Tubifex Worm

Tubifex worm (in Indonesia called as Cacing Sutra) also called by sludge worm, or sewage worm, is a species of tubificidsegmented worm that inhabits the the sediments of lakesand, rivers and occasionally sewer lines. This worm can also survive in areas heavily polluted with organic matter that almost no other species can endure. Tubifex worm also can survive drought and food shortage.

Tubifex worms feed on decaying organic matter, detritus, and vegetable matter which commonly available in segment drains.

Tubifex worms are hermaphroditic, each individual has both male and female organs in the same animals. The minute reproductive organs are attached to the ventral side of the body wall in the colony, cavity. In mature specimens, the reproductive organs are clearly found on the ventral side of the body. Even they have male and female organ but mature of both gender at different times, thus self fertilization is avoided. Fertilized eggs form in the cocoon, and undergo complete development in the using the case's albuminousnutritive fluid for growth. The period of development varies with temperature and lasts for two to three weeks. After complete development, the young worms emerge.

Tubifex worms are often used as a live food of fish, especially tropical fish and certain other freshwater species. They have been a popular food for the aquarium trade almost since its inception, and gathering them from open sewers for this purpose was quite common until recently.

Using these worms as a live food has come with certain problems over the years. When harvested from severs, open bodies of water, and even from hatcheries, they may be infected with various diseases. This risk can be partially solved by keeping the worms under brisk running water until they have voided the content of their digestive systems.

The Giant Ant

This ant just fossil that is founded in Wyoming, United States, that predict the age about 50 years. This ant included of monster because the body have 5 centimeters long while other finding in out of US just has 3 centimeters long.

This full fossil have founded on Green River formation by fossil collector, Louis Lube. Now this fossil is kept in Sains Museum and Alam Denver.

Fosil utuh itu ditemukan pada Formasi Green River oleh kolektor fosil, Louis Lube. Kini fosil itu disimpan di Museum Sains dan Alam Denver. The ancient expert from Simon Fraser University said, this is the giant ant, like other giant ant in Germany.

Archibald name it with Titanomyrma Lubei, allegedly that this ant is migrated from several continent, from outside of United States to Wyoming several million years ago, across the mainland Arkik when the temperature was warm.

Snails

Snails represent a large and varied group of shelled gastropod mollusks in the class Gastropoda. They are diverse in size and ecologically, being terrestrial freshwater or marine. One terrestrial species, Helix pomatia is the edible snail (escargot) familiar in French gourmet cooking.

Externally, snails are characterized spiral shell flattened foot, and anterior head with prominent tentacies. When disturbed, the snail can withdraw into its shell, and in some cases the shell opening can be closed by a horny, or calcareous, plate called an operculum. Locomotion in snails is usually achieved by means of waves of contraction along the bottom of the muscular foot from rear to front.

All snails undergo body torsion during development Snail begin development as bilaterally symmetrical animals. During the larval stage the visceral mass is twisted 180 degres, so that posterior structures such as the anus are thought to accompany body torsion. Several advantages are thought to accompany body torsion. First the shell opening is rotated anteriorally, and consequently the snail withdraws into the shell headfirst, and providing added protection for that end, which contains concentrated sensory structures and the major part of the central nervous system. In addition, the gills used for respiration (in most species) are rotated anteriorally, and the snail can utilize the undisturbed water ahead of its own path of movement for inhalant respiratory currents.

Muskrat

The muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus, in the family Cricetidae, is a semiaquatic rodent found in fresh-water and saltwater marshes from Alaska through most of Canada and the United States. It was introduced into Europe for its fur but quickly became a pest. A dark colored polulation in Newfoundland is often classified as a separate species. O. obscurus. Muskrats are stoutly built, reaching about 33 cm (13 in) long, plus a laterally flattened 29 cm (11-in) tail, and they weigh up to 1.8 kg (4 lb). The hind feet are partly webbed. The dense, glossy coat ranges in color from grayish brown to dark brown or almost black. Muskrats live in a network of burrows in the banks of waterways or build houses of mounded vegetation in open water. They eat mainly plant material. Breeding is confined to the warmer moths in the north, where a female may have three litters a year, but occurs year round in the south. Gestation takes about 30 days, with usually three to seven young to a litter. The musk rat’s fur is of prime commercial importance.

The muskrat dives and swims in the freshwater habitat by padding with partially webbed hind feet. It builds a shelter in the water or burrows into the sides of earthen banks.

Echolocation

Echolocation is the use of the echoes of sounds produced by certain animals to detect obstacles in their path and perhaps to locate food. The term echolocation was coined (1944) by Donald R. Griffin to describe this process. The list of echolocators includes may bats, porpoises, some whales, several species of birds and some shrews. Blind people and animals that live where the lighting is unpredictable also use a form of echolocator.

Sound used in echolocation may be produced in the voice box, the mouth, or some part of the head, and in all cases highly refined auditory systems detect returning echoes. For echolocation to work, each outgoing pulse of sound must be registered in the organism's brain, where it will be compared to its echo. Porpoises, birds, and some bats use loud orientation sounds, which pose a problem of self-deafening. The problem is resolved in bats by neutral and muscular modifications in their auditory system.

Echolocation is mistakenly associated with high-frequency sound, or ultrasound. In fact, the echolocations sounds of oil birds and cave shiftiest are quite audible to the human ear, as are those of some bats. Most bats use pulses of ultrasonic sound (inaudible to humans) because high-frequency sounds provide better resolution of targets than do lower-frequency sounds. Insectivorous bats use a wide array of echolocation strategies involving changes in loudness and frequency.

A bat judges the distance to its prey by reflecting sounds it has emitted. Echolocation is also used to navigate in dark caves or at night.

Tarantula

A tarantula is a hairy long-legged, long lived spider foung mostly in warm regions. Also sometimes known as bird spiders or monkey spiders. true tarantulas make up the family theraphosidae; related forms, including tunnel web spiders and Trap Door Spiders, are also sometimes grouped as tarantulas. Many species are about 2.5 to 7.5 cm (1 to 3 in) long, with a 13 cm (5 in) legspan, but some South American species are larger. Tarantulas inject a paralyzing venom into prey with their large fangs. They rarely bite humans, however, and although the bite is painful the venom is usually not seriously harmful to humans.

Aphonopelma chalcodes is a member of the genus of tarantulas of North America. This spider's bite is painful but not generous to humans, and tarantulas can be trained as pets.

Black Widow

The black widow, Latrodectus mactans, is a poisonous spider of the family Theridiidae, or glossy black, densely clothed with microscopic hairs, and marked with a characteristic red hourglass on the underside of the abdomen. The male, which is rarely seen, is smaller than the female and has four pairs of red marks along the sides of the abdomen. The black widow is found worldwide and in the warmer regions in every state in the United States except Alaska and Hawaii; it lives in a variety of natural and domestic habitats. Generally the females are not aggressive unless agitated, although they are prone to bite can be fatal. The diet of the black widow consists of insects, spiders, and centipedes captured with its web. After mating, the female may ensnare and feed upon her mate, hence the name black widow.

The veronomous bite of the black widow spider causes muscle spasms and breathing difficulty in humans and may be fatal. The female is distinguished by a red hourglass marking on its underside.

Ants and Humans

Ants can be both harmful and beneficial to humans. Pest species include ants that harbor and protect homoterans that in turn damage plants. Atta leaf cutter that defoliate entire trees and pose a threat to tropical agriculture, harvesters that can strip rangeland of vegetation and thus promote erosion, carpenter ants that can damage wooden structure, and the red fire ant, which inflicts a painful sting. On the other hand, Chinese citrus growers have for centuries used pedacious ant Oecophylla smaragdina in mandarin orange trees to destroy insect pests, and other ant species have been similarly used to protect crops elsewhere.

Classification and Origin

Ants from a single family, the Formicidae, in order Hymenoptera. They differ from other Hymenoptera in processing a pair of metapleural glands. Although the function of these thoracic glands remains unclear, it has been suggested that they produce an odor that distinguishes one colony from another.

Ants probably evolved from wasps resembling the present day family Tiphiidae. In the fossil record, ants known almost exclusively from Tertiary fossils, the oldest of which is of the Eocene Epoch (approximately 53 to 37 million years ago). These fossil ant are similar to contemporary ants.

Specialized Colonies of Ant

Army Ants: Many ant species have specialized ways of obtaining food. Among the more dramatic is army ant behavior, which includes group prediction and nomadism. The former involves both group raiding and group retrieval of prey. Because the workers forage an masse for food, they are able to overcome and capture other social insects and large arthropods. The colonies frequently migrate to new nesting sites where food is abundant.

Fungus-Growing Ants: Ants of the New World tribe Attini are highly specialized Herbivores that cultivate subterranean fungal gardens on fecal or plant-derived substrates. This fungus serves as the genus leaves, which they masticate and on which they grow their fungus break down leaf proteins. Because the ants cannot digest the cellulose in these macerated leaves, and the fungus can, the ants gain access to the cellulose by eating the fungus.

Harvester Ants: Many ants feed on seeds. Some called harvesters, live in arid environments and depends almost totally on seeds. Most harvesters construct elaborate subterranean nests that reach depths of 2 m (6 ft) or more. The nests contain some chambers devoted entirely to the storage of seeds and are sometimes topped by a mound of gravel and sand. Workers clear all vegetation from a circular space around the nest some 1 to 10 m (3 to 33 ft) wide. Harvesters generally husk the collected seeds before storing them.

Gatherers and Herders: Some ants gather plant liquids directly from wounds and nectarines. Still others collect honeydew, a substance excrete by insect such as Aphids and Treehoppers. These insects, of the order Homoptera, feed on plant juice. Although the nutrient-rich juices first pass through the homopteran's digestive tract, the honeydew excreted through the anus still contains many nutrients. Some ants simply lick fallen honeydew, whereas other actively solicit it and directly imbibe the droplets as they from at the anal opening. The homopterans are protected from predators by the ants, which may even construct shelters over their "cows."

Parasitic and Slave-Making Ants: Some ants have entered into parasitic relations with other ants. Two or more species may from compound nests, in which the broods are maintained separately and the parasitic species obtains food from the host species. Although compound nests may be non-parasitic, another category, called mixed colonies, almost always result from social parasitism. In these the broods of the involved species are mixed and cared for as one. Some parasitic ants are permanent resident of the host colony and are so specialized that they have lost the worker caste. Slave making also results in mixed colonies. Slave-making species raid other colonies and steal worker pupae, which they enslave to carry out the work of their colonies.

Ants (1)

Ants are no doubt the most successful of all the social insects of the Hymenoptera, an order that also includes the social wasps and bees. Ants are colony makers and have inhabited the warmer environments of the earth for at least 100 million years. Their number are prodigious; it has been estimated that any one time there are at least one quadrillion (1x10¹⁵) living ants on the Earth, a number so large that it is almost meaningless. This individuals are members of some 5000 or perhaps as many as 10,000 species. Ants are remarkably adaptive and are found almost everywhere. In there feeding habits they range from species that specialize in feeding exclusively on Arthropod eggs to those which feed indiscriminately on any living or dead animal.

 

Form and Function

Ant colonies may contain from a few to upward of 20 million individuals. They consist of two or more castes and sub castes of females, and male are winged and appear only periodically in the life of the colony. The males are produced, as in all other Hymenoptera, from unfertillized eggs and serve only hand, develop from fertilized eggs and are the functional mainstay of the colony. Some are queens, usually winged; once inseminated, they produced large number of eggs from which the Larvae hatch. These immature ants are fed and cared for by the worker. In some species the worker vary in size, and subcastes are sometimes distinguishable. This is especially true for the largest worker, which are often referred to as soldiers. In such species a division of labor correlated with worker size may be evident. Small worker may, for instance, tend the larvae, while the larger worker forage for food.

 

The body of an ant is divided into three major parts; a head, with elbowed or geniculate Antenna and variable mandible; an alitrunk, or mesosoma, which the wings (when present) and legs are attached to the alitrunk by a one or two-segmented waist. In addition to the unique metapleural glands, the proventriculus, serve as a storage tank for liquid. This storage capability makes it possible for these ants to regurfitate food for larvae and for other adults.

 

When new males and queens emerge from a colony, they usually engage in a nuptial flight, during which fertilization occurs. The male dies soon after the flight, but the female drops to the ground, sheds her wings, and either is adopted by an existing colony or sequesters herself in a cavity, where she found a new colony.

Bee-3

Pheromones

The integrity of the colony is maintained by chemical secretion, or pheromones. Worker secrete pheromones from the Nasanov gland at the tip of the abdomen when they cluster, enter a new nesting site, or mark a source of nectar or water. The colony scent is recognizable by bees of the same colony because or its unique combination of components derived from the colony's particular collection of nectar and pollen.

 

When queens fly to mate, a mandibular-gland pheromones attracts the drones. The same produces an other pheromones, called queen substance, which worker lick from the queen's body and pass along as they exchange food with each other. The eaten pheromones in inadequate, the colony produces queen cells to supersede her.

 

The mandibular glands of workers produce an alarm odor, which serves to alert the colony when it is released at the site of the sting odor, which is released at sting area. Stingless bees bite leaves at intervals along their flight path to provide a scent trail of mandibular secretion.

 

Dance Language

The ability of honeybees to communicate direction and distance from the hive to nectar sources through dance "language" has received widespread attention. In 1973, Karl von Frisch received a Nobel Price for deciphering the language which consist of two basic dances; a dance in circle, for indicating sources without reference to specific distance or direction; and a tail-wagging dance, in straight run with abdominal wagging, the fewer runs per minute, the further away the source. Wing vibrations produce sounds at the same rate at the tail wagging and are have developed a robot "bee" that can communicate with other bees in this way.

 

The direction, or azimuth, to the food source is indicated by the angle of the wagging dance angle to the sun. Bees use the plane of polarization of the sunlight. Even when the sun is obscured by clouds, bees can detect the position of the sun from the polarized light emanating from brighter patches of sky.

 

Honeybees also have a built-in clock that appears to be synchronized with the store of nectar in flowers. Hence, honeybees making the rounds of flowers in search of nectar always seem to be at the right place at the right time.

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The Bee Families

Most of the 20,000 species are solitary bee. The queen constructs her own nest of one or more brood cells. She then stocks the cells with pollen and nectar to provide food for the larvae and deposits her eggs just before sealing the cell.

 

Some species are gregarious and place their nests in close proximity to each other. When such bees share a common entrance, a division of labor may be observed for example, one bee may guard the entrance against parasites or predators. Bee are considered truly social when there is a single queen, when a worker caste of non reproductive females shares in the construction of the nest and other duties, and when the larvae are fed gradually.

 

The Bumble Bee

Bumble bee (Bombidae) leave their nest in the autumn, and the fertilized queens hibernate in some protected place during the winter. In the spring each queen builds a nest of moss or grass, preferably in a deserted rodent nest. From scales secreted by abdominal glands, she makes a honey pot of wax and then makes a cell and half fills it with pollen before depositing her eggs in it. The queen covers the eggs with a layer of wax and sits on them like brooding hen, sipping honey from her pot. After the larvae hatch, they eat the pollen and grow, then spin cocoons in which to pupate. When the workers emerge, they cut away the upper half of cells and the remainder is used as a receptacle for nectar.

 

The larger worker maintain the covering over the nest and collect food, and the smaller ones care for the young larvae and do the inside work. The difference in size of worker is dependent on the amount of food they have available with honey. 

 

Only males are produced late produced late in the summer and female larvae literally may jettisoned to control the population. When workers lay eggs, the queen may chase the workers away and eat the eggs. If the queen dies or is removed, one of the larger workers soon takes her place.

 

Drone and Worker

Drone develop by parthenogenesis from unfertilized eggs that the queen produces by withholding sperm from the eggs laid in large drone cells. Drone lack stings and the structures needed for pollen collection; in the autumn they are ejected by the colony to starve, unless the colony is queen less. New drones are produced in the spring for mating.

 

Both queen and worker are produced from fertilized eggs. Queen larvae are reared in special peanut-shaped cells and fed more of the pharyngeal-gland secretions of the nurse bees (bee milk or royal jelly) than the worker larvae are. The precise mechanism for this caste differentiation is still uncertain. Although workers are similar in appearance and behavior or other female bees, they lack the structures for mating. When no queen is present to inhibit the development of their ovaries, however, eventually begin to lay eggs that develop into drone.

Bee-1

There are about 20,000 species of insects belonging to the Apoidea and the order Hymenoptera, including such important pollinators of plants as the bumblebees, the yellow-faced, or plasterer, bees, the economically important honeybees of the genus Apis, the only domesticated insects beside the silkworm.

Only about 500 species of bees are social, these include the bumblebees, the tropical stingless bees, and the honeybees. They form colonies of from several hundred to 80,000 individuals, organized in rigid caste system, and secrete wax from which they build their nests.

Most other species of bees either are solitary, secreting no wax and nesting in the ground, hollow plant stems, in the nest or others. The solitary bees, named for the young, include the plasterer, borrower, mining, mason, and leaf-cutter bees.

Bees and Wasps

Bees belong to the same order as wasp. Like wasp, bees have mouth parts adapted for both chewing and sucking, but the tongue is longer than the wasp's and better suited for gathering nectar from a greater variety of flowers. As adults, bees and almost all wasps feed only on nectar or honey, young wasps only insect and spiders, whereas young bees are fed only nectar and pollen. Nectar is a sugary substance produced at the base of petas in many flowers and made into honey by bees.

Some wasp like bees swallow pollen and nectar, which they regurgitate into the cells in which they lay their eggs. Most bees however, are distinguished from wasps by modifications that enable them to collect pollen. Bees have branched and feathery (plumose) body hairs. Female have brushes on their legs, and they use these brushes to remove pollen that sticks to the body hairs. The pollen is then stored under the abdomen or on the broadened hind legs. The parasitic cuckoo bees, however, can be distinguished from wasps only by the presence of the branched hairs characteristic of bees.

Butterflies

Butterflies and moths make up the order of insect called Lepidoptera, a world that means 'scale-winged'. It is the characteristic wing scales that give these insect their beautiful colors and patterns. Butterflies are distinguished from moths by their diurnal habits, brighter coloration, clubbed antennae and their habits of resting with the wings and held upright over the abdomen. The underside of the wing are often colored in such away as to conceal the insect.

Indonesia is home to many endemic species of butterfly, but it is difficult to accurately determine how these species cope with the present day stresses. Habitats alteration, particularly the feeling of forests, threatened butterfly populations and even the existence of some species.

Birdwing Butterflies

Many birdwing species are found in eastern of Indonesia, including some spectacular of the world's butterflies; the wingspan of Ornithoptera goliath reach 22 centimeter. The male and female of many species of Ornithoptera are markedly different in size, coloration and the manner in which they fly. Other birdwing butterfly are exceptionally beautiful species which are confined to the mountains of Irian Jaya, Ambon, Maluku and adjacent islands. The only birdwing found in western Indonesia is Rajah Brooke's birdwing (Trogonoptera brookiana), discovered by Alfred Russel Walace in 1855 and named after Rajah Brooke of Sarawak. The Black and iridescent-green wings of this species have been much exploited for decoration.

Spider and the Relative

All spider are carnivorous and they belong to the Arachnida class which differ from other insects most noticeably by having zero to eight eyes (some are eyeless), four pairs of jointed legs and specialized mouthparts known as mandibles or chelicerae which bear either pincers or fangs, and are use to inject poison into their prey.

 

Other characteristic of spiders is their ability to produce silk. They are the only members of the Arachnida (which also includes scorpions, harvestmen, mites, ticks and some small groups found only in the tropics) that produce silk. This is manufactured in liquid from six short tubes, the spinnerets, at the rear end of the abdomen.

 

Use of Silk

All spiders produce silk, but only some construct webs to catch prey. The web itself I sa masterpiece of weaving; different species construct different styles of webs, each of which is carefully positioned and crated to catch flying insects. The vibrations set up by a struggling insect alerts the spider and the prey is either then killed and eaten or wrapped in silk to immobilize it for later consumption.

 

Spider's Role in Ecosystems

Spiders are our allies in the battle against insect pests. They are all active hunters and prey on a wide range of invertebrates, many of which cause considerable agricultural losses as well as human suffering. Once a spider has overcome its prey, it kills it by injecting a poisonous substance and the sucks up the juices from the body. A spider abdomen is soft and can easily expand to cope with a large meal; female spiders, in particular are capable of absorbing enormous quantities of food within a short time. This quality makes them important regulators of insects, and they are therefore being increasingly employed in human effort to control insect pests.