słonie: Beetle

Evidence: 96 • authority: 72

Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 described species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described arthropods and 25% of all known animal species; new species are discovered frequently, with estimates suggesting that there are between 0.9 and 2.1 million total species. Found in almost every habitat except the sea and the polar regions, they interact with their ecosystems in several ways: beetles often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other…

Evidence: 35 • authority: 92

A multiverse of trophic networks and coevolutionary trajectories among holoparasitic Orobanchaceae and their animal associates: a global perspective.. Holoparasitism, in achlorophyllous, fully heterotrophic plants, is one of the most peculiar symbioses in the plant world. In particular, holoparasites from Orobanchaceae, the largest parasitic plant family, have evolved unique visual and olfactory signals in the plant kingdom, and thus play a key role in the evolution of animal-plant adaptations. Holoparasitism offers excellent case studies of the effects of a specialised interaction on multiple aspects of plant ecology and evolution, including pollination, herbivory, and speciation. In this…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

Global biodiversity is the measure of biodiversity on Earth and is defined as the total variability of life forms. More than 99 percent of all species that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 2 million to 1 trillion, but most estimates are around 11 million species or fewer. About 1.74 million species were databased as of 2018, and over 80 percent have not yet been described. The total amount of DNA base pairs on Earth, as a possible approximation of global biodiversity, is estimated at 5.0 × 1037, and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC (…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 92

Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Three Rhinoceros Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) and Phylogenetic Implications.. The subfamily Dynastinae, commonly known as rhinoceros beetles, represents one of the most morphologically striking lineages within the Scarabaeidae. This distinctiveness arises from the elaborate horns present on the head and pronotum of many species, particularly in males. Despite their significant ecological and economic importance, the phylogenetic relationships within this subfamily remain poorly understood, and available mitochondrial genomic data are remarkably scarce, hindering comprehensive phylogenomic analyses. In this study, we sequenced the complete…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 92

Time-dependent effects of beavers on terrestrial invertebrate biomass and diversity.. Beaver ( Castor spp.) activity can alter habitat structure and hydrology, yet their influence on terrestrial invertebrates remains understudied. We examined the effects of beaver activity on ground-dwelling terrestrial invertebrate biomass and diversity across mid-summer to early autumn and assessed habitat differences between sites with and without beaver activity by analyzing environmental variables related to habitat heterogeneity. We found significant interactions between beaver activity and research dates, suggesting that beaver effects are dynamic and seasonally dependent. Specific invertebrate order…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

This is a list of herbivorous animals, organized in a roughly taxonomic manner. In general, entries consist of animal species known with good certainty to be overwhelmingly herbivorous, as well as genera and families which contain a preponderance of such species. Herbivorous animals are heterotrophs, meaning that they consume other organisms for sustenance. The organisms which herbivores consume are primary producers, predominantly plants (including algae). Herbivores which consume land plants may eat any or all of the fruit, leaves, sap, nectar, pollen, flowers, bark, cambium, underground storage organs like roots, tubers, and rhizomes, nuts, seeds, shoots, and other parts of plants; they…

Evidence: 24 • authority: 92

Identification and Expression Pattern Analysis of Cuticular Protein Gene Family in <i>Monochamus alternatus</i> (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae).. The pine sawyer beetle ( Monochamus alternatus Hope, 1842) is a major vector of the pinewood nematode [ Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Steiner & Buhrer, 1934) Nickle, 1970]. A total of 119 cuticular protein (CP) genes were identified from the M. alternatus genome, belonging to nine families, namely 34 CPR-RR1, 39 CPR-RR2, 6 CPAP1, 7 CPAP3, 2 CPF, 3 CPFL, 4 CPCFC, 14 CPU, and 10 TWEEDLE, with the CPR family being the most abundant (73 genes, 61.34%). Comparative genomic analysis across six insect orders revealed that the CP gene count in M. alt…