rekordy: Termite

Evidence: 29 • authority: 92

Advances in Legume Systematics 14. Classification of Caesalpinioideae. Part 2: Higher-level classification.. Caesalpinioideae is the second largest subfamily of legumes (Leguminosae) with ca. 4680 species and 163 genera. It is an ecologically and economically important group formed of mostly woody perennials that range from large canopy emergent trees to functionally herbaceous geoxyles, lianas and shrubs, and which has a global distribution, occurring on every continent except Antarctica. Following the recent re-circumscription of 15 Caesalpinioideae genera as presented in Advances in Legume Systematics 14, Part 1, and using as a basis a phylogenomic analysis of 997 nuclear gene sequences…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

Gut microbiota, gut microbiome, or gut flora are the microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses, that live in the digestive tracts of animals. The gastrointestinal metagenome is the aggregate of all the genomes of the gut microbiota. The gut is the main location of the human microbiome. The gut microbiota has broad impacts, including effects on colonization, resistance to pathogens, maintaining the intestinal epithelium, metabolizing dietary and pharmaceutical compounds, controlling immune function, and even behavior through the gut–brain axis. Imbalances in the gut microbiota (dysbiosis) have been associated with numerous diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease,…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

Termites are a group of eusocial insects which consume a variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus. They are distinguished by their beaded (moniliform) antennae and the soft-bodied, unpigmented worker caste for which they have been commonly termed "white ants"; however, they are not ants but highly derived cockroaches; they are genetically closer to some cockroach groups than these are to other cockroaches. About 2,997 extant species are currently described, 2,125 of which are members of the family Termitidae. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattodea (the cockroaches…

Evidence: 20 • authority: 80

Australia has more native bird species than almost anywhere else. What led to this explosion of diversity?

Evidence: 20 • authority: 92

Genetic differentiation in the soil-feeding termite Cubitermes sp. affinis subarquatus: occurrence of cryptic species revealed by nuclear and mitochondrial markers.. Background Soil-feeding termites are particularly interesting models for studying the effects of fragmentation, a natural or anthropic phenomenon described as promoting genetic differentiation. However, studying the link between fragmentation and genetics requires a method for identifying species unambiguously, especially when morphological diagnostic characters are lacking. In humivorous termites, which contribute to the fertility of tropical soils, molecular taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships are rarely studied, though m…

Evidence: 20 • authority: 72

Lemurs ( LEE-mərz; from Latin lemurēs 'ghosts, spirits of the dead') are wet-nosed primates of the superfamily Lemuroidea ( LEM-yuu-ROY-dee-ə), divided into eight families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 extant species. They are endemic to the island of Madagascar. Most existing lemurs are small, with a pointed snout, large eyes, and a long tail. They usually live in trees and are active at night. Lemurs share resemblance with other primates, but evolved independently from monkeys and apes. Due to Madagascar's highly seasonal climate, lemur evolution has produced a level of species diversity rivaling that of any other primate group. Living lemurs range in weight from the 30-gram…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

This list contains extant European genera of the "Orthopteroid" orders (or Polyneoptera) that are often studied and written-about together. With the limited fauna in the British Isles, it is relatively easy to include organisms to species level: as in the list of Orthoptera and allied insects of Great Britain. However, the whole continent - defined here biogeographically as the part of the Palaearctic realm West of the Ural Mountains, including all islands - encompasses a much greater diversity (well over 1000 species) that includes a number of recently erected and little-known genera. The list may also be of interest outside Europe, since for various historical reasons, the continent is ho…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, perennial grass (in the genus Saccharum, tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–7 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. Sugarcanes belong to the grass family, Poaceae, an economically important flowering plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum, and many forage crops. It is native to New Guinea. Sugarcane was an ancient crop of the Austronesian and Papuan people. The best evidence available today points to the New Guinea area as the site of the original domestication of Saccharum officinarum. It was introduced t…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Soil harbours a huge number of animal species (30% of arthropods live in soil), whether over their entire life or at least during larval stages. Soil offers protection against environmental hazards, such as excess temperature and moisture fluctuations, in particular in arid and cold environments, as well as against predation. Soil provisions food over the year, especially since omnivory seems the rule rather than the exception, and allows reproduction and egg deposition in a safe environment, even for those animals not currently living belowground. Many soil invertebrates, and also some soil vertebrates, are tightly adapted to a subterranean concealed environment, being smaller, blind, depi…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zone between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn). Tropical rainforests are a type of tropical moist broadleaf forest, that includes the more extensive seasonal tropical forests. True rainforests usually occur in tropical rainforest climates where no dry season occurs; all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm (2.4 in). Seasonal tropical forests with tropical monsoon or savanna climates are sometimes included in the broader definit…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Understanding of the evolution of insects is based on studies of the following branches of science: molecular biology, insect morphology, paleontology, insect taxonomy, evolution, embryology, bioinformatics, and scientific computing. The study of insect fossils is known as paleoentomology. It is estimated that the class of insects originated on Earth about 480 million years ago, in the Ordovician, at about the same time terrestrial plants appeared. Insects are thought to have evolved from a group of crustaceans. The first insects were landbound, but about 400 million years ago in the Devonian period one lineage of insects evolved flight, the first animals to do so. The oldest insect fossil…