-rich goo by proteases and acid phosphatases. Since the insects usually killed are rarely major pests, this passion flower seems to be a protocarnivorous plant.
Banana passion flower or "banana poka" (P. tarminiana), originally from Central Brazil, is an invasive weed, especially on the islands of Hawaii. It is commonly spread by feral pigs eating the fruits. It overgrows and smothers stands of endemic vegetation, mainly on roadsides. Blue passion flower (P. caerulea) is holding its own in Spain these days, and it probably needs to be watched so that unwanted spreading can be curtailed.
On the other hand, some species are endangered due to unsustainable logging and other forms of habitat destruction. For example, the Chilean passion flower (P. pinnatistipula) is a rare vine growing in the Andes from Venezuela to Chile between 2,500 and 3,800 meters altitude, and in Coastal Central Chile, where it occurs in woody Chilean Mediterranean forests. P. pinnatistipula has a round fruit, unusual in Tacsonia group species like banana passion flower and P. mixta, with their elongated tubes and brightly red to rose-colored petals.
Notable and sometimes economically significant pathogens of Passiflora are several sac fungi of the genus Septoria (including S. passiflorae), the undescribed proteobacterium called "Pseudomonas tomato" (pv. passiflorae), the Potyvirus passionfruit woodiness virus, and the Carlavirus Passiflora latent virus.
USE BY HUMANS
A number of species of Passiflora are cultivated outside their natural range for both their flowers and fruit. Hundreds of hybrids have been named; hybridizing is currently being done extensively for flowers, foliage and fruit. The following hybrids and cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:
P. × exoniensis (Exeter passion flower)
P. 'Amethyst'
P. × violacea
During the Victorian era the flower (which in all but a few species lasts only one day) was very popular, and many hybrids were created using the winged-stem passion flower (P. alata), the blue passion flower (P. caerulea) and other tropical species.
Many cool-growing Passiflora from the Andes Mountains can be grown successfully for their beautiful flowers and fruit in cooler Mediterranean climates, such as the Monterey Bay and San Francisco in California and along the western coast of the U.S. into Canada. One blue passion flower or hybrid even grew to large size at Malmö Central Station in Sweden.
Passion flowers have been a subject of studies investigating extranuclear inheritance; paternal inheritance of chloroplast DNA has been documented in this genus. The plastome of the two-flowered passion flower (P. biflora) has been sequenced.
The French name for this plant has lent itself to La Famille Passiflore, a highly successful children's book series by Geneviève Huriet, and an animated series based upon it. These have been translated into English as Beechwood Bunny Tales and The Bellflower Bunnies.
FRUIT
Most species have round or elongated edible fruit from two to eight inches long and an inch to two inches across, depending upon the species or cultivar.
The passion fruit or maracujá (P. edulis) is cultivated extensively in the Caribbean, South America, south Florida and South Africa for its fruit, which is used as a source of juice. A small pink fruit which wrinkles easily and a larger shiny yellow to orange fruit are traded under this name. The latter is usually considered just a variety flavicarpa, but seems to be more distinct in fact.
Sweet granadilla (P. ligularis) is another widely grown species. In large parts of Africa and Australia it is the plant called "passionfruit": confusingly, in South African English the latter species is more often called "granadilla" (without an adjective). Its fruit is somewhat intermediate between the two sold as P. edulis.
Maypop (P. incarnata), a common species in the southeastern US. This is a subtropical representative of this mostly tropical family. However, unlike the more tropical cousins, this particular species is hardy enough to withstand the cold down to −20 °C before its roots die (it is native as far north as Pennsylvania and has been cultivated as far north as Boston and Chicago.) The fruit is sweet, yellowish, and roughly the size of a chicken's egg; it enjoys some popularity as a native plant with edible fruit and few pests.
Giant granadilla (giant tumbo or badea, P. quadrangularis), water lemon (P. laurifolia) and sweet calabash (P. maliformis) are Passiflora species locally famed for their fruit, but not widely known elsewhere yet.
Wild maracuja are the fruit of P. foetida, which are popular in Southeast Asia.
Banana passionfruits are the very elongated fruits of P. tripartita var. mollissima and P. tarminiana. These are locally eaten, but their invasive properties make them a poor choice to grow outside of their native range.
TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
P. incarnata (maypop) leaves and roots have a long history of use among Native Americans in North America and were adapted by the European colonists. The fresh or dried leaves of maypop are used to make a tea that is used for insomnia, hysteria, and epilepsy, and is also valued for its analgesic properties. P. edulis (passion fruit) and a few other species are used in Central and South America for similar purposes. Once dried, the leaves can also be smoked.
The medical utility of only a few species of Passiflora has been scientifically studied. In initial study in 2001 for treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, maypop extract performed as well as oxazepam but with fewer short-term side effects. It was recommended to follow up with long-term studies to confirm these results.
A study performed on mice demonstrated that Passiflora alata has a genotoxic effect on cells, and suggested further research was recommended before this one species is considered safe for human consumption.
In another study performed with non-smoking patients, it demonstrates that oral administration of Passifora incarnata following extubation for patients surgery reduced the patients coughing versus the control group. By administering Passiflora incarnata orally with the correct dosage, it can result in antitussive activities without impairing the patient drastically. The results presented show a decrease of post extubation cough after out-patient surgery but it was only recorded early on. With this information, further research can be applied to create other medications for coughing but the authors note the limitations on the study included short observation period as well as a small sample size.
Passionflower herb (Passiflorae herba) from P. incarnata is listed in the European Pharmacopoeia. The herbal drug should contain not less than 1.5% total flavonoids expressed as vitexin
Passionflower is reputed to have sedative effects and has been used in sedative products in Europe, but in 1978, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibited its use in over-the-counter sedative preparations because it had not been proven safe and effective. In 2011, the University of Maryland Medical Center reported that passionflower "... can trigger side effects and can interact with other herbs, supplements, or medications. For these reasons, you should take herbs with care, under the supervision of a health care provider."
Passionflower is classified as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use in foods in the US, and is “possibly safe when used orally and appropriately for short-term medicinal purposes,” “possibly unsafe when used in excessive amounts,” but unsafe when used orally during pregnancy since “... passionflower constituents show evidence of uterine stimulation.” The database suggests it is possibly effective for adjustment disorder with anxious mood, anxiety, and opiate withdrawal, but it “can cause dizziness, confusion, sedation, and ataxia” and there are some reports of more severe side effects including vasculitis and altered consciousness.
CHEMISTRY
Many species of Passiflora have been found to contain beta-carboline harmala alkaloids some of which are MAO inhibitors. The flower and fruit have only traces of these chemicals, but the leaves and the roots often contain more. The most common of these alkaloids is harman, but harmaline, harmalol, harmine, and harmol are also present. The species known to bear such alkaloids include: P. actinea, P. alata (winged-stem passion flower), P. alba, P. bryonioides (cupped passion flower), P. caerulea (blue passion flower), P. capsularis, P. decaisneana, P. edulis (passion fruit), P. eichleriana, P. foetida (stinking passion flower), P. incarnata (maypop), P. quadrangularis (giant granadilla), P. suberosa, P. subpeltata and P. warmingii.
Other compounds found in passion flowers are coumarins (e.g. scopoletin and umbelliferone), maltol, phytosterols (e.g. lutenin) and cyanogenic glycosides (e.g. gynocardin) which render some species, i.e. P. adenopoda, somewhat poisonous. Many flavonoids and their glycosides have been found in Passiflora, including apigenin, benzoflavone, homoorientin, 7-isoorientin, isoshaftoside, isovitexin (or saponaretin), kaempferol, lucenin, luteolin, n-orientin, passiflorine (named after the genus), quercetin, rutin, saponarin, shaftoside, vicenin and vitexin. Maypop, blue passion flower (P. caerulea), and perhaps others contain the flavone chrysin. Also documented to occur at least in some Passiflora in quantity are the hydrocarbon nonacosane and the anthocyanidin pelargonidin-3-diglycoside.
The genus is rich in organic acids including formic, butyric, linoleic, linolenic, malic, myristic, oleic and palmitic acids as well as phenolic compounds, and the amino acid α-alanine. Esters like ethyl butyrate, ethyl caproate, n-hexyl butyrate and n-hexyl caproate give the fruits their flavor and appetizing smell. Sugars, contained mainly in the fruit, are most significantly d-fructose, d-glucose and raffinose. Among enzymes, Passiflora was found to be rich in catalase, pectin methylesterase and phenolase
ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES
The "Passion" in "passion flower" refers to the passion of Jesus in Christian theology. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish Christian missionaries adopted the unique physical structures of this plant, particularly the numbers of its various flower parts, as symbols of the last days of Jesus and especially his crucifixion:
The pointed tips of the leaves were taken to represent the Holy Lance.
The tendrils represent the whips used in the flagellation of Christ.
The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles (excluding St. Peter the denier and Judas Iscariot the betrayer).
The flower's radial filaments, which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower, represent the crown of thorns.
The chalice-shaped ovary with its receptacle represents a hammer or the Holy Grail.
The 3 stigmas represent the 3 nails and the 5 anthers below them the 5 wounds (four by the nails and one by the lance).
The blue and white colors of many species' flowers represent Heaven and Purity.
The flower has been given names related to this symbolism throughout Europe since that time. In Spain, it is known as espina de Cristo ("thorn of Christ'"). Older Germanic names include Christus-Krone ("Christ's crown"), Christus-Strauss ("Christ's bouquet"), Dorn-Krone ("crown of thorns"), Jesus-Lijden ("Jesus' passion"), Marter ("passion") or Muttergottes-Stern ("Mother of God's star").
Outside the Christian heartland, the regularly shaped flowers have reminded people of the face of a clock. In Israel they are known as "clock-flower" (שעונית) and in Greece as "clock plant" (ρολογιά); in Japan too, they are known as tokeisō (時計草, "clock plant"). In Hawaiian, they are called lilikoʻi; lī is a string used for tying fabric together, such as a shoelace, and liko means "to spring forth leaves".
In India, blue passionflowers are called Krishnakamala in Karnataka and Maharashtra, while in Uttar Pradesh and generally north it is colloquially called "Paanch Paandav" (referring to the five Pandavas in the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata). The five anthers are interpreted as the five Pandavas, the divine Krishna is at the centre, and the radial filaments are opposing hundred. The colour blue is moreover associated with Krishna as the colour of his aura.
In northern Peru and Bolivia, the banana passionfruits are known as tumbos. This is one possible source of the name of the Tumbes region of Peru.
In Turkey, the shape of the flowers have reminded people of Rota Fortunae, thus it called Çarkıfelek.
TAXONOMY
Passiflora is the most species rich genus of both the family Passifloraceae and the tribe Passifloreae. With over 550 species, an extensive hierarchy of infrageneric ranks is required to represent the relationships of the species. The infrageneric classification of Passiflora not only uses the widely used ranks of subgenus, section and series, but also the rank of supersection.
The New World species of Passiflora were first divided among 22 subgenera by Killip (1938) in the first monograph of the genus. More recent work has reduced these to 4, which are commonly accepted today (in order from most basally to most recently branching):
Astrophea (Americas, ~60 species), trees and shrubs with simple, unlobed leaves
Passiflora (Americas, ~250 species), woody vines with large flowers and elaborate corolla
Deidamioides (Americas, 13 species), woody or herbaceous vines
Decaloba (Americas, Asia and Australasia, ~230 species), herbaceous vines with palmately veined leaves
Some studies have shown that the segregate Old World genera Hollrungia and Tetrapathaea are nested within Passiflora, and form a fifth subgenus (Tetrapathaea). Other studies support the current 4 subgenus classification.
Relationships below the subgenus level are not known with certainty and are an active area of research. The Old World species form two clades - supersection Disemma (part of subgenus Decaloba) and subgenus Tetrapathaea. The former is composed of 21 species divided into sections Disemma (3 Australian species), Holrungiella (1 New Guinean species) and Octandranthus (17 south and east Asian species).
The remaining (New World) species of subgenus Decaloba are divided into 7 supersections. Supersection Pterosperma includes 4 species from Central America and southern Mexico. Supersection Hahniopathanthus includes 5 species from Central America, Mexico and northernmost South America. Supersection Cicea includes 19 species, with apetalous flowers. Supersection Bryonioides includes 21 species, with a distribution centered on Mexico. Supersection Auriculata includes 8 species from South America, one of which is also found in Central America. Supersection Multiflora includes 19 species. Supersection Decaloba includes 123 species.
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Bubulcus ibis with its namesake (Bos taurus)
Lafayette County, Florida, USA
Cattle egrets have a commensal relationship with cattle and other livestock, in which they feed on insects stirred up during grazing. Although egrets have been seen eating ticks on the cattle, the relationship is thought to be mostly one-sided—that is, the cattle don't really get much out of it.
Cattle egrets are native to parts of Africa and Asia, where they evolved in close association with large herds of grazing mammals. But apparently these birds aren't too picky about their hosts, and the advent of animal agriculture paved the way for B. ibis to follow us and our livestock around the world.
By the 1930s cattle egrets were established in South America, and by the 1950s they were breeding in Florida. In North America, cattle egrets are now found as far west as California, and range north into Canada. This species continues to spread across other parts of the world.
This is a picture of Ficus carica, a member of the plant family Moraceae, that produces fruit-bodies commonly known as Figs (pictured top right).
This plant has a very special relationship with Blastophaga psenes (common name: Fig wasp).
Fig trees and Fig wasps are an example of coevolution between species and they are completely dependent upon one another for development and survival. The Fig wasp and Fig tree also share high specificity for one another. Studies suggest that each Fig tree species has a different wasp as its pollinator, though there are a few exceptions. This is important in maintaining genetic integrity and might explain the coevolutionary effects of the tree and the wasp.
It is said that some Fig trees have evolved openings for which the wasp enters, while others have chemical cues that allow the wasp to distinguish it from other fig species. There is also evidence of some female Fig wasps undergoing morphological adaptations in the flattening of the head in response to the distinct inflorescence of the Fig tree.
Inflorescence (also known as the syconium) is the inverted cluster of flowers and seeds, arranged along the stem, that allows pollen transfer to the fig flowers and the optimization of its reproductive success.
The fig wasp's life cycle is dependent upon the fig's inflorescence structure to provide a place for reproduction and nutrition for its larvae, while the fig tree is similarly dependent upon the wasp--its sole pollinator. Fig trees also benefit from female wasps that disperse their pollen.
A mature female fig wasp enters the fig flower through an opening at its base and deposits her eggs inside. During the entry process, the wings and antennae of the female are usually ripped off, due to the narrowness of the point of entry. The female typically dies shortly after laying her eggs. Once they are laid in the flower, the eggs of the fig wasp will eventually hatch and develop into larvae. The male wasps mate with the female larvae and then begin to dig their way out of the fig structure. By doing so, they form small tunnels for the matured females to use upon exiting the fig. The males primarily serve as mates and tunnel diggers, and shortly after exiting the fig they will die. However, as the mature female makes her way out of the fig, pollen from the male parts of the flower will rub off on her. Once the female has emerged from the syconium, she will make her way to another fig, in which she will enter and lay her eggs. By doing so, she will also deposit the pollen that she previously picked up onto the female parts of the new fig flower.
This is a great example of symbiosis between flowering plants and insects, more specifically obligate mutualism, since both organisms benefit from their interaction and the reproduction and survival of each species is dependent upon the presence and actions of the other.
Sources:
www.britannica.com/animal/fig-wasp
www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDe...
BIO366