It is estimated that the bateleur produces a mean of 0.47 chicks per nest per year. In East Africa, the bateleur tends not to breed every year and the replacement rate is about 0.5 per annum. In southern Africa, the bateleur typically breeds every year whether or not they are successful in raising their eaglet. At 4 nests in Zimbabwe, a replacement rate of 0.81 young per pair per annum, with local figures often being higher where they live more free from human disturbance. It was found that Zimbabwe failures were only known to be from infertile or lost eggs. In Kruger National Park, the predation of Verreaux's eagle-owls may considerably lower nesting success. Furthermore in Kruger, it was found that 33% of the population of bateleurs were young birds while the remaining 67% were adults, meaning that younger birds are presumably underpopulated. Elsewhere, even lower numbers, around 25-30%, of the population is young bateleurs. The population, or at least in southern Africa, seems to be roughly even in terms of sex ratio, with an even number of males and females. In the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, 13 pairs of bateleurs were recorded to produce only 0.33 young per pair. There was evidence of a 13% decline in active nesting territories of bateleurs in the Kalahari Gemsbok area during the seven year study, and at least a 40% decline over the previous 10 years. Vacated nesting territories were not reoccupied by the species. There was found to be seemingly no safe buffer zone around the park, due perhaps to persecution in the adjacent farmlands, when potential mortality of foraging bateleur from the protected park enter these areas, as well as nesting site disturbance, could have been part of the reason for this decline. Poisoned and suspected poisoned bateleurs have been found in the Park during the study period. The few that survive their early years may expect a mean estimated lifespan of around 12–14 years and in some cases may manage to live as long as 27 years. The annual adult survival rate is estimated at 95%, while the annual juvenile survival rate is estimated at 75%.


Bateleurs are a wide ranging species but have shown rather strong declines. Per estimates from the 1990s, extrapolated from an average of 150 km² (58 sq mi) per pair, it was projected that the total population could have been around 180,000 birds including young ones. However, it is likely that the species numbers far lower than that. Currently, the IUCN estimates broadly from 10,000 to 100,000 total individuals. The numbers in Southern Africa have shown the most dramatic and drastic known reductions. At one time, the species numbers at 2000-2500 pairs in the former Transvaal Province alone which was down to around 420 to 470 pairs by the 1990s. More recently it was estimated that there are less than 700 pairs in the entire region of Southern Africa, although that number may be too excessively conservative. In all the bateleur has declined by an estimated 75% in Southern Africa. The species is considered threatened in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Eswatini and South Africa and still considered not uncommon but probably declining in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana. Declines are not endemic to Southern Africa for bateleurs, with declines strongly detected as well in Ivory Coast and Sudan. Addition countries that have reported strongly declining numbers are in Togo, Niger and Nigeria. Where bateleurs were once common in road surveys in Central-West Africa, none were detected in newer road surveys from the 2000s in the same areas. Claims of an increase in potential numbers of bateleur in Uganda are not verified.
Decline of the species and the reduction in range is suspected to have been moderately rapid over the past three generations. Generally, throughout the range, the bateleur is considered much more common in protected areas. However even in several protected areas, numbers of bateleurs seem to decreasing. The declines of the species are almost entirely due to anthropogenic causes. These include but are not limited to habitat destruction, the poisoning of carcasses, persecution through shooting and possibly pesticide use. Poisoning of carcasses is a major issue for scavenging animals, especially birds like vultures, in Africa. Zambian bateleurs may suffer from deliberate poisonings as well as those in Eswatini, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The bateleur's wide foraging areas and their ability to locate very small pieces of carrion, makes them highly susceptible to poison-laced carcasses even from a small proportion of farmers who use poisons. Bateleurs and other eagles are not usually the direct target of these poisoning operations, which in some cases may be directed to unfavored mammals like jackals or in other cases directed towards vultures by poachers to hide their illegal wildlife killings. The decline of South African bateleurs is primarily linked with poisonings, primarily from large-scale farming operations. It is possible that bateleurs may suffer from the effects of DDT though it is found in a small sample of 3 eggs from South Africa that they evidenced low subcritical levels of DDT metabolites, probably not enough to effect overall populations. However, it is projected that pesticide use may be harming populations in Zambia as well as in Botswana. Ongoing persecution is both serious and unsustainable, beyond poisoning, such killings are known to extent to ongoing shooting and trapping. Some trapping occurs of the species for its feathers which are used in medicine by traditional healers for predicting future events Less well known but probably occurring declines may be due to flying into manmade objects including wire collisions, reservoir drownings and road-killings. Additionally, shrinking habitat has been found to be a prevalent threat to bateleurs due largely to expanding human settlements and intensifying livestock agriculture. A further effect from humans is regular disturbance at bateleur nests, although not typically as deliberate as many other threats, this is causing the breeding success rates to plummet farther. No large scale actions are underway but they are possibly protected in Yemen as an endangered species. It is proposed to implement education and awareness campaigns across its range to reduce the use of poisoned baits. Regular population monitoring is being carried out.


The bateleur plays a prominent role in African heraldic and mythological cultures probably due to its spectacular colours and conspicuous and bold behaviour. As a result it is likely that the bateleur is the basis for the “Zimbabwe Bird” which has been prominent since ancient times in Zimbabwean culture and continuously used in heraldic forms including most prominently being featured on the Zimbabwe flag. A South African myth was that when bateleurs “cries in flight, the rain will fall”. The admiration and mythologizing of bateleurs is also known in other areas beyond Zimbabwe, including among those in Southern Africa who speak Tswana language as well as elsewhere dating back to the Iron Age with various with the bateleur variously known as kgwadira and petleke, and may often in mythology may fulfill the role intelligent servant to their masters, which were considered vultures. In East and Central Africa, the bateleur has been referred to variously as gawarakko and nkona and in the Lake Tanganyika was considered an essential possession of sultans whether the birds were dead or alive.


Terminalia catappa is a large tropical tree in the leadwood tree family, Combretaceae, native to Asia, Australia, the Pacific and Madagascar. Common names in English include country almond, Indian almond, Malabar almond, sea almond, tropical almond, beach almond and false kamani.


The tree grows to 35 metres (115 feet) tall, with an upright, symmetrical crown and horizontal branches. The fruit are corky and light, and dispersed by water. As the tree gets older, its crown becomes more flattened to form a spreading, vase shape. Its branches are distinctively arranged in tiers. The leaves are large, 15–25 cm (6–9+3⁄4 in) long and 10–14 cm (4–5+1⁄2 in) broad, ovoid, glossy dark green, and leathery. They are dry-season deciduous; before falling, they turn pinkish-reddish or yellow-brown, due to pigments such as violaxanthin, lutein, and zeaxanthin.
The trees are monoecious, with distinct male and female flowers on the same tree. Both are 1 cm (3⁄8 in) in diameter, white to greenish, inconspicuous with no petals; they are produced on axillary or terminal spikes. The fruit is a drupe 5–7 cm (2–2+3⁄4 in) long and 3–5.5 cm (1+1⁄8–2+1⁄8 in) broad, green at first, then yellow and finally red when ripe, containing a single seed. Pollen grains measure about 30 microns.
The species epithet is based on its Malay name Ketapang.


The tree has been spread widely by humans, so the native range is uncertain. It has long been naturalised in a broad belt extending from Africa to northern Australia and New Guinea through southeast Asia and Micronesia into the Indian subcontinent. More recently, the plant has been introduced to parts of the Americas. Until the mid-20th century, the tree had been used extensively in Brazilian urban landscaping, since being a rare case tropical deciduous, their fallen leaves would give a "European" flair to the street. This practice is currently abolished, and the "amendoeiras" are being replaced by native, evergreen trees.


T. catappa is widely grown in tropical regions of the world as an ornamental tree, grown for the deep shade its large leaves provide. The fruit is edible, tasting slightly acidic. The seeds are edible raw or cooked when ripe and the source of its 'almond' common names, but are small and difficult to extract.
The wood is red and solid, and has high water resistance; it has been used in Polynesia for making canoes. In Tamil, almond is known as nattuvadumai.
The leaves contain several flavonoids (such as kaempferol or quercetin), several tannins (such as punicalin, punicalagin or tercatin), saponines and phytosterols. Due to this chemical richness, the leaves (and the bark) are used in different herbal medicines for various purposes. For instance in Taiwan, fallen leaves are used as an herb to treat liver diseases. In Suriname, an herbal tea made from the leaves has been prescribed against dysentery and diarrhea. The leaves may contain agents for prevention of cancers (although they have no demonstrated anticarcinogenic properties) and antioxidants, as well as anticlastogenic characteristics. Extracts of T. catappa have shown activity against Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine (CQ)-resistant (FcB1) and CQ-sensitive (HB3) strains.
Keeping the leaves in an aquarium may lower the pH and heavy-metal content of the water. It has been used in this way by fish breeders for many years, and is active against some parasites and bacterial pathogens. It is also believed to help prevent fungus forming on the eggs of the fish.


The Indian paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) is a medium-sized passerine bird native to Asia, where it is widely distributed. As the global population is considered stable, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2004. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and Myanmar.
Males have elongated central tail feathers, and a black and rufous plumage in some populations, while others have white plumage. Females are short-tailed with rufous wings and a black head. Indian paradise flycatchers feed on insects, which they capture in the air often below a densely canopied tree.


Adult Indian paradise flycatchers are 19–22 cm (7.5–8.7 in) long. Their heads are glossy black with a black crown and crest, their black bill round and sturdy, their eyes black. Female are rufous on the back with a greyish throat and underparts. Their wings are 86–92 mm (3.4–3.6 in) long. Young males look very much like females but have a black throat and blue-ringed eyes. As adults they develop up to 24 cm (9.4 in) long tail feathers with two central tail feathers growing up to 30 cm (12 in) long drooping streamers.
Young males are rufous and have short tails. They acquire long tails in their second or third year. Adult males are either predominantly bright rufous above or predominantly white. Some specimens show some degree of intermediacy between rufous and white. Long-tailed rufous birds are generally devoid of shaft streaks on the wing and tail feathers, while in white birds the shaft streaks, and sometimes the edges of the wing and tail feathers are black.
In the early 1960s, 680 long-tailed males were examined that are contained in collections of the British Museum of Natural History, Chicago Natural History Museum, Peabody Museum, Carnegie Museum, American Museum of Natural History, United States National Museum and Royal Ontario Museum. The specimens came from almost the entire range of the species, though some areas were poorly represented. The relative frequency of the rufous and white plumage types varies geographically. Rufous birds are rare in the extreme southeastern part of the species' range. Throughout the Indian area and, to a lesser extent, in China, asymmetrically patterned intermediates occur. Intermediates are rare or absent throughout the rest of the range of the species. In general, long-tailed males are
predominantly rufous with some white in wings and tail — collected in Turkestan, Kashmir, northern India, Punjab, Maharashtra, Sikkim and in Sri Lanka;
predominantly rufous with some white in wings — collected in Iran, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Punjab, Kashmir, northern and central India, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar, Nepal;
predominantly rufous with some white in tail — collected in Punjab, northern and central India, Kolkata, Sri Lanka and in the Upper Yangtze Valley in China;
predominantly white with some rufous in tail and wings — collected in Kashmir, Maharashtra, Sichuan and North China;
predominantly white with some rufous in tail — collected in Maharashtra and Fuzhou, China;
predominantly white with back partly rufous — collected in Punjab and Chennai;
moulting from rufous into white plumage — collected in North Bihar.
Possible interpretations of this phenomenon are : males may be polymorphic for rufous and white plumage colour; rufous birds may be sub-adults; and there may even be two sympatric species distinguishable only in the male.


Indian paradise flycatcher's breeding season lasts from May to July. Being socially monogamous both male and female take part in nest-building, incubation, brooding and feeding of the young. The incubation period lasts 14 to 16 days and the nestling period 9 to 12 days. The nest is sometimes built in the vicinity of a breeding pair of drongos, which keep predators away.The female lays up to four eggs in a neat cup nest made with twigs and spider webs on the end of a low branch. Chicks hatch in about 21 to 23 days. A case of interspecific feeding has been noted with paradise flycatcher chicks fed by Oriental white-eyes.


This bird is mentioned in Satyajit Ray's Feluda detective stories Chinnamastar Abhishap and Jahangirer Swarnamudra.


Tessaratoma papillosa, the lychee giant stink bug, is a species of bug in the family Tessaratomidae. It is found in Indomalaya, Australasia, and Eastern Asia.


Tessellana tessellata known as the brown-spotted bush-cricket is a European and North African insect in the tribe Platycleidini (Tettigoniidae).


Orthoptera Species File lists two subspecies:
T. tessellata holoptera Ramme, 1951
T. tessellata tessellata (Charpentier, 1825)


Tetracis cachexiata, the white slant-line or white slaut, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1858. It is found in North America from Nova Scotia to central British Columbia, south to northern Florida and west to Montana and northern Colorado.
The length of the forewings 19–26 mm. Adults are on wing from May to early July.
The larvae feed on various plants including Alnus, Betula, Prunus, Salix, Tilia, Ulmus, Viburnum, Abies, Larix, Pinus, and Tsuga species.


Tetragonia tetragonioides, commonly called New Zealand spinach and other local names, is a flowering plant in the fig-marigold family (Aizoaceae). It is often cultivated as a leafy vegetable.
It is a widespread species, native to eastern Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. It has been introduced and is an invasive species in many parts of Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. Its natural habitat is sandy shorelines and bluffs, often in disturbed areas. It is a halophyte and grows well in saline ground.


The plant has a trailing habit, and will form a thick carpet on the ground or climb through other vegetation and hang downwards. It can have erect growth when young. The leaves of the plant are 3–15 cm long, triangular in shape, and bright green. The leaves are thick, and covered with tiny papillae that look like waterdrops on the top and bottom of the leaves. The flowers of the plant are yellow, and the fruit is a small, hard capsule covered with small horns.


Prussian naturalist Peter Pallas described the species as Demidovia tetragonoides in 1781. German botanist Otto Kuntze placed the species in the genus Tetragonia in his 1891 work Revisio Generum Plantarum, resulting in its current binomial name.
This widely distributed plant has many common names, depending on its location. In addition to the name New Zealand spinach, it is also known as Botany Bay spinach, Cook's cabbage, kōkihi (in Māori), sea spinach, and tetragon. Its Australian names of Warrigal Greens and Warrigal Cabbage come from the local use of warrigal to describe plants that are wild (not farmed originally).


It is grown for the edible leaves, and can be used as food or an ornamental plant for ground cover. As some of its names signify, it has similar flavour and texture properties to spinach, and is cooked like spinach. Like spinach, it contains oxalates; its medium to low levels of oxalates need to be removed by blanching the leaves in hot water for one minute, then rinsing in cold water before cooking. It thrives in hot weather, and is considered an heirloom vegetable. Few insects consume it, and even slugs and snails do not seem to feed on it.
The thick, irregularly-shaped seeds should be planted just after the last spring frost. Before planting, the seeds should be soaked for 12 hours in cold water, or 3 hours in warm water. Seeds should be planted 5–10 mm (0.2–0.4 in) deep, and spaced 15–30 cm (5.9–11.8 in) apart. The seedlings will emerge in 10–20 days, and it will continue to produce greens through the summer. Mature plant will self-seed. Seeds will overwinter up to USDA zone 5.


The species, rarely used by indigenous people as a leaf vegetable, was first mentioned by Captain Cook. It was immediately picked, cooked, and pickled to help fight scurvy, and taken with the crew of the Endeavour. It spread when the explorer and botanist Joseph Banks took seeds back to Kew Gardens during the latter half of the 18th century. For two centuries, T. tetragonioides was the only cultivated vegetable to have originated from Australia and New Zealand.
There are some indications that Māori did eat kōkihi perhaps more regularly. According to Murdoch Riley, "to counteract the bitterness of the older leaves of this herb, the Māori boiled it with the roots of the convolvulus (pōhue)", in reference to species of Convolvulaceae now classified as Calystegia. The tips of the spinach can be pinched off and eaten raw or cooked.


When consumed after boiling, New Zealand spinach is 95% water, 2% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contains negligible fat, while supplying only 12 calories (table). In a 100 gram reference amount, the spinach is particularly rich in vitamin K, providing 278% of the Daily Value (DV). It also contains appreciable amounts of vitamin B6, vitamin C, and manganese (18-25% DV).


Tetragonisca angustula is a small eusocial stingless bee found in México, Central and South America. It is known by a variety of names in different regions (e.g. jataí, yatei, jaty, virginitas, angelitas inglesas, españolita, mariola, chipisas, virgencitas, and mariolitas). A subspecies, Tetragonisca angustula fiebrigi, occupies different areas in South America and has a slightly different coloration.
T. angustula is a very small bee and builds unobtrusive nests, allowing it to thrive in urban areas. It also produces large amounts of honey, and is thus frequently kept in wooden hives by beekeepers. T. angustula hives are often overlooked, and since the bee lacks a stinger, it is not seen as a threat to humans.
Many of their behaviors are concerned with colonizing a new nest and producing offspring, demonstrated by their swarming and nursing behaviors, however a special caste of T. angustula are soldiers who are slightly larger than the workers. The soldiers in a T. angustula nest are very good at protecting the hive against intruders which makes up for not having a stinger. Some of these soldiers hover in mid air outside the nest, which is seen in the adjacent picture.


T. angustula is a member of the order Hymenoptera, which is one of the four largest insect orders. It is in the family Apidae, subfamily Apinae. Along with other species in the tribe Meliponini, T. angustula is a eusocial stingless bee. There are approximately 550 known species in this tribe, a majority of which are located in the Neotropics.T. angustula has two described two subspecies, T. angustula fiebrigi and T. angustula angustula which have different coloration on their mesepisternum and occupy slightly different regions.


T. angustula is an exceptionally small bee, about 4–5 mm. Along with all other bees in the tribe Meliponini, it is stingless and has a reduced wing venation and penicilla (bristles on the leg). The subspecies T. angustula fiebrigi has a light yellow mesepisternum, while T. angustula angustula has black. Guard bees, which make up about 1–6% of each hive, weigh more than foragers by about 30% and have smaller heads, as well as longer hind legs. Remarkable for the stingless bee clade, T. angustula has a pronounced size dimorphism between the queen and worker castes.


T. angustula has a large habitat distribution across Central and South America. The species has been found as far north as Mexico and south as far as Argentina. It has been labeled "one of the most widespread bee species in the neotropics."  The subspecies T. angustula fiebrigi is found more in the southern hemisphere, occupying parts of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and other southern countries. The subspecies T. angustula angustula has a larger presence in Brazil and is found more in the northern hemisphere, occupying Panama, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Nicaragua etc.
T. angustula distribution overlaps with many other stingless bee species, with an especially large correlation with Paratrigona subnuda distribution across Mesoaerica. In the Atlantic rainforest, deforestation for sugar cane plantations is extensive and contributes to the rarity of T. angustula in that area, as well as the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris.
Nests for T. angustula are found in many different settings. Their nests are the predominant bee nests in recovering forest habitats, but are also present in structured forests, depleted forests, and urban settings. Like other stingless bees, T. angustula finds pre-existing cavities, such as holes in tree trunks, cavities in walls, or even abandoned ant or termite nests, for their new nest sites.


A T. angustula colony will only reproduce once a year, as opposed to many honeybees that can reproduce three or four times in a year. The largest colony cycle occurs during the summer in South America, with most of the new brood hatching between December and March. This time of the year coincides with the best foraging conditions, which ensure enough food can be provided for the larvae. Each colony has one reproductive queen to mate and lay eggs.


Colonies are founded by swarming; a young queen and a small fraction of workers leave the mother nest for a new nest site. Before swarming, scout bees explore suitable cavities in the area surrounding the mother nest. This scouting often lasts between two days and two weeks. The new nest sites are within a few hundred meters of the mother nest to allow continued contact with the mother nest, which can last from a week up to six months for T. angustula, which is longer than many other bee species. Resources are transferred from the mother nest to the new nest, including pollen, honey, and cerumen, but the new nest continues to have very small stores compared to the mother nest. Cerumen, which comes from the mother nest, is a wax used to seal cracks and holes in the new nest site.
A swarming colony can have as many as 10,000 bees, but less than 10% relocate to the new nest. Some workers help settle at the new nest site and then return to the mother nest within a few days. The mother colony cannot produce another swarm while the new nest is dependent on it, so once the new nest is settled, connection is severed.


Like many other stingless bee species, T. angustula workers take part in different activities based on their age. The average lifespan of the worker bees is around 21 days, but many live up to about 60 days. The first tasks that worker bees perform include courting the queen (surround her in the hive) and helping with oviposition (see section on nursing). Young bees (1 to about 15 days old) also assist with putting cerumen on brood combs and cleaning the nest. Foraging behavior starts about 16 days after a worker emerges and will continue for the rest of its life. Grooming behavior and resin manipulation are most common in ‘older’ bees, about 20 to 55 days old.
Worker bees perform many actions throughout their lives, and while age divides workers between different tasks, a large overlap of jobs are still being done at one time. Worker bees do not guard the hive, though, since this job is left to soldier bees, which are larger.
While the existence of a soldier caste is well-known in ants and termites, up until 2012 the phenomenon was unknown among bees, when it was discovered that T. angustula has a similar caste of defensive specialists that help guard the nest entrance against intruders. Subsequent research has shown at least 9 other species possess such "soldiers," including T. fiebrigi and Frieseomelitta longipes, with the guards not only larger, but also sometimes a different color from ordinary workers.


Nursing behavior, along with oviposition, is known as the provisioning and oviposition process, shortened to “POP”. Before oviposition occurs, workers fill the cells in the hive with food. Once the egg is placed in the cell, it is covered and not tended to again. So, any differences among bees during their initial development must come from differences in the environment within their cells. The size of the cells and the amount of food in each cell is the main determining factor in the size and role of the bee that develops in the cell. Therefore, T. angustula workers fulfill their biggest role before an egg is even placed in a cell.
Workers, males, soldiers, and queens are all morphologically distinct in T. angustula and these differences result from the varied developmental environments found in the cell.


The average percentage of workers in a T. angustula brood is about 83.6%. While the ratios may change slightly from nest to nest, workers make up the majority of each brood. Their cell size and food allowance is generally seen as the baseline for comparisons since most cells in a nest are for workers.


T. angustula bees do not have an easily observable form of communication. While they must cooperate in the hive to perform various tasks as a group, many tasks are performed individually. Olfactory cues have been tested in relation to both nestmate recognition and in foraging location, but no strong links could be made. Chemical cues do play a role in foraging activities, with individuals choosing to pollinate plants that have been previously visited by other foragers, but this is an indirect form of communication.


Foragers mostly collect nectar, pollen, and plant resin. Foraging activity levels are similar for pollen, nectar and resin foragers: highest activity levels were found around noon. Foraging distances have been estimated to be below 600m, which is relatively short compared to larger bee species.
In many species of stingless bees foragers recruit nestmates to profitable food patches of pollen or nectar.  In T. angustula, however, this recruitment is weak. Instead, foragers use chemical cues to locate a good food source as well as visual stimuli remembered from previous foraging trips. Experiments have shown that forager bees will respond to odor priming when put in direct contact with the odor during the experiment, but will not learn the odor if it is simply present in the hive. This shows that T. angustula foragers learn from their own personal experiences but do not pick up information from their fellow foragers. This dependence on personal experience to find food along with the lack of observable group foraging activity labels them as solitary foragers.


T. angustula bees visit a large number of plants to find food. Stingless bees in general are very important in pollinating  30 to 80% of the plants in their biomes, and T. angustula is one of the most widespread stingless bees in South America. In one study in Brazil, T. angustula bees were seen at 61 different plants, 45 of them being visited by almost exclusively this species of bee. The most important food source for T. angustula is believed to be Schinus terebinthifolius in the Anacardiaceae. Plants from the Asteraceae and Meliaceae were also visited in large numbers. Pollen types from different plants vary in their size and surface texture, which makes T. angustula honey distinct compared to honey with different pollen grains.


The wax tube entrance to each T. angustula hive provides a great advantage in respect to protection against invaders. Between two and 45 soldiers are stationed at this entrance at all times. There are two types of T. angustula soldiers. One type will stand on the tube and detect bees of the same species that do not belong in the hive. The second type will hover near the entrance of the tube and defend against flying intruders that are not T. angustula.


T. angustula guard bees are extremely good at differentiating between foreign individuals. A study in 2011 found that T. angustula is better at nestmate recognition than all other bee species that have been studied to date. They made no errors in recognizing the bees that belonged and never once turned away a nestmate. They were fooled by approximately 8% of non-nestmate bees who sought to enter the hive which is quite low in comparison to other bees.
T. angustula guards are also much better than the average worker bee at recognizing their nestmates at the hive entrance. When they are experimentally put in other contexts away from the hive entrance, recognition errors increase greatly. This demonstrates the importance of individual recognition during specific times, but also shows that T. angustula bees do not generally distinguish between their nestmates and other members of their species. Research is still being conducted on how guards differentiate between bees, but odor of resin seems to have no effect on recognition.


While the queen in a T. angustula hive will lay most of the eggs in a brood, some workers also have the ability to develop and lay eggs. Unlike reproductive eggs, these worker eggs do not have a reticulum and thus develop into males. The worker queen conflict arises over competition to lay eggs in the fixed number of cells in the nest. When the queen produces more eggs, there will be more workers to build more cells, and the workers will be able to lay an egg in the open cells. However the queen lays eggs irregularly throughout the year so the number of cells fluctuates.
The queen will try to lay eggs in as many cells as she can, decreasing the opportunity for workers to lay their eggs. They work fast during oviposition and in some cases will eat the workers’ eggs to make more room for her own. The queen is dominant in this conflict and ends up controlling the availability of oviposition sites.


T. angustula are very adept at living in urban settings. They can build their nest in a variety of places, including holes in buildings. More often than not, humans are not even aware of the presence of T. angustula nests and therefore leave them unharmed. This same study showed that bees took refuge inside their nest when humans approached, making them even less conspicuous and decreasing direct contact between human and bee.
Many beekeepers take advantage of T. angustula for its stinglessness and discreetness. Nests are widely traded in Latin America, making T. angustula among the more cultivated species of stingless bees.


The honey produced by T. angustula is known in some regions as ‘miel de angelita’, which means ‘little-angel honey.’ The honey is said to contain medicinal properties, which has been studied in relation to preventing specific infections. In places like Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, the price of ‘miel de angelita’ can be as much as ten times more than the price of honey produced by common honey bees.


Like most honey, T. angustula honey is made up of simple sugars, water, and ash. The specific ratio of these three components makes each honey unique however, and can be affected by season, climate, and other factors that affect flora availability. T. angustula honey contains more moisture than honey from typical honey bees and is also more acidic, giving it a complex flavor.


Honey and propolis, a glue like substance that bees use as sealant, collected by T. angustula have some health benefits for humans. The honey and propolis contain various chemicals that show antibacterial activity towards an infection causing bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus. Honey and propolis gathered from different geographical areas have different chemical compositions yet they all exhibit some type of antibacterial activity. Another bee, Apis mellifera, produces honey and propolis with very similar qualities.


Forests are being destroyed all over the world, including the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil. The Atlantic Rainforest has very high levels of biodiversity but human fragmentation of the forest is leading to huge loss. Due to the interconnectedness of the environment the loss of one plant or insect could cause many others to go extinct. As seen above, T. angustula bees are quite important for pollinating many plants and providing good quality honey. Steps are taken to understand the diet of these bees and their nest sites in order to keep them from dying out in an area. Conservation of the forest is a priority of many scientists and preservationists, and the survival of stingless bees plays a factor in the importance of keeping these forests.


The black grouse, northern black grouse, Eurasian black grouse, blackgame, or blackcock (Lyrurus tetrix), is a large game bird in the grouse family. It is a sedentary species, spanning across the Palearctic in moorland and steppe habitat when breeding, often near wooded areas. They will spend the winter perched in dense forests, feeding almost exclusively on the needles of conifers. The black grouse is one of 2 species of grouse in the genus Lyrurus, the other being the lesser-known Caucasian grouse.
The female is greyish-brown and has a cackling or warbling call. She takes all responsibility for nesting and caring for the chicks, as typical with most galliforms.
The black grouse's genome was sequenced in 2014.


The black grouse was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tetrao tetrix. Both Tetrao and tetrix come from Ancient Greek words referring to some form of game bird. The black grouse is now placed in the genus Lyrurus that was introduced in 1832 by the English naturalist William John Swainson.
The male and female are sometimes referred to by their folk names, blackcock and greyhen, respectively. These names first occur in the literature with John Ray in 1674. Heathcock and Heathhen are also common names.


Seven subspecies of black grouse are recognized. Black grouse populations differ slightly in size and coloration, with birds increasing in size further east of their range:
L. tetrix brittanicus (British black grouse) - parts of Great Britain; Scotland, Wales, and northern England; the smallest and darkest. Birds living in Western Europe are probably more related to this subspecies.
L. tetrix tetrix - most of its range; Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to northeast Siberia
L. tetrix viridanus - northern Kazakhstan, southeast European Russia and southwestern Siberia between Don River and Irtysh River, including the Ural Mountains; has the most white on its wings, upperparts streaked brown
L. tetrix tschusii - Irtysh River to Lake Baikal, north to Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk, and south to the Altai and Sayan Mountains
L. tetrix mongolicus (Mongolian black grouse) - Kyrgyzstan and Tien Shan east to the Altai, Sayan, and nearby mountain ranges in western Mongolia
L. tetrix baikalensis (Baikal black grouse) - southeast Siberia from Lake Baikal eastward to Amurland and southward to northern Mongolia and northeast China (Inner Mongolia); possibly the largest, gloss is lighter blue in color
L. tetrix ussuriensis (Ussuri black grouse) - Far East Russia; Amurland, northeastern China (sp. Heilongjiang and Jilin) down to the Ussuri River and northeast Korea; smaller than baikalensis


Black grouse can be found on open habitats across Europe (Swiss-Italian-French Alps especially) from Great Britain through Scandinavia, Estonia and across Russia. Although believed to once to live in Ireland, it now no longer resides there. In Eastern Europe they can be found in Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Romania and Ukraine. There is a population in the Alps, and isolated remnants in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. It formerly occurred in Denmark, but the Danish Ornithological Society (DOF) has considered it extinct since 2001. The species disappeared from Bulgaria in the 19th century. In Asia, a huge portion of their population can be found in Russia (particularly southern Siberia), though they also inhabit parts of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, and possibly Korea.
Black grouse are adapted to a extensive array of habitats across Eurasia, though most frequently utilize the transitionary zones between forests and open clearings, especially steppe, heathland, grassland and pasture when near agricultural fields. Depending on the season, they will overwinter in large flocks in dense forests, and feed primarily on the leaves and buds of coniferous and broadleaf trees, such as Scots pine, Siberian larch, silver birch, and Eurasian aspen. Throughout the spring and summer, they tend to favor open spaces to seek potential mates and raise broods, switching their diet to berries, shoots and stems of cranberries, bog bilberries, myrtleberries, and other Vaccinium shrubs. They avoid the most extreme of desert and polar regions.


Black grouse have a very distinctive and well-recorded courtship ritual. Every dawn in the spring, male grouse begin competition with other males in hopes of attracting a hen to mate with. They will display to signal their territory and vigor by fanning out their elaborate lyre-shaped tails and inflating their necks on designated open ground called a lek. Their song consists of a long, dove-like bubbling coo or murmur. Black grouse hens visiting the lek decide the overall healthiest male, though not all females may arrive at every lek.
In western Europe, these leks seldom contain more than 40 birds; in Russia, 150 is not uncommon and 200 have been recorded.
When mated successfully, she will fly away from the site to a suitable nesting site with an abundance of dense shrub or tall vegetation, often located at a tree base in between roots, under low branches, beside a boulder, or extremely rarely, a used raptor's or corvid's nest 7 metres (23 ft) off the ground. A dent (23–28 centimetres (9.1–11.0 in) wide by 10–11 centimetres (3.9–4.3 in) deep) is scraped out on the dirt floor and cushioned with grasses, sticks, leaves, and feathers. About 6-11 pale buff eggs speckled brown are then laid in the nest, incubated for approx. 23–28 days. The chicks consume invertebrates, transitioning to more plant matter as they mature. By around 10–14 days and so forth, they are capable of short flights.
Where their range overlaps in similar biomes of other species, they are capable of hybridizing with the ringneck pheasant, western capercaillie, black-billed capercaillie, Siberian grouse, hazel grouse, and willow ptarmigan.


Tettigonia viridissima, the great green bush-cricket, is a large species of bush-cricket belonging to the subfamily Tettigoniinae.


This species can be encountered in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in the Near East, and in North Africa, especially in meadows,  grasslands, prairies and occasionally in gardens at an elevation up to 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) above sea level.


The adult males grow up to 28–36 millimetres (1.1–1.4 in) long, while females reach 32–42 millimetres (1.3–1.7 in). This insect is most often completely green (but there are specimens completely yellowish or with yellow legs), excluding a rust-colored band on top of the body. The organ of the stridulation of the males is generally brown.
Tettigonia viridissima is distinguished by its very long and thin antennae, which can sometimes reach up to three times the length of the body, thus differentiating them from grasshoppers, which always carry short antennae. It could be confused with Tettigonia cantans, whose wings are a centimeter shorter than the ovipositor, or Tettigonia caudata whose hind femurs bear conspicuous black spines.
The morphology of both sexes is very similar, but the female has an egg-laying organ (ovipositor) that can reach a length of 23–32 millimetres (0.91–1.26 in). It reaches the end of the elytra and is slightly curved downward.
The larvae are green and as the imago show on their back a thin brown longitudinal stripe. The ovipositor can be seen from the fifth stage; the wings appear in both genders from the sixth stage.


Tettigonia viridissima is carnivorous and arboreal. Its diet is mostly composed of flies, caterpillars and larvae. Unlike grasshoppers, it is essentially active in day and night, as testified by its endless crepuscular and nocturnal singing. The species can bite painfully but is not particularly aggressive. It is best to avoid holding the insect in the fist, as that almost guarantees a bite. They can fly, but they tend to avoid flying where possible. Most often they move "on foot" or jumps, which allow them to travel about in bushes and trees.


The black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophris), also known as the black-browed mollymawk, is a large seabird of the albatross family Diomedeidae; it is the most widespread and common member of its family.


Mollymawks are albatrosses in the family Diomedeidae and order Procellariiformes, which also includes shearwaters, fulmars, storm petrels, and diving petrels. These birds share certain identifying features. They have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns, although the nostrils on the albatross are on the sides of the bill. The bills of Procellariiformes are also unique in that they are split into between seven and nine horny plates. They produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This is used against predators as well as being an energy-rich food source for chicks and also for the adults during their long flights. The albatross also has a salt gland above the nasal passage which helps to remove salt from the ocean water that they imbibe. The gland excretes a high saline solution through the bird's nose.
In 1998, Robertson and Nunn published their view that the Campbell albatross (Thalassarche impavida), should be split from this species (T. melanophris). Over the course of the next few years, others agreed, including BirdLife International in 2000, and Brooke in 2004. James Clements did not adopt the split, the ACAP has not yet adopted the split, and the SACC recognizes the need for a proposal.
The black-browed albatross was first described as Diomedea melanophris by Coenraad Jacob Temminck, in 1828, based on a specimen from the Cape of Good Hope.


The black-browed albatross is a medium-sized albatross, at 80 to 95 cm (31–37 in) long with a 200 to 240 cm (79–94 in) wingspan and an average weight of 2.9 to 4.7 kg (6.4–10.4 lb). It can have a natural lifespan of over 70 years. It has a dark grey saddle and upperwings that contrast with the white rump, and underparts. The underwing is predominantly white with broad, irregular, black margins. It has a dark eyebrow and a yellow-orange bill with a darker reddish-orange tip. Juveniles have dark horn-colored bills with dark tips, and a grey head and collar. They also have dark underwings. The features that distinguish it from other mollymawks (except the closely related Campbell albatross) are the dark eyestripe which gives it its name, a broad black edging to the white underside of its wings, white head and orange bill, tipped darker orange.  The Campbell albatross is very similar but with a pale eye. Immature birds are similar to grey-headed albatrosses but the latter have wholly dark bills and more complete dark head markings.


The black-browed albatross is circumpolar in the southern oceans, and it breeds on 12 islands throughout that range. In the Atlantic Ocean, it breeds on the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the Cape Horn Islands. In the Pacific Ocean it breeds on Islas Ildefonso, Diego de Almagro, Islas Evangelistas, Campbell Island, Antipodes Islands, Snares Islands, and Macquarie Island. In the Indian Ocean it breeds on the Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island, and McDonald Island.
There are an estimated 1,220,000 birds alive with 600,853 breeding pairs, as estimated by a 2005 count. Of these birds, 402,571 breed in the Falklands, 72,102 breed on South Georgia Island, 120,171 breed on the Chilean islands of Islas Ildefonso, Diego de Almagro, Islas Evangelistas, and Islas Diego Ramírez. 600 pairs breed on Heard Island, Finally, the remaining 5,409 pairs breed on the remaining islands. This particular species of albatross prefers to forage over shelf and shelf-break areas. Falkland Island birds winter near the Patagonian Shelf, and birds from South Georgia forage in South African waters, using the Benguela Current, and the Chilean birds forage over the Patagonian Shelf, the Chilean Shelf, and even make it as far as New Zealand. It is the most likely albatross to be found in the North Atlantic due to a northerly migratory tendency. There have been 20 possible sightings in the Continental United States.


The black-browed albatross feeds on fish, squid, crustaceans, carrion, and fishery discards. This species has been observed stealing food from other species.


Until 2013, the IUCN classified this species as endangered due to a drastic reduction in population. Bird Island near South Georgia Island had a 4% per year loss of nesting pairs, and the Kerguelen Island population had a 17% reduction from 1979 to 1995. Diego Ramírez decreased in the 1980s but has rebounded recently, and the Falklands had a surge in the 1980s probably due to abundant fish waste from trawlers; however, recent censuses have shown drastic reduction in the majority of the nesting sites there. There has been a 67% decline in the population over 64 years.
Increased longline fishing in the southern oceans, especially around the Patagonian Shelf and around South Georgia has been attributed as a major cause of the decline of this bird, The black-browed albatross has been found to be the most common bird killed by fisheries. Trawl fishing, especially around the Patagonian Shelf and near South Africa, is also a large cause of deaths.
Conservation efforts underway start with this species being placed on Convention on Migratory Species Appendix II, and Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels Annex 1. It is being monitored on half of the islands, and most of the breeding sites are reserves. Heard Island, McDonald Island, Macquarie Island, and the New Zealand islands are World Heritage Sites. An initial Chilean census has also been completed.


Although this is a rare occurrence, on several occasions a black-browed albatross has summered in Scottish gannet colonies (Bass Rock, Hermaness and now Sula Sgeir) for a number of years. Ornithologists believe that it was the same bird, known as Albert, who lives in north Scotland. It is believed that the bird was blown off course into the North Atlantic in 1967. A similar incident took place in the gannet colony in the Faroe Islands island of Mykines, where a black-browed albatross lived among the gannets for over 30 years. This incident is the reason why an albatross is referred to as a "gannet king" (Faroese: súlukongur) in Faroese. In July 2013 the first recorded sighting of a black-browed albatross in the Bahamas was made from the Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organisation's research vessel, off Sandy Point, Abaco. For four consecutive years from 2014 on, a bird - probably the same individual named Albert - has been sighted over Heligoland, and on the east coast of England.


The royal tern (Thalasseus maximus) is a tern in the family Laridae. The species is endemic to the Americas, though strays have been identified in Europe.


The royal tern was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1781 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Sterna maxima in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The royal tern is now placed in the genus Thalasseus that was erected by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1822.
The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek θάλασσα :  thálassa meaning "sea". The specific epithet maximus is Latin for "greatest".
The royal tern belongs to the class Aves and the order Charadriiformes. Charadriiformes are mainly seabirds of small to medium-large size. The royal tern is also in the family Sternidae because of its white plumage, black cap on its head, long bill, webbed feet, and bodies that are more streamlined than those of gulls.
The taxonomy of the royal tern has been debated, whether the correct scientific name was Thalasseus maximus or Sterna maxima. It is presently classified as Thalasseus maximus, which places it with seven other terns. The royal tern was originally placed in the genus Sterna; however, a 2005 study suggest that it is actually part of the genus Thalasseus.
The West African crested tern (Thalasseus albididorsalis) was formerly considered to be a subspecies of royal tern. It was elevated to species status in January 2021.


This is a large tern, second only to the Caspian tern but is unlikely to be confused with the carrot-billed giant, which has extensive dark under-wing patches.
The royal tern has an orange-red bill, pale grey upper parts and white under parts. Its legs are black. In winter, the black cap becomes patchy. Juvenile royal terns are similar to non-breeding adults. Differences include juveniles having black splotched wings and a yellower bill. An adult royal tern has an average wingspan of 130 cm (51 in), for both sexes, but their wingspan can range from 125–135 cm (49–53 in). The royal tern's length ranges from 45–50 cm (18–20 in) and their weight is anywhere from 350–450 g (12–16 oz).
The calls of the royal tern are usually short, clear shrills. Some of the shrills sound like kree or tsirr; the royal tern also has a more plover like whistle that is longer, rolling and is more melodious.
In parts of its range, the royal tern could be confused with the elegant tern, but the elegant tern has a longer, more curved, bill and shows more white on the forehead in winter.


The royal tern is found on both coasts of the Americas. In the east during the breeding season (April to July) it is primarily found from Texas to Virginia. There are scattered breeding records as far north as Long Island, New York, coastally as far south as French Guiana, and on several Caribbean islands. Isolated breeding sites have been found in Argentina. The wintering range in the east is from North Carolina south to Panama and the Guianas and throughout the Caribbean. The western population nests from California to Mexico and winters from California south to Peru. Argentinian breeders may disperse into Brazil.


The royal tern typically feeds in small secluded bodies of water such as estuaries, mangroves, and lagoons. Also, but less frequently, the royal tern will hunt for fish in open water, typically within about 100 metres (110 yards) of the shore. The royal tern feeds in salt water and on very rare occasions in fresh water. When feeding they fly long distances from the colony to forage. The royal tern feeds by diving into the water from heights near 30 feet (9.1 metres). They usually feed alone or in groups of two or three, but on occasion they feed in large groups when hunting large schools of fish.
The royal tern usually feeds on small fish such as anchovies, weakfish, and croakers. Fish are their main source of food but they also eat insects, shrimp, and crabs. The royal tern feeds on small crabs, such as young blue crabs that swim near the surface of the water. When feeding on small crabs the royal tern does not use its normal plunge-dive technique, but instead uses short shallow dives so that they are concealed from their prey. The royal tern also uses this technique when hunting flying fish.


The royal tern nests on island beaches or isolated beaches with limited predators. It lays one or two eggs, usually in a scrape, an area on the ground where a tern has made a small hole to lay its eggs. In some cases, tern eggs are laid directly on the ground, not in a scrape. The eggs incubate from 25 to 30 days; after the eggs hatch the chicks remain in the scrape for about a week. About two weeks after hatching the chicks gather into groups called a crèche. When the chicks are in the crèche, they are primarily fed by their parents who recognize their offspring by their voice and looks. While the chicks are in the crèche, they usually roam freely around the colony. In a large colony there can be thousands of chicks in the crèche. When the chicks are a month old they fledge or start to fly. Royal terns mature around the age of 4 years, after which they build their own nests and reproduce.


The royal tern has few predators when it is mature, but before the chicks hatch or while they are chicks the tern is threatened by humans, other animals, and the tides. Humans threaten terns by fishing and by disrupting the tern nesting sites. Fishing nets can catch a tern while it is diving, making it unable to feed or it may cause it to drown if it is caught under water. Animals such as foxes, raccoon, and large gulls prey on tern chicks and tern eggs.
Tern nesting sites can also be affected by the tides; if a tern colony has nested too close to the high tide mark a spring tide would flood the nesting site and kill the chicks and make unhatched eggs infertile.


The IUCN has rated the royal tern as of Least Concern.


The Sandwich tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) is a tern in the family Laridae. It is very closely related to the lesser crested tern (T. bengalensis), Chinese crested tern (T. bernsteini), Cabot's tern (T. acuflavidus), and elegant tern (T. elegans) and has been known to interbreed with the lesser crested. It breeds in the Palearctic from Europe to the Caspian Sea wintering to South Africa, India and Sri Lanka.
The Sandwich tern is a medium-large tern with grey upperparts, white underparts, a yellow-tipped black bill and a shaggy black crest which becomes less extensive in winter with a white crown. Young birds bear grey and brown scalloped plumage on their backs and wings. It is a vocal bird. It nests in a ground scrape and lays one to three eggs.
Like all Thalasseus terns, the Sandwich tern feeds by plunge diving for fish, usually in marine environments, and the offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display.


The terns are small to medium-sized seabirds, gull-like in appearance, but usually with a more delicate, lighter build and shorter, weaker legs. They have long, pointed wings, which gives them a fast buoyant flight, and often a deeply forked tail. Most species are grey above and white below, and have a black cap which is reduced or flecked with white in the winter.
The Sandwich tern was originally described by ornithologist John Latham in 1787 as Sterna sandvicensis, but was recently moved to its current genus Thalasseus (Boie, 1822) following mitochondrial DNA studies which confirmed that the three types of head pattern (white crown, black cap, and black cap with a white blaze on the forehead) found amongst the terns corresponded to distinct clades. The current genus name is derived from Greek Thalassa, "sea", and sandvicensis, like the English name, refers to Sandwich, Kent, Latham's type locality. In birds, the specific name sandvicensis usually denotes that the species was first described from Hawaii, formerly known as the "Sandwich Islands", but the Sandwich tern does not occur there.
This bird has no subspecies. A former subspecies is now treated as a separate species called Cabot's tern (T. acuflavidus). It breeds on the Atlantic coasts of North America, northern and eastern South America, and has wandered to Western Europe.


This is a medium-large tern, 37–43 cm (15–17 in) long with an 85–97 cm (33–38 in) wingspan, which is unlikely to be confused within most of its range, although the South American race could be confused with the elegant tern. The Sandwich tern's weight ranges from 180-300 g (6.3-10.6 oz).
The Sandwich tern's thin sharp bill is black with a yellow tip, except in the yellow or orange billed South American race. Its short legs are black. Its upperwings are pale grey and its underparts white, and this tern looks very pale in flight, although the primary flight feathers darken during the summer.
The lesser crested tern and elegant tern differ in having all-orange bills; lesser crested also differs in having a grey rump and marginally stouter bill, and elegant in having a slightly longer, more slender bill. The Chinese crested tern is the most similar to the Sandwich tern, but has a reversal of the bill colour, yellow with a black tip; it does not overlap in range with the Sandwich tern so confusion is unlikely.
In winter, the adult Sandwich tern's forehead becomes white. Juvenile Sandwich terns have dark tips to their tails, and a scaly appearance on their back and wings, like juvenile roseate terns.
The Sandwich tern is a vocal bird; its call is a characteristic loud grating kear-ik or kerr ink.


This species breeds in very dense colonies on coasts and islands, and exceptionally inland on suitable large freshwater lakes close to the coast. It nests in a ground scrape and lays one to three eggs. Unlike some of the smaller white terns, it is not very aggressive toward potential predators, relying on the sheer density of the nests—often only 20–30 cm (7.9–11.8 in) apart and nesting close to other more aggressive species such as Arctic terns and black-headed gulls to avoid predation.
Like all Thalasseus terns, the Sandwich tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish, almost invariably from the sea. It usually dives directly, and not from the "stepped-hover" favoured by Arctic terns. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display.


The Sandwich tern has an extensive global range estimated at 100,000–1,000,000 km² (39,000–386,000 sq mi). It has a population estimated at 460,000–500,000 individuals. Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as least concern.
The Sandwich tern is among the taxa to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. Parties to the agreement are required to engage in a wide range of conservation actions which are describes in a detailed action plan. This plan should address key issues such as species and habitat conservation, management of human activities, research, education, and implementation.


The Cortez rainbow wrasse (Thalassoma lucasanum) is a species of wrasse native to the eastern Pacific Ocean from Baja California to Peru, as well as around the Galapagos Islands. It is a reef inhabitant, occurring in small schools from the surface to depths of 64 m (210 ft), though rarely deeper than 25 m (82 ft) or shallower than 2 m (6.6 ft). It is generally very common. It can also be found in the aquarium trade. This species can reach 15 cm (5.9 in) in total length. It feeds on small organisms such as crustaceans, plankton and fish eggs, and the young are cleaner fish.


Thalictrum dasycarpum, known as tall meadow rue and purple meadow-rue, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. It is native to North America.


Tall meadow rue is an herbaceous flowering plant with an erect habit, growing between 40–200 centimeters (16–79 in) tall. The leaves are compound, usually with 3 leaflets, though occasionally 5. Each leaflet is shallowly lobed with between 2 and 5 lobes, with otherwise smooth margins. The leaves are somewhat leathery with prominent veins. The leaf underside is usually pubescent, but occasionally hairless.
Each flowerhead comprises many flowers, borne in panicles, and is roughly pyramid in outline. It is usually dioecious, producing male and female flowers on separate plants. The small flowers—7 millimeters (0.28 in) across—lack petals but do have between 4 and 6 greenish-white sepals that are deciduous. Tall meadow rue produces flowers between late April and late July.


Tall meadow rue has a broad distribution across central North America: north to Yukon, west to Idaho, south to Texas, and east to New York state. It is found in a variety of wetland habitats, from swamps and wet meadows to prairies, as well as riparian woodlands.


Thalictrum fendleri is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family known by the common name Fendler's meadow-rue. It is named in honor of Augustus Fendler.
The plant is native to western North America, including much of the western United States and northern Mexico. It is a common plant found in many types of habitats, including open places to shaded areas in woodlands and forests.
It is anemophilous (pollinated via wind action).


Thalictrum fendleri is a perennial herb growing erect to 1–2 metres (3.3–6.6 ft) tall. The hairless stems are green to purple in color.
The leaves have compound blades divided into a few or many segments of varying shapes, often with three lobes, and are borne on long, slender petioles. The blades are hairless to slightly fuzzy and glandular.
The inflorescence is an upright or arching panicle of flowers. The species is usually dioecious, with male and female flowers occurring on separate plants, but plants with bisexual flowers have been noted. The male flower has a bell-shaped calyx of four sepals in shades of greenish white or purple which may lighten to white with age. From the calyx dangle many long, yellow or purple stamens tipped with large anthers.
The female flower has a cluster of immature fruits tipped with styles in shades of light to deep, bright pink. As the fruits develop the styles wither to hard, black stubs. A cluster may have up to 20 fruits.
There are three recognized subspecies of Thalictrum fendleri:
Thilactrum fendleri var. fendleri, which is found in AZ, CA, CO, ID, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WY.
Thilactrum fendleri var. wrighti which is found in AZ, NM, TX.
Thilactrum fendleri var. polycarpum which is found in CA, NV, OR, UT.


Thalictrum minus, known as lesser meadow-rue, is a perennial herb in the family Ranunculaceae that is native to Europe, Northwest Africa, Yemen, Ethiopia, South Africa, Southwest Asia, and Siberia. It grows on sand dunes, shingle, coastal rocks or calcareous grassland, cliffs and rocky gullies at up to 1,600 to 3,000 m (5,200 to 9,800 ft) elevation at southern latitudes. It grows to 30 cm (0.98 ft) tall with erect stems and 1 cm (0.39 in) leaves that are highly subdivided, 3-4 ternate to pinnate.
The plant contains an alkaloid 'Thalidisine', which is also present in other Thalictrum species.


Thalictrum pubescens, the king of the meadow or tall meadow-rue, is a plant in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae.


Thalictrum pubescens is a herbaceous plant with alternate, pinnately compound leaves, on hollow, green stems. The flowers are white, borne in spring and summer.


The range of this plant includes most of eastern Canada and United States excluding Florida.


Thalictrum thalictroides, synonym Anemonella thalictroides, the rue-anemone, is a herbaceous perennial plant native to woodland in eastern North America. It has white or pink flowers surrounded by a whorl of leaflets, and it blooms in spring.


Thalictrum thalictroides is a hairless plant growing from a cluster of tuberous roots, with upright stems 10 to 30 cm (4 to 12 in) tall that end with flowers. The basal leaves have petioles (leaf stalks) 10–30 cm (4–12 in) long and leaf blades that are two times ternately compound. The leaflets are widely rounded in shape and the ends are three lobed.
It flowers in spring, with flowers are borne singly or in umbel-like inflorescences with 3 to 6 flowers. The flowers have short stems that hold the fully opened flowers above the foliage. The involucral bracts have three leaflets like the leaves. The showy rounded flowers have 4-15 carpels surrounded by many yellow stamens in the middle, and a cup of 5 to 10 white to pinkish-lilac petal-like sepals. The sepals are about 5 to 18 mm (³⁄₁₆ to ¹¹⁄₁₆ in) long and the filaments 3–4 mm (¹⁄₈–³⁄₁₆ in) long.
In late spring, 3 to 4.5 mm (¹⁄₈ to ³⁄₁₆ in) long, ovoid to fusiform shaped fruits called achenes are released. The green achenes have 8 to 10 prominent veins and become dark brown when ripe.


Originally described as Anemone thalictroides by Linnaeus in 1753, it was transferred to a new, monospecific genus, Anemonella, by Édouard Spach in 1839. Although similar to plants in the genus Thalictrum, Sprach considered the diminutive size, umbelliform inflorescence, and tuberous roots of this species to be distinctive enough to designate a new genus. Bernard Boivin considered this distinction suspect, and transferred the species to the genus Thalictrum in 1957. Molecular evidence supports the placement of the species within Thalictrum, and this placement is accepted by several modern treatments, although The Plant List retains it in Anemonella.


The false rue-anemone (Enemion biternatum) is similar. It has single flowers that are always white and usually have 5 sepals. They appear individually in leaf axils on a branching stem.


The crowned woodnymph (Thalurania colombica) is a species of bird in the hummingbird family Trochilidae.
It is found in Belize and Guatemala to northern Peru.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, and heavily degraded former forest.


The adult crowned woodnymph is 10.2 cm long and weighs 4.5 g. It has a violet crown, upper back, shoulders and belly, a shiny green throat and breast, green lower back, and a deeply forked blue-black tail. The female is 8.4–9 cm long and weighs 3.5 g. She is bright green above and duller green below, with a grey throat and breast. Her tail is rounded, mainly green near the body but with a blue-black lower half and white corners. Young males lack any violet or iridescence and are bronze-coloured below. Immature females have buff fringes on the feathers of the nape, face and rump. The call is a high-pitched fast kip.


The female is entirely responsible for nest building and incubation. The clutch is two white eggs in a plant-fibre cup nest 1–5 m high on a horizontal branch. Incubation takes 15–19 days, and fledging another 20–26 days.
The food of this species is nectar, taken from a variety of flowers. Males feed in the canopy, where their food plants include epiphytic Ericaceae and bromeliads, and defend flowers and scrubs in their feeding territories. Females stay in the understory. After breeding, both sexes may concentrate at Heliconias. Like other hummingbirds, crowned woodnymph also takes small insects and spiders as an essential source of protein.
Studies have shown territorial differences between males and females. Female crowned woodnymph territories are of higher quality compared to the males. This is because females are more aggressive in defending their territory. Female territories also received more intruders contrary to males and produced higher mean nectar volume. These factors point to the fact that female crowned woodnymphs have higher quality feeding territories than males.


The barred antshrike (Thamnophilus doliatus) is a passerine bird in the antbird family. It is found in the Neotropics from Tamaulipas, Mexico, through Central America, Trinidad and Tobago, and a large part of South America east of the Andes as far south as northern Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. There is one accepted record from southern Texas. It is found in a wide range of wooded habitats (even gardens and parks) in both humid and arid regions. Throughout a large part of its range, it is among the most common antbirds.


The barred antshrike was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1764 and given the binomial name Lanius doliatus. The type locality was subsequently designated as Surinam. The specific epithet is from New Latin doliatus meaning "barred". There are 12 recognised subspecies.


The barred antshrike is 15–16 cm (5.9–6.3 in) in length, and weighs 24–30 g (0.85–1.06 oz). This species exhibits marked sexual dimorphism. The male of the nominate race is barred all over with black and white, and has a white-based black crest that is raised in display. The female is rufous above with a chestnut crest. The sides of her head and neck are streaked with black, and the underparts are rich buff. In both sexes, the legs are grey, the bill is black and the iris is pale yellow.
The subspecies vary primarily in the overall darkness and the amount of barring and hue of the underparts. For example, in the Tobagonian race T. d. tobagensis, males are whiter below, and females darker, than in the nominate subspecies. The most distinctive subspecies is T. d. capistratus of the Caatinga in north-eastern Brazil, where males have uniform black crown (no white barring to the base) and females have streaked throat and faintly barred belly. It is also the only subspecies where the iris is deep maroon-red. It has been suggested that it should be considered a separate species, the Caatinga barred antshrike.


It is typically found as territorial pairs. The female lays two purple-marked creamy white eggs in a deep cup nest in a shrub, which are incubated by both sexes for 14 days to hatching. The chicks fledge in another 12–13 days.
The barred antshrike is an insectivore which feeds on ants and other arthropods at or near the ground; it sometimes follows columns of army ants, and will take small lizards and berries. It is a skulking species, which may be located by its chuckling hu-hu-hu-hu-hu-hu song, often performed as a duet by a pair of birds, or a growled graaaaa.


Thamnosma montana, the turpentine broom, or Mojave desert-rue, is a shrub in the citrus family Rutaceae. It is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Except immediately after heavy rains, its straight stems usually lack leaves, giving it a broom-like appearance. The Latin specific epithet montana refers to mountains or coming from mountains.


It is a shrub with many straight, broom-like, yellow-green, 30 to 60 centimetres long. Except after heavy rains, it is usually found without leaves.


Stems are speckled with resin glands. Leaves are small and occur only after rains, then fall off (drought deciduous).


Flowers occur at intervals along the stem. Each has a greenish base of blunt sepals. The corolla is oval with rounded ends. The petals royal purple in color. Like most other parts of the plant, petals are studded with visible resin glands. The tips of the petals curve outward, revealing a protruding stigma and shorter yellow-tipped stamens.
The fruit is a leathery, yellow-green, gland-spotted capsule with two nearly separate rounded lobes. Within the capsule are pale, kidney-shaped seeds about 4 millimeters long each. The fruits are eaten by animals which then disperse the seeds.


It grows in dry desert scrub, juniper woodland, and other desert plant communities. It grows among desert plants such as creosote, blackbrush, ephedra, and Yucca species such as Joshua Tree.


Many Native American groups used it as a ceremonial drug, and held beliefs it could be used as a medicine and for pest control.


The giant mesquite bug (Thasus neocalifornicus) is an insect of the order Hemiptera, or the "true bugs".  As a member of the family Coreidae, it is a leaf-footed bug.  As the common name implies, it is a large bug that feeds on mesquite trees of the American Southwest and Northwestern Mexico.


Thasus neocalifornicus is univoltine, meaning they have one generation of offspring annually.  From January through July, the nymphs develop from first-fifth instars.  Each subsequent instar more closely resembles an adult than the last. They often prefer the undersides of leaves and migrate towards the base of mesquite trees in summer.  Adults lay eggs on the trees from August until October. Only the eggs survive the winter season.


Thasus neocalifornicus inhabits the Sonoran Desert from southwestern Arizona to the Mexican state of Baja California Sur and can be plentiful depending on the season.  They have also been found in the state of Texas and the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Sonora.  Most populations in the United States occur in the Tucson area, and around the southern tip of Baja California Sur in Mexico.  It is the only species in the genus Thasus known to occur in the United States.


This species is the largest terrestrial member of the suborder Heteroptera.  Adults are around two inches in length.  The flightless nymphs have more vibrant coloration and complex patterning.  They have an aposematic white and red coloration, while adults are dark brown with crimson and black striped legs and antennae.  The antennae are setaceous and feature a small disc-like nodule about two thirds of the way up. The hind femora of the adults are widened and feature spikes along the inner edge that are more pronounced in males.  It is the lone member of this genus to have third and fourth antennal segments that are equal or subequal.  Between the wing bases on the dorsal thorax lies a triangular structure called the scutellum.  This species was mistaken for T. gigas or T. acutangulus until it was distinguished in 1995.


These chemicals are also utilized by the giant mesquite bug to signal to others of the same life stage. As pheromones, they stimulate aggregations of giant mesquite bugs of the same life stage to disperse. However, nymphs do not respond to adult secretions and vice versa. 4-oxo-(E)-2- hexenal functions as both an alarm signal and a defense mechanism.


The giant mesquite bug feeds on the sugary seedpods and sap of mesquite trees. Both adults and nymphs exhibit similar feeding habits, and both stages are often found congregated on the same tree. Species of mesquite trees the bugs feed on include Prosopis chilensis, Prosopis velutina, and Prosopis glandulosa.


Research by Olivier-Espejel et al. suggests that the symbiotic bacterium Burkholderia is the dominant gut microbiota of this species, and may be an important factor in the species' survival. The study found that Burkholderia was present in neither the eggs nor all young nymphs, meaning the symbiont is acquired post-hatching. It was also determined that individuals without the bacteria experienced a lower survival rate. All nymphs that were raised in a sterile environment without exposure to Burkholderia died within two weeks.  Acquired from the soil, Burkholderia occupy the lumen of crypts which lie along the midgut. Bacteria of the genus Wolbachia was also found in the gut, as well as the reproductive organs of adults.


A notable predator of Thasus neocalifornicus is the pallid bat.  A study by Czaplewski et al. conducted near Tucson found that when nighttime temperatures dropped in late summer, the adult bugs became sluggish on the edges of trees.  This made them easy prey for foraging pallid bats.


Thelesperma filifolium, commonly known as stiff greenthread, or plains greenthread, is a species of flowering plant in the aster family, Asteraceae. It is often found growing in shallow soils. It prefers disturbed sites in dry, sandy or gravelly soil with a neutral to basic pH. Stiff greenthread adapts to various soil conditions, including loam, clay, caliche, and roadsides. It blooms between March and June and often into the fall.


In Texas, stiff greenthread can be found growing along roadsides and on dry hills in the South Plains and Edwards Plateau regions. The herb grows over much of the plains and mountain states, reaching up to Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota. It grows prolifically on the Navajo, Hopi, and Pueblo lands, as well as throughout much of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado.


Having a taproot, it is extremely resistant to drought, but thrives in rain. The designation greenthread is most appropriate, as it has thin, thread-like leaves. It can be single-stemmed or multi-stemmed, and reaches a height of 12 to 26 inches. The leaves are scattered along the whole stem. The daisy-like, 2 inch, eight-ray flowers are golden-yellow and the numerous disk flowers are reddish to dark brown. The urn-shaped bloom buds droop downward prior to opening. The inner whorl of phyllaries surrounding the lower portion of the bloom is translucent, which allows the colors of the developing flowers to be seen. When open, there are two types of phyllary at the base of the bloom: one is short and green, the other red and long.


The ripened seeds are a food source for the multi-colored painted bunting. It does not appear to be ravaged by deer. It is also a good larval and nectar plant for butterflies and is a larval food for the sulphur butterfly.


The crushed leaves offer a pleasant aroma and can be made into tea, which is sometimes used medicinally by several Native American tribes. This is especially widespread among southwest tribes, where it is named Navajo tea, Hopi tea, or Indian tea.


Thelesperma megapotamicum is a perennial species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name wild tea and rayless greenthread. It is native to sections of the Americas, including the central United States, where it grows in many types of habitat.


It is a perennial herb producing a slender, branching stem 30 to 60 centimeters tall or more. The leaves are narrow, mostly compound with linear or threadlike segments measuring a few centimeters long. The inflorescence bears several flower heads each in a cuplike involucre of phyllaries with purple-tinged, pointed lobes with white edges. The head contains many yellow or orange disc florets, and sometimes one or more yellow ray florets, although these may be absent.


Native American groups such as the Hopi and Navajo use this plant to make herbal teas, as a medicinal remedy and a yellow dye.  The Hopi name for this plant is hohoysi.  The plant can be boiled whole until the water turns a rusty color and used as a tea.  In addition, the Hopi people also add the plant, along with water, into large glass jars and place in the sun to make sun tea.
It is known as izeets'ósé in Apache.


Thelymitra longifolia, commonly called the white sun orchid, common sun orchid or maikuku, is a species of orchid in the family Orchidaceae that is endemic to New Zealand. It was the first of a large number of similar species to be described and is therefore the type species. It has a single grass-like leaf and up to five white flowers


Thelymitra longifolia is a tuberous, perennial herb with a single ribbed, linear to lance-shaped leaf 50–380 mm (2–10 in) long and 10–40 mm (0.4–2 in) wide. Up to five or more white or very pale pink flowers, reddish green on the back, 8–18 mm (0.3–0.7 in) wide are borne on a flowering stem sometimes up to 1,000 mm (40 in) tall. The three sepals and three petals (including the labellum) are alike except that the dorsal sepal in slightly wider. The column is white or brown near its base but dark brown to black near its tip. The lobe on the top of the anther is usually rounded and yellow and the side lobes have dense, tangled white hairs. Flowering occurs from September to February.


Thelymitra longifolia was first formally described in 1776 by Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg from a plant collected during James Cooks second voyage to the Pacific and the description was published in Characteres Generum Plantarum. The specific epithet (longifolia) is derived from the Latin words longus meaning "long" and folia meaning "leaves".


The white sun orchid usually grows in sunny places in open areas amongst scrub, but sometimes in dense forest. It is found on the North, South, Stewart, Three Kings, Chatham and Auckland Islands. It has also been reported from Norfolk Island but there is doubt that those collections match the type specimen.


Thelypteris palustris, the marsh fern, or eastern marsh fern, is a species of fern native to eastern North America and across Eurasia. It prefers to grow in marshy situations in full sun.
The species epithet palustris is Latin for "of the marsh" and indicates its common habitat.
It is the only known host plant for Fagitana littera, the marsh fern moth.


The following subspecies are accepted:
Thelypteris palustris subsp. palustris
Thelypteris palustris subsp. pubescens (G.Lawson) Fraser-Jenk.


Theobroma cacao, also called the cacao tree and the cocoa tree, is a small (6–12 m (20–39 ft) tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make chocolate liquor, cocoa solids, cocoa butter and chocolate. The largest producer of cocoa beans in 2018 was Ivory Coast, 2.2 million tons. The genus name, Theobroma, is derived from the Greek words θεός (theos), meaning 'god', and βρῶμα (broma), meaning 'food'. The literal meaning is "food of the gods".


Leaves are alternate, entire, unlobed, 10–50 cm (4–20 in) long and 5–10 cm (2–4 in) broad.
The flowers are produced in clusters directly on the trunk and older branches; this is known as cauliflory. The flowers are small, 1–2 cm (3⁄8–13⁄16 in) diameter, with pink calyx. The floral formula, used to represent the structure of a flower using numbers, is ✶ K5 C5 A(5°+5²) G(5). While many of the world's flowers are pollinated by bees (Hymenoptera) or butterflies/moths (Lepidoptera), cacao flowers are pollinated by tiny flies, Forcipomyia midges in the subfamily Forcipomyiinae. Using the natural pollinator Forcipomyia midges for Theobroma cacao was shown to have more fruit production than using artificial pollinators. The fruit, called a cacao pod, is ovoid, 15–30 cm (6–12 in) long and 8–10 cm (3–4 in) wide, ripening yellow to orange, and weighs about 500 g (1 lb) when ripe. The pod contains 20 to 60 seeds, usually called "beans", embedded in a white pulp. The seeds are the main ingredient of chocolate, while the pulp is used in some countries to prepare refreshing juice, smoothies, jelly, and cream. Usually discarded until practices changed in the 21st century, the fermented pulp may be distilled into an alcoholic beverage. Each seed contains a significant amount of fat (40–50%) as cocoa butter. The fruit's active constituent is the stimulant theobromine, a compound similar to caffeine.


Cacao (Theobroma cacao) belongs to the genus Theobroma classified under the subfamily Byttnerioideae of the mallow family Malvaceae. Cacao is one of 17 species of Theobroma.
In 2008, researchers proposed a new classification based upon morphological, geographic, and genomic criteria: 10 groups have been named according to their geographic origin or the traditional cultivar name. These groups are: Amelonado, Criollo, Nacional, Contamana, Curaray, Cacao guiana, Iquitos, Marañon, Nanay, and Purús.
The generic name is derived from the Greek for "food of the gods"; from θεός (theos), meaning 'god', and βρῶμα (broma), meaning 'food'. The specific name cacao is the Hispanization of the name of the plant in indigenous Mesoamerican languages. The cacao was known as kakaw in Tzeltal, Kʼicheʼ and Classic Maya; kagaw in Sayula Popoluca; and cacahuatl in Nahuatl as "bean of the cocoa-tree".


T. cacao is widely distributed from southeastern Mexico to the Amazon basin. There were originally two hypotheses about its domestication; one said that there were two foci for domestication, one in the Lacandon Jungle area of Mexico and another in lowland South America. More recent studies of patterns of DNA diversity, however, suggest that this is not the case. One study sampled 1241 trees and classified them into 10 distinct genetic clusters. This study also identified areas, for example around Iquitos in modern Peru and Ecuador, where representatives of several genetic clusters originated more than 5000 years ago, leading to development of the variety, Nacional cocoa bean. This result suggests that this is where T. cacao was originally domesticated, probably for the pulp that surrounds the beans, which is eaten as a snack and fermented into a mildly alcoholic beverage. Using the DNA sequences and comparing them with data derived from climate models and the known conditions suitable for cacao, one study refined the view of domestication, linking the area of greatest cacao genetic diversity to a bean-shaped area that encompasses Ecuador, the border between Brazil and Peru and the southern part of the Colombian–Brazilian border. Climate models indicate that at the peak of the last ice age 21,000 years ago, when habitat suitable for cacao was at its most reduced, this area was still suitable, and so provided a refugium for the species.
Cacao trees grow well as understory plants in humid forest ecosystems. This is equally true of abandoned cultivated trees, making it difficult to distinguish truly wild trees from those whose parents may originally have been cultivated.


In 2016, cocoa beans were cultivated on roughly 10,196,725 hectares (25,196,660 acres) worldwide. Cocoa beans are grown by large agroindustrial plantations and small producers, the bulk of production coming from millions of farmers with small plots. A tree begins to bear when it is four or five years old. A mature tree may have 6,000 flowers in a year, yet only about 20 pods. About 1,200 seeds (40 pods) are required to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of cocoa paste.
Historically, chocolate makers have recognized three main cultivar groups of cacao beans used to make cocoa and chocolate: Forastero, Criollo and Trinitario. The most prized, rare, and expensive is the Criollo group, the cocoa bean used by the Maya. Only 10% of chocolate is made from Criollo, which is arguably less bitter and more aromatic than any other bean. In November 2000, the cacao beans coming from Chuao were awarded an appellation of origin under the title Cacao de Chuao (from Spanish: 'cacao of Chuao').
The cacao bean in 80% of chocolate is made using beans of the Forastero group, the main and most ubiquitous variety being the Amenolado variety, while the Arriba variety (such as the Nacional variety) are less commonly found in Forastero produce. Forastero trees are significantly hardier and more disease-resistant than Criollo trees, resulting in cheaper cacao beans.
Major cocoa bean processors include Hershey's, Nestlé and Mars, all of which purchase cocoa beans via various sources. Chocolate can be made from T. cacao through a process of steps that involve harvesting, fermenting of T. cacao pulp, drying, harvesting, and then extraction. Roasting T. cacao by using superheated steam was found to be better than conventional roasting (use of ovens) because it resulted in same quality of cocoa beans in a shorter amount of time.


The pests and diseases to which cacao is subject, along with climate change, mean that new varieties will be needed to respond to these challenges. Breeders rely on the genetic diversity conserved in field genebanks to create new varieties, because cacao has recalcitrant seeds that cannot be stored in a conventional genebank. In an effort to improve the diversity available to breeders, and ensure the future of the field genebanks, experts have drawn up A Global Strategy for the Conservation and Use of Cacao Genetic Resources, as the Foundation for a Sustainable Cocoa Economy. The strategy has been adopted by the cacao producers and their clients, and seeks to improve the characterization of cacao diversity, the sustainability and diversity of the cacao collections, the usefulness of the collections, and to ease access to better information about the conserved material. Some natural areas of cacao diversity are protected by various forms of conservation, for example national parks. However, a recent study of genetic diversity and predicted climates suggests that many of those protected areas will no longer be suitable for cacao by 2050. It also identifies an area around Iquitos in Peru that will remain suitable for cacao and that is home to considerable genetic diversity, and recommends that this area be considered for protection.  Other projects, such as the International Cocoa Quarantine Centre, aim to combat cacao diseases and preserve genetic diversity.
Phytopathogens (parasitic organisms) cause much damage to Theobroma cacao plantations around the world. Many of those phytopathogens, which include many of the pests named below, were analyzed using mass spectrometry and allow for guiding on the correct approaches to get rid of the specific phytopathogens. This method was found to be quick, reproducible, and accurate showing promising results in the future to prevent damage to Theobroma cacao by various phytopathogens.
A specific type of bacteria Streptomyces camerooniansis was found to be beneficial for T. cacao by helping plant growth by accelerating seed germination of T. cacao, inhibiting growth of various types of microorganisms (such as different oomycetes, fungi, and bacteria), and preventing rotting by Phytophthora megakarya.


The genome of T. cacao is diploid, its size is 430 Mbp, and it comprises 10 chromosome pairs (2n=2x=20). In September 2010, a team of scientists announced a draft sequence of the cacao genome (Matina1-6 genotype). In a second, unrelated project, the International Cocoa Genome Sequencing Consortium-ICGS, co-ordinated by CIRAD, first published in December 2010 (online, paper publication in January 2011), the sequence of the cacao genome, of the Criollo cacao (of a landrace from Belize, B97-61/B2). In their publication, they reported a detailed analysis of the genomic and genetic data.
The sequence of the cacao genome identified 28,798 protein-coding genes, compared to the roughly 23,000 protein-coding genes of the human genome.  About 20% of the cacao genome consists of transposable elements, a low proportion compared to other plant species. Many genes were identified as coding for flavonoids, aromatic terpenes, theobromine and many other metabolites involved in cocoa flavor and quality traits, among which a relatively high proportion code for polyphenols, which constitute up to 8% of cacao pods dry weight. The cacao genome appears close to the hypothetical hexaploid ancestor of all dicotyledonous plants, and it is proposed as an evolutionary mechanism by which the 21 chromosomes of the dicots' hypothetical hexaploid ancestor underwent major fusions leading to cacao's 10 chromosome pairs.
The genome sequence enables cacao molecular biology and breeding for elite varieties through marker-assisted selection, in particular for genetic resistance to fungal, oomycete and viral diseases responsible for huge yield losses each year. In 2017–18, due to concerns about survivability of cacao plants in an era of global warming in which climates become more extreme in the narrow band of latitudes where cacao is grown (20 degrees north and south of the equator), the commercial company, Mars, Incorporated and the University of California, Berkeley are using CRISPR to adjust DNA for improved hardiness of cacao in hot climates.


Cultivation, use, and cultural elaboration of cacao were early and extensive in Mesoamerica.  Ceramic vessels with residues from the preparation of cacao beverages have been found at archaeological sites dating back to the Early Formative (1900–900 BC) period. For example, one such vessel found at an Olmec archaeological site on the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico dates cacao's preparation by pre-Olmec peoples as early as 1750 BC. On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, a Mokaya archaeological site provides evidence of cacao beverages dating even earlier, to 1900 BC.
The initial domestication was probably related to the making of a fermented, thus alcoholic, beverage. In 2018, researchers who analysed the genome of cultivated cacao trees concluded that the domesticated cacao trees all originated from a single domestication event that occurred about 3,600 years ago somewhere in Central America.
Several mixtures of cacao are described in ancient texts, for ceremonial or medicinal, as well as culinary, purposes. Some mixtures included maize, chili, vanilla (Vanilla planifolia), and honey. Archaeological evidence for use of cacao, while relatively sparse, has come from the recovery of whole cacao beans at Uaxactun, Guatemala and from the preservation of wood fragments of the cacao tree at Belize sites including Cuello and Pulltrouser Swamp. In addition, analysis of residues from ceramic vessels has found traces of theobromine and caffeine in early formative vessels from Puerto Escondido, Honduras (1100–900 BC) and in middle formative vessels from Colha, Belize (600–400 BC) using similar techniques to those used to extract chocolate residues from four classic period (around 400 AD) vessels from a tomb at the Maya archaeological site of Rio Azul. As cacao is the only known commodity from Mesoamerica containing both of these alkaloid compounds, it seems likely these vessels were used as containers for cacao drinks. In addition, cacao is named in a hieroglyphic text on one of the Rio Azul vessels. Cacao is also believed to have been ground by the Aztecs and mixed with tobacco for smoking purposes. Cocoa was being domesticated by the Mayo Chinchipe of the upper Amazon around 3,000 BC.


The first European knowledge about chocolate came in the form of a beverage which was first introduced to the Spanish at their meeting with Moctezuma in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1519. Cortés and others noted the vast quantities of this beverage the Aztec emperor consumed, and how it was carefully whipped by his attendants beforehand. Examples of cacao beans, along with other agricultural products, were brought back to Spain at that time, but it seems the beverage made from cacao was introduced to the Spanish court in 1544 by Kekchi Maya nobles brought from the New World to Spain by Dominican friars to meet Prince Philip. Within a century, chocolate had spread to France, England and elsewhere in Western Europe. Demand for this beverage led the French to establish cacao plantations in the Caribbean, while Spain subsequently developed their cacao plantations in their Venezuelan and Philippine colonies (Bloom 1998, Coe 1996). A painting by Dutch Golden Age artist Albert Eckhout shows a wild cacao tree in mid-seventeenth century Dutch Brazil. The Nahuatl-derived Spanish word cacao entered scientific nomenclature in 1753 after the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus published his taxonomic binomial system and coined the genus and species Theobroma cacao. Traditional pre-Hispanic beverages made with cacao are still consumed in Mesoamerica.  These include the Oaxacan beverage known as tejate.


The black-faced ibis (Theristicus melanopis) is a species of bird in the family Threskiornithidae. It is found in grassland and fields in southern and western South America. It has been included as a subspecies of the similar buff-necked ibis, but today all major authorities accept the split. The black-faced ibis also includes the Andean ibis (T. branickii) as a subspecies.  Some taxonomic authorities (including the American Ornithological Society) still do so.


It has a total length of approximately 75 centimetres (30 in). The head, neck and lower chest are buffish, the crown and nape are cinnamon, the upperparts and (often incomplete) chest-band are grey, the belly and flight feathers are black, and the wing-coverts are whitish (though not contrasting strongly with the grey upperparts). The bill, throat-wattle and bare skin around the eyes are blackish and the legs are red.
The similar buff-necked ibis is almost entirely restricted to warm regions, has contrasting large white wing-patches, a dark grey (not buff) lower chest, and its throat-wattle is smaller than in the black-faced ibis.


The black-faced ibis is mainly found in southern South America, ranging throughout most of southern and central Argentina and Chile, where it occurs from sea-level to an altitude of approximately 2,500 metres (8,200 ft). It also occurs very locally in coastal Peru. While it remains fairly common in Argentina and Chile, this species has now been almost entirely extirpated from the Peruvian part of its range.
Overall the species is not threatened, and consequently assigned Least Concern by the IUCN.


Thermopsis californica,  known by the common name California goldenbanner,  is a species of flowering plant in the legume family.
The plant is endemic to California, from regions in San Diego County and Southern California, to Modoc County and northeastern California.
It was previously included within the species Thermopsis macrophylla.


Varieties include:
Thermopsis californica var. argentata — silvery false lupine; endemic to Northern California.
Thermopsis californica var. californica — endemic to coastal California.
Thermopsis californica var. semota — velvety false lupine; endemic to the Peninsular Ranges.