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At the Elysee Palace in Paris, at the request of President Georges Pompidou, who founded the Centre which bears his name, Israeli artist Yaacov Agam designed an antechamber (1974-1975) originally meant to be set at the entrance of the presidential private apartments. This now displayed at the Centre, with walls covered by polymorphic murals of changing images, a kinetic ceiling, moving transparent colored doors and a kinetic carpet on which he placed a sculpture. It embraces viewers: they are no longer looking at a framed, fixed scene, but rather at an arc, moving within an artistic space which changes constantly according to their shifting position and point of view.
Visitors are not normally permitted to walk inside the Salon Agam: but participants in the Fun Palace party hosted by the Centre this evening were exceptionally given access, providing they removed their shoes.
Pasar Siti Khadijah, Buloh Kubu, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Dioscorea alata L. Dioscoreaceae. CN: [Malay - Ubi badak, Ubi jembut, Ubi kerbau tidur, Ubi nasi, Ubi kelapa, Ubi sukun], Greater yam, Guyana arrowroot, Ten-months yam, Water yam, White yam, Purple yam, Winged yam. Origin South East Asia; elsewhere naturalized or cultivated. D. alata is the most extensively cultivated of the edible yam with hundreds of cultivars worldwide. Plants tuberous; tubers 1-many, stalked and ± deeply buried, elongate (highly polymorphic ), often massive, weighing up to several kg , flesh starchy, white or variously colored . Stems twining clockwise, climbing up to 20 m, broadly winged, 4-angular, producing bulbils up to 4 cm in diam. in leaf axils, wings often purplish. Leaves alternate proximally, opposite and ultimately decussate distally, 6-16 × 4-13 cm; petiole ca. as long as blade, winged, base clasping, basal lobes stipulate, growing as extensions of wings, less than 1 mm wide; blade 5-7-veined, ovate, glabrous, base typically sagittate, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate.
Synonym(s):
Dioscorea rubella Roxb.
Dioscorea globosa Roxb.
Dioscorea javanica Queva
Dioscorea purpurea Roxb.
Dioscorea sapinii De Wild.
Dioscorea sativa Munro
Dioscorea vulgaris Miq.
and many more - see The Plant List www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747
Ref and suggested reading:
www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747
www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?14175
zipcodezoo.com/Plants/D/Dioscorea_alata/
Pasar Siti Khadijah, Buloh Kubu, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Dioscorea alata L. Dioscoreaceae. CN: [Malay - Ubi badak, Ubi jembut, Ubi kerbau tidur, Ubi nasi, Ubi kelapa, Ubi sukun], Greater yam, Guyana arrowroot, Ten-months yam, Water yam, White yam, Purple yam, Winged yam. Origin South East Asia; elsewhere naturalized or cultivated. D. alata is the most extensively cultivated of the edible yam with hundreds of cultivars worldwide. Plants tuberous; tubers 1-many, stalked and ± deeply buried, elongate (highly polymorphic ), often massive, weighing up to several kg , flesh starchy, white or variously colored . Stems twining clockwise, climbing up to 20 m, broadly winged, 4-angular, producing bulbils up to 4 cm in diam. in leaf axils, wings often purplish. Leaves alternate proximally, opposite and ultimately decussate distally, 6-16 × 4-13 cm; petiole ca. as long as blade, winged, base clasping, basal lobes stipulate, growing as extensions of wings, less than 1 mm wide; blade 5-7-veined, ovate, glabrous, base typically sagittate, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate.
Synonym(s):
Dioscorea rubella Roxb.
Dioscorea globosa Roxb.
Dioscorea javanica Queva
Dioscorea purpurea Roxb.
Dioscorea sapinii De Wild.
Dioscorea sativa Munro
Dioscorea vulgaris Miq.
and many more - see The Plant List www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747
Ref and suggested reading:
www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747
www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?14175
zipcodezoo.com/Plants/D/Dioscorea_alata/
Certaines orchidées sauvages sont polymorphes (la fleur peut varier d'un individu à un autre) et/ou peuvent s'hybrider entre elles . De ce fait , la tâche devient très compliquée pour identifier certains de ces spécimens . C'est la cas ici et pour d'autres photos à venir .
Some wild orchids are polymorphic (the flower can vary from one individual to another) and/or can hybridise with each other. This makes it very difficult to identify some of these specimens. This is the case here and for other photos to come.
www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...
For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.
Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.
Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.
Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.
The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.
This specimen was discovered in northern Mississippi. Specimens from this area are in a state of taxonomic confusion based on morphology and genetic data. There may just be one polymorphic species or as many as three different species that are very similar morphologically. Since Orconectes etnieri is the oldest species name in this currently confusing group, it has been conservatively assigned to animals from this population. This animal was caught in a baited minnow trap placed in a first order stream that emanates from a steep sided ravine that is periodically (usually) dry.
www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...
For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.
Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.
Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.
Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.
The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.
Wood frogs exhibit a range of different colors. Here are two female wood frogs that were found at the same pond. One is brown and the other is red. To my eye, both colors seem to be excellent camouflage in the forests where these frogs live.
Are these color polymorphisms genetically based or induced by the environment? I am not aware of any research that has investigated this, but I would be very curious to know!
www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...
For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.
Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.
Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.
Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.
The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.
My dear friend Jean-Michel loves to photograph dummies at the fashion stores, sometimes despair saleswomen-))
Lady Linn And Her Magnificent Seven - Cool Down
Life Stream
Description: Picture taken in a pet shop. No product nor the fish were acquired or bought, and the picture I took was merely for educational purposes in benefit of the species depicted.
They are also known as lowland cichlid, pearlscale cichlid, Texas blue or green Texas cichlid.
This is a Herichthys carpintis of the variation "Short Body" commonly known as Texas Short Body and belongs in the superclass Osteichthyes, class Actinopterygii, subclass Neopterygii, superorder Acanthopterygii, order Perciformes (Cichliformes?), suborder Labroidei, family Cichlidae, subfamily Cichlasomatinae and tribe Heroini. Bear in mind that this taxonomy was very confusing and there may be mistakes, not to mention that I skipped plenty of subdivisions within Neopterygii to make this shorter. If you saw any mistakes, please warn me so I can change this text accordingly. All I ask is for you to provide a reliable source to your correction of my mistake. "Guesses" or speculations won't make me immediately change the text, but are welcome.
Apparently, the subject portrayed is a male but through a picture it's hard to tell with 100% precision. Some females look a lot like the males, with many being mistaken for each other. The differentiation is more reliable by annalyzing the behaviour or through the observation of the sexual and excretory organs through a process called "venting" after the subject reaches sexual maturity. In general, the males are larger than the females and display a characteristic black spot on the center of the dorsal fin, but this can't be used to differentiate the sex of these fishes with 100% reliability.
Herichthys carpintis can be found in harder waters with a pH of 7,5 to 9 and temperatures between 18ºC and 28ºC, which varies with the seasons. They can also inhabit transparent waters with visibility inferior to 1 meter.
Sexual maturity is reached after the fish reaches around 10cm. They will try to reproduce as soon as the sexual maturity is achieved and will search for a smooth surface to lay the eggs. More than 800 eggs can be laid. The offspring are transferred between sites in crevices multiple times by the female to fend off predators. Both the males and the females will guard the offsprings for around 8 weeks.
This species is somewhat aggressive and are known to provoke problems with other creatures even when they are bigger than them, which may result in the death of the Herichthys carpintis, although this behaviour is more often seen when they are under captivity.
They are omnivorous and feed on debris, vegetable matter (they are diggers and will uproot vegetation), other fishes, small insects, gastropods, and so on.
This species is polymorphic, meaning they can present various patterns depending on their zone of distribution, which includes the Eastern coast of Mexico, until the Rio Soto La Marina to the North, and to the South until the Panuco's River Bay, Laguna de Tamiahua. They have been introduced in many places.
They live around 8 years under captivity. This expectancy is usually halved in nature. The individual portrayed measured approximately 13 or 14cm in length and approximately 9cm in height.
Sources:
www.ciclideos.com/herichthys-carpintis-f195.html
www.aquarismopaulista.com/texas-blue-herichthys-carpintis/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymorphism_(biology)
www.seriouslyfish.com/species/herichthys-carpintis/
PROJECT NOAH (Português): www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1400149398
Pasar Siti Khadijah, Buloh Kubu, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Dioscorea alata L. Dioscoreaceae. CN: [Malay - Ubi badak, Ubi jembut, Ubi kerbau tidur, Ubi nasi, Ubi kelapa, Ubi sukun], Greater yam, Guyana arrowroot, Ten-months yam, Water yam, White yam, Purple yam, Winged yam. Origin South East Asia; elsewhere naturalized or cultivated. D. alata is the most extensively cultivated of the edible yam with hundreds of cultivars worldwide. Plants tuberous; tubers 1-many, stalked and ± deeply buried, elongate (highly polymorphic ), often massive, weighing up to several kg , flesh starchy, white or variously colored . Stems twining clockwise, climbing up to 20 m, broadly winged, 4-angular, producing bulbils up to 4 cm in diam. in leaf axils, wings often purplish. Leaves alternate proximally, opposite and ultimately decussate distally, 6-16 × 4-13 cm; petiole ca. as long as blade, winged, base clasping, basal lobes stipulate, growing as extensions of wings, less than 1 mm wide; blade 5-7-veined, ovate, glabrous, base typically sagittate, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate.
Synonym(s):
Dioscorea rubella Roxb.
Dioscorea globosa Roxb.
Dioscorea javanica Queva
Dioscorea purpurea Roxb.
Dioscorea sapinii De Wild.
Dioscorea sativa Munro
Dioscorea vulgaris Miq.
and many more - see The Plant List www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747
Ref and suggested reading:
www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-239747
www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?14175
zipcodezoo.com/Plants/D/Dioscorea_alata/
Pasar Siti Khadijah, Buloh Kubu, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.) Burkill. Dioscoreaceae. CN: [Malay - Ubi Itik, Ubi torak. (Note: The vernacular name, "Torak itik" is sometime used for the variety as in the image, tubers shape polymorphic; while "Torak telunjuk", a different typically having uniform elongated bottle-shaped tubers); Indonesia - Gembili, Kemarung], Asiatic yam, Chinese yam, Lesser yam, Gan Shu, Potato yam, Spiny chinese yam, Wild yam. Native of India, Indo-China (Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam), Malesia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea); elsewhere cultivated. Tubers usually 4--10, produced from apical branches of rhizome; cork light yellow, smooth; thorny roots present or absent. Stem twining to left, with T-shaped, soft hairs, proximally prickly (thornless in cultivated variety), distally so only at nodes. Leaves alternate, simple; petiole 5--8 cm; leaf blade broadly cordate, to 15 × 17 cm, with T-shaped hairs especially abaxially, basal veins 9--13, base cordate, apex acute. Male spike solitary, dense, ca. 15 cm. Male flowers: usually solitary, rarely in cymules of 2--4, sessile or subsessile ; bract ovate ; perianth shallowly cupular, puberulent, outer lobes broadly lanceolate, ca. 1.8 mm, inner ones slightly shorter than outer; stamens 6, inserted in perianth tube, slightly shorter than perianth lobes. Female spike solitary, pendent, to 40 cm. Capsule very seldom maturing, ca. 3 cm, base truncate, apex slightly emarginate; wings ca. 1.2 cm wide. Seeds inserted near middle of capsule, winged all round. Plant mostly cultivated in the north-eastern states of peninsular Malaysia. The tubers are edible and normally dug–out from the ground at the onset of rainy seasons in anticipation of flood to stock up as food source.
Synonym(s):
Dioscorea aculeata L.
Dioscorea fasciculata Roxb.
Dioscorea sativa auct.
Oncus esculentus Lour. (basionym)
Ref and suggested reading:
www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?14204
zipcodezoo.com/Plants/D/Dioscorea_esculenta/
www.globinmed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=a...
The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), also spelled Gyr Falcon, sometimes Gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter[1].
The bird's common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), "vulture", referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus ("circle", "curved path") from the species' circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range[2]. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry.
Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.
Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called "white", "silver", "brown" and "black" though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones.
The Gyrfalcon is a bird of tundra and mountains, with cliffs or a few patches of trees. It feeds only on birds and mammals. Like other hierofalcons, it usually hunts in a horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's speedy stoop from a height. Most prey is killed on the ground, whether they are captured there or, if the victim is a flying bird, forced to the ground. The diet is to some extent opportunistic, but a majority of breeding birds mostly rely on Lagopus grouse. Avian prey can range in size from redpolls to geese and can include gulls, corvids, smaller passerines, waders and other raptors (up to the size of Buteos). Mammalian prey can range in size from shrews to marmots (sometimes 3 times heavier than the assaulting falcon), and often includes include lemmings, voles, ground squirrels and hares. They only rarely eat carrion.
The Gyrfalcon is the official bird of Canada's Northwest Territories.
Morelia viridis
The green tree python, is a species of python found in New Guinea, islands in Indonesia, and Cape York Peninsula in Australia.
Adults average 120–200 cm (3.9–6.6 ft) in length, with a maximum growth (although rare) of about 7 feet. The supralabial scales have thermoreceptive pits.
A mostly arboreal species with a striking green or yellow color in adults. The color pattern on this species can vary dramatically from locality to locality. For example, the Aru local is a vivid green with a broken vertebral stripe of white or dull yellow scales, the Sorong local is a bright green with blue highlights and a solid vertical stripe, and the Kofiau local is mostly yellow with varying highlights in white or blue. Cyanomorphs (blue morphs) are also known to occur but are not considered common at this time. Juveniles are polymorphic, occurring in reddish, bright yellow and orange morphs.
Primarily arboreal, these snakes have a particular way of resting in the branches of trees; they loop a coil or two over the branches in a saddle position and place their head in the middle. This trait is shared with the emerald tree boa, Corallus caninus, of South America. This habit, along with their appearance, has caused people to confuse the two species when seen outside their natural habitat.
The diet consists mostly of small mammals, such as rodents, and sometimes reptiles. It was thought that this snake, like the Emerald Tree Boa, ate birds however, Switak conducted field work on this issue and in examining stomach contents of more than 1,000 animals he did not find any evidence of avian prey items. Prey is captured by holding onto a branch using the prehensile tail and striking out from an s-shape position and constricting the prey.
Oviparous, with 1-25 viable eggs per clutch. In the wild eggs are incubated and protected by the female, often in the hollow of a tree. Hatchlings are lemon yellow with broken stripes and spots of purple and brown, or golden or orange/red. Over time the color changes as the animal matures, color of the adult depends on the locality of the animal (some taking many years to finish color change).
Reptile House
Bronx Zoo New York
Inspired by some generative illustrations I've seen, decided to draw some more complex stuff - with a couple of perverse looking monsters for good measure.
anamorphic polymorphic ego's ruin.
Mixing different styles is amazing ^^,i need to do more works like this
The A. papilionacea group consists of just two species, A. papilionacea itself, commonly known as the Pink Butterfly Orchid and the Fan Lipped Orchid, A. collina. The former is a polymorphic species with a wide distribution and these factors unsurprisingly give rise to a significant range of natural and regional variations. First described by Linnaeus as long ago as 1759, the taxon has been intensely studied ever since, leading to the recognition of many forms and the creation of a list of synonyms far too extensive to detail in these pages (no less than 67 in 2013). A genetic study in 1993, comparing sub-species grandiflora, papilionacea and aegaea (then heroica) from around the Mediterranean, determined that the minimal genetic difference's discovered, were consistent with nothing more than separate geographic populations within a single cohesive gene pool and that being simple morphs, sub-species status could not be justified. These results were not universally accepted and new taxa continue to emerge.
A. papilionacea ssp aegaea was named according to the findings of a paper in 2013 by Lewis and Kreutz. which sought to restore some taxonomic order to a state of confusion in respect of the early flowering form of Pink Butterfly Orchid from the Aegean, formerly known variously as A. papilionacea ssp heroica, O. papilionacea ssp heroica or V. papilionacea var aegaea. Space does not permit even a precis of this interesting and thoroughly researched piece of work, other than to record its conclusion, which was that the basionym heroica was invalid as it is more correctly a synonym for A. laxiflora.
A. papilionacea ssp aegaea is a sturdy, dense flowered plant with a large lip, very reminiscent of grandiflora, albeit less broad shouldered. A distinctive feature of aegaea is the way in which the perianth is normally less closed than that of grandiflora and indeed most other sub-species. It ranges throughout the Aegean basin, across the Peloponnese to the Ionian islands in the west and with a relatively small diaspora in Anatolia to the east. It is an early flowerer which in Crete can be in full bloom by late February.
www.orchidsofbritainandeurope.co.uk/Anacamptis%20papilion...
The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), also spelled Gyr Falcon, sometimes Gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter[1].
The bird's common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), "vulture", referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus ("circle", "curved path") from the species' circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range[2]. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry.
Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.
Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called "white", "silver", "brown" and "black" though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones.
The Gyrfalcon is a bird of tundra and mountains, with cliffs or a few patches of trees. It feeds only on birds and mammals. Like other hierofalcons, it usually hunts in a horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's speedy stoop from a height. Most prey is killed on the ground, whether they are captured there or, if the victim is a flying bird, forced to the ground. The diet is to some extent opportunistic, but a majority of breeding birds mostly rely on Lagopus grouse. Avian prey can range in size from redpolls to geese and can include gulls, corvids, smaller passerines, waders and other raptors (up to the size of Buteos). Mammalian prey can range in size from shrews to marmots (sometimes 3 times heavier than the assaulting falcon), and often includes include lemmings, voles, ground squirrels and hares. They only rarely eat carrion.
The Gyrfalcon is the official bird of Canada's Northwest Territories.
For extra detail View Large
Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwings, respectively, though a few insects lack hindwings, even rudiments. Insect wings do not constitute appendages in technical parlance, as insects only have one pair of appendages per segment. The wings are strengthened by a number of longitudinal veins, which often have cross-connections that form closed "cells" in the membrane (extreme examples include Odonata and Neuroptera). The patterns resulting from the fusion and cross-connection of the wing veins are often diagnostic for different evolutionary lineages and can be used for identification to the family or even genus level in many orders of insects.
Fully functional wings are present only in the adult stage, after the last moult. The one exception is the order Ephemeroptera, in which the penultimate instar (also called the subimago) possesses well-developed and functional wings, which are shed at the final moult. Wings are only present in the subclass Pterygota, with members of the archaic Apterygota being wingless. Wings may also be lost in some pterygote clades, such as the fleas and lice.
The wings may be present in only one sex (often the male) in some groups such as velvet ants and Strepsiptera, or selectively lost in "workers" of social insects such as ants and termites. Rarely, the female is winged but the male not, as in fig wasps. In some cases, wings are produced only at particular times in the life cycle, such as in the dispersal phase of aphids. Beyond the mere presence/absence of wings, the structure and colouration will often vary with morphs, such as in the aphids, migratory phases of locusts and in polymorphic butterflies.
At rest, the wings may be held flat, or folded a number of times along specific patterns; most typically, it is the hindwings which are folded, but in a very few groups such as vespid wasps, it is the forewings.
How and why insect wings evolved is not well understood. Three main theories on the origins of insect flight are that wings developed from paranotal lobes, extensions of the thoracic terga; that they are modifications of movable abdominal gills as found on aquatic naiads of mayflies and that insect wings arose from the fusion of pre-existing endite and exite structures each with pre-existing articulation and tracheation.
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The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), also spelled Gyr Falcon, sometimes Gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter[1].
The bird's common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), "vulture", referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus ("circle", "curved path") from the species' circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range[2]. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry.
Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.
Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called "white", "silver", "brown" and "black" though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones.
The Gyrfalcon is a bird of tundra and mountains, with cliffs or a few patches of trees. It feeds only on birds and mammals. Like other hierofalcons, it usually hunts in a horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's speedy stoop from a height. Most prey is killed on the ground, whether they are captured there or, if the victim is a flying bird, forced to the ground. The diet is to some extent opportunistic, but a majority of breeding birds mostly rely on Lagopus grouse. Avian prey can range in size from redpolls to geese and can include gulls, corvids, smaller passerines, waders and other raptors (up to the size of Buteos). Mammalian prey can range in size from shrews to marmots (sometimes 3 times heavier than the assaulting falcon), and often includes include lemmings, voles, ground squirrels and hares. They only rarely eat carrion.
The Gyrfalcon is the official bird of Canada's Northwest Territories.
Indian Paradise Flycatcher
The Indian paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) is a medium-sized passerine bird native to Asia that is widely distributed. As the global population is considered stable, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2004. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and Myanmar.
Males have elongated central tail feathers, and a black and rufous plumage in some populations, while others have white plumage. Females are short-tailed with rufous wings and a black head. Indian paradise flycatchers feed on insects, which they capture in the air often below a densely canopied tree.
Three subspecies are recognized:
Himalayan paradise flycatcher (T. p. leucogaster) – (Swainson, 1838): Originally described as a separate species. Breeds in the western Tian Shan, in Afghanistan, in the north of Pakistan, in northwestern and central India, in Nepal’s western and central regions; populations occurring in the east of Pakistan and in the south of India migrate towards the foothills of the Himalayas in spring for breeding.
T. p. paradisi – (Linnaeus, 1758): breeds in central and southern India, central Bangladesh and south-western Myanmar; populations occurring in Sri Lanka in the winter season are non-breeding.
Ceylon paradise flycatcher (T. p. ceylonensis) – (Zarudny & Harms, 1912): found in Sri Lanka.
Adult Indian paradise flycatchers are 19–22 cm (7.5–8.7 in) long. Their heads are glossy black with a black crown and crest, their black bill round and sturdy, their eyes black. Female are rufous on the back with a greyish throat and underparts. Their wings are 86–92 mm (3.4–3.6 in) long. Young males look very much like females but have a black throat and blue-ringed eyes. As adults they develop up to 24 cm (9.4 in) long tail feathers with two central tail feathers growing up to 30 cm (12 in) long drooping streamers.
Young males are rufous and have short tails. They acquire long tails in their second or third year. Adult males are either predominantly bright rufous above or predominantly white. Some specimens show some degree of intermediacy between rufous and white. Long-tailed rufous birds are generally devoid of shaft streaks on the wing and tail feathers, while in white birds the shaft streaks, and sometimes the edges of the wing and tail feathers are black.
In the early 1960s, 680 long-tailed males were examined that are contained in collections of the British Museum of Natural History, Chicago Natural History Museum, Peabody Museum, Carnegie Museum, American Museum of Natural History, United States National Museum and Royal Ontario Museum. The specimens came from almost the entire range of the species, though some areas were poorly represented. The relative frequency of the rufous and white plumage types varies geographically. Rufous birds are rare in the extreme southeastern part of the species' range. Throughout the Indian area and, to a lesser extent, in China, asymmetrically patterned intermediates occur. Intermediates are rare or absent throughout the rest of the range of the species. In general, long-tailed males are predominantly rufous with some white in wings and tail — collected in Turkestan, Kashmir, northern India, Punjab, Maharashtra, Sikkim and in Sri Lanka;
predominantly rufous with some white in wings — collected in Iran, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Punjab, Kashmir, northern and central India, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar, Nepal;
predominantly rufous with some white in tail — collected in Punjab, northern and central India, Kolkata, Sri Lanka and in the Upper Yangtze Valley in China;
predominantly white with some rufous in tail and wings — collected in Kashmir, Maharashtra, Sichuan and North China;
predominantly white with some rufous in tail — collected in Maharashtra and Fuzhou, China;
predominantly white with back partly rufous — collected in Punjab and Chennai;
moulting from rufous into white plumage — collected in North Bihar.
Possible interpretations of this phenomenon are : males may be polymorphic for rufous and white plumage colour; rufous birds may be sub-adults; and there may even be two sympatric species distinguishable only in the male.
They are migratory and spend the winter season in tropical Asia. There are resident populations in southern India and Sri Lanka, hence both visiting migrants and the locally breeding subspecies occur in these areas in winter.
According to Linné’s first description Indian paradise flycatchers were only distributed in India. Later ornithologists observed this spectacular bird in other areas, and based on differences in plumage of males described several subspecies.
Indian paradise flycatchers inhabit thick forests and well-wooded habitats from Central Asia to south-eastern China, all over India and Sri Lanka to Myanmar.
Indian paradise flycatchers are noisy birds uttering sharp skreek calls. They have short legs and sit very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. They are insectivorous and hunt in flight in the understorey. In the afternoons they dive from perches to bathe in small pools of water.
The breeding season lasts from May to July. Being socially monogamous both male and female take part in nest-building, incubation, brooding and feeding of the young. The incubation period lasts 14 to 16 days and the nestling period 9 to 12 days. Three or four eggs are laid in a neat cup nest made with twigs and spider webs on the end of a low branch. The nest is sometimes built in the vicinity of a breeding pair of drongos, which keep predators away. Chicks hatch in about 21 to 23 days. A case of interspecific feeding has been noted with paradise flycatcher chicks fed by Oriental white-eyes.
Botanic Gardens, Sydney.
Newly expanding leaves have a dense coating of silvery-brown scurf, very soon shed as each one matures.
I have often wondered if this "Snowflake Tree" was truly a form of T. palmata, but according to the 1998 revision by Jebb, online at www.botanicgardens.ie/glasra/ns3_5.pdf it does belong in this species. It seems T. palmata has extremely polymorphic leaves. It ranges in the wild right across South-east Asia from eastern India and Nepal to south China, though absent from Malesia. Jebb does not allow any infraspecific taxa, or any nomenclatural status to 'Micholitzii' which Frodin treated as a cultivar in the New RHS Dictionary of Gardening (1992), but I think the cultivar name is still useful in a horticultural context.
Skops Uil
(Otus senegalensis)
Scops owls are typical owls (family Strigidae) mostly belonging to the genus Otus. Approximately 45 living species are known, but new ones are frequently recognized and unknown ones are still being discovered every few years or so, especially in Indonesia. For most of the 20th century, this genus included the American screech owls, which are now again separated in Megascops based on a range of behavioral, biogeographical, morphological and DNA sequence data. Otus is the largest genus of owls in terms of number of species.
Scops owls in the modern sense are restricted to the Old World. A single North American species, the flammulated owl, was provisionally placed in Otus and has now been moved to its own monotypic genus. See below for details.
As usual for owls, female scops owls are usually larger than the males of their species, with owls of both sexes being compact in size and shape. All of the birds in this genus are small and agile. Scops owls are colored in various brownish hues, sometimes with a lighter underside and/or face, which helps to camouflage them against the bark of trees. Some are polymorphic, occurring in a greyish- and a reddish-brown morph.
Scops owls hunt from perches in semi-open landscapes. They prefer areas which contain old trees with hollows; these are home to their prey which includes insects, reptiles, small mammals such as bats and mice and other small birds. The owls will also eat earthworms, amphibians and aquatic invertebrates. Scops owls have a good sense of hearing which helps them locate their prey in any habitat. They also possess well-developed raptorial claws and a curved bill, both of which are used for tearing their prey into pieces small enough to swallow easily.
Scops owls are primarily solitary birds. Most species lay and incubate their eggs in a cavity nest that was originally made by another animal. During the incubation period, the male will feed the female. These birds are monogamous, with biparental care, and only fledge one young per year. The young of most scops owls are altricial to semialtricial.
As opposed to screech owls, scops owls have only a single type of call. This consists of a series of whistles or high-pitched hoots, given with a frequency of 4 calls per second or less, or of a single, drawn-out whistle. Calls differ widely between species in type and pitch, and in the field are often the first indication of these birds' presence, as well as the most reliable means to distinguish between species. Some, like the recently described Serendib scops owl (Otus thilohoffmanni), were discovered because their vocalizations were unfamiliar to experts in bird-calls.
The genus name is from the Latin otus for an eared owl.
Due to a nomenclatorial dispute, the generic name Scops is not used by either the scops or the screech owls (which when only a few species were known were placed together), nor by any other animal. In 1760, Mathurin Jacques Brisson had established the genus Scopus for the hammerkop, a peculiar African bird. Paul Möhring in 1758 had already used the name Scops for this bird however, and believing this name to be valid Morten Thrane Brünnich replaced Scopus with it in 1772. The scops and screech owls, which were placed in Otus by Thomas Pennant in 1769 (as he too believed that Moehring's Scops was valid) were moved to Scops by Marie Jules César Savigny in 1809. Lorenz Oken in 1817 changed this to Scopus, also under the impression that Scops was the older name for the hammerkop, and valid.
However, the names established by Moehring pre-date the official start date of Linnean nomenclature in zoology as regulated by the ICZN, which is December 31, 1758 – the last day of the year in which the 10th edition of Linné's Systema Naturae was published. Hence, Scopus as established by Brisson is indeed the valid generic name of the hammerkop, and the first valid use of Scops was in 1772 by Brünnich – which according to modern rules of zoological nomenclature was unjustified however, as the name he believed to be reinstating had never been technically valid in the first place.
Wikipedia
Photographed at San Antonio Open Space Preserve, Los Altos, California
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From Wikipedia: The lesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) is a very small songbird of the Americas. Together with its relatives the American goldfinch and Lawrence's goldfinch, it forms the American goldfinches clade in the genus Spinus sensu stricto.
The American goldfinches can be distinguished by the males having a black (rarely green) forehead, whereas the latter is (like the rest of the face) red or yellow in the European goldfinch and its relatives. North American males are markedly polymorphic and 5 subspecies are often named; at least 2 of them seem to represent a less-progressed stage in evolution however.
Description:
This petite species is not only the smallest North American Spinus finch, it may be the smallest true finch in the world. Some sources list more subtropical Spinus species as slightly smaller on average, including the Andean siskin. This species ranges from 9 to 12 cm (3.5 to 4.7 in) in length and can weigh from 8 to 11.5 g (0.28 to 0.41 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 5.5 to 7 cm (2.2 to 2.8 in), the tail is 3.9 to 4.7 cm (1.5 to 1.9 in), the bill is 0.9 to 1.1 cm (0.35 to 0.43 in) and the tarsus is 1.1 to 1.2 cm (0.43 to 0.47 in). There is a slight NW-SE cline in size, with the largest birds from Mexico and south being up to one-fifth larger than the smallest from the extreme NW of its range; this effect is more pronounced in females. There is also considerable variation in the amount of black on head and back in males, and thus three subspecies have been proposed. But this variation too seem to be simple and clinal changes in allele frequency, and thus the "subspecies" might be better considered morphs or geographical forms.
Males are easily recognized by their bright yellow underparts and big white patches in the tail (outer rectrices) and on the wings (the base of the primaries). They range from having solid black from the back to the upper head including the ear-coverts to having these regions medium green; each of the back, crown and ear regions varies in darkness rather independently though as a rule the ears are not darker than the rest. In most of the range dark psaltria birds (Arkansas goldfinch) predominate. The light birds are termed hesperophilus and are most common in the far western U.S. and northwestern Mexico.
The zone in which both light and dark males occur on a regular basis is broadest in the north, and extends across the width of the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Madre Occidental ranges. It reaches the Pacific coast in southern Sonora to northern Sinaloa, roughly between area of Ciudad Obregón to Culiacán. In the United States, the most diverse array of phenotypes can be found in Colorado and New Mexico. East of the 106th meridian west in southwestern Texas as well as in most of Mexico, almost all males have black backs. Spinus psaltria colombianus, east and south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, is richer yellow below in males. This as well as the even yellower S. p. jouyi from the Yucatán Peninsula and adjacent regions and S. p. witti from the Islas Marías off Nayarit require more study, especially as at least the former two seem also to be significantly larger and longer-billed.
Females' and immatures' upperparts are more or less grayish olive-green; their underparts are yellowish, buffier in immatures. They have only a narrow strip of white on the wings (with other white markings in some forms) and little or no white on the tail. They are best distinguished from other members of the genus by the combination of small size, upperparts without white or yellow, and dark gray bill. In all plumages this bird can easily be taken for a New World warbler if the typical finch bill isn't seen well.
Like other goldfinches, it has an undulating flight in which it frequently gives a call: in this case, a harsh chig chig chig. Another distinctive call is a very high-pitched, drawn-out whistle, often rising from one level pitch to another (teeeyeee) or falling (teeeyooo). The song is a prolonged warble or twitter, more phrased than that of the American goldfinch, often incorporating imitations of other species.
Distribution and ecology:
Lesser Goldfinch Landing, Santa Fe.jpg
This American goldfinch ranges from the southwestern United States (near the coast, as far north as extreme southwestern Washington) to Venezuela and Peru. It migrates from the colder parts of its U.S. range.
The lesser goldfinch often occurs in flocks or at least loose associations. It utilizes almost any habitat with trees or shrubs except for dense forest, and is common and conspicuous in many areas, often coming near houses. It is common at feeders in the Southwest United States and will come almost anywhere with thistle sock feeders. Flocks of at least six birds will often be seen at feeders. It feeds mostly on tree buds and weed seeds; geophagy has been observed in this species.
The nesting season is in summer in the temperate parts of its range; in the tropics it apparently breeds all-year round, perhaps less often in September/October. It lays three or four bluish white eggs in a cup nest made of fine plant materials such as lichens, rootlets, and strips of bark, placed in a bush or at low or middle levels in a tree.
The moult occurs in two different patterns which coincides with the blackness of the upperparts quite well. Here too is a broad zone of intergradation. Pacific birds moult after breeding, and females shed a few body feathers before breeding too. Juvenile males shed more remiges than females when moulting into adult plumage. East of the 106th meridian west, birds moult strongly before breeding and replace another quantity of feathers afterwards, and post-juvenal moult does not differ significantly between the sexes. However, this seems dependent on the differing rainfall regimes; simply put, birds at least anywhere in the North American range moult most of their plumage at the end of the dry season and may replace more feathers at the end of the wet season.
Considered a Species of Least Concern by the IUCN due to its vast range, it nonetheless seems to be declining locally. For example, it is rare in the Ecuadorean Andes foothills.
AB2A0716-1_fCAFlkr
One Cup Too Many -
A butterfly dejected by unrequited love for a pretty flower was drowning his anguish with a little booze of salt and amino acids. He’s well-bred and knows it is inappropriate, but the water pressure building inside demanded a quick release. Unable to contain anymore, he blared out, “Pardon me, will you move your self-serving eyes away? I’m fighting a losing battle against my bladder and must pee.” Quickly averting my gaze, I pretended to pick the imaginary bits of loo paper stuck to my shoes. Then I heard it loud and clear. The trees were laughing mad hard as his weepy gush turned into the bawling Niagara Falls? After his ease, the relieved Mormon returned to the grime fulfilling his abdomen with another round of drinks. If you want to know the mood of a butterfly, eavesdrop on his tune while he is in the shower.
(11 of 24 - upload continues on Friday…)
The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), also spelled Gyr Falcon, sometimes Gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter[1].
The bird's common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), "vulture", referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus ("circle", "curved path") from the species' circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range[2]. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry.
Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.
Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called "white", "silver", "brown" and "black" though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones.
The Gyrfalcon is a bird of tundra and mountains, with cliffs or a few patches of trees. It feeds only on birds and mammals. Like other hierofalcons, it usually hunts in a horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's speedy stoop from a height. Most prey is killed on the ground, whether they are captured there or, if the victim is a flying bird, forced to the ground. The diet is to some extent opportunistic, but a majority of breeding birds mostly rely on Lagopus grouse. Avian prey can range in size from redpolls to geese and can include gulls, corvids, smaller passerines, waders and other raptors (up to the size of Buteos). Mammalian prey can range in size from shrews to marmots (sometimes 3 times heavier than the assaulting falcon), and often includes include lemmings, voles, ground squirrels and hares. They only rarely eat carrion.
The Gyrfalcon is the official bird of Canada's Northwest Territories.
Oahu, Hawaii
Theridion grallator is polymorphic and may exhibit one of several variant appearances depending upon such factors where it lives and what it eats, so not every happy face spider necessarily bears happy face markings. The word grallator in its specific name is Latin for "stilt walker," a reference to the spider's long and spindly legs. The Hawaiian name is nananana makakiʻi (face-patterned spider).
The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), also spelled Gyr Falcon, sometimes Gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter[1].
The bird's common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), "vulture", referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus ("circle", "curved path") from the species' circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range[2]. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry.
Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.
Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called "white", "silver", "brown" and "black" though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones.
The Gyrfalcon is a bird of tundra and mountains, with cliffs or a few patches of trees. It feeds only on birds and mammals. Like other hierofalcons, it usually hunts in a horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's speedy stoop from a height. Most prey is killed on the ground, whether they are captured there or, if the victim is a flying bird, forced to the ground. The diet is to some extent opportunistic, but a majority of breeding birds mostly rely on Lagopus grouse. Avian prey can range in size from redpolls to geese and can include gulls, corvids, smaller passerines, waders and other raptors (up to the size of Buteos). Mammalian prey can range in size from shrews to marmots (sometimes 3 times heavier than the assaulting falcon), and often includes include lemmings, voles, ground squirrels and hares. They only rarely eat carrion.
The Gyrfalcon is the official bird of Canada's Northwest Territories.
The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), also spelled Gyr Falcon, sometimes Gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter[1].
The bird's common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), "vulture", referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus ("circle", "curved path") from the species' circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range[2]. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry.
Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.
Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called "white", "silver", "brown" and "black" though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones.
The Gyrfalcon is a bird of tundra and mountains, with cliffs or a few patches of trees. It feeds only on birds and mammals. Like other hierofalcons, it usually hunts in a horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's speedy stoop from a height. Most prey is killed on the ground, whether they are captured there or, if the victim is a flying bird, forced to the ground. The diet is to some extent opportunistic, but a majority of breeding birds mostly rely on Lagopus grouse. Avian prey can range in size from redpolls to geese and can include gulls, corvids, smaller passerines, waders and other raptors (up to the size of Buteos). Mammalian prey can range in size from shrews to marmots (sometimes 3 times heavier than the assaulting falcon), and often includes include lemmings, voles, ground squirrels and hares. They only rarely eat carrion.
The Gyrfalcon is the official bird of Canada's Northwest Territories.
Found by my wife in our backyard.
Family: Theridiidae
Scientific name: Enoplognatha ovata
Common name: Candystripe or Polymorphic spider
This colourful spider often builds webs on plants. Its colours can vary greatly. Yellow, white, green. Notice the significant black dots on the side of the abdomen. The name Candystripe comes from the specimens with the red stipes..
Dave Ladd
HSITI Zine 003
A6 Landscape
48pp – Including cover
Laser on pale pink stock
Bound with flouro pink cloth tape.
Edition of 100 – 2007.
Subject:
My spam volume is enormous but my inbox is tiny.
I have been receiving Polymorphic Spam sent for penis enlargement(!) product Mega Dik for the last 2-3 months and now my junk-mail folder is much bigger than “average” size. Now let’s all whizgiggle at them.
DL76 – 2007
Zines, prints and more – now available for sale in our store.
Skops Uil
(Otus senegalensis)
Scops owls are typical owls (family Strigidae) mostly belonging to the genus Otus. Approximately 45 living species are known, but new ones are frequently recognized and unknown ones are still being discovered every few years or so, especially in Indonesia. For most of the 20th century, this genus included the American screech owls, which are now again separated in Megascops based on a range of behavioral, biogeographical, morphological and DNA sequence data. Otus is the largest genus of owls in terms of number of species.
Scops owls in the modern sense are restricted to the Old World. A single North American species, the flammulated owl, was provisionally placed in Otus and has now been moved to its own monotypic genus. See below for details.
As usual for owls, female scops owls are usually larger than the males of their species, with owls of both sexes being compact in size and shape. All of the birds in this genus are small and agile. Scops owls are colored in various brownish hues, sometimes with a lighter underside and/or face, which helps to camouflage them against the bark of trees. Some are polymorphic, occurring in a greyish- and a reddish-brown morph.
Scops owls hunt from perches in semi-open landscapes. They prefer areas which contain old trees with hollows; these are home to their prey which includes insects, reptiles, small mammals such as bats and mice and other small birds. The owls will also eat earthworms, amphibians and aquatic invertebrates. Scops owls have a good sense of hearing which helps them locate their prey in any habitat. They also possess well-developed raptorial claws and a curved bill, both of which are used for tearing their prey into pieces small enough to swallow easily.
Scops owls are primarily solitary birds. Most species lay and incubate their eggs in a cavity nest that was originally made by another animal. During the incubation period, the male will feed the female. These birds are monogamous, with biparental care, and only fledge one young per year. The young of most scops owls are altricial to semialtricial.
As opposed to screech owls, scops owls have only a single type of call. This consists of a series of whistles or high-pitched hoots, given with a frequency of 4 calls per second or less, or of a single, drawn-out whistle. Calls differ widely between species in type and pitch, and in the field are often the first indication of these birds' presence, as well as the most reliable means to distinguish between species. Some, like the recently described Serendib scops owl (Otus thilohoffmanni), were discovered because their vocalizations were unfamiliar to experts in bird-calls.
The genus name is from the Latin otus for an eared owl.
Due to a nomenclatorial dispute, the generic name Scops is not used by either the scops or the screech owls (which when only a few species were known were placed together), nor by any other animal. In 1760, Mathurin Jacques Brisson had established the genus Scopus for the hammerkop, a peculiar African bird. Paul Möhring in 1758 had already used the name Scops for this bird however, and believing this name to be valid Morten Thrane Brünnich replaced Scopus with it in 1772. The scops and screech owls, which were placed in Otus by Thomas Pennant in 1769 (as he too believed that Moehring's Scops was valid) were moved to Scops by Marie Jules César Savigny in 1809. Lorenz Oken in 1817 changed this to Scopus, also under the impression that Scops was the older name for the hammerkop, and valid.
However, the names established by Moehring pre-date the official start date of Linnean nomenclature in zoology as regulated by the ICZN, which is December 31, 1758 – the last day of the year in which the 10th edition of Linné's Systema Naturae was published. Hence, Scopus as established by Brisson is indeed the valid generic name of the hammerkop, and the first valid use of Scops was in 1772 by Brünnich – which according to modern rules of zoological nomenclature was unjustified however, as the name he believed to be reinstating had never been technically valid in the first place.
Wikipedia
The variable oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolor) is a species of wader in the Haematopodidae family. It is endemic to New Zealand. The Maori name is torea-pango. They are also known as 'red bills'.
"Variable" refers to the frontal plumage, which ranges from pied through mottled to all black. They are polymorphic meaning they have different genetic variants. Blacker birds are more common in the south. All Stewart Island variable oystercatchers are black. They have pink legs, an orange eye ring and red beaks. They are often seen in pairs on the coast all around New Zealand. During breeding, the pair will defend their territory, sometimes aggressively. Once mated pairs rarely divorce.
After breeding they may be seen within flocks, or on the edges of flocks, of black and white South Island pied oystercatcher (SIPO) which also have vivid orange beaks. After breeding they may even form small flocks of their own. Males are around 678 grams and females slightly larger at around 724 grams.
Variables can be identified as they are slightly larger than the SIPO - SIPO are around 550 grams. Occasionally totally black but if they are pied (black and white) they can be easily confused with SIPO. The variable species has less definition between the black and the white area, as well as a mottled band on the leading edges of the underwing. Variables also have a smaller white rump patch which is only a band across the base of the tail rather than a wide wedge shape reaching up to the middle of the back as in the SIPO.
When mottled they are sometimes called 'smudgies'. They feed on molluscs, crabs and marine worms. After heavy rain, they sometime go inland in search of earthworms. They can open a shellfish by either hammering a hole in it or getting the bill between the two shells (of a bivalve) and twisting them apart. They breed in North Island, South Island, Stewart Island, and Chatham Islands.
They do not breed inland or beside rivers although the SIPO does.They nest on the shore between rocks or on sand dunes by making a scrape out of the sand or shingle, sometimes lined with some seaweed. When in flight they make a high pitched 'kleep kleep' sound. They usually lay 2-3 eggs but they can lay up to 5. The eggs are typically stone coloured with small brown patches all over. Eggs hatch in 25–32 days. Chicks are well camouflaged by their colour and can fly in about 6 weeks. The bird lives up to about 27 years.
This mage was taken at Akaroa on the South Island of New Zealand
This specimen was discovered in northern Mississippi. Specimens from this area are in a state of taxonomic confusion based on morphology and genetic data. There may just be one polymorphic species or as many as three different species that are very similar morphologically. Since Orconectes etnieri is the oldest species name in this currently confusing group, it has been conservatively assigned to animals from this population. This animal was caught in a baited minnow trap placed in a first order stream that emanates from a steep sided ravine that is periodically (usually) dry.
Kleinsingvalk
(Micronisus gabar)
The gabar goshawk (Micronisus gabar) is a small species of African and Arabian bird of prey in the family Accipitridae.
The gabar goshawk is polymorphic and occurs in two distinct forms which fluctuate in relative abundance across the geographic range of the species. The more frequent, paler form has mostly grey upperparts with a conspicuous, white rump and white and grey barring on the chest, thighs and underwings, and a dark grey, barred tail. In contrast, the less frequent form, which accounts on average for approximately 25 percent of the overall population, is almost completely black. In both forms of adult the eyes are dark, and the long legs and the cere are red. The cere and the legs are yellow in immatures and the plumage is generally browner, with the pale birds having untidy barring on the chest than the adult. The females are significantly larger than the males, the male's weigh 90 - 173g and the females 167 - 240g The body length is 28–36 cm and the wingspan 63 cm.
The gabar goshawk is usually considered to be sedentary, but immature birds are somewhat nomadic and some small migratory movements have been recorded in parts of its range. It is most frequently observed alone, but pairs are also common, particularly during the breeding season, when the male is often observed pursuing the female through trees, or calling from his perch. The small platform nest is typically constructed using thin twigs and positioned in a vertical fork in the crown of a thorny tree, such as an acacia. One notable aspect of their nest construction is that the birds collect spider webs including the live spiders, the spiders spin new webs which may help camouflage the nest, and the spiders may consume arthropods that would parasitize the chicks.
The eggs are laid from July to December, peaking in September to November. The normal clutch is two eggs, but up to four may be laid, and these are mainly incubated by the female for about 33–38 days. Once hatched, the chicks are brooded by the female for the first 19–21 days of their lives, while the male brings her food to feed to them. They leave the nest around 35–36 days old, becoming fully independent about one month later.
Small birds are the major part of the gabar goshwak’s diet, with small mammals, reptiles, and insects also taken on occasion. The prey is typically flushed from trees and caught following a persistent and energetic pursuit. The gabar goshawk sometimes hunts from the perch, swooping down to catch prey off the ground or in flight. They have also been recorded attacking the nests of colonial birds such as weavers by clawing their way destructively through the nest top to snatch the chicks from the nest.
Known predators of the gabar goshawk include tawny eagles, Wahlberg's eagles, and Ayres's hawk-eagles.
Wikipedia
Tenerife.
Icod, the Butterfly Garden.
Mariposario del Drago.
www.mariposario.com/English/index.html
Great Mormon (Papilio memnon) is a large butterfly with contrasting colors that belongs to the Swallowtail family. A common South-Asian butterfly, it is widely distributed and has thirteen subspecies. The female is polymorphic and with mimetic forms.
Growing in wetland, high altitude in Baima Snow Mountain nature reserve.
Alpine scrub, meadows, rock crevices, streamsides, bogs; 3000-5300 m. S Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi (Taibai Shan), W Sichuan, NW Yunnan, Xizang [Bhutan, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].
Saxifraga melanocentra, as circumscribed in the present account, is polymorphic. Some of the variation is apparently correlated with chromosome number, while some is possibly associated with putative hybrids with S. pallida. Plants from SW China are smaller and have better-developed nectary discs than their counterparts in Nepal.
Indian Paradise Flycatcher
The Indian paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) is a medium-sized passerine bird native to Asia that is widely distributed. As the global population is considered stable, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2004. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and Myanmar.
Males have elongated central tail feathers, and a black and rufous plumage in some populations, while others have white plumage. Females are short-tailed with rufous wings and a black head. Indian paradise flycatchers feed on insects, which they capture in the air often below a densely canopied tree.
Three subspecies are recognized:
Himalayan paradise flycatcher (T. p. leucogaster) – (Swainson, 1838): Originally described as a separate species. Breeds in the western Tian Shan, in Afghanistan, in the north of Pakistan, in northwestern and central India, in Nepal’s western and central regions; populations occurring in the east of Pakistan and in the south of India migrate towards the foothills of the Himalayas in spring for breeding.
T. p. paradisi – (Linnaeus, 1758): breeds in central and southern India, central Bangladesh and south-western Myanmar; populations occurring in Sri Lanka in the winter season are non-breeding.
Ceylon paradise flycatcher (T. p. ceylonensis) – (Zarudny & Harms, 1912): found in Sri Lanka.
Adult Indian paradise flycatchers are 19–22 cm (7.5–8.7 in) long. Their heads are glossy black with a black crown and crest, their black bill round and sturdy, their eyes black. Female are rufous on the back with a greyish throat and underparts. Their wings are 86–92 mm (3.4–3.6 in) long. Young males look very much like females but have a black throat and blue-ringed eyes. As adults they develop up to 24 cm (9.4 in) long tail feathers with two central tail feathers growing up to 30 cm (12 in) long drooping streamers.
Young males are rufous and have short tails. They acquire long tails in their second or third year. Adult males are either predominantly bright rufous above or predominantly white. Some specimens show some degree of intermediacy between rufous and white. Long-tailed rufous birds are generally devoid of shaft streaks on the wing and tail feathers, while in white birds the shaft streaks, and sometimes the edges of the wing and tail feathers are black.
In the early 1960s, 680 long-tailed males were examined that are contained in collections of the British Museum of Natural History, Chicago Natural History Museum, Peabody Museum, Carnegie Museum, American Museum of Natural History, United States National Museum and Royal Ontario Museum. The specimens came from almost the entire range of the species, though some areas were poorly represented. The relative frequency of the rufous and white plumage types varies geographically. Rufous birds are rare in the extreme southeastern part of the species' range. Throughout the Indian area and, to a lesser extent, in China, asymmetrically patterned intermediates occur. Intermediates are rare or absent throughout the rest of the range of the species. In general, long-tailed males are
predominantly rufous with some white in wings and tail — collected in Turkestan, Kashmir, northern India, Punjab, Maharashtra, Sikkim and in Sri Lanka;
predominantly rufous with some white in wings — collected in Iran, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Punjab, Kashmir, northern and central India, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar, Nepal;
predominantly rufous with some white in tail — collected in Punjab, northern and central India, Kolkata, Sri Lanka and in the Upper Yangtze Valley in China;
predominantly white with some rufous in tail and wings — collected in Kashmir, Maharashtra, Sichuan and North China;
predominantly white with some rufous in tail — collected in Maharashtra and Fuzhou, China;
predominantly white with back partly rufous — collected in Punjab and Chennai;
moulting from rufous into white plumage — collected in North Bihar.
Possible interpretations of this phenomenon are : males may be polymorphic for rufous and white plumage colour; rufous birds may be sub-adults; and there may even be two sympatric species distinguishable only in the male.
They are migratory and spend the winter season in tropical Asia. There are resident populations in southern India and Sri Lanka, hence both visiting migrants and the locally breeding subspecies occur in these areas in winter.
According to Linné’s first description Indian paradise flycatchers were only distributed in India. Later ornithologists observed this spectacular bird in other areas, and based on differences in plumage of males described several subspecies.
Indian paradise flycatchers inhabit thick forests and well-wooded habitats from Central Asia to south-eastern China, all over India and Sri Lanka to Myanmar.
Indian paradise flycatchers are noisy birds uttering sharp skreek calls. They have short legs and sit very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. They are insectivorous and hunt in flight in the understorey. In the afternoons they dive from perches to bathe in small pools of water.
The breeding season lasts from May to July. Being socially monogamous both male and female take part in nest-building, incubation, brooding and feeding of the young. The incubation period lasts 14 to 16 days and the nestling period 9 to 12 days. Three or four eggs are laid in a neat cup nest made with twigs and spider webs on the end of a low branch. The nest is sometimes built in the vicinity of a breeding pair of drongos, which keep predators away. Chicks hatch in about 21 to 23 days. A case of interspecific feeding has been noted with paradise flycatcher chicks fed by Oriental white-eyes.
The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus), also spelled Gyr Falcon, sometimes Gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter[1].
The bird's common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), "vulture", referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus ("circle", "curved path") from the species' circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range[2]. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry.
Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.
Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called "white", "silver", "brown" and "black" though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones.
The Gyrfalcon is a bird of tundra and mountains, with cliffs or a few patches of trees. It feeds only on birds and mammals. Like other hierofalcons, it usually hunts in a horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's speedy stoop from a height. Most prey is killed on the ground, whether they are captured there or, if the victim is a flying bird, forced to the ground. The diet is to some extent opportunistic, but a majority of breeding birds mostly rely on Lagopus grouse. Avian prey can range in size from redpolls to geese and can include gulls, corvids, smaller passerines, waders and other raptors (up to the size of Buteos). Mammalian prey can range in size from shrews to marmots (sometimes 3 times heavier than the assaulting falcon), and often includes include lemmings, voles, ground squirrels and hares. They only rarely eat carrion.
The Gyrfalcon is the official bird of Canada's Northwest Territories.
ze-no-STEEJ-ee-uh or ze-no-STEG-ee-uh -- Greek: xeno (strange); stegia (covering) ... Dave's Botanary
try-den-TAY-ta -- three-toothed ... Dave's Botanary
commonly known as: narrowleaf morning glory • Bengali: হলুদ কলমি লতা holud kolmi lawta, প্রসারিণী prosharini • Gujarati: ભીંતગરીયો bhintagariyo • Hindi: प्रसारिणी prasarini • Kachchhi: ઝામરવલ jhamarval, ટોપરાવલ toparaval • Kannada: ಇಲಿಕಿವಿ ಸೊಪ್ಪು ilikivi soppu, ಪ್ರಸಾರಣಿ prasaarani • Konkani: काळी वेल kali vel • Malayalam: പ്രസാരണി prasaarani, തലനീളി thalaneeli • Marathi: काळी वेल kali vel • Odia: ପ୍ରସାରଣୀ prasarani • Rajasthani: प्रसारिणी prasarini • Sanskrit: प्रसारिणी prasarini • Tamil: முதியோர் கூந்தல் mutiyor kuntal • Telugu: లంజ సవరం lanja savaram, సీతమ్మ జడ seethamma jada, సీతమ్మ సవరం seetamma savaram, సుంచు మూతి sunchu mutthi
botanical names: Xenostegia tridentata (L.) D.F.Austin & Staples ... homotypic synonyms: Convolvulus tridentatus L. • Evolvulus tridentatus (L.) L. • Ipomoea tridentata (L.) Roth • Merremia tridentata (L.) Hallier f. ... infraspecific: Xenostegia tridentata subsp. tridentata ... and more at POWO, retrieved 07 February 2025
~~~~~ DISTRIBUTION in INDIA ~~~~~
throughout (except n-w India); including Lakshadweep islands
Names compiled / updated at Names of Plants in India.
Kleinsingvalk
(Micronisus gabar)
The gabar goshawk (Micronisus gabar) is a small species of African and Arabian bird of prey in the family Accipitridae.
The gabar goshawk is polymorphic and occurs in two distinct forms which fluctuate in relative abundance across the geographic range of the species. The more frequent, paler form has mostly grey upperparts with a conspicuous, white rump and white and grey barring on the chest, thighs and underwings, and a dark grey, barred tail. In contrast, the less frequent form, which accounts on average for approximately 25 percent of the overall population, is almost completely black. In both forms of adult the eyes are dark, and the long legs and the cere are red. The cere and the legs are yellow in immatures and the plumage is generally browner, with the pale birds having untidy barring on the chest than the adult. The females are significantly larger than the males, the male's weigh 90 - 173g and the females 167 - 240g The body length is 28–36 cm and the wingspan 63 cm.
The gabar goshawk is usually considered to be sedentary, but immature birds are somewhat nomadic and some small migratory movements have been recorded in parts of its range. It is most frequently observed alone, but pairs are also common, particularly during the breeding season, when the male is often observed pursuing the female through trees, or calling from his perch. The small platform nest is typically constructed using thin twigs and positioned in a vertical fork in the crown of a thorny tree, such as an acacia. One notable aspect of their nest construction is that the birds collect spider webs including the live spiders, the spiders spin new webs which may help camouflage the nest, and the spiders may consume arthropods that would parasitize the chicks.
The eggs are laid from July to December, peaking in September to November. The normal clutch is two eggs, but up to four may be laid, and these are mainly incubated by the female for about 33–38 days. Once hatched, the chicks are brooded by the female for the first 19–21 days of their lives, while the male brings her food to feed to them. They leave the nest around 35–36 days old, becoming fully independent about one month later.
Small birds are the major part of the gabar goshwak’s diet, with small mammals, reptiles, and insects also taken on occasion. The prey is typically flushed from trees and caught following a persistent and energetic pursuit. The gabar goshawk sometimes hunts from the perch, swooping down to catch prey off the ground or in flight. They have also been recorded attacking the nests of colonial birds such as weavers by clawing their way destructively through the nest top to snatch the chicks from the nest.
Known predators of the gabar goshawk include tawny eagles, Wahlberg's eagles, and Ayres's hawk-eagles.
Wikipedia