The eastern fence lizard can grow from 4.0 to 7.5 inches (10 to 19 cm) in total length (including tail). It is typically colored in shades of gray or brown, and has keeled scales, with a dark line running along the rear of the thigh. A female is usually gray and has a series of dark, wavy lines across her back. The belly is white with black flecks, with some pale blue on the throat and belly. The male is usually brown, and during the summer, has a more greenish-blue and black coloration on the sides of the belly and throat than the female. The young look like the females, but are darker and duller.
The lizards mostly inhabit sparsely wooded areas with ample sunlight, such as pine barrens with sandy or loose soil. They can be found basking atop of both natural and artificial structures including coarse woody debris, tree stumps, rock piles, sandy hills, dead logs, and fence posts. They are most active in the early morning sun when the ground has not been fully warmed up yet. They seek refuge inside structures when it gets too hot and at night.


Anasaitis canosa, previously of the genus Corythalia, is a small jumping spider that can typically be found atop leaf-litter or man-made structures such as fences and exterior walls. This species is more commonly known as the twin-flagged jumping spider due to the two pennant shaped markings on the dorsal side of the cephalothorax. Typical of the genus Anasaitis, this species has iridescent setae ("scales") which may appear white, green or pink which create the "flags" as well as patches on the male pedipalps used in courtship and intraspecific signaling. This species is roughly 5 to 6 mm in length. A. canosa ranges from Mexico to South Carolina along the Gulf of Mexico.


This species exhibits an instinctive and unique hunting method for catching ants. The spider will align its abdomen and thorax so that it directly faces the ant, and then strafe in an arc until the ant is directly facing the spider. Once aligned, the spider will leap and puncture the ant on the dorsal side of the head or thorax. In this position, the dangerous mandibles and stinger are incapable of inflicting damage. When stalking prey such as flies or beetles, this salticid is much more direct in its approach and will pounce and puncture from any direction, presumably because these prey pose less risk to the spider. As is common with jumping spiders, this species uses its silk as a tether whenever leaping. In the event of a miss, they will climb up this silk line back to the previous perch.


It is endemic to the United States. The current range of the red-bellied turtle includes a population in Massachusetts which was previously considered a distinct subspecies (Pseudemys rubriventris bangsi) as well as the coastal areas of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.
The red-bellied turtle has appeared on Pennsylvania Fish Commission lists of endangered amphibians and reptiles since 1978 (McCoy 1985). By 1985 the red-bellied turtle was known to exist in Pennsylvania only in isolated colonies in a few counties (McCoy 1985). Small (less than thirty individuals) colonies were known in Manor and Silver lakes in Bucks county, the Tinicum wetlands in Philadelphia and Delaware counties, the West Branch of Conococheague Creek in Franklin County and possibly Springton Reservoir in Delaware county (McCoy 1985).


A fairly large river turtle, it averages about 29 to 30 cm (11 to 12 in) in length and weighs on average around 3 kg (6.6 lb), although large females can measure up to 40 cm (16 in) in length.


The red-bellied turtle is a threatened species within Pennsylvania. However, it is listed as "Endangered" by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (Massachusetts).
The potential threats to red-bellied turtle populations are numerous. For example: wetland loss, habitat fragmentation, pollution, collecting of turtles for pets, food or other trophies, competition with the invasive red-eared slider turtle for food, habitat, basking sites or nesting sites, and the potential for hybridization with red-eared slider turtles.
The Massachusetts wildlife preserve foundation has started to repopulate the turtles by placing them in many south-eastern Massachusetts ponds. One example is at Long and Little Long Pond in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the population is starting to regrow.


People often think chameleons change their colour for camouflage so to blend into the environment, but this is false. Chameleons change colour as a way of expressing mood and communicating as well as to thermoregulate, turning a darker colour to absorb more heat or very pale pastel colours to reflect light and absorb less heat.
Courtship involves small, quick head twitches by the male, who exhibits brighter courtship colours. If the female rejects the male's advances, she assumes a much darker colour, sway from side to side, and often open her mouth threateningly. Darker colours are often associated with stress, and lighter colours with relaxation or sleep.
During the night, the species tends to move higher, to the tips of branches (nocturnal predators are primarily terrestrial) and assume a white colour when they sleep. During the day they spend more time lower down in denser vegetation (daytime predators include several species of birds).
They feed primarily on small insects and other arthropods. They drink by licking dew or rain drops from leaves or other surfaces.


The Cape dwarf chameleon (Bradypodion pumilum) is a chameleon native to the South African province of the Western Cape, where it is restricted to the region around Cape Town.
As with most chameleons, its tongue is twice the length of its body and it can be shot out of its mouth using a special muscle in the jaw. This gives the chameleon the ability to catch insects some distance away.


The Cape dwarf chameleon grows to over 15 cm (5.9 in) in length, including the tail, with males and females reaching similar adult sizes.  They are ovoviviparous, but examination in controlled captivity has shown the very soft egg-like membrane around the young is discarded immediately on birth. The young resemble miniature versions of the adults, with muted colours, and typically reach no more than 2 cm in length at birth. Adults can vary quite significantly in colour variety, saturation and pattern, some appearing much more vibrant than others. Like most chameleons, the tail is prehensile, and the feet are well evolved to grasping twigs, with minute claws on the end that improve grip.
Normally very slow moving, chameleons have a characteristic shake, which may make them look more like leaves to prey and predators.  When provoked, they can speed up to several centimetres a second.  When further provoked, they may inflate themselves, hiss, change colour dramatically, and bite.  They do not have sharp teeth, so their bites rarely inflict more than a slight pinch.
Male and female are difficult to differentiate. However males tend to have brighter colours, slightly larger head crests, and slightly narrower stomach area around the hips.
The Cape Dwarf Chameleon is classified as a medium-sized chameleon with an average adult body size of 50–70 mm body size. This species has a restricted distribution within regions of southwestern South Africa that receive rainfall during winter months. This species is viviparous, meaning it gives live birth rather than eggs, and can have one to several clutches of about 10-15 offspring in any given year. Mortality rates of neonates are expected to be high due to an intense reproduction schedule and a high fecundity rate.


This species inhabits a range of different habitats and vegetation types, from fynbos and renosterveld, to indigenous Afrotemperate forest and wetlands.
It is less common in extremely fire-prone and low-growing fynbos, and in open sandy or rocky areas. It is more usually found in areas such as river valleys, which are sheltered to some degree from the region's seasonal fires, and where more dense vegetation has developed.
It prefers certain plant species to reside on too, especially favouring Restios.
This adaptable species has also diversified into different forms and colours, depending on their habitat.
Those that live in open, low-lying fynbos vegetation tend to be smaller and dull-coloured with smaller crests. Those in denser, closed vegetation areas tend to be larger and brightly coloured, with a longer tail and larger casque.
In the wild, its predators are mainly snakes and predatory birds such as Fiscal Shrikes.


The fish is not considered to be endangered, although some individual stocks are under various degrees of stress mainly through habitat degradation, overfishing, and artificial propagation leading to introgression. Increased frequency of excessively warm water temperatures in high summer causes a reduction in dissolved oxygen levels which can cause "summer kills" of local populations if temperatures remain high for sufficient duration and deeper/cooler or fast, turbulent more oxygenated water is not accessible to the fish. This phenomenon can be further exacerbated by eutrophication of rivers due to pollution—often from the use of agricultural fertilizers within the drainage basin.
Overfishing is a problem where anglers fail to identify and return mature female fish into the lake or stream. Each large female removed can result in thousands fewer eggs released back into the system when the remaining fish spawn.
Another threat is other introduced organisms. For example, in Canada's Bow River, a non-native alga Didymosphenia geminata—common name rock snot (due to appearance)—has resulted in reduced circulation of water amongst the substrate of the river bed in affected areas. This, in turn, can greatly reduce the number of trout eggs that survive to hatch. Over time, this leads to reduction of the population of adult fish in the areas affected by the algae, forming a circle of decline. Rock snot is believed to have spread accidentally on the soles of the footwear of visitors from areas where the alga is native. The wide variety of issues that adversely affect brown trout throughout its range do not exclusively affect brown trout, but affect many or all species within a water body, thus altering the ecosystem in which the trout reside.
In small streams, brown trout are important predators of macroinvertebrates, and declining brown trout populations in these specific areas affect the entire aquatic food web.
Global climate change is also of concern. S. trutta morpha fario prefers well-oxygenated water in the temperature range of 60 to 65 °F (16 to 18 °C). S. trutta bones from an archaeological site in Italy, and ancient DNA extracted from some of these bones, indicate that both abundance and genetic diversity increased markedly during the colder Younger Dryas period, and fell during the warmer Bølling-Allerød event.
Cover or structure is important to trout, and they are more likely to be found near submerged rocks and logs, undercut banks, and overhanging vegetation. Structure provides protection from predators, bright sunlight, and higher water temperatures. Access to deep water for protection in winter freezes, or fast water for protection from low oxygen levels in summer are also ideal. Trout are more often found in heavy and strong currents.


Defining characteristics include a slender, reddish-brown body with a long, narrow head.
The brown trout is a medium-sized fish, growing to 20 kg (44 lb) or more and a length of about 100 cm (39 in) in some localities, although in many smaller rivers, a mature weight of 1.0 kg (2.2 lb) or less is common. S. t. lacustris reaches an average length of 40–80 cm (16–31 in) with a maximum length of 140 cm (55 in) and about 60 pounds (27 kg).
The spawning behaviour of brown trout is similar to that of the closely related Atlantic salmon. A typical female produces about 2,000 eggs per kg (900 eggs per lb) of body weight at spawning.
On September 11, 2009, a 41.45-lb (18.80-kg) brown trout was caught by Tom Healy in the Manistee River system in Michigan, setting a new state record. As of late December 2009, the fish captured by Healy was confirmed by both the International Game Fish Association and the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame as the new all-tackle world record for the species. This fish now supplants the former world record from the Little Red River in Arkansas.
Brown trout can live 20 years, but as with the Atlantic salmon, a high proportion of males die after spawning, and probably fewer than 20% of anadromous female kelts recover from spawning. The migratory forms grow to significantly larger sizes for their age due to abundant forage fish in the waters where they spend most of their lives. Sea trout are more commonly female in less nutrient-rich rivers. Brown trout are active both by day and by night and are opportunistic feeders. While in freshwater, their diets frequently include invertebrates from the streambed, other fish, frogs, mice, birds, and insects flying near the water's surface. The high dietary reliance upon insect larvae, pupae, nymphs, and adults allows trout to be a favoured target for fly fishing. Sea trout are fished for especially at night using wet flies. Brown trout can be caught with lures such as spoons, spinners, jigs, plugs, plastic worm imitations, and live or dead baitfish.
Freshwater brown trout range in colour from largely silver with relatively few spots and a white belly, to the more well-known brassy brown cast fading to creamy white on the fish's belly, with medium-sized spots surrounded by lighter halos. The more silver forms can be mistaken for rainbow trout. Regional variants include the so-called "Loch Leven" trout, distinguished by larger fins, a slimmer body, and heavy black spotting, but lacking red spots. The continental European strain features a lighter golden cast with some red spotting and fewer dark spots. Notably, both strains can show considerable individual variation from this general description. Early stocking efforts in the United States used fish taken from Scotland and Germany.
Brown trout rarely form hybrids with other species; if they do, they are almost invariably infertile. One such example is the tiger trout, a hybrid with the brook trout.


The brown trout has been a popular game fish of European anglers for centuries. It was first mentioned in angling literature as "fish with speckled skins" by Roman author Aelian (circa 200 AD) in On the Nature of Animals. This work is credited with describing the first instance of fly fishing for trout, the trout being the brown trout found in Macedonia. The Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle (1496) by Dame Juliana Berners, O.S.B is considered a foundational work in the history of recreational fishing, especially fly fishing. One of the most prominent fish described in the work is the brown trout of English rivers and streams:
The trout, because he is a right dainty fish and also a right fervent biter, we shall speak of next. He is in season from March until Michaelmas. He is on clean gravel bottom and in a stream.
— Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle (1496)
The renowned The Compleat Angler (1653) by Izaak Walton is replete with advice on "the trout":
The Trout is a fish highly valued, both in this and foreign nations. He may be justly said, as the old poet said of wine, and we English say of venison, to be a generous fish: a fish that is so like the buck, that he also has his seasons; for it is observed, that he comes in and goes out of season with the stag and buck. Gesner says, his name is of a German offspring; and says he is a fish that feeds clean and purely, in the swiftest streams, and on the hardest gravel; and that he may justly contend with all fresh water fish, as the Mullet may with all sea fish, for precedency and daintiness of taste; and that being in right season, the most dainty palates have allowed precedency to him.
— The Compleat Angler, (1653)
Throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, angling authors, mostly British, some French, and later American, writing about trout fishing were writing about fishing for brown trout. Once brown trout were introduced into the U.S. in the 1880s, they became a major subject of American angling literature. In 1889, Frederic M. Halford, a British angler, author published Dry-Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice, a seminal work codifying a half century of evolution of fly fishing with floating flies for brown trout. In the late 19th century, American angler and writer Theodore Gordon, often called the "Father of American Dry Fly Fishing" perfected dry-fly techniques for the newly arrived, but difficult-to-catch brown trout in Catskill rivers such as the Beaverkill and Neversink Rivers. In the early 20th century, British angler and author G. E. M. Skues pioneered nymphing techniques for brown trout on English chalk streams. His Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream (1910) began a revolution in fly fishing techniques for trout. In 1917, Scottish author Hamish Stuart published the first comprehensive text, The Book of The Sea Trout, specifically addressing angling techniques for the anadromous forms of brown trout.
Introductions of brown trout into the American West created new angling opportunities, none so successful from an angling perspective as was the introduction of browns into the upper Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park in 1890. One of the earliest accounts of trout fishing in the park is from Mary Trowbridge Townsend's 1897 article in Outing Magazine "A Woman's Trout Fishing in Yellowstone Park" in which she talks about catching the von Behr trout in the river:
Long dashes down stream taxed my unsteady footing; the sharp click and whirr of the reel resounded in desperate efforts to hold him somewhat in check; another headlong dash, then a vicious bulldog shake of the head as he sawed back and forth across the rocks. Every wile inherited from generations of wily ancestors was tried until, in a moment of exhaustion, the net was slipped under him. Wading ashore with my prize, I had barely time to notice his size—a good four-pounder, and unusual markings, large yellow spots encircled by black, with great brilliancy of iridescent color—when back he flopped into the water and was gone. However, I took afterward several of the same variety, known in the Park as the Von Baer [sic] trout, and which I have since found to be the Salmo fario, the veritable trout of Izaak Walton.
— Outing Magazine, (1897)
Within the US, brown trout introductions have created self-sustaining fisheries throughout the country. Many are considered "world-class" such as in the Great Lakes and in several Arkansas tailwaters. Outside the U.S. and outside its native range in Europe, introduced brown trout have created "world-class" fisheries in New Zealand, Patagonia, and the Falklands.


Field studies have demonstrated that brown trout fed on several animal prey species, aquatic invertebrates being the most abundant prey items. However, brown trout also feed on other taxa such as terrestrial invertebrates (e.g. Hymenoptera) or other fish. Moreover, in brown trout, as in many other fish species, a change in the diet composition normally occurs during the life of the fish, and piscivorous behaviour is most frequent in large brown trout. These shifts in the diet during fish lifecycle transitions may be accompanied by a marked reduction in intraspecific competition in the fish population, facilitating the partitioning of resources.
First feeding of newly emerged fry is very important for brown trout survival in this phase of the lifecycle, and first feeding can occur even prior to emergence. Fry start to feed before complete yolk absorption and the diet composition of newly emerged brown trout is composed of small prey such as chironomid larvae or baetid nymphs.


The California sea cucumber (Apostichopus californicus), also known as the giant California sea cucumber, is a sea cucumber that can be found from the Gulf of Alaska to Baja California. It is found from the low intertidal zone to a depth of 250 m (820 ft). They are most abundant in areas with moderate current with cobbles, boulders or bedrock. They are artisanally fished.


The California sea cucumber is a scavenger that feeds on organic matter. They feed by sifting through sediments with their tentacles, or by positioning themselves in a current where they can use their tentacles to catch food flowing by.


The California sea cucumber can grow to a length of 50 cm (1 ft 8 in) and a width of 5 cm (2 in). It has a soft, cylindrical body, with red-brown to yellowish leathery skin. It has an endoskeleton just below the skin. The mouth and anus are on opposite ends of the body. The mouth is surrounded by twenty retractable tentacles that are used to bring food in. Five rows of tube feet extend from the mouth to the anus. They use their tube feet located on the underside of their body to attach themselves to rocks.


The giant lichen orb weaver occurs in the Eastern part of the United States and in Southeastern Canada.


The eastern racer (Coluber constrictor) is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to North America and Central America. Eleven subspecies, including the nominotypical subspecies, are recognized, which as a group are commonly referred to as the eastern racers. The species is monotypic in the genus Coluber.


C. constrictor is found frequently near water, but also in brush, trash piles, roadsides, and swamps, and in suburbia; it is the most common snake in residential neighborhoods in Florida. It spends most of its time on the ground, but it is a good tree climber and may be found in shrubs and trees where bird nests can be raided for eggs and chicks, as well as small adult birds such as finches, canaries, and thrashers.
Most of the eastern racers prefer open, grassland-type habitats where their keen eyesight and speed can be readily used, but they are also found in light forest and even semiarid regions. They are usually not far from an area of cover for hiding.


C. constrictor is found throughout the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains, but it also ranges north into Canada and south into Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize.


Adult eastern racers can typically vary from 50 to 152 cm (20 to 60 in) in total length (including tail) depending on the subspecies, but a record-sized specimen measured 185.4 cm (73.0 in) in total length. A typical adult specimen will weigh around 556 g (1.226 lb), with little size difference between the sexes. The patterns vary widely among subspecies. Most are solid-colored as their common names imply: black racers, brown racers, tan racers, blue racers, or green racers.  "Runner" is sometimes used instead of "racer" in their common names.  All subspecies have a lighter-colored underbelly: white, light tan, or yellow in color. Juveniles are more strikingly patterned, with a middorsal row of dark blotches on a light ground color. The tail is unpatterned. As they grow older, the dorsum darkens and the juvenile pattern gradually disappears.


In C. constrictor, mating takes place in the spring from April until early June. Around a month later, the female lays three to 30 eggs in a hidden nest site, such as a hollow log, an abandoned rodent burrow, or under a rock. The juveniles hatch in the early fall. A newborn is 8–10 in (20–26 cm) in total length. Maturity is reached around 2 years old. Eastern racers have been known to lay their eggs in communal sites, where a number of snakes, even those from other species, all lay their eggs together.


Candy caps are not typically consumed as a vegetable the way most other edible mushrooms are consumed. Because of the strongly aromatic quality of these mushrooms, they are instead used primarily as a  flavoring, much the way vanilla, saffron, or truffles are used. They impart a flavor and aroma to foods that has been compared to maple syrup or curry, but with a much stronger aroma than either of these seasonings. Candy caps are unique among edible mushrooms in that they are often used in sweet and dessert foods, such as cookies and ice cream. They are also sometimes used to flavor savory dishes that are traditionally prepared with sweet accompaniments, such as pork, and are also sometimes used in place of curry seasoning.
They are usually used in dried form, as the characteristic aroma intensifies greatly upon drying. To use them as a flavoring, the dried mushrooms are either powdered or they are infused into one of the liquid ingredients used in the dish, for example, being steeped in hot milk, much the same way whole vanilla beans are.
As a result of these culinary properties, candy caps are highly sought after by many chefs. Lactarius rubidus is commercially gathered and sold in California while L. camphoratus is gathered and sold in the United Kingdom and Yunnan Province, China.
Marchand reports that some individuals use L. camphoratus as part of a pipe tobacco mix.


Candy caps are small to medium-size mushrooms, with a pileus ranging from 2–5 cm in diameter (though L. rubidus and L. rufulus can be slightly larger), and with coloration ranging through various burnt orange to burnt orange-red to orange-brown shades. The pileus shape ranges from broadly convex in young specimens to plane to slightly depressed in older ones; lamellae are attached to subdecurrent. The entire fruiting body is quite fragile and brittle. Like all members of Lactarius, the fruiting body exudes a latex when broken, which in these species is whitish and watery in appearance, and is often compared to whey or nonfat milk. The latex may have little flavor or may be slightly sweet, but should never taste bitter or acrid. These species are particularly distinguishable by their scent, which has been variously compared to maple syrup, camphor, curry, fenugreek, burnt sugar, Malt-O-Meal, or Maggi-Würze. This scent may be quite faint in fresh specimens, but typically becomes quite strong when the fruiting body is dried.
Microscopically, they share features typical of Lactarius, including round to slightly ovular spores with distinct amyloid ornamentation and sphaerocysts that are abundant in the pileus and stipe trama, but infrequent in the lamellar trama.
The candy caps have been placed in various infrageneric groups of Lactarius depending on the author. Bon defined the candy caps and allies as making up the subsection Camphoratini of the section Olentes. Subsection Camphoratini is defined by their similarity in color, odor (with the exception of L. rostratus – see below), and by the presence of macrocystidia on their hymenium. (The other subsection of Olentes, Serifluini, is also aromatic, but have very different aromas from the Camphoratini and are entirely lacking in cystidia.)
Bon and later European authors treated all species that were aromatic and had at least a partially epithelial pileipellis as section Olentes, whereas Hesler and Smith and later North American authors treat all species with such a pileipellis (both aromatic and non-aromatic) as the section Thojogali. However, a thorough molecular phylogenetic investigation of Lactarius has yet to be published, and older classification systems of Lactarius are generally not regarded as natural.
Like other species of Lactarius, candy caps are generally thought to be ectotrophic, with L. camphoratus having been identified in ectomycorrhizal root tips. However, unusually for a mycorrhizal species, L. rubidus is also commonly observed growing directly on decaying conifer wood. All candy cap species seem to be associated with a range of tree species.


It is possible to mistake other distasteful or toxic species of mushrooms for candy caps or mistakenly include such species in a larger collection of candy caps. Those inexperienced with mushroom identification may mistake any number of "little brown mushrooms" ("LBMs") for candy caps, including the deadly galerina (Galerina marginata and allies), which can occur in the same habitat. Candy caps can be distinguished from non-Lactarius species by their brittle stipe, while most other "LBMs" have a more flexible stipe. It is therefore recommended that candy caps be gathered by hand, breaking the fragile stipe in one's fingers. By this method, LBM's with a cartilaginous stipe will easily be distinguished.
Candy caps may also be confused with any of a large number of small, similarly colored species of Lactarius that may be distasteful to downright toxic depending on the species and the number consumed.
Candy caps may be distinguished from other Lactarius by the following characteristics:
Odor: Candy caps have a distinctive odor (described above) that should not be present in other species of Lactarius. Note, however, that other species of Lactarius may have different, but also distinctive, odors. Also note that when fresh, candy caps (especially Lactarius rubidus) may not have a noticeable odor, limiting the utility of this characteristic.
Taste: The flesh and latex of candy caps should always be mild-tasting to somewhat sweet, lacking any hint of bitterness or acridity. Note, however, that there are some species of Lactarius, such as L. luculentus, where the bitterness is subtle and also may not be noticeable for a minute or so after tasting.
Latex: The latex of candy caps appears thin and whey-like, like milk that has been mixed with water. This latex does not change color nor does it discolor the flesh of the mushroom. Other species of Lactarius have a distinctly white or colored latex, which in some species discolors the flesh of the mushroom.
Pileus: Candy caps never have a zonate pattern of coloration on the surface of the pileus, nor is the pileus ever even slightly viscid.


Cortinarius iodes is a fairly distinctive species and its combination of characteristics make it readily identifiable. Several other Cortinarius species have evolved a slimy coating that probably help protects the fruit bodies from predation by insects and other invertebrates. Other field techniques can be used to help identify dry fruit bodies that have lost their slime coat: by checking for leaf and twig debris adhering to the surface, or, by kissing the cap and stem to exploit the lips' enhanced sensitivity to stickiness. C. iodeoides is virtually identical in appearance to C. iodes, but can be distinguished from the latter by its bitter-tasting cap cuticle and smaller, narrower spores measuring 7.7–9.3 by 4.6–5.4 μm. The "violet cort" (Cortinarius violaceus) has a dry, scaly, dark purple cap and stem. The "pungent cort" (Cortinarius traganus) has a dry, light purple cap and stem and a bad odor. Two other widespread Cortinarius species with violet coloring and a slimy cap, C. salor and C. croceocaeruleus, can be distinguished from C. iodes by the absence of yellowish spotting. A North American species C. oregonensis has a paler lilac cap with a central region that is yellowish or brownish, and smaller spores that measure 7–8 by 4–5 μm. A non-Cortinarius lookalike, Inocybe lilacina, has a dry, silky cap that features a prominent umbo.


Cortinarius iodes, commonly known as the spotted cort or the viscid violet cort, is a species of agaric fungus in the family Cortinariaceae. The fruit bodies have small, slimy, purple caps up to 6 cm (2.4 in) in diameter that develop yellowish spots and streaks in maturity. The gill color changes from violet to rusty or grayish brown as the mushroom matures. The species range includes eastern North America, Central America, northern South America, and northern Asia, where it grows on the ground in a mycorrhizal association with deciduous trees. The mushroom is not recommended for consumption. Cortinarius iodeoides, one of several potential lookalike species, can be distinguished from C. iodes by its bitter-tasting cap cuticle.


The orange fruiting body is 2–10 cm wide, cup-shaped, often misshapen due to crowding from other fruiting bodies. The spores are colorless and scatter in visible clouds when disturbed.
It is generally regarded as edible, though difficult to collect intact and not necessarily choice, with no particularly notable North American lookalikes.
In Europe, the orange peel may be confused with species of Otidea or Caloscypha which are poisonous or of unknown edibility.
Similar species include Caloscypha fulgens, Sarcoscypha coccinea, Sowerbyella rhenana, and members of Otidea and Peziza.


The orange peel fungus grows on bare clay or disturbed soil throughout North America and Europe. It has also been found in the south of Chile. Aleuria aurantia fruits mainly in late summer and autumn.


Pisaura mirabilis has a palearctic distribution, and can be found all over Europe. These spiders inhabit the Canary Islands and Madeira, the Asian part of Russia, China and North Africa.
P. mirabilis lives in all habitats, but prefers wet environments, such as wet meadows, lowland moors, salt marshes, dunes, the edge of forests, and wet hedges. It inhabits all strata, from the ground to the top of trees, but are not found under rocks or in caves. These spiders can be found at altitudes up to 1500 m.


Striking characteristics of Pisaura mirabilis are its long legs (the fourth one being the longest) and its slender abdomen (opisthosoma). The male is between 10 and 13 mm, while the female is 12 to 15 mm. After final ecdysis, the male spiders weigh on average 54 mg and females 68 mg.
The prosoma (cephalothorax) is variable in color, ranging from light to reddish brown and from gray to black. A lighter stripe is visible down the middle of the prosoma. The opisthosoma (abdomen) is long and narrow and tapered towards the rear end.
The female spiders has a dark patch (epigyne) on the underside of her abdomen that includes the copulatory organs. Male genital openings can be found at the same location, but remain inconspicuous.
Patterning and coloration varies due to polymorphism. These patterns, which can be caused by hair and pigments, change with the growth of the spider (ontogenesis).

Male spiders are stronger in contrast than females and look black, especially in comparison to the white nuptial gifts. Females tend to get paler towards the end of summer. The stripe along the back of the body can be found in all spiders and can be seen as crypsis, a protective measure against predators.
The pedipalps in nymphs and females look similar to legs. In males, this structure gets thicker towards the end and is used to store sperm until reproduction (bulbus). The outer chelicerae segment consists of three teeth. They catch their prey during the day and at night and are also active on warm winter days.


Predators of Pisaura mirabilis includes spider wasps, tree frogs, lizards, and song birds during the day, and toads, shrew mice, and bats at night. Other spider species, as well as from the same species (cannibalism), consider P. mirabilis as prey.
Nursery web spiders are often parasitised by nematodes, parasitic wasps, and Acari. These parasites infect the spider and its eggs and cocoons, which can lead to destruction of a whole clutch of eggs.
Baculoviridae and Rickettsia species infect nursery web spiders, as well. They most likely enter the gastrointestinal tract via the spiders' prey. Not only can nymphs and adults be infected, but different stages in the cocoon are infected, as well.


The spider develops from a fertilised egg inside a cocoon into an embryo. After inversion, the embryo enters the prelarval stage. A few hours later, the prelarva moults into a larva. At this stage, the spiders are colorless but mobile, and can detect sensory signals from its surrounding. They do not have any eyes yet and their chelicerae are short and sharp. A few fine hairs can be found on their feet.
Depending on the temperature, the larvae moult after 4.5 – 7.5 days into the first nymphal stage. Once leaving the cocoon through an opening, they live in a protective web made by the mother, where they feed on the leftover yolk from their eggs and drink from water droplets. After about a week, the nymphs start suspending themselves from their own spider silk and start preying on fruit flies. This usually happens in the sixth or seventh nymphal stage. Cannibalism does not occur in the first few days, but occurs in later stages. The whole nymphal stage is divided into 12 stages at most. Male spiders become sexually mature in the 9th to 11th stages, females in the 10th to 12th stages. Temperature can influence the development and number of stages, with colder temperatures slowing down the process. Under good conditions, spiders can complete their nymphal development in fewer than 12 stages. The duration from prelarval stage to final moult (maturity) typically lasts 257 days for males (stage 10) and 289 days for females (stage 11). Adulthood is the period after final moult till death. Females live longer than males, the record being 247 days for females and 186.5 days for males.
Depending on habitat, nursery web spiders hibernate once or twice during the nymphal stage. The period of hibernation (diapause) is spent in ground vegetation under leaves, moss, and stones. They can be found in garages and houses, as well. Some individuals in the south of France have been found under loose bark of the plane tree. The nymphs in stages 6 to 8 start hibernating in November and continue with their development towards the end of February to the beginning of March.
Pisaura mirabilis in Western- and Central Europe reach sexual maturity in May, when sperm uptake, the search for females, offering of nuptial gifts, and courtship and mating takes place. In Northern and Eastern Europe, spiders reach sexual maturity only in June, while in Southern Europe, they become sexually mature in April.
Nursery web spiders have a one-year annual cycle in southern Europe. They grow in summer, hibernate in winter, reach adulthood in spring, and reproduce and then die in autumn. Their offspring are sexually mature in the following spring. Spiders from the north have a two-year cycle, having to go through two hibernations before reaching sexual maturity. Spiders in Western and Central Europe have a mix of both one- and two-year cycles. Males have a two-month period to reproduce; females three and a half.


They are found over the muddy sea bottom, in estuaries, in lagoons or on coral and rocky reefs around the world in tropical and subtropical seas.


The long-spine porcupinefish has a circumtropical distribution, being found in the tropical zones of major seas and oceans:
In the Atlantic it is found from Florida and the Bahamas to Brazil and in the Eastern Atlantic from 30°N to 23°S, as well as around South Africa.
And In the western Indian Ocean from the southern Red Sea to Madagascar, Réunion and Mauritius.
Also In the Pacific Ocean from southern Japan to Lord Howe Island, and east to the Hawaiian and Easter islands. Also from southern California to Colombia and the Galapagos Islands.


The long-spine porcupine fish is an omnivore that feeds on mollusks, sea urchins, hermit crabs, snails, and crabs during its active phase at night. They use their beak combined with plates on the roof of their mouths to crush their prey such as mollusks and sea urchins that would otherwise be indigestible.


The long-spine porcupinefish is pale in color with large black blotches and smaller black spots; these spots becoming fewer in number with age. It has many long, two-rooted depressible spines particularly on its head. The teeth of the two jaws are fused into a parrot-like "beak". Adults may reach 50 cm (20 in) in length. The only other fish with which it might be confused is the black-blotched porcupinefish (Diodon liturosus), but it has much longer spines than that species.


The beadlet anemone (Actinia equina) is a common sea anemone found on rocky shores around all coasts of the British Isles. Its range extends to the rest of Western Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, and along the Atlantic coast of Africa as far south as South Africa.
Actinia equina can be found both in exposed and sheltered situations. It is highly adapted to the intertidal zone as it can tolerate both high temperatures and desiccation. The anemone may also be found in regions of variable salinity such as estuaries.
Beadlet anemones can live in solitary or in aggregations. Solitary beadlet anemones are found to be larger-sized than those that form clustered aggregation. Furthermore, larger sea anemones were found submerged in low tide, where they have greater access to food resources and are less subjected to harsh environmental exposures. The size of beadlet anemones may be connected to their physiological adaptation in regards to limited food resources and withstanding environmental conditions.
Underwater, it displays up to 192 tentacles, arranged in six circles. Out of water, the tentacles retract and the anemone resembles a blob of red, brown, green or orange jelly, up to about 5 centimetres (2.0 in) across. It has bright blue beads (known as acrorhagi) located just beneath the tentacles, organised as an external ring containing stinging cells located at the top of the column that it uses to fight over territory. The acrorhagi contains the cnidocysts which themselves contain the nematocysts. There is some evidence that the various colour forms may in fact be different species.
Actinia equina is similar in form to the Waratah anemone (Actinia tenebrosa) of Australia and New Zealand. It is also similar in form to the strawberry anemone (Actinia fragacea) but is a uniform colour and is typically rather smaller.
Actinia equina is viviparous, with up to one hundred embryos developing inside the body cavity before being ejected into the open water as juveniles. A particularly famous example was that of "Granny" which was found on Scotland's east coast by John Dalyell in 1828 and produced several hundred offspring until it died in 1887.


This fish is mainly found along the southern border of Canada extending along from Manitoba to the Atlantic Ocean, south along the east coast of the United States and slightly inland to South Carolina and Georgia. Scientists hypothesize that 20,000 years ago, as the glaciers retreated, blacknose dace recolonized the region from a single refugium in modern-day Connecticut, as soon as 75 years after the ice receded.
This fish tends to inhabit headwaters, creeks, and small rivers with swiftly moving water. However, fry mature in slower moving portions of the habitats like shoals and pool margins. The species as a whole prefers cool, rocky areas and uses the stones to rest under and around. They also use overhanging vegetation and undercut banks for additional refuge. In the winter, they migrate from headwater streams into rivers and can be found in deeper water under banks.


Eastern blacknose dace (Rhinichthys atratulus) is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Rhinichthys. Its name originates from the Old French word "dars" which is the nominative form of the word "dart" in reference to their swimming pattern. The western blacknose dace (Rhinichthys obtusus) formerly was considered conspecific. While morphologically the two species are not significantly different, they are allopatric. The eastern blacknose dace is found across the southeast portion of Canada and down along the United States'  east coast.  It is dark brown to olive on its dorsal surface and silvery white below, the two shades separated by the darkly pigmented lateral line. In the breeding season, males develop darker pigmentation and an orange lateral line. Blacknose dace live in rocky streams and rivers where they feed upon small invertebrates and microscopic biological matter and provide forage for larger fish.


The eastern blacknose dace eats many small insects and other invertebrates including Acentria ephemerella, telmatogetoninae, chironomidae, worms, algae, and small crustaceans such as young crayfish. They also feed on some plant species. Young fry forage in shallow silty water while adults move into riffles and deep eddying pools to find invertebrates.
Many larger fish feed on the eastern blacknose dace including smallmouth bass, brook trout, brown trout, and rainbow trout. They are also preyed upon by the common merganser and the blue heron.


As a fry, this fish is 5 mm long, and some of the larger eastern blacknose dace can reach slightly over 100 mm. They tend to live for two or three years and grow continuously during this period. They have a fusiform body shape and the mouth is in a subterminal position. The lateral line is darkly colored and has 56 to 70 scales from anterior to posterior. Above the lateral line coloration can vary between shades of dark brown and even olive, while below the lateral line coloration is lighter up until a white belly. Their caudal fin is forked, and their single dorsal fin has 8 fin rays and no spines. They have a pair of pectoral fins and a pair of abdominal ventral fins, as well as an anal fin with 7 rays. All fins are clear to yellow except males during spawning season acquire an orange to red tint in all fins and along the lateral line.


Paxillus involutus, commonly known as the brown roll-rim, common roll-rim is a basidiomycete fungus that is widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere. It has been inadvertently introduced to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and South America, probably transported in soil with European trees. Various shades of brown in colour, the fruit body grows up to 6 cm (2+3⁄8 in) high and has a funnel-shaped cap up to 12 cm (4+3⁄4 in) wide with a distinctive inrolled rim and decurrent gills that may be pore-like close to the stipe. Although it has gills, it is more closely related to the pored boletes than to typical gilled mushrooms. It was first described by Pierre Bulliard in 1785, and was given its current binomial name by Elias Magnus Fries in 1838. Genetic testing suggests that Paxillus involutus may be a species complex rather than a single species.
A common mushroom of deciduous and coniferous woods and grassy areas in late summer and autumn, Paxillus involutus forms ectomycorrhizal relationships with a broad range of tree species. These benefit from the symbiosis as the fungus reduces their intake of heavy metals and increases resistance to pathogens such as Fusarium oxysporum. Previously considered edible and eaten widely in Eastern and Central Europe, it has since been found to be dangerously poisonous, after being responsible for the death of German mycologist Julius Schäffer in 1944. It had been recognized as causing gastric upsets when eaten raw, but was more recently found to cause potentially fatal autoimmune hemolysis, even in those who had consumed the mushroom for years without any other ill effects. An antigen in the mushroom triggers the immune system to attack red blood cells. Serious and commonly fatal complications include acute kidney injury, shock, acute respiratory failure, and disseminated intravascular coagulation.


Paxillus involutus forms ectomycorrhizal relationships with a number of coniferous and deciduous tree species. Because the fungus has somewhat unspecialized nutrient requirements and a relatively broad host specificity, it has been frequently used in research and seedling inoculation programs. There is evidence of the benefit to trees of this arrangement: in one experiment where P. involutus was cultivated on the root exudate of red pine (Pinus resinosa), the root showed markedly increased resistance to pathogenic strains of the ubiquitous soil fungus Fusarium oxysporum. Seedlings inoculated with P. involutus also showed increased resistance to Fusarium. Thus P. involutus may be producing antifungal compounds which protect the host plants from root rot. Paxillus involutus also decreases the uptake of certain toxic elements, acting as a buffer against heavy metal toxicity in the host plant. For example, the fungus decreased the toxicity of cadmium and zinc to Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) seedlings: even though cadmium itself inhibits ectomycorrhiza formation in seedlings, colonization with P. involutus decreases cadmium and zinc transport to the plant shoots and alters the ratio of zinc transported to the roots and shoots, causing more cadmium to be retained in the roots of the seedlings rather than distributed through its entire metabolism. Evidence suggests that the mechanism for this detoxification involves the cadmium binding to the fungal cell walls, as well as accumulating in the vacuolar compartments. Further, ectomycorrhizal hyphae exposed to copper or cadmium drastically increase production of a metallothionein—a low molecular weight protein that binds metals.
The presence of Paxillus involutus is related to much reduced numbers of bacteria associated with the roots of Pinus sylvestris. Instead bacteria are found on the external mycelium. The types of bacteria change as well; a Finnish study published in 1997 found that bacterial communities under P. sylvestris without mycorrhizae metabolised organic and amino acids, while communities among P. involutus metabolised the sugar fructose. Paxillus involutus benefits from the presence of some species of bacteria in the soil it grows in. As the fungus grows it excretes polyphenols, waste products that are toxic to itself and impede its growth, but these compounds are metabolised by some bacteria, resulting in increased fungal growth. Bacteria also produce certain compounds such as citric and malic acid, which stimulate P. involutus.
Highly abundant, the brown roll-rim is found across the Northern Hemisphere, Europe and Asia, with records from India, China, Japan, Iran, and Turkey's eastern Anatolia. It is equally widely distributed across northern North America, extending north to Alaska, where it has been collected from tundra near Coldfoot in the interior of the state. In southwestern Greenland, P. involutus has been recorded under the birch species Betula nana, B. pubescens and B. glandulosa. The mushroom is more common in coniferous woods in Europe, but is also closely associated with birch (Betula pendula). Within woodland, it prefers wet places or boggy ground, and avoids calcareous (chalky) soils. It has been noted to grow alongside Boletus badius in Europe, and Leccinum scabrum and Lactarius plumbeus in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. There it is found in both deciduous and coniferous woodland, commonly under plantings of white birch (Betula papyrifera) in urban areas. It is one of a small number of fungal species which thrive in Pinus radiata plantations planted outside their natural range. A study of polluted Scots pine forest around Oulu in northern Finland found that P. involutus became more abundant in more polluted areas while other species declined. Emissions from pulp mills, fertiliser, heating and traffic were responsible for the pollution, which was measured by sulfur levels in the pine needles.
Paxillus involutus can be found growing on lawns and old meadows throughout its distribution. Fruit bodies are generally terrestrial, though they may be found on woody material around tree stumps. They generally appear in autumn and late summer. In California, David Arora discerned a larger form associated with oak and pine which appears in late autumn and winter, as well as the typical form that is associated with birch plantings and appears in autumn. Several species of flies and beetles have been recorded using the fruit bodies to rear their young. The mushroom can be infected by Hypomyces chrysospermus, or bolete eater, a mould species that parasitises Boletales members. Infection results in the appearance of a whitish powder that first manifests on the pores, then spreads over the surface of the mushroom, becoming golden yellow to reddish-brown in maturity.
Australian mycologist John Burton Cleland noted it occurring under larch (Larix), oak, pine, birch and other introduced trees in South Australia in 1934, and it has subsequently been recorded in New South Wales, Victoria (where it was found near Betula and Populus) and Western Australia. It has been recorded under introduced birch (Betula) and hazel (Corylus) in New Zealand. Mycologist Rolf Singer reported a similar situation in South America, with the species recorded under introduced trees in Chile. It is likely to have been transported to those countries in the soil of imported European trees.


The clouded monitor (Varanus nebulosus) is a species of monitor lizard, native to Burma, Thailand and Indochina to West Malaysia, Singapore, Java, and Sumatra. They are excellent tree climbers.  It belongs to the subgenus Empagusia along with the Bengal monitor, the Dumeril's monitor and other monitor lizards. It had previously been listed as a subspecies of Varanus bengalensis by some herpetologists. It is a diurnal monitor.


Clouded monitors can on occasion grow up to 1.5 metres long.


The genus name Fundulus comes from fundus, meaning bottom, from the fish's habit of swimming near muddy bottoms. The species name heteroclitus means irregular or unusual. The type specimen was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766, from near Charleston, South Carolina. Other scientific names now considered synonyms for this species include Cobitis heteroclita, Fundulus fasciatus, Fundulus pisculentus, and Fundulus nigrofasciatus. The mummichog belongs to the order Cyprinodontiformes, and the family Fundulidae. There are two subspecies: F. h. heteroclitus (Linnaeus, 1766), in the south and F. h. macrolepidotus (Walbaum, 1792) in the north. As Fundulus mudfish this species was designated the type species of the genus Fundulus when he created the genus.
The name mummichog is derived from a Narragansett term which means "going in crowds", which reflects the mummichog's strong shoaling tendency. Colloquial names include mummy, killie, kelley, chub, salt water minnow, mud minnow, mud dabbler, marsh minnow, brackish water chub, gudgeon, and common killifish. Some of these terms may lead to confusion: the term minnow should be reserved for species of the family Cyprinidae, the mudminnows are members of the family Umbridae, and the name gudgeon is used for various bottom-dwelling species of cyprinid, eleotrid, and ptereleotrid fishes, none of which belongs to the same family as the fundulid mummichog.


Mummichogs live in dense shoals that can include several hundred individuals.
During cold winter months in the northern parts of their range, mummichogs move to upstream tidal pools, where they burrow into the mud at depths up to 20 cm (7.9 in) to overwinter. They can also bury themselves in mud if they are caught in a drying tidal pool between spring tides. Alternatively, they can travel short distances on land to get back to the sea.
In the laboratory, mummichogs have yielded clear examples of free-running circadian rhythms, in both body colour and swimming activity. For the latter, clear rhythms were obtained in single individuals as well as in groups of 5 or 25 individuals. Evidence of free-running semi-lunar rhythms have also been obtained in mummichogs: in constant laboratory conditions, egg production peaked every 14.8 days for up to 5 months.


The mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) is a small killifish found along the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada. Also known as Atlantic killifish, mummies, gudgeons, and mud minnows, these fish inhabit brackish and coastal waters including estuaries and salt marshes. The species is noted for its hardiness and ability to tolerate highly variable salinity, temperature fluctuations from 6 to 35 °C (43 to 95 °F), very low oxygen levels (down to 1 mg/L), and heavily polluted ecosystems. As a result, the mummichog is a popular research subject in embryological, physiological, and toxicological studies. It is also the first fish ever sent to space, aboard Skylab in 1973.


Mummichogs are omnivorous. Analyses of their stomach contents have found diatoms, amphipods and other crustaceans, molluscs, fish eggs (including their own species), very small fish, insect larvae, and bits of eelgrass.


The body of the mummichog is elongate but thick, with a deep caudal peduncle. Usual length is 7.5 to 9 cm (3.0 to 3.5 in) but a maximum length of up to 15 cm (5.9 in) is possible. The mouth is upturned and the lower jaw protrudes when the mouth is closed. Pectoral and tail fins are round. Mummichogs have 10-13 dorsal fin rays, 9-12 anal fin rays, 16-20 pectoral fin rays. Males have larger dorsal and anal fins than females. There is no lateral line on the body, but lateral line pores are present on the head. The colour is variable (and may even change in shade within the same individual when placed near different backgrounds) but is generally olive-brown or olive-green. There can be vertical bars on the sides that are thin, wavy, and silvery. Colors are more intense in males during the reproductive season, as they become dark olive-green on the back, steel-blue on the sides with about 15 silvery bars, and yellow or orange-yellow on the underside; the dorsal fin is mottled and a small eyespot may be present near the rear edge. Females tend to be paler, without bars or the intense yellow on the belly, and their dorsal fin is uniformly coloured.
Adults of the two subspecies can be distinguished based on slight morphological differences. and genomic Further, eggs of the northern subspecies have filaments (adhesive chorionic fibrils) that eggs of the southern subspecies lack. While the northern subspecies deposits eggs in the sand, the southern subspecies often deposits eggs inside empty mussel shells.
The mummichog is very similar to the banded killifish, Fundulus diaphanus, and indeed the two species have been known to interbreed. The two species may overlap in their choice of habitat, but in general the banded killifish is more commonly found in freshwater, which is not the case for the mummichog. The banded killifish tends to have thin dark bars on a light side, whereas in the mummichog the bars are thin and light on a dark side. Internally, the banded killifish has 4-7 gill rakers, as opposed to 8-12 in the mummichog.


By day, Spirula lives in the deep oceans, reaching depths of 1,000 m. At night, it rises to 100–300 m.
Its preferred temperature is around 10 °C, and it tends to live around oceanic islands, near the continental shelf.
Most sources cite this species as tropical, and they are observed to be plentiful in the subtropical seas around the Canary Islands. Shells are regularly found along the western coasts of South Africa. However, significant quantities of shells from dead spirula are washed ashore even in temperate regions, such as coasts of New Zealand. Because of the great buoyancy of the shells, these may possibly have been carried long distances by ocean currents.
Much of the organism's life history has not been observed; for instance, they are thought to spawn in winter in deeper water, yet no spawnlings have been directly seen. They must occasionally venture into the upper 10 m of the sea, for they are sometimes found in albatross guts.
The species was observed for the first time in its natural habitat in 2020, when an ROV of the Schmidt Ocean Institute recorded it in the depths near the northern Great Barrier Reef.


Spirula spirula is a species of deep-water squid-like cephalopod mollusk. It is the only extant member of the genus Spirula, the family Spirulidae, and the order Spirulida. Because of the shape of its internal shell, it is commonly known as the ram's horn squid or the little post horn squid. Because the live animal has a light-emitting organ, it is also sometimes known as the tail-light squid.
Live specimens of this cephalopod are very rarely seen because it is a deep-ocean dweller. The small internal shell of the species is, however, quite a familiar object to many beachcombers. The shell of Spirula is extremely light in weight, very buoyant, and surprisingly durable; it very commonly floats ashore onto tropical beaches (and sometimes even temperate beaches) all over the world. This seashell is known to shell collectors as the ram's horn shell or simply as Spirula.


S. spirula has a squid-like body between 35 mm and 45 mm long. It is a decapod, with eight arms and two longer tentacles, all with suckers. The arms and tentacles can all be withdrawn completely into the mantle.
The species lacks a radula (or, at most, has a vestigial radula).


In late spring, chlorotic spots appear on tree leaves. These develop into brown-black lesions, retaining the yellow border. The lesions continue to grow, and by the end of summer form leaf spots that look like tar. The spot can grow up to 1.5 inches (4 cm) in diameter. A microscopic sign of the pathogen are the stroma, mats of hyphae found in the lesions. These lesions can cause senescence of leaves but are mostly of cosmetic importance.


Eels are bottom dwellers. They hide in burrows, tubes, snags, masses of plants, other types of shelters. They are found in a variety of habitats including streams, rivers, and muddy or silt-bottomed lakes during their freshwater stage, as well as oceanic waters, coastal bays and estuaries. Individuals during the continental stage occasionally migrate between fresh, salt and brackish water habitats and have varying degrees of residence time in each. During winter, eels burrow under the mud and enter a state of torpor (or complete inactivity) at temperatures below 5 °C. although they may occasionally be active during this period. Temperature requirements are suggested to be flexible. It has been found that American eels during elver stage can survive temperature as low as −0.8 °C. Barila and Stauffer (1980) reported a final mean temperature preference at 16.7 °C. Karlsson et al. (1984) disagreed with this interpretation and found the final temperature preference of 17.4 ± 2.0 °C with a 95% confidence interval.
Seasonal patterns described by Fletcher and Anderson (1972) generalize annual movements from freshwater to estuaries and coastal bays to feed during spring, then either a return during the fall to overwinter (juvenile and immature adults), or a southward migration to the spawning grounds (silver eels Continental phase eels appear highly plastic in habitat use. Eels are extremely mobile and may access habitats that appear unavailable to them, using small watercourses or moving through wet grasses. Small eels (<100 mm total length) are able to climb and may succeed in passing over vertical barriers. Habitat availability may be reduced by factors such as habitat deterioration, barriers to upstream migration (larger eels), and barriers (i.e. turbines) to downstream migration that can result in mortality.


According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the American eel is at very high risk of extinction in the wild.
Substantial decline in numbers and fishery landings of American eels over their range in eastern Canada and the US was noted, raising concerns over the status of this species. The number of juvenile eels in the Lake Ontario area decreased from 935,000 in 1985 to about 8,000 in 1993 and was approaching zero levels in 2001. Rapid declines were also recorded in Virginia, as well as in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in Canada.
Because of its complex life cycle, the species face a broad range of threats, some of which are specific to certain growth stage. Being catadromous, the eels' reproductivity success depends heavily on free downstream passage for spawning migration. It also depends on the availability of diverse habitats for growth and maturation.
Sex ratio in the population can also be affected because males and females tend to utilize different habitats. Impacts on certain regions may greatly impact the number of either sex.
Despite being able to live in a wide range of temperatures and different levels of salinity, American eels are very sensitive to low dissolved oxygen level, which is typically found below dams. Contaminations of heavy metals, dioxins, chlordane, and polychlorinated biphenyls as well as pollutants from nonpoint source can bioaccumulate within the fat tissues of the eels, causing dangerous toxicity and reduced productivity. This problem is exacerbated due to the high fat content of eels.
Construction of dams and other irrigation facilities seriously decreases habitat availability and diversity for the eels. Dredging can affect migration, population distribution and prey availability. Overfishing or excessive harvesting of juveniles can also negatively impact local populations.
Other natural threats come from interspecific competition with exotic species like the flathead catfish (Pylodictis olivaris) and blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus), pathogens and parasites, and changes in oceanographic conditions that can alter currents—this potentially changes larval transport and migration of juveniles back to freshwater streams.


The American eel (Anguilla rostrata) is a facultative catadromous fish found on the eastern coast of North America. Freshwater eels are fish belonging to the elopomorph superorder, a group of phylogenetically ancient teleosts. The American eel has a slender, snake-like body that is covered with a mucus layer, which makes the eel appear to be naked and slimy despite the presence of minute scales. A long dorsal fin runs from the middle of the back and is continuous with a similar ventral fin. Pelvic fins are absent, and relatively small pectoral fins can be found near the midline, followed by the head and gill covers. Variations exist in coloration, from olive green, brown shading to greenish-yellow and light gray or white on the belly. Eels from clear water are often lighter than those from dark, tannic acid streams.
The eel lives in fresh water and estuaries and only leaves these habitats to enter the Atlantic Ocean to make its spawning migration to the Sargasso Sea. Spawning takes place far offshore, where the eggs hatch. The female can lay up to 4 million buoyant eggs and dies after egg-laying. After the eggs hatch and the early-stage larvae develop into leptocephali, the young eels move toward North America, where they metamorphose into glass eels and enter freshwater systems where they grow as yellow eels until they begin to mature.
The American eel is found along the Atlantic coast including Chesapeake Bay and the Hudson River and as far north as the Saint Lawrence River region. It is also present in the river systems of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in some areas further south. Like all anguillid eels, American eels hunt predominantly at night, and during the day they hide in mud, sand, or gravel very close to shore, at depths of roughly 5 to 6 feet. They feed on crustaceans, aquatic insects, small insects, and probably any aquatic organisms that they can find and eat.
American eels are economically important in various areas along the East Coast as bait for fishing for sport fishes such as the striped bass, or as a food fish in some areas. Their recruitment stages, the glass eels, are also caught and sold for use in aquaculture, although this is now restricted in most areas.
Eels were once an abundant species in rivers, and were an important fishery for aboriginal people. The construction of hydroelectric dams has blocked their migrations and locally extirpated eels in many watersheds. For example, in Canada, the vast numbers of eels in the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers have dwindled.


Little information about predation on eels has been published. It was reported that elvers and small yellow eels are prey of largemouth bass and striped bass, although they were not a major parts of these predators' diet. Leptocephali, glass eels, elvers, and small yellow eels are likely to be eaten by various predatory fishes. Older eels are also known to eat incoming glass eels. They also fall prey to other species of eels, bald eagles, gulls, as well as other fish-eating birds. American eels also make up the entirety of the diet of adult rainbow snakes, lending the species one of their common names; eel moccasin.


American eels can grow to 1.22 m (4.0 ft) in length and to 7.5 kg (17 lb) in weight. Females are generally larger than males, lighter in color, with smaller eyes and higher fins. The body is elongate and snake-like. Its dorsal and anal fins are confluent with the rudimentary caudal fin. It lacks ventral fins but pectoral fins are present. The lateral line is well-developed and complete. The head is long and conical, with rather small, well-developed eyes. The mouth is terminal with jaws that are not particularly elongated. The teeth are small, pectinate or setiform in several series on the jaws and the vomer. Minute teeth also present on the pharyngeal bones, forming a patch on the upper pharyngeals. Tongue present with thick lips that are attached by a frenum in front. Nostrils are superior and well separated. Gill openings are partly below pectoral fins, relatively well-developed and well separated from one another. Inner gill slits are wide.
The scales are small, rudimentary, cycloid, relatively well embedded below the epidermis and therefore often difficult to see without magnification. The scales are not arranged in overlapping rows as they often are in other fish species but are rather irregular, in some places distributed like "parquet flooring". In general, one row of scales lies at right angle to the next, although the rows immediately above and below the lateral line lie at an angle of approximately 45°. Unlike other bony fishes, the first scales do not develop immediately after the larval stage but appear much later on.
Several morphological features distinguish the American eel from other eel species. Tesch (1977) described three morphological characteristics which persist through all stages from larvae to maturing eels: the total number of vertebrae (mean 107.2), the number of myomeres (mean 108.2), and the distance between the origin of the dorsal fin to the anus (mean 9.1% of total length).


The turnip-tailed gecko (Thecadactylus rapicauda) is a species of gecko widely distributed from Mexico southward through Central America and into South America as far south as Brazil, and on many islands in the Lesser Antilles. It was long thought to be the only member of its genus, until T. solimoensis was described in 2007.
It is a large gecko, reaching a length of 120 mm snout-to-vent.  Its color varies from pale to dark gray to deep orange.  Individuals can also change color.  It can vocalize a series of chirps, which it mainly does while active at night.  Its name comes from its swollen tail, which is used to store fat.  It also waves its tail as a sign of aggression, and can shed its tail to distract predators. They are nocturnal in nature and are frequently found 5–30 feet up the trunks of palm trees.


The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual; a member of the family Balaenopteridae. Adults range in length from 14–17 m (46–56 ft) and weigh up to 40 metric tons (44 short tons). The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is known for breaching and other distinctive surface behaviors, making it popular with whale watchers. Males produce a complex song typically lasting 4 to 33 minutes.
Found in oceans and seas around the world, humpback whales typically migrate up to 16,000 km (9,900 mi) each year. They feed in polar waters and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth. Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. Unique among large whales, humpbacks use bubbles to catch prey. They are promiscuous breeders, with both sexes having multiple partners. Orcas are the main natural predators of humpback whales.
Like other large whales, the humpback was a target for the whaling industry. Humans once hunted the species to the brink of extinction; its population fell to around 5,000 by the 1960s. While numbers have partially recovered to some 135,000 animals worldwide, entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and noise pollution continue to affect the species.


Humpback whales feed from spring to fall. They are generalist feeders, their main food items being krill and small schooling fish. The most common krill species eaten in the southern hemisphere is the Antarctic krill. Further north, the northern krill and various species of Euphausia and Thysanoessa are consumed. Fish prey include herring, capelin, sand lances and Atlantic mackerel. Like other rorquals, humpbacks are "gulp feeders", shallowing prey in bulk, while right whales and bowhead whales are skimmers. The whale increases its mouth gape by expanding the grooves. Water is pushed out through the baleen. In the southern hemisphere, humpbacks have been recorded foraging in large compact gatherings numbering up to 200 individuals.
Humpbacks are the only baleen whales known to perform bubble-net feeding. A group of whales swim in a shrinking circle while blowing air from their blowholes, capturing the prey above them in a cylinder of bubbles. They may dive up to 20 m (66 ft) performing this technique. Bubble-netting comes in two main forms; upward spirals and double loops. Upward spirals involve the whales blowing air from their blowhole continuously as they circle towards the surface, creating a spiral of bubbles. Double loops consist of a deep, long loop of bubbles that herds the prey, followed by slapping the surface and then a smaller loop that prepares the final capture. Combinations of spiraling and looping have been recorded. After the humpbacks create the "nets", the whales swim into them with their mouths gaping and ready to swallow.
Using network-based diffusion analysis, one study argued that whales learned lobtailing from other whales in the group over 27 years in response to a change in primary prey. The tubercles on the flippers stall the angle of attack, which both maximizes lift and minimizes drag (see tubercle effect). This, along with the shape of the flippers, allows the whales to make the abrupt turns necessary during bubble-feeding.


Mating and breeding take place during the winter months. which is when females reach estrus and males reach peak testosterone and sperm levels. Humpback whales are promiscuous, with both sexes having multiple partners. Males will frequently trail both lone females and cow-calf pairs. These are known as "escorts", and the male that is closest to the female is known as the "principal escort", who fights off the other suitors known as "challengers". Other males, called "secondary escorts", trail further behind and are not directly involved in the conflict. Agonistic behavior between males consists of tail slashing, ramming, and head-butting.
Gestation in the species last 11.5 months, and females reproduce every two years. Humpback whale births have been rarely observed. One birth witnessed off Madagascar occurred within four minutes. Mothers typically give birth in mid-winter, usually to a single calf. Calves suckle for up to a year but can eat adult food in six months. Humpbacks are sexually mature at 5–10 years, depending on the population. The length at maturity is around 12.5 m (41 ft).


Visible scars indicate that orcas prey upon juvenile humpbacks. A 2014 study in Western Australia observed that when available in large numbers, young humpbacks can be attacked and sometimes killed by orcas. Moreover, mothers and (possibly related) adults escort calves to deter such predation. The suggestion is that when humpbacks suffered near-extinction during the whaling era, orcas turned to other prey but are now resuming their former practice. There is also evidence that humpback whales will defend against or mob killer whales who are attacking either humpback calves or juveniles as well as members of other species, including seals. The humpback's protection of other species may be unintentional, a "spillover" of mobbing behavior intended to protect members of its species. The powerful flippers of humpback whales, often infested with large, sharp barnacles, are formidable weapons against orcas. When threatened, they will thresh their flippers and tails keeping the orcas at bay.
The great white shark is another confirmed predator of the humpback whale. In 2020, Marine biologists Dines and Gennari et al., published a documented incident of a group of great white sharks exhibiting pack-like behavior to attack and kill a live adult humpback whale. A second incident regarding great white sharks killing humpback whales was documented off the coast of South Africa. The shark recorded instigating the attack was a female nicknamed "Helen". Working alone, the shark attacked a 33 ft (10 m) emaciated and entangled humpback whale by attacking the whale's tail to cripple and bleed the whale before she managed to drown the whale by biting onto its head and pulling it underwater.


The common seadragon inhabits coastal waters down to at least 50 m (160 ft) deep. It is associated with rocky reefs, seaweed beds, seagrass meadows and structures colonised by seaweed.


The common seadragon or weedy seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) is a marine fish related to the seahorses. Adult common seadragons are a reddish colour, with yellow and purple markings; they have small leaf-like appendages that resemble kelp fronds providing camouflage and a number of short spines for protection. Males have narrower bodies and are darker than females. Seadragons have a long dorsal fin along the back and small pectoral fins on either side of the neck, which provide balance. Common seadragons can reach 45 cm (18 in) in length.
The common seadragon is the marine emblem of the Australian state of Victoria.


The common seadragon is endemic to Australian waters of the Eastern Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean and the South Western Pacific Ocean. It can be found approximately between Port Stephens (New South Wales) and Geraldton, Western Australia, as well as Tasmania.


Actinia tenebrosa, commonly named Waratah anemone, is the most common species of sea anemone found in the waters of eastern Australia and New Zealand (where it is known in Māori as kōtore, or kōtoretore). It is found relatively high on the seashore, in rock pools, and various cracks and shaded surfaces such as under rock overhangs in the intertidal zone.


When underwater this sea anemone opens up to display numerous tentacles, arranged in three whorls. Out of water, the tentacles retract and the anemone closes to resemble a dome shaped red, crimson, brown, green or black blob of jelly, about 4 cm (1.6 in) across and 2.7 cm (1 in) high. While in a closed state, the anemone has a soft, ductile and jelly-like exterior. This species was first described in 1898 by H Farquhar who wrote "Full-grown individuals in situations well exposed to the rays of the sun have a column greenish or brownish black, and the disc and tentacles dusky crimson, while those on the undersides of overhanging stones are reddish brown or crimson, the depth of colour varying according to the amount of light which reaches them." Actinia tenebrosa is similar in form to the beadlet anemone (Actinia equina) of the northern hemisphere. The column has a number of iridescent blue spherules armed with nematocysts.


White-tailed deer are generalists and can adapt to a wide variety of habitats. The largest deer occur in the temperate regions of North America. The northern white-tailed deer (O. v. borealis), Dakota white-tailed deer (O. v. dacotensis), and northwest white-tailed deer (O. v. ochrourus) are some of the largest animals, with large antlers. The smallest deer occur in the Florida Keys and in partially wooded lowlands in the neotropics.
Although most often thought of as forest animals depending on relatively small openings and edges, white-tailed deer can equally adapt themselves to life in more open prairie, savanna woodlands, and sage communities as in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. These savanna-adapted deer have relatively large antlers in proportion to their body size and large tails. Also, a noticeable difference exists in size between male and female deer of the savannas. The Texas white-tailed deer (O. v. texanus), of the prairies and oak savannas of Texas and parts of Mexico, are the largest savanna-adapted deer in the Southwest, with impressive antlers that might rival deer found in Canada and the northern United States. Populations of Arizona (O. v. couesi) and Carmen Mountains (O. v. carminis) white-tailed deer inhabit montane mixed oak and pine woodland communities. The Arizona and Carmen Mountains deer are smaller, but may also have impressive antlers, considering their size. The white-tailed deer of the Llanos region of Colombia and Venezuela (O. v. apurensis and O. v. gymnotis) have antler dimensions similar to the Arizona white-tailed deer.
In some western regions of North America, the white-tailed deer range overlaps with those of the mule deer. White-tail incursions in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas have resulted in some hybrids. In the extreme north of the range, their habitat is also used by moose in some areas. White-tailed deer may occur in areas that are also exploited by elk (wapiti) such as in mixed deciduous river valley bottomlands and formerly in the mixed deciduous forest of eastern United States. In places such as Glacier National Park in Montana and several national parks in the Columbian Mountains (Mount Revelstoke National Park) and Canadian Rocky Mountains, as well as in the Yukon Territory (Yoho National Park and Kootenay National Park), white-tailed deer are shy and more reclusive than the coexisting mule deer, elk, and moose.
Central American white-tailed deer prefer tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, seasonal mixed deciduous forests, savanna, and adjacent wetland habitats over dense tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests. South American subspecies of white-tailed deer live in two types of environments. The first type, similar to the Central American deer, consists of savannas, dry deciduous forests, and riparian corridors that cover much of Venezuela and eastern Colombia. The other type is the higher elevation mountain grassland/mixed forest ecozones in the Andes Mountains, from Venezuela to Peru. The Andean white-tailed deer seem to retain gray coats due to the colder weather at high altitudes, whereas the lowland savanna forms retain the reddish brown coats. South American white-tailed deer, like those in Central America, also generally avoid dense moist broadleaf forests.
Since the second half of the 19th century, white-tailed deer have been introduced to Europe. A population in the Brdy area remains stable today. In 1935, white-tailed deer were introduced to Finland. The introduction was successful, and the deer have recently begun spreading through northern Scandinavia and southern Karelia, competing with, and sometimes displacing, native species. The 2020 population of some 109,000 deer originated from four animals provided by Finnish Americans from Minnesota.


White-tailed deer eat large amounts of food, commonly eating legumes and foraging on other plants, including shoots, leaves, cacti (in deserts), prairie forbs, and grasses. They also eat acorns, fruit, and corn. Their multi-chambered stomachs allow them to eat some foods humans cannot, such as mushrooms (even those that are toxic to humans), and poison ivy. Their diets vary by season according to availability of food sources. They also eat hay, grass, white clover, and other foods they can find in a farmyard. Though almost entirely herbivorous, white-tailed deer have been known to opportunistically feed on nesting songbirds, field mice, and birds trapped in mist nets, if the need arises. When additional amounts of minerals such as calcium are needed in their diet, they can resort to osteophagy, chewing on bones of dead animals. A grown deer can eat around 2,000 lb (910 kg) of vegetable matter annually. A population of around 20 deer per square mile can start to destroy the forest environment in their foraging area.
The white-tailed deer is a ruminant, which means it has a four-chambered stomach. Each chamber has a different and specific function that allows the deer to eat a variety of different foods, digesting it at a later time in a safe area of cover. The stomach hosts a complex set of microbes that change as the deer's diet changes through the seasons. If the microbes necessary for digestion of a particular food (e.g., hay) are absent, it will not be digested. Utilizing foregut fermentation,  the fermented ingesta (known as cud) is regurgitated and chewed again, to mix it with saliva and reduce the particle size. Smaller particle size allows for increased nutrient absorption and the saliva is important because it provides liquid for the microbial population, recirculates nitrogen and minerals, and acts as a buffer for the rumen pH.


There are several natural predators of white-tailed deer, with wolves, cougars, American alligators, jaguars (in the American southwest, Mexico, and Central and South America) and humans being the most effective natural predators. Aside from humans, these predators frequently pick out easily caught young or infirm deer (which is believed to improve the genetic stock of a population), but can and do take healthy adults of any size. Bobcats, Canada lynx, grizzly and American black bears, wolverines, and packs of coyotes usually prey mainly on fawns. Bears may sometimes attack adult deer, while lynxes, coyotes, and wolverines are most likely to take adult deer when the ungulates are weakened by harsh winter weather. Many scavengers rely on deer as carrion, including New World vultures, raptors, red and gray foxes, and corvids. Few wild predators can afford to be picky and any will readily consume deer as carrion. Records exist of American crows and common ravens attempting to prey on white-tailed deer fawns by pecking around their face and eyes, though no accounts of success are given. Occasionally, both golden and bald eagles may capture deer fawns with their talons. In one case, a golden eagle was filmed in Illinois unsuccessfully trying to prey on a large mature white-tailed deer.
White-tailed deer typically respond to the presence of potential predators by breathing very heavily (also called blowing) and fleeing. When they blow, the sound alerts other deer in the area. As they run, the flash of their white tails warns other deer. This especially serves to warn fawns when their mother is alarmed. Most natural predators of white-tailed deer hunt by ambush, although canids may engage in an extended chase, hoping to exhaust the prey. Felids typically try to suffocate the deer by biting the throat. Cougars and jaguars will initially knock the deer off balance with their powerful forelegs, whereas the smaller bobcats and lynxes will jump astride the deer to deliver a killing bite. In the case of canids and wolverines, the predators bite at the limbs and flanks, hobbling the deer, until they can reach vital organs and kill it through loss of blood. Bears, which usually target fawns, often simply knock down the prey and then start eating it while it is still alive. Alligators snatch deer as they try to drink from or cross bodies of water, grabbing them with their powerful jaws and dragging them into the water to drown.
Most primary natural predators of white-tailed deer have been essentially extirpated in eastern North America, with a very small number of reintroduced critically endangered red wolves,  around North Carolina and a small remnant population of Florida panthers, a subspecies of the cougar. Gray wolves, the leading cause of deer mortality where they overlap, co-occur with whitetails in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and most of Canada. This almost certainly plays a role in the overpopulation issues with this species. Coyotes, widespread and with a rapidly expanding population, are often the only major nonhuman predator of the species in the Eastern U.S., besides an occasional domestic dog. In some areas, American black bears are also significant predators. In north-central Pennsylvania, black bears were found to be nearly as common predators of fawns as coyotes. Bobcats, still fairly widespread, usually only exploit deer as prey when smaller prey is scarce. Discussions have occurred regarding the possible reintroduction of gray wolves and cougars to sections of the eastern United States, largely because of the apparent controlling effect they have through deer predation on local ecosystems, as has been illustrated in the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park and their controlling effect on previously overpopulated elk. However, due to the heavy urban development in much of the Eastern U.S.,  and fear for livestock and human lives, such ideas have ultimately been rejected by local communities and/or by government services and have not been carried through.
In areas where they are heavily hunted by humans, deer run almost immediately from people and are quite wary even where not heavily hunted. In most areas where hunting may occur deer seem to develop an acute sense of time and a fondness for metro parks and golf courses. This rather odd occurrence is best noted in Michigan, where in the lower peninsula around late August early September they begin to move out of less developed areas in favor of living near human settlements.
White-tailed deer can run faster than their predators and have been recorded at speeds of 47 mi (76 km) per hour; this ranks them amongst the fastest of all deer, alongside the Eurasian roe deer. They can also jump 9 ft (2.7 m) high and up to 30 ft (9.1 m) forward. When shot at, white-tailed deer will run at high speeds with its tail down. If frightened, the deer will hop in a zig-zag with its tail straight up. If the deer feels extremely threatened, however, it may choose to attack, charging the person or predator posing the threat, using its antlers or, if none are present, its head to fight off its target.


The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced to New Zealand, all the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico), and some countries in Europe, such as the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Romania and Serbia. In the Americas, it is the most widely distributed wild ungulate.
In North America, the species is widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains as well as in southwestern Arizona and most of Mexico, except Lower California. It is mostly displaced by the black-tailed or mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) from that point west except for mixed deciduous riparian corridors, river valley bottomlands, and lower foothills of the northern Rocky Mountain region from Wyoming west to eastern Washington and eastern Oregon and north to northeastern British Columbia and southern Yukon, including in the Montana valley and foothill grasslands. The westernmost population of the species, known as the Columbian white-tailed deer, was once widespread in the mixed forests along the Willamette and Cowlitz River valleys of western Oregon and southwestern Washington, but current numbers are considerably reduced, and it is classified as near-threatened. This population is separated from other white-tailed deer populations.
Texas is home to the most white-tailed deer of any U.S. state or Canadian province, with an estimated population of 5.3 million. High populations of white-tailed deer exist in the Edwards Plateau of central Texas and all of Pennsylvania. Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, and Indiana also boast high deer densities. The conversion of land adjacent to the Canadian Rockies to agriculture use and partial clear-cutting of coniferous trees, resulting in widespread deciduous vegetation, has been favorable to the white-tailed deer and has pushed its distribution to as far north as Yukon. Populations of deer around the Great Lakes have expanded their range northwards, also due to conversion of land to agricultural use, with local caribou, elk, and moose populations declining.


Females enter estrus, colloquially called the rut, in the autumn, normally in late October or early November, triggered mainly by the declining photoperiod. Sexual maturation of females depends on population density, as well as availability of food. Young females often flee from an area heavily populated with males. Some does may be as young as six months when they reach sexual maturity, but the average age of maturity is 18 months. Copulation consists of a brief copulatory jump.
Females give birth to one to three spotted young, known as fawns, in mid- to late spring, generally in May or June. Fawns lose their spots during the first summer and weigh from 44 to 77 lb (20 to 35 kg) by the first winter. Male fawns tend to be slightly larger and heavier than females. For the first four weeks, fawns are hidden in vegetation by their mothers, who nurse them four to five times a day. This strategy keeps scent levels low to avoid predators. After about a month, the fawns are then able to follow their mothers on foraging trips. They are usually weaned after 8–10 weeks, but cases have been seen where mothers have continued to allow nursing long after the fawns have lost their spots (for several months, or until the end of fall) as seen by rehabilitators and other studies. Males leave their mothers after a year and females leave after two.
Bucks are generally sexually mature at 1.5 years old and begin to breed even in populations stacked with older bucks.


T. marcianus were long thought to be nonvenomous, but recent discoveries have revealed that they do in fact produce a mild neurotoxic venom. T. marcianus cannot kill humans with the small amounts of venom they produce, which is comparatively mild, and they also lack an effective means of delivering it. They do have enlarged teeth in the back of their mouth, but their gums are significantly larger. The Duvernoy's gland of garters are posterior (to the rear) of the snake's eyes. The mild venom is spread into wounds through a chewing action.


The diet of T. marcianus includes small frogs, toads, small fish, and earthworms.  If kept as a pet, it can be trained on live or freeze-thawed mice, but even so, it is a fussy eater and can suddenly start to refuse mice at any point.


The checkered garter snake (Thamnophis marcianus) is a species of garter snake in the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Central America.


The checkered garter snake is typically greenish in color, with a distinct, black checkerboard pattern down its back. It is capable of growing to a total length (including tail) of 42 inches (107 cm), but is usually 18 to 24 inches (46 to 61 cm).


The preferred habitats of T. marcianus are desert and grassland, usually close to water.


Basidiocarps are agaricoid, up to 100 mm (4 in) tall, the cap narrowly conical at first becoming umbonate and often lobed, up to 100 mm (4 in) across. The cap surface is smooth and finely fibrillose, moist or viscid at first, variously yellow to orange or scarlet. The lamellae (gills) are waxy, white to pale yellow or greyish. The stipe (stem) is smooth but fibrillose and streaky, yellow to orange-red, whitish towards base, lacking a ring. All parts become duller and grey with age, finally becoming entirely black. The spore print is white, the spores (under a microscope) smooth, inamyloid, ellipsoid, measuring about 8.5 to 11.5 by 5 to 7.5 μm.


Hardhead catfish are found mostly in the near-shore waters of the Western Atlantic Ocean, around the southeast coast of the United States, around the Florida Keys and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Hardhead catfish are also found in brackish estuaries and river mouths where the bottom is sandy or muddy, but only occasionally enter freshwater. It tends to move from shallower to deeper waters in the winter months. The species is generally common to abundant within its range.
The hardhead catfish has four barbels under the chin, with two more at the corners of the mouth. These barbels help the catfish find crabs, fish, and shrimp in the muddy bays where they live. The dorsal and pectoral fins each are supported by a sharp, slime-covered, barbed spine. The dorsal spine is normally erect when the fish is excited and a tennis shoe or even a leather-soled shoe offers little protection. The gafftopsail catfish looks similar to the hardhead catfish, but its dorsal and pectoral spines have a distinctive fleshy extension (like the fore-and-aft topsail of a ship).


A. felis consumes a wide range of food.  It is an opportunistic consumer that uses mud and sand flats as hunting grounds. It is  also mainly a secondary consumer, ingesting primarily detritus, meio-, and macrobenthic fauna, and fish.  Its diet primarily consists of algae, seagrasses, cnidarians, sea cucumbers, gastropods, polychaetes, shrimp, and crabs. It can occasionally be a tertiary consumer.
Its diet depends on its size and location.  Younger hardhead catfish tend to eat small crustaceans, like amphipods, shrimp, blue crabs, mollusks, and annelids.  Juveniles that are still under the protection of the male mouthbrooder feed predominately on planktonic crustaceans close by to the mouth of the parent.  The adults primarily consume larger fish.


Hardhead catfish are voracious feeders and will bite on almost any natural bait. Hardhead catfish are also known to steal bait.  Shrimp is a particularly effective bait to use.  When fishing for this species in fresh water, assorted meats tend to work best as bait. For example: bacon, chicken, cuts of steak, and smaller fish. Hardhead catfish are generally regarded as an undesirable catch by most anglers, largely due to the risk associated with handling the venomous fish, as well as its 'fishy' taste as opposed to desirable game fish.
Hardhead catfish are edible, but like all catfish, require some effort to clean. It is one of the 30 most recreationally harvested species in the five-county area (Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin) encompassing the Indian River Lagoon in central Florida. From 1997 to 2001, 361,022 hardhead catfish were harvested within 200 miles of the shore in the IRL region.
Hardheads are also harvested for industrial purposes in commercial bottom-trawling operations. Annual harvests vary greatly, but from 1987 to 2001, 1.04 million pounds of marine catfishes (including both the hardhead catfish and the gafftopsail catfish) were harvested in the IRL region. The harvest was valued at $777,497.


The hardhead catfish (Ariopsis felis) is a species of sea catfish from the northwest Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, and similar to the gafftopsail catfish (Bagre marinus).  It is one of four species in the genus Ariopsis. The common name, hardhead catfish, is derived from the presence of a hard, bony plate extending rearward toward the dorsal fin from a line between the catfish's eyes. It is an elongated marine catfish that reaches up to 28 in (70 cm) in length and 12 lb (5.5 kg) in weight. Their typical weight is less than 1 lb (450 g), but they commonly reach up to 3 lb (1.4 kg).  They are often a dirty gray color on top, with white undersides.