The African bush elephant occurs in Sub-Saharan Africa including Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, and Angola. It moves between a variety of habitats, including subtropical and temperate forests, dry and seasonally flooded grasslands, and woodlands, wetlands and agricultural land from sea level to mountain slopes. In Mali and Namibia, it also inhabits desert and semi-desert areas.
In Ethiopia, the African bush elephant has historically been recorded up to an elevation of 2,500 m (8,200 ft). By the late 1970s, the population had declined to a herd in the Dawa River valley and one close to the Kenyan border.


The populations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe are listed in Appendix II for specific purposes.


The documented range of this species lies roughly south of a line from southeastern Nebraska through southern Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana to southwestern Ohio. In the southern states, it is native from central Texas to western Georgia and north to Kentucky.
Despite rumors to the contrary, the brown recluse spider has not established itself in California or anywhere outside its native range. There are other species of the genus Loxosceles native to the southwestern part of the United States, including California, which may resemble the brown recluse, but interactions between humans and the recluse species in California and the region are rare because those species native ranges lie outside of dense human populations. The number of "false positive" reports based on misidentifications is considerable; in a nationwide study where people submitted spiders that they thought were brown recluses, of 581 from California only 1 was a brown recluse—submitted by a family that moved from Missouri and brought it with them (compared to specimens submitted from Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma, where between 75% and 90% were recluses). From this study, the most common spider submitted from California as a brown recluse was in the genus Titiotus, whose bite is deemed harmless. A similar study documented that various arachnids were routinely misidentified by physicians, pest control operators, and other non-expert authorities, who told their patients or clients that the spider they had was a brown recluse when in fact it was not. Despite the absence of brown recluses from the Western U.S., physicians in the region commonly diagnose "brown recluse bites", leading to the popular misconception that the spiders inhabit those areas.
Over the last century, spiders have occasionally been intercepted in locations where they have no known established populations; these spiders may be transported fairly easily, though the lack of established populations well outside the natural range also indicates that such movement has not led to the colonization of new areas, after decades of opportunities. Note that the occurrence of brown recluses in a single building (such as a warehouse) outside of the native range is not considered as successful colonization; such single-building populations can occur (e.g., in several such cases in Florida), but do not spread, and can be easily eradicated. The spider has also received numerous sensationalized media reports of bites occurring where these spiders are absent (and no specimens were found), such as a 2014 report from Thailand, where a man was claimed to have died from a brown recluse bite. Many misidentifications and erroneous geographic records stem from the similarity between L. reclusa and a related introduced species, the Mediterranean recluse (Loxosceles rufescens), which is found worldwide, including numerous sightings throughout the United States; the two species are superficially almost indistinguishable, and misidentifications are common, making it difficult to distinguish which reports of recluses refer to which species.


There is an ELISA-based test for brown recluse venom that can determine whether a wound is a brown recluse bite, although it is not commercially available and not in routine clinical use. Clinical diagnoses often use Occam's razor principle in diagnosing bites based on what spiders the patient likely encountered and previous similar diagnoses.
A mnemonic device, "NOT RECLUSE", has been suggested as a tool to help laymen and medical professionals more objectively screen and diagnose potential cases of loxoscelism.
There are numerous documented infectious and noninfectious conditions that produce wounds that have been initially misdiagnosed as recluse bites by medical professionals, including:
Pyoderma gangrenosum
Infection by Staphylococcus
Infection by Streptococcus
Herpes
Diabetic ulcers
Fungal infection
Chemical burns
Toxicodendron dermatitis
Squamous cell carcinoma
Localized vasculitis
Syphilis
Toxic epidermal necrolysis
Sporotrichosis
Lyme disease
Many of these conditions are far more common and more likely to be the source of necrotic wounds, even in areas where brown recluse spiders actually occur. The most important of these is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacterium whose necrotic lesions are very similar to those induced by recluse bites, and which can be lethal if left untreated. Misdiagnosis of MRSA as spider bites is extremely common (nearly 30% of patients with MRSA reported that they initially suspected a spider bite), and can have fatal consequences.
Reported cases of brown recluse bites occur primarily in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. There have been many reports of brown recluse bites in California—though a few related species may be found there, none of these are known to bite humans. To date, the reports of bites from areas outside of the spider's native range have been either unverified or, if verified, the spiders have been moved to those locations by travelers or commerce. Many arachnologists believe that a large number of bites attributed to the brown recluse in the West Coast are either from other spider species or not spider bites at all. For example, the venom of the hobo spider, a common European species established in the northwestern United States and southern British Columbia, has been reported to produce similar symptoms as the brown recluse bite when injected into laboratory rabbits. However, the toxicity of hobo spider venom has been called into question as actual bites have not been shown to cause necrosis, and no such occurrences have ever been reported where the spider is native.
Numerous other spiders have been associated with necrotic bites in the medical literature. Other recluse species, such as the desert recluse (found in the deserts of southwestern United States), are reported to have caused necrotic bite wounds, though only rarely. The hobo spider and the yellow sac spider have also been reported to cause necrotic bites. However, the bites from these spiders are not known to produce the severe symptoms that can follow from a recluse spider bite, and the level of danger posed by these has been called into question. So far, no known necrotoxins have been isolated from the venom of any of these spiders, and some arachnologists have disputed the accuracy of spider identifications carried out by bite victims, family members, medical responders, and other non-experts in arachnology. There have been several studies questioning the danger posed by some of these spiders. In these studies, scientists examined case studies of bites in which the spider in question was identified by an expert, and found that the incidence of necrotic injury diminished significantly when "questionable" identifications were excluded from the sample set. (For a comparison of the toxicity of several kinds of spider bites, see the list of spiders having medically significant venom.)


Lucanus cervus is widespread across Europe, though it is absent from Ireland. In Germany it is widespread, mainly in the south. In Hungary this species is widespread in the hilly and mountainous areas. In Romania it is widespread, especially in the hilly areas with sun exposed slopes. It also occurs in the European part of Turkey. In Italy it is mainly distributed in northern and central regions. In Spain and Portugal it is present only in the northern half of each country. In Britain it is largely confined to the south-east of England, where it is widespread. This species is now extinct in Denmark and Latvia. It is also found in Caucasus, Asia Minor, Syria and west Kazakhstan. Its range is currently only increasing in Croatia and Slovakia.
Lucanus cervus has been associated with a range of trees including those in the families oak (Quercus), lime (Tilia), beech (Fagus), willow (Salix) and certain species in other families including black poplar (Populus nigra), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), wild cherry (Prunus avium), and  common walnut (Juglans regia). Larval development sites were found in proximity of dead wood of the allochthonous Quercus rubra.


There are two subspecies of woodlark:
Northern woodlark (L. a. arborea) - (Linnaeus, 1758): Found from northern, western and central Europe to western Russia and Ukraine
Southern woodlark (L. a. pallida) - Zarudny, 1902: Found from southern Europe and north-western Africa through the Middle East to Iran and Turkmenistan, Crimea and Caucasus.


Found mainly in Europe, the mountains of northern Africa and western Asia, the woodlark is present across much of its range. In Europe, the bird seems most at home in the sandy heaths of Belgium, where its density was 7.5 pairs per square kilometre (km²) in 1988. In the same year, densities in East Germany ranged from 0.29 to 5.0 pairs per km² and between 0.1 and 0.25 pairs per km² in southern England, with more optimal habitats being more densely populated. However, populations fluctuated across Europe in the 1990s and 2000s and more up-to-date density figures are unavailable. The extent of the woodlark's range is England in the west, parts of northern Egypt to the south, Iran and Turkmenistan to the east and the Scandinavian Peninsula in the north. Declining populations have resulted in the woodlark's range contracting, for example in Britain it once bred in Wales and central England but is now found only in southern England. Within its range it is mainly resident in the west, with eastern populations migrating south in the winter.
The woodlark's natural habitat is heathland and open spaces sparsely populated with trees. They prefer clearings in pine forests and heathland and like newly planted areas with pine saplings. Experimental work showed that annual ground‐disturbance can increase Woodlark abundance within lowland grass‐heaths. The bird can also be found more rarely in urban areas. For example, in 1950 a pair were recorded on a main road near Putney Heath, London.


Lupinus perennis (also wild perennial lupine, wild lupine, sundial lupine, blue lupine, Indian beet, or old maid's bonnets) is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is widespread in the eastern part of the USA (from Texas and Florida to Maine) and Minnesota, Canada (southern Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador), and on the coasts of the Arctic Ocean, where it grows in sandy areas such as dunes and savannas.


Lupinus sparsiflorus (Coulter's lupine) is a species of lupin native to North America. In the United States it occurs in  California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah, and in Mexico it is found in Baja California and Sonora. Other common names include Mojave lupine, a name it shares with Lupinus odoratus.
This is an annual herb growing 20 to 40 centimetres tall. Each palmate leaf is made up of 7 to 11 very narrow leaflets up to 3 centimetres long and just a few millimetres wide. The inflorescence is a spiral of several flowers each around a centimetre long. The flower is blue or purple, becoming darker with age, with a white to pink patch on its banner.
The desert lupine flower is pale blue or purple. The upper petal (banner) has a yellow spot which changes to reddish after pollination. The two bottom petals (keel) are short and wide, hairy on the bottom edge and curve upward to a slender tip. When ripe, the seed pods explode, scattering their seed in the wind.


An adult thrush nightingale is about 16 centimetres (6.3 in) long with a wingspan of approximately 18 centimetres (7.1 in). The head, nape and the whole of the upper parts of the thrush nightingale are dark brown with a slight olive tinge. The colour is much deeper than that of the nightingale and is not at all rufous. The upper tail-coverts are less olivaceous and the tail feathers are dark rufous-brown. The lores and ear-coverts are brownish-black and the chin and throat are pale buff or whitish, mottled with brown, and are paler in colour than the nightingale. The sides of the throat are spotted brown and the pale feathers of the breast have brown central bands giving the breast a mottled appearance. The under tail-coverts are buff, sometimes barred or marked with brown. The wing feathers and wing-coverts are dark brown and less rufous than the nightingale. The beak, legs and feet are brown and the irises are dark brown. The sexes are similar to each other in appearance and the juveniles are darker and more mottled. There is a single moult in July and August at the end of the breeding season.


The thrush nightingale is a migrant species. It breeds in eastern Europe and the western part of temperate Asia. Its northern limit of its summer range extends to Denmark, southern Finland, Norway and Sweden, the Baltic States, the Republic of Karelia, Kostroma, Vologda, Perm, Kazakhstan, Turkestan and Altai. The southern limit extends from Austria and the Czech Republic, through Romania, Bulgaria, southern Russia, Ukraine, the Crimea and northern Caucasus. It overwinters in Africa south of the Sahara. It is an occasional visitor to the British Isles.
In its breeding range, the thrush nightingale is found in damp deciduous woodland typically with alder and birch. It favours thick undergrowth with brambles, dense shrubs and tangled vegetation in swampy places and near water. In its winter quarters it is found in dense patches of thorn bush, especially in valley bottoms near water courses, and sometimes in thick vegetation at the edge of woodland.
The bird is a host of the acanthocephalan intestinal parasite Apororhynchus silesiacus.


The Eurasian otter is the most widely distributed otter species, its range including parts of Asia and Africa, as well as being spread across Europe, south to Palestine. Though currently thought to be extinct in Liechtenstein and Switzerland, it is now common in Latvia, along the coast of Norway, in the western regions of Spain and Portugal and across Great Britain and Ireland. In Italy, it lives in southern parts of the peninsula.
It inhabits unpolluted bodies of fresh water such as lakes, streams, rivers, canals and ponds, as long as the food supply is adequate. In Andalusia, it uses artificial lakes on golf courses. It prefers the open areas of the streams and also lives along the coast in salt water, but requires regular access to fresh water to clean its fur.
In Syria, the Eurasian otter was recorded in montane creeks in Latakia and Raqqa Governorates and in the lower Euphrates valley in Deir ez-Zor Governorate.
In western Nepal, its presence was documented at elevations of around 1,600 m (5,200 ft) in Barekot river in Jajarkot District and at 1,337 m (4,386 ft) in Tubang river in Eastern Rukum District.
In India, it is distributed in the Himalayan foothills, southern Western Ghats and the central Indian landscape.


The greater water dock, (Rumex) is host plant of L. dispar, with a broad range of species in the Eastern part of its distribution, and a more limited range of species in its Western distribution. Plant specifications, such as height, size, phonological stages (increase in variables is preferable) and nutrition, as L. dispar is sensitive to its host plants acidity, are all conditions that are taken into consideration when a females chooses host plants to lay her eggs on: these plant will also provide emerging larvae with a source of food.
Favourable host plants include R. crispus, the preferred food plant in southwest Germany and Austria, R. obtusifolius, being the preferred food plant in Southwest France, R. patientia, and the lesser common R. hydrolapathum, which is the main food plant in the butterflies northwestern range (Poland and North Germany), where decline in populations has been most severe, and R. stenophyllus. Other commonly distributed Rumex species, that are used by L. dispar are: R. obtusifolius, R. conglomeratus, R. sanguineus, R. aquaticus, R. patientia, and R. stenophyllus. The sorrels, the Rumex species containing oxalic acid, Rumex acetosa, have less commonly been reported as host plants for L. dispar.


Th blue copper is found in western North America. In Canada, it is found specifically in southern British Columbia and Alberta. In the United States, it has been seen in Washington and California, and as far east as Colorado and New Mexico. The blue copper's preference for buckwheat affects the species' distribution.


Lycaena virgaureae montanus Meyer-Dür, 1851 Found in the Alps in France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Austria at elevations of 1,700–2,000 metres (5,600–6,600 ft).
Lycaena virgaureae miegii Vogel, 1857 North and central Spain at elevations of 600–1,600 m (2,000–5,200 ft).
Lycaena virgaureae armeniaca (A. Bang-Haas, 1906) Endemic of Armenia, occupies elevation range 1,800–2,700 m (5,900–8,900 ft).


Its distribution extends from Ecuador and Peru to the southern regions of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Some populations live in the southern regions of Colombia. It is most common on the western slopes of the Andes, where it inhabits open country and deciduous forests.


Lycium barbarum introduced to Australia became naturalised in south-eastern coastal and sub-coastal regions, and is regarded as an environmental weed in the provinces of Victoria and Tasmania. It is often found growing in disturbed sites,  native bushland, and riverbanks, often forming dense thickets along the latter.  It overlaps and is often confused with Lycium ferocissimum, a similar species originating from Africa.


Lycoperdon perlatum is considered to be a good edible mushroom when young, when the gleba is still homogeneous and white. They have been referred to as "poor man's sweetbread" due to their texture and flavor. The fruit bodies can be eaten after slicing and frying in batter or egg and breadcrumbs, or used in soups as a substitute for dumplings. As early as 1861, Elias Fries recommended them dried and served with salt, pepper, and oil. The puffballs become inedible as they mature: the gleba becomes yellow-tinged then finally develops into a mass of powdery olive-green spores. L. perlatum is one of several edible species sold in markets in the Mexican states of Puebla and Tlaxcala. The fruit bodies are appealing to other animals as well: the northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) includes the puffball in their diet of non-truffle fungi, while the "puffball beetle" Caenocara subglobosum uses the fruit body for shelter and breeding. Nutritional analysis indicates that the puffballs are a good source of protein, carbohydrates, fats, and several micronutrients. The predominant fatty acids in the puffball are linoleic acid (37% of the total fatty acids), oleic acid (24%), palmitic acid (14.5%), and stearic acid (6.4%).
The immature 'buttons' or 'eggs' of deadly Amanita species can be confused with puffballs. This can be avoided by slicing fruit bodies vertically and inspecting them for the internal developing structures of a mushroom, which would indicate the poisonous Amanita. Additionally, amanitas will generally not have "jewels" or a bumpy external surface.
The spores' surfaces have many microscopic spines and can cause severe irritation of the lung (lycoperdonosis) when inhaled. This condition has been reported to afflict dogs that play or run where the puffballs are present.


A saprobic species, Lycoperdon perlatum grows solitarily, scattered, or in groups or clusters on the ground. It can also grow in fairy rings. Typical habitats include woods, grassy areas, and along roads. It has been reported from Pinus patula plantations in Tamil Nadu, India. The puffball sometimes confuses golfers because of its resemblance to a golf ball when viewed from a distance.
A widespread species with an almost cosmopolitan distribution, it has been reported from Africa (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania), Asia (China, Himalayas, Japan, southern India Iran), Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and South America (Brazil). It has been collected from subarctic areas of Greenland, and subalpine regions in Iceland. In North America, where it is considered the most common puffball species, it ranges from Alaska to Mexico, although it is less common in Central America. The species is popular on postage stamps, and has been depicted on stamps from Guinea, Paraguay, Romania, Sierra Leone, and Sweden.
The puffball bioaccumulates heavy metals present in the soil, and can be used as a bioindicator of soil pollution by heavy metals and selenium. In one 1977 study, samples collected from grassy areas near the side of an interstate highway in Connecticut were shown to have high concentrations of cadmium and lead. L. perlatum biomass has been shown experimentally to remove mercury ions from aqueous solutions, and is being investigated for potential use as a low-cost, renewable, biosorptive material in the treatment of water and wastewater containing mercury.


The spotted lanternfly is originally native to parts of China, with some evidence of it being native to parts of India, Vietnam, and Taiwan.  Fossil evidence indicates  L. delicatula evolved between 55 and 51.6 myr, during the Ypresian Era. Phylogenomic analysis has shown that L. delicatula originally evolved in southwest China, eventually diverging into six phylogeographic lineages. One of these lineages then moved northward, following the Yangtze River during the late Pleistocene Era.
In the 1930s, L. delicatula was known to inhabit the Northern Provinces of Shanxi, Shandong and Hebei. Since then, it has expanded its range to include Anhui, Beijing, Guangdong, Henan, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Yunnan and Zhejiang. In traditional Chinese medicine, the spotted lanternfly is believed to be poisonous, and has been used since the 1100s for topical relief from swelling. L. delicatula has also been reported in Taiwan, Vietnam, and India, but ongoing research has yet to conclude if the species is native to these regions.


On 29 September 2014, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) and the Pennsylvania Game Commission first confirmed the presence of the spotted lanternfly in Berks County, Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia. Based on its host affinities, it presented a threat to the state's grape, fruit tree, and logging industries. The greatest risk of spread was seen in transportation of materials containing egg masses laid on smooth bark, stone, and other vertical surfaces.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has banned the transport of items that could harbor the egg masses, including firewood, lawn mowers, outdoor chairs, trucks, and recreational vehicles from seven municipalities on 1 November 2014. Given the presence of old egg masses found, it has been estimated that the spotted lanternfly may have been in the United States since at least 2012, having survived the unusually cold 2013–14 winter. Since then, over 34 counties in Pennsylvania have declared quarantine.
Pennsylvania State University has estimated statewide costs of the spotted lanternfly to be $99.1 million in agricultural losses, and $236.3 million to the forestry industry, annually. Models of the spotted lanternfly's spread have projected an annual loss of $554.0 million, with an additional loss of 4,987 jobs, should it continue to spread to the entirety of Pennsylvania. A national working group led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, consisting of Penn State Researchers and USDA scientists, was organized "to determine what is known about the lanternfly and what research is needed, including DNA analysis to pinpoint where the infestation originated."
Other states began seeing spotted lanternflies as soon as 2018, and by 2021, they were also confirmed to be established in at least parts of Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia, with several of these states issuing quarantine orders. In 2022, the species was confirmed to be present in North Carolina. A large potential range exists for the spotted lanternfly to become established if not prevented, covering almost all of the eastern part of the country, as well as critical wine- and hop-growing valleys of the Pacific coastal states.
Interceptions of dead spotted lanternfly specimens have been reported in Michigan, Kansas, Oregon and California, though no live sightings have been reported from these states as of 2021. This increases concerns for possible accidental introduction of the insect to yet more states where they can potentially become established.


Modeling for the life cycle of the spotted lanternfly in Australia has found that development and survival may vary throughout the country, should the spotted lanternfly be introduced. Australia's southwest coastal regions are estimated to have a high viability for the spotted lanternfly but Australian Great Dividing Range and Tasmania were found to have the lowest suitability. Both the pervasiveness of A. altissima and the lack of consistent freezing seasons are considered risk factors in L. delicatula establishing populations in the country.


The false milkweed bug is widely distributed across the eastern United States and Canada. It primarily feeds on the seeds of false sunflower, Heliopsis helianthoides. The false milkweed bug is commonly confused with other black and red or orange insects, including Oncopeltus fasciatus, Lygaeus kalmii, and Lygaeus reclivatus.


It occurs in South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and Tanzania, including Pemba Island.
Its distribution within South Africa has expanded south- and westwards towards the coastal areas since 1981.


Lygropia rivulalis, the bog lygropia moth, is a moth of the family Crambidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The habitat consists of boggy or wet areas.
This wingspan is about 17 mm. The forewing ground colour is pale yellowish or cream with several irregular white patches, surrounded and connected by thick brown lines. The white patch nearest the anal angle is oval or circular and there is a broad white subterminal line which becomes wider near the costa. The distal edge of this line curves down toward the apex just before reaching the costa. The forewing colour and pattern is repeated on the hindwings. Adults are on wing from April to October.


L. lineolaris utilize cotton plants as one of their main reproductive hosts. Females lay eggs in the first row of cotton plants and later occupy more plants in the field. The females usually lay eggs in May after the overwintering period. The eggs hatch and nymphs begin to develop around June. The highest population level of L. lineolaris is typically marked in October and June, and it is seen to also trigger a rise in the population level of Pisaurina mira, a nursery web spider that preys on L. lineolaris.


The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a medium-sized North American lynx that ranges across Alaska, Canada, and northern areas of the contiguous United States. It is characterized by its long, dense fur, triangular ears with black tufts at the tips, and broad, snowshoe-like paws. Its hindlimbs are longer than the forelimbs, so its back slopes downward to the front. The Canada lynx stands 48–56 cm (19–22 in) tall at the shoulder and weighs between 5 and 17 kg (11 and 37 lb). The lynx is a good swimmer and an agile climber. The Canada lynx was first described by Robert Kerr in 1792. Three subspecies have been proposed, but their validity is doubted; it is mostly considered a monotypic species.
A specialist predator, the Canada lynx depends heavily on the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) for food. This leads to a prey-predator cycle, as Canada lynxes respond to the cyclic rises and falls in snowshoe hare populations over the years in Alaska and central Canada. The Canada lynx population increases with an increasing hare population; if the hare population decreases in a given area, it moves to areas with more hares and has fewer offspring. The Canada lynx hunts mainly around twilight, or at night, when snowshoe hares tend to be active. The lynx waits for the hare on specific trails or in "ambush beds", then pounces on it and kills it by a bite on its head, throat or the nape of its neck. Individuals, particularly of the same sex, tend to avoid each other, forming "intrasexual" territories. The mating season is roughly a month long (from March to early April). After a gestation of two to three months, a litter of one to eight kittens is born. Offspring are weaned at 12 weeks.
This lynx occurs predominantly in dense boreal forests, and its range strongly coincides with that of the snowshoe hare. Given its abundance throughout the range and lack of severe threats, the Canada lynx has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. This lynx is regularly trapped for the international fur trade in most of Alaska and Canada but is protected in the southern half of its range due to threats such as habitat loss.


The Canada lynx occurs predominantly in the dense boreal forest of Canada, and its range strongly coincides with that of the snowshoe hare. In the past, the lynx occurred in the northern United States in 24 states, possibly southward to the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico and northward to the tree line in the Arctic through coniferous forests in Alaska and Canada. The lynx continues to occur in its former range in most of Alaska and Canada. In the United States, the Canada lynx occurs in the Blue Mountains and the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, the northern Great Lakes region (in Minnesota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula) and northern New England (in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont). The lynx was successfully reintroduced in Colorado with a stable population by 2019, after being extirpated from the state in the 1970s. Canada lynxes generally avoid open areas despite good prey availability; they face difficulty surviving in heavily logged areas and on agricultural land, though they can thrive well in deforested areas that have been left to regenerate at least fifteen years. Canada lynxes have been recorded up to an elevation of 4,310 m (14,140 ft). It is considered extirpated in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Nevada, Indiana, and Ohio.
A Canada lynx was shot near Newton Abbot in the United Kingdom in 1903 after it attacked two dogs. The animal remained unidentified at the time and was preserved by Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and was finally identified in a 2014 study. The researchers concluded it had probably been captive for some time, perhaps as an exotic pet or part of a travelling menagerie, but may have survived for a substantial period after escaping. They considered it "the earliest recorded example of an exotic cat on the loose in the UK".


In eastern Canada the lynx is threatened by competition with the eastern coyote, whose numbers in the region have risen in the last few decades. Habitat loss is the main threat in the contiguous United States, while trapping is a relatively insignificant cause of mortality. Hybridization between Canada lynxes and bobcats has been reported in the southern periphery of the range. Hybridization between closely related species might significantly delimit the geographic range of the species, especially if they are endangered as reproductive success in females would be reduced by the birth of sterile offspring; on the other hand, fertile hybrids can compete and breed further with the parent species, potentially reducing the numbers of the parent species. Canada lynx-bobcat hybrids have shown signs of reproductive success and do not appear to pose any big threat to the parent species. The Canada lynx is abundant over its broad range and has not been significantly threatened by legal trade for centuries. Therefore, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classifies the Canada lynx as Least Concern.
However, populations are relatively lower in the southern half of the range and are protected from the fur trade. The lynx is listed as Endangered in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. On March 24, 2000, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued its Final Rule, which designated the Canada lynx a Threatened Species in 14 contiguous states. In 2005, the USFWS demarcated six major areas for revival where lynx reproduction had been reported in the past two decades: northern Maine and New Hampshire, northeastern Minnesota, northwestern Montana and northeastern Idaho, the Kettle River Range and the "Wedge area" between the Kettle and Columbia rivers of Washington, the northern Cascade Range of Washington, and the Greater Yellowstone area of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. By 2010, after an 11-year effort, the lynx had been successfully reintroduced into Colorado. The initial introduction was in the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado, but self-sustaining populations were established throughout the south-central Colorado Rockies as far north as Summit County. A 2012 study showed numbers had improved in the northeastern United States; however, a 2008 study showed lynx populations were not doing well in Washington because of habitat fragmentation. A 2017 study reported increasing numbers in many areas in the United States. In January 2018, the USFWS declared that the Canada lynx no longer needed special protections in the United States following measures to preserve their populations, and their "Threatened" status may be revoked in the future.
Various techniques have been employed to study Canada lynx populations; the data collected can provide useful information on the ecology and distribution of the species and pave the way for effective conservation measures. In scent stations, the lynx is typically lured into camera-monitored areas by skunk scent (sometimes catnip) and a "flasher" such as a bird wing on a string. This technique, though systematic, might be too expensive to carry out in large areas. Other methods include radio telemetry and snow tracking. Snow tracking might be a challenge in areas lacking roads, and sometimes bobcat tracks can be mistaken for those of the Canada lynx. Hair-snaring involves collecting hairs shed by the lynx, especially when they rub against objects (such as the snow); a study showed a mixture of beaver castoreum and catnip oil can strongly induce rubbing behaviour in lynxes. This method is generally inexpensive, and chances of misidentification are low as physical evidence like hairs can be genetically analysed.
Between 1989 and 1992, a reintroduction attempt into New York State was made when 80 lynx were caught in from northwestern Canada and released into the Adirondacks by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Some of the released lynx dispersed into the surrounding states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. After the attempt, Canada lynx were officially considered extirpated in New York State, but are still fully protected under state law. Nineteen individuals were killed in traffic accidents, eight were mistakenly shot by bobcat hunters, and the remaining died from unknown causes or predation.


The bobcat is an adaptable species. It prefers woodlands—deciduous, coniferous, or mixed—but does not depend exclusively on the deep forest. It ranges from the humid swamps of Florida to desert lands of Texas or rugged mountain areas. It makes its home near agricultural areas, if rocky ledges, swamps, or forested tracts are present; its spotted coat serves as camouflage. The population of the bobcat depends primarily on the population of its prey; other principal factors in the selection of habitat type include protection from severe weather, availability of resting and den sites, dense cover for hunting and escape, and freedom from disturbance.
The bobcat's range does not seem to be limited by human populations, but by availability of suitable habitat; only large, intensively cultivated tracts are unsuitable for the species. The animal may appear in back yards in "urban edge" environments, where human development intersects with natural habitats. If chased by a dog, it usually climbs up a tree.
The historical range of the bobcat was from southern Canada, throughout the United States, and as far south as the Mexican state of Oaxaca, and it still persists across much of this area. In the 20th century, it was thought to have lost territory in the US Midwest and parts of the Northeast, including southern Minnesota, eastern South Dakota, and much of Missouri, mostly due to habitat changes from modern agricultural practices. While thought to no longer exist in western New York and Pennsylvania, multiple confirmed sightings of bobcats (including dead specimens) have been recently reported in New York's Southern Tier and in central New York, and a bobcat was captured in 2018 on a tourist boat in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In addition, bobcat sightings have been confirmed in northern Indiana, and one was killed near Albion, Michigan, in 2008. In early March 2010, a bobcat was sighted (and later captured by animal control authorities) in a parking garage in downtown Houston. By 2010, bobcats appear to have recolonized many states, occurring in every state in the contiguous 48 except Delaware.
The bobcat population in Canada is limited due to both snow depth and the presence of the Canada lynx. The bobcat does not tolerate deep snow, and waits out heavy storms in sheltered areas; it lacks the large, padded feet of the Canada lynx and cannot support its weight on snow as efficiently. The bobcat is not entirely at a disadvantage where its range meets that of the larger felid: displacement of the Canada lynx by the aggressive bobcat has been observed where they interact in Nova Scotia, while the clearing of coniferous forests for agriculture has led to a northward retreat of the Canada lynx's range to the advantage of the bobcat. In northern and central Mexico, the cat is found in dry scrubland and forests of pine and oak; its range ends at the tropical southern portion of the country.


The average lifespan of the bobcat is seven years but rarely exceeds 10 years. The oldest wild bobcat on record was 16 years old, and the oldest captive bobcat lived to be 32.
Bobcats generally begin breeding by their second summer, though females may start as early as their first year. Sperm production begins each year by September or October, and the male is fertile into the summer. A dominant male travels with a female and mates with her several times, generally from winter until early spring; this varies by location, but most mating takes place during February and March. The pair may undertake a number of different behaviors, including bumping, chasing, and ambushing. Other males may be in attendance, but remain uninvolved. Once the male recognizes the female is receptive, he grasps her in the typical felid neck grip and mates with her. The female may later go on to mate with other males, and males generally mate with several females. During courtship, the bobcat's vocalizations include screaming and hissing. Research in Texas revealed that establishing a home range is necessary for breeding; studied animals without a home range had no identified offspring. The female has an estrous cycle of 44 days, with the estrus lasting five to ten days. Bobcats remain reproductively active throughout their lives.
The female raises the young alone. One to six, but usually two to four, kittens are born in April or May, after roughly 60 to 70 days of gestation. Sometimes, a second litter is born as late as September. The female generally gives birth in an enclosed space, usually a small cave or hollow log. The young open their eyes by the ninth or tenth day. They start exploring their surroundings at four weeks and are weaned at about two months. Within three to five months, they begin to travel with their mother. They hunt by themselves by fall of their first year, and usually disperse shortly thereafter. In Michigan, however, they have been observed staying with their mother as late as the next spring.


It is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which means it is not considered threatened with extinction, but that international trade must be closely monitored. The animal is regulated in all three of its range countries, and is found in a number of protected areas of the United States, its principal territory. Estimates from the US Fish and Wildlife Service placed bobcat numbers between 700,000 and 1,500,000 in the US in 1988, with increased range and population density suggesting even greater numbers in subsequent years; for these reasons, the U.S. has petitioned CITES to remove the cat from Appendix II. Populations in Canada and Mexico remain stable and healthy. It is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List, noting it is relatively widespread and abundant, but information from southern Mexico is poor.
The species is considered endangered in Ohio, Indiana, and New Jersey. It was removed from the threatened list of Illinois in 1999 and of Iowa in 2003. In Pennsylvania, limited hunting and trapping are once again allowed, after having been banned from 1970 to 1999. The bobcat also suffered population decline in New Jersey at the turn of the 19th century, mainly because of commercial and agricultural developments causing habitat fragmentation; by 1972, the bobcat was given full legal protection, and was listed as endangered in the state in 1991. The Mexican bobcat L. r. escuinipae was for a time considered endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, but was delisted in 2005. Between 2003 and 2011, a reduction in bobcat sightings in the Everglades by 87.5% has been attributed to predation by the invasive Burmese python.
The bobcat has long been valued both for fur and sport; it has been hunted and trapped by humans, but has maintained a high population, even in the southern United States, where it is extensively hunted. In the 1970s and 1980s, an unprecedented rise in price for bobcat fur caused further interest in hunting, but by the early 1990s, prices had dropped significantly. Regulated hunting still continues, with half of mortality of some populations being attributed to this cause. As a result, the rate of bobcat deaths is skewed in winter, when hunting season is generally open.
Urbanization can result in the fragmentation of contiguous natural landscapes into patchy habitat within an urban area. Animals that live in these fragmented areas often have reduced movement between the habitat patches, which can lead to reduced gene flow and pathogen transmission between patches. Animals such as the bobcat are particularly sensitive to fragmentation because of their large home ranges. A study in coastal Southern California has shown bobcat populations are affected by urbanization, creation of roads, and other developments. The populations may not be declining as much as predicted, but instead the connectivity of different populations is affected. This leads to a decrease in natural genetic diversity among bobcat populations. For bobcats, preserving open space in sufficient quantities and quality is necessary for population viability. Educating local residents about the animals is critical, as well, for conservation in urban areas.
In bobcats using urban habitats in California, the use of rodenticides has been linked to both secondary poisoning by consuming poisoned rats and mice, and to increased rates of severe mite infestation (known as notoedric mange), as an animal with a poison-weakened immune system is less capable of fighting off mange. Liver autopsies in California bobcats that have succumbed to notoedric mange have revealed chronic rodenticide exposure. Alternative rodent control measures such as vegetation control and use of traps have been suggested to alleviate this issue.


Lysimachia terrestris grows in swamps and at the edges of ponds and lakes in the Eastern United States and in Eastern Canada.  It is also found in the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and in British Columbia. It is listed as endangered in Tennessee and Kentucky.
A major pest is Monostegia abdominalis, a sawfly larva that can completely skeletonize the leaves.


Lyssa zampa, the tropical swallowtail moth or Laos brown butterfly, is a moth of the family Uraniidae. The species was first described by British entomologist Arthur Gardiner Butler in 1869.
The species is native to a wide range of tropical South-East Asia: Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. It is also recorded from Andaman Islands, southern China, the Himalayas, and sporadically in East Asia: Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. The forewing length is about 70 mm (2.8 in) and the wingspan reaches a maximum of 160 mm (6.3 in).
It is most abundant from May to November depending on the location. The genus Lyssa is generally categorized as a nocturnal or crepuscular group, but this species has been found to be active both during the day and at night. This species is also known for its mass emergence and migration. Because of that ecology and the habit that they are often attracted by urban bright lights, this species can attract human attention.
The larvae feed on Endospermum and other members of the rubber tree family (Euphorbiaceae).


It is listed as endangered in Connecticut, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. It was thought to be extinct in Vermont until it was found in the town of Monkton in 2017.


The crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis), also known as the long-tailed macaque and referred to as the cynomolgus monkey in laboratories, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. A species of macaque, the crab-eating macaque has a long history alongside humans. The species has been alternately seen as an agricultural pest, a sacred animal, and, more recently, the subject of medical experiments.
The crab-eating macaque lives in matrilineal social groups of up to eight individuals dominated by females. Male members leave the group when they reach puberty. It is an opportunistic omnivore and has been documented using tools to obtain food in Thailand and Myanmar. The crab-eating macaque is a known invasive species and a threat to biodiversity in several locations, including Hong Kong and western New Guinea. The significant overlap in macaque and human living space has resulted in greater habitat loss, synanthropic living, and inter- and intraspecies conflicts over resources.


Macaques live in social groups that contain three to 20 females, their offspring, and one or many males. The groups usually have fewer males than females. In social groups of macaques, a clear dominance hierarchy is seen among females. These ranks remain stable throughout the female's lifetime and also can be sustained through generations of matrilines. Females have their highest birth rates around 10 years of age and completely stop bearing young by age 24.
The social groups of macaques are female-bonded, meaning the males will disperse at the time of puberty. Thus, group relatedness on average appears to be lower than compared to matrilines.  More difference in relatedness occurs when comparing high-ranking lineages to lower ranking lineages, with higher-ranking individuals being more closely related to one another. Additionally, groups of dispersing males born into the same social groups display a range of relatedness, at times appearing to be brothers, while at other times appearing to be unrelated.
In addition to the matrilineal dominance hierarchy, male dominance rankings also exist.  Alpha males have a higher frequency of mating compared to their lower-ranking conspecifics. The increased success is due partially to his increased access to females and also due to female preference of an alpha male during periods of maximum fertility. Though females have a preference for alpha males, they do display promiscuous behavior. Through this behavior, females risk helping to rear a nonalpha offspring, yet benefit in two specific ways, both in regard to aggressive behavior. First, a decreased value is placed on one single copulation. Moreover, the risk of infanticide is decreased due to the uncertainty of paternity.
Increasing group size leads to increased competition and energy spent trying to forage for resources, and in particular, food. Further, social tensions build and the prevalence of tension-reducing interactions like social grooming fall with larger groups. Thus, group living appears to be maintained solely due to the safety against predation.
Crab-eating macaques sometimes form mixed species groups with other primate species, including the southern pig-tailed macaque, dusky langur and white-thighed surili.  They have been observed engaging in grooming with other primate species, including the southern pig-tailed macaque and leaf monkeys such as Raffles' banded langur and the dusty langur.


In Thailand and Myanmar, crab-eating macaques use stone tools to open nuts, oysters and other bivalves, and various types of sea snails (nerites, muricids, trochids, etc.) along the Andaman sea coast and offshore islands.
Another instance of tool use is washing and rubbing foods such as sweet potatoes, cassava roots, and papaya leaves before consumption. Crab-eating macaques either soak these foods in water or rub them through their hands as if to clean them. They also peel the sweet potatoes, using their incisors and canine teeth. Adolescents appear to acquire these behaviors by observational learning of older individuals.


The crab-eating macaque lives in a wide variety of habitats, including primary lowland rainforests, disturbed and secondary rainforests, shrubland, and riverine and coastal forests of nipa palm and mangrove. They also easily adjust to human settlements; they are considered sacred at some Hindu temples and on some small islands, but are pests around farms and villages. Typically, they prefer disturbed habitats and forest periphery. The native range of this species includes most of mainland Southeast Asia, from extreme southeastern Bangladesh south through the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, the Maritime Southeast Asia islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, offshore islands, the islands of the Philippines, and the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. This primate is a rare example of a terrestrial mammal that violates the Wallace line.


Crab-eating macaques extensively overlap with humans across their range in Southeast Asia. Consequently, they live together in many locations. Some of these areas are associated with religious sites and local customs, such as the temples of Bali in Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia, while other areas are characterized by conflict as a result of habitat loss and competition over food and space. Humans and crab-eating macaques have shared environments since prehistoric times, and both tend to frequent forest and river edge habitats. Crab-eating macaques are occasionally used as a food source for some indigenous forest-dwelling peoples. In Mauritius, they are captured and sold to the pharmaceutical industry, and in Angaur and Palau, they are sold as pets. Macaques feed on sugarcane and other crops, affecting agriculture and livelihoods, and can be aggressive towards humans. Macaques may carry potentially fatal human diseases, including herpes B virus. In Singapore, they have adapted into the urban environment.
The macaques have also developed a reputation for actively stealing items from humans (cameras, eyeglasses, hats, etc.), then refusing to return their stolen goods until given food in return. This unique form of kleptoparasitism (known as "robbing and bartering") has primarily been observed in smaller groups of macaques living near Hindu temples and tourist-heavy areas, suggesting it is a learned behaviour within social groups, in response to realizing that humans would trade food for their possessions back.


The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies that are split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or grey in colour, it is 47–53 cm (19–21 in) in length with a 20.7–22.9 cm (8.1–9.0 in) tail and weighs 5.3–7.7 kg (12–17 lb). It is native to South, Central, and Southeast Asia and has the widest geographic range of all non-human primates, occupying a great diversity of altitudes and a great variety of habitats, from grasslands to arid and forested areas, but also close to human settlements. Feral colonies are found in the United States, thought to be either released by humans or escapees after hurricanes destroyed zoo and wildlife park facilities.
The rhesus macaque is diurnal, arboreal, and terrestrial. It is mostly herbivorous, mainly eating fruit, but will also consume seeds, roots, buds, bark, and cereals. Studies show almost 100 different plant species in its diet. It will also eat invertebrates, drink water from streams and rivers, and has specialised cheek pouches where it can temporarily store food.
Like other macaques, the rhesus macaque is gregarious with troops comprising 20-200 individuals. The social groups are matrilineal, whereby a female's rank is decided by the rank of her mother. There has been extensive research into female philopatry, common in social animals, as females tend not to leave social group. It communicates with a variety of facial expressions, vocalisations, body postures, and gestures. Facial expressions are used to appease or redirect aggression, assert dominance, and threaten other individuals and vocalisations may be made to elicit grooming, while moving, or in threatening situations. It spends most of its day feeding and resting, the rest is occupied with travelling, grooming, and playing.
Due to its relatively easy upkeep, wide availability, and closeness to humans anatomically and physiologically, it has been used extensively in medical and biological research on human and animal health-related topics. It has facilitated many scientific breakthroughs including vaccines for rabies, smallpox, and polio and antiretroviral medication to treat HIV/AIDS. A rhesus macaque became the first primate astronaut in 1948, but died during the flight, followed on 14 June 1949 by Albert II, who became the first primate and first mammal in space. It is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, and its tolerance of a broad range of habitats.


According to Zimmermann's first description of 1780, the rhesus macaque is distributed in eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, as far east as the Brahmaputra Valley, Barak valley and in peninsular India, Nepal, and northern Pakistan. Today, this is known as the Indian rhesus macaque M. m. mulatta, which includes the morphologically similar M. rhesus villosus, described by True in 1894, from Kashmir, and M. m. mcmahoni, described by Pocock in 1932 from Kootai, Pakistan. Several Chinese subspecies of rhesus macaques were described between 1867 and 1917. The molecular differences identified among populations, however, are alone not consistent enough to conclusively define any subspecies.
The Chinese subspecies can be divided as follows:
M. m. mulatta is found in western and central China, in the south of Yunnan, and southwest of Guangxi;
M. m. lasiota (Gray, 1868), the west Chinese rhesus macaque, is distributed in the west of Sichuan, northwest of Yunnan, and southeast of Qinghai; it is possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis (R. Swinhoe, 1867), if not with M. m. mulatta.
M. m. tcheliensis (Milne-Edwards, 1870), the north Chinese rhesus macaque, lives in the north of Henan, south of Shanxi, and near Beijing. Some consider it as the most endangered subspecies. Others consider it possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.
M. m. vestita (Milne-Edwards, 1892), the Tibetan rhesus macaque, lives in the southeast of Tibet, northwest of Yunnan (Deqing), and perhaps including Yushu; it is possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.
M. m. littoralis (Elliot, 1909), the south Chinese rhesus macaque, lives in Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, northwest of Guangdong, north of Guangxi, northeast of Yunnan, east of Sichuan, and south of Shaanxi; it is possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.
M. m. brevicaudus, also referred to as Pithecus brevicaudus (Elliot, 1913), lives on the Hainan Island and Wanshan Islands in Guangdong, and the islands near Hong Kong; it may be synonymous with M. m. mulatta.
M. m. siamica (Kloss, 1917), the Indochinese rhesus macaque, is distributed in Myanmar, in the north of Thailand and Vietnam, in Laos, and in the Chinese provinces of Anhui, northwest Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, central and eastern Sichuan, and western and south-central Yunnan; possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.


Speranza pustularia, the lesser maple spanworm, is a moth of the  family Geometridae. It is found from Nova Scotia to Florida, west to Mississippi, north to North Dakota and Saskatchewan.
The wingspan is 18–27 mm. Adults are on wing from May to July in the south and from June to August in the north. There is one generation per year.
The larvae feed on the leaves of maple (especially Acer rubrum) but have also been recorded on birch, cherry, poplar, Abies, Tsuga and tamarack.


The species has a disjunct distribution, with the nominate race breeding from northern Argentina and Bolivia to the north-eastern tip of Brazil, and the two other subspecies ranging from Panama to Venezuela and eastern Ecuador. The species inhabits drier open and semi-open habitats, and avoided forested and wooded areas. It can be found in savannah, pastureland, parkland, agricultural land and even gardens. Due to deforestation, the species has recently colonized areas where it was previously absent, such as northeast Ecuador.


The western grey kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus), also referred to as a western grey giant kangaroo, black-faced kangaroo, mallee kangaroo, and sooty kangaroo, is a large and very common kangaroo found across almost the entire southern part of Australia, from just south of Shark Bay through coastal Western Australia and South Australia, into western Victoria, and in the entire Murray–Darling basin in New South Wales and Queensland.


There are two subspecies:
Macropus giganteus giganteus – found in eastern and central Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and southeastern South Australia
Macropus giganteus tasmaniensis – (commonly known as the Forester Kangaroo) endemic to Tasmania


Madia elegans is covered with short, stiff hairs. Glands are borne on stalks, especially near the flowers. The showy flower varies in appearance across subspecies and even within subspecies. Typically, it is a bright yellow daisy-like bloom with numerous thin ray flowers and several central disk flowers. It may be solid lemon yellow or have a center of a different color, from white to maroon. Several strongly scented, uncrowded, flower heads grow at the end of a slender green stem. The ray flowers curl up during the daytime, opening in the late afternoon and staying open all night until mid-morning. It flowers from April through early November. Its fruits are achenes which were historically used as food by Native Americans, including the Pomo and Miwok, who baked them or ground them into flour.
The foliage exudes a fragrant oil, hence the common name of tarweed.


The seeds were used to make pinole by the indigenous Mendocino, Miwok, and Pomo peoples of California.


The Pacific oyster, Japanese oyster, or Miyagi oyster (Magallana gigas),  is an oyster native to the Pacific coast of Asia. It has become an introduced species in North America, Australia, Europe, and New Zealand.


Pacific oysters have a pelagic veliger larval stage which lasts from 14–18 days. In the hatcheries, they are kept at temperatures of 25–28 °C with an optimum salinity between 20 and 25%. Early-stage veligers (<120 nm shell length) are fed daily with flagellated algal species (Isochrysis galbana or Pavlova lutherii) along with diatom species (either Chaetoceros calcitrans or Thalassiosira pseudonana). The larvae are close to a settlement stage when dark eye spots and a foot develop. During this time, settlement materials (cultch), such as roughed PVC sheets, fluted PVC pipes, or shells, are placed into the tanks to encourage the larvae to attach and settle. However, particularly on the US West Coast,  mature larvae are commonly packed and shipped to oyster farms, where the farmers set the oysters themselves.


Global production has increased from about 150 thousand tonnes in 1950 to 1.2 million tonnes in 1990. By 2003, global production had increased to 4.38 million tonnes. The majority was in China, which produced 84% of the global production. Japan, France and the Republic of Korea also contributed, producing 261 000, 238 000 and 115 000 tonnes, respectively.  The other two major producers are the United States (43 000 tonnes) and Taiwan (23 000 tonnes). In 2003, global Pacific oyster production was worth $ 3.69 billion.


Numerous predators  are known to damage Pacific oyster stocks. Several crab species (Metacarcinus magister, Cancer productus, Metacarcinus gracilis), oyster drills, and starfish species (Pisater ochraceus, Pisater brevispinus, Evasterias troschelii, and Pycnopodia helianthoides) can cause severe impacts to oyster culture.


The Pacific oyster is one of the three main aquaculture species in New Zealand along with king salmon and the greenshell mussels. Pacific oyster aquaculture production has grown from an export value of $11 million in 1986 to $32 million in 2006. In 2006, the 23 Pacific oyster farms throughout New Zealand covered a total of 750 hectares  of marine space and produced 2,800 tonnes of product per year. Annual production is now between about 3,300 and 4,000 tonnes. In 2005, the value of New Zealand's Pacific oyster production was $12 million domestically, and $16.9 million for export. New Zealand's main export markets are Japan, Korea, the US, the EU and Australia. However, research has demonstrated that changes in global ocean temperature and the advent of ocean acidification may alter the growth, reproduction, and development of this species with variable responses


Collection, both legal and illegal, may have an adverse impact on this tree's population due to low population density, and high collection pressure can extirpate this species locally.  Bigleaf magnolia is listed as threatened in North Carolina and endangered in Arkansas and Ohio.  The Florida Department of Agriculture lists the Ashe magnolia as endangered, due to its small population and restricted range. The Mexican bigleaf magnolia is also endangered, by loss of habitat.


Maianthemum canadense (Canadian may-lily, Canada mayflower, false lily-of-the-valley, Canadian lily-of-the-valley, wild lily-of-the-valley, two-leaved Solomon's seal)
is an understory perennial flowering plant, native to Canada and the north-eastern United States, from Yukon and British Columbia east to Newfoundland, into St. Pierre and Miquelon. It can be found growing in both coniferous and deciduous forests. The plant appears in two forms, either as a single leaf rising from the ground with no fruiting structures or as a flowering/fruiting stem with 2-3 leaves. Flowering shoots have clusters of 12–25 starry-shaped, white flowers held above the leaves.


Found in Canada from SE Yukon, southern Northwest Territories, into eastern B.C. and east to Newfoundland and Labrador, and into St. Pierre and Miquelon. Also found in northern United States from the Dakotas east, south along the Appalachian Mountains and outliers in Colorado, Wyoming Nebraska and Kansas.


Maianthemum racemosum is a widespread species, found in all Canadian provinces and territories except the Yukon and Nunavut; all US states except Hawaii and also found in Northern Mexico. Subsp. amplexicaule has been found in western Canada in Alta, B.C., N.W.T., Sask.; and in the western US in Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., N.Mex., N.Dak., Oreg., S.Dak., Tex., Utah, Wash., Wyo. Also found in Mexico, in Chihuahua, Coahuila and Veracruz. The eastern subspecies (subsp. racemosum) is found in Canada from Manitoba, east and in all eastern US states. Both subspecies are found in the Dakotas and in Texas.


Maianthemum racemosum grows in habitats in North America up to elevations of 9,000 ft (2,743 m). The most robust and profuse occurrences of this plant are typically found in partial shade and deep, moist, soft soils. In the western part of North America an example typical habitat would be in a shaded ravine or riparian corridor with common understory associates of Dryopteris arguta, Trillium ovatum and Adiantum jordanii.


The diamondback terrapin typically feeds on fish, crustaceans (such as shrimp and crabs) marine worms, marine snails (especially the saltmarsh periwinkle
), clams, barnacles, mussels, other mollusks, insects, carrion, and sometimes ingest small amounts of plant material, such as algae. At high densities the terrapin may eat enough invertebrates to have ecosystem-level effects, partially because periwinkles themselves can overgraze important marsh plants, such as cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora). Gender and age can greatly affect the diet of the diamondback terrapin, males and juvenile females tend to have less diversity in their diet. Adult females, due to their powerful, defined jaw, will occasionally feed on crustaceans such as crabs and are more likely to consume hard-shelled mollusks.


The caterpillars are considered a problem when the larva population explodes in the spring. They can completely consume the foliage of a tree. Trees usually recover from this, refoliating within a month and resuming photosynthesis. Under most circumstances, little lasting damage is caused to the trees; however, the disappearance of foliage is considered to be an unattractive nuisance. On those rare occasions when infestations last for three years or more, tree mortality rates can become significant. Multiple outbreaks in Northern Ontario, Canada, in the 1990s resulted in over six consecutive years of aspen defoliation in some areas. One outbreak in upstate New York and Vermont began in 2002, with 650,000 acres (2600 km²) defoliated in New York and 230,000 acres (930 km²) in Vermont by 2005.
Forest tent caterpillar outbreaks tend to recur at reasonably regular intervals every decade or so, with the precise interval varying somewhat in time and space. Outbreaks usually last two to four years. Although the insect's distributional range is quite large, the area over which decadal outbreak cycles are synchronized (i.e. oscillating with the same phase) varies substantially. Outbreak cycles are more strongly synchronized in eastern Canada than in western Canada. Where spatially separated populations are phase-synchronized, the synchronization is thought to be due to the process of entrainment, that is, the synchronization of a circadian clock with the external environment.
The cause of the outbreak cycle is not known with certainty. There are a large number of natural mortality agents which could be responsible for population cycling, including parasitoids, predators, starvation, disease, and severe weather. Most infestations subside after one or two years as a result of a combination of these factors. The most common parasitoids associated with population decline are flies of the families Tachinidae and Sarcophagidae.


The lackey moth is widely distributed across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Its habitat is the edges of woodland, bushy grassland, coppices, hedgerows and road verges. The caterpillar's food plants include apple, pear, plum, willow, hornbeam, lime and oak.


The superb fairywren (Malurus cyaneus) is a passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae, and is common and familiar across south-eastern Australia. It is a sedentary and territorial species, also exhibiting a high degree of sexual dimorphism; the male in breeding plumage has a striking bright blue forehead, ear coverts, mantle, and tail, with a black mask and black or dark blue throat. Non-breeding males, females and juveniles are predominantly grey-brown in colour; this gave the early impression that males were polygamous, as all dull-coloured birds were taken for females. Six subspecies groups are recognized: three larger and darker forms from Tasmania, Flinders and King Island respectively, and three smaller and paler forms from mainland Australia and Kangaroo Island.
Like other fairywrens, the superb fairywren is notable for several peculiar behavioural characteristics; the birds are socially monogamous and sexually promiscuous, meaning that although they form pairs between one male and one female, each partner will mate with other individuals and even assist in raising the young from such pairings. Male wrens pluck yellow petals and display them to females as part of a courtship display.
The superb fairywren can be found in almost any area that has at least a little dense undergrowth for shelter, including grasslands with scattered shrubs, moderately thick forest, woodland, heaths, and domestic gardens. It has adapted well to the urban environment and is common in suburban Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane. The superb fairywren eats mostly insects and supplements its diet with seeds.
The superb fairywren was named 'Australian Bird of the Year' for 2021, after a survey conducted by Birdlife Australia saw the species narrowly defeat the tawny frogmouth with a margin of 666 votes (over 400,000 votes were cast in total).


The superb fairywren is common throughout most of the relatively wet and fertile south-eastern corner of the continent, from the south-east of South Australia (including Kangaroo Island and Adelaide) and the tip of the Eyre Peninsula, through all of Victoria, Tasmania, coastal and sub-coastal New South Wales and Queensland, through the Brisbane area and extending inland – north to the Dawson River and west to Blackall; it is a common bird in the suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. It is found in wooded areas, generally with plenty of undergrowth, and has also adapted to urban existence and can be found in gardens and urban parks as long as there is an undergrowth of native plants nearby. Lantana (Lantana camara), a prolific weed in Australia, has also been beneficial in providing shelter in disturbed areas, as has the introduced and invasive blackberry Unlike other fairywrens, it appears to benefit from the urban environment and has out-competed the introduced house sparrow in one study on the grounds of the Australian National University in Canberra. Colonies of wrens can be found in Hyde Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney's urbanized centre. It is not found in dense forest nor in alpine environments. Forestry plantations of pine and eucalypts are also unsuitable as they lack undergrowth.


The splendid fairywren is one of eleven species of the genus Malurus, commonly known as fairywrens, found in Australia and lowland New Guinea. Within the genus it is most closely related to the superb fairywren. These two "blue wrens" are closely related to the purple-crowned fairywren of north-western Australia.
Specimens were initially collected at King George Sound, and the splendid fairywren then described as Saxicola splendens by the French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830, three years before John Gould gave it the scientific name of Malurus pectoralis and vernacular name of banded superb-warbler. Though he correctly placed it in the genus Malurus, the specific name of the former authors took priority. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin splendens, which means "shining".
Like other fairywrens, the splendid fairywren is unrelated to the true wren. It was first classified as a member of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae by Richard Bowdler Sharpe, though it was later placed in the warbler family Sylviidae by the same author, before being placed in the newly recognised family Maluridae in 1975. More recently, DNA analysis has shown the family Maluridae to be related to the family Meliphagidae (the honeyeaters), and the family Pardalotidae within a large superfamily, Meliphagoidea.
The splendid fairywren is also alternatively named the splendid blue wren.


Malva arborea (also known as Lavatera arborea, or, more recently as Malva eriocalyx), the tree mallow, is a species of mallow native to the coasts of western Europe and the Mediterranean region, from Ireland and Britain south to Algeria and Libya, and east to Greece.


Malva sylvestris is a species of the mallow genus Malva in the family of Malvaceae and is considered to be the type species for the genus.  Known as common mallow to English-speaking Europeans,
it acquired the common names of cheeses, high mallow  and tall mallow (mauve des bois by the French)
as it migrated from its native home in Western Europe, North Africa and Asia through the English-speaking world.
M. sylvestris is a vigorous plant with showy flowers of bright mauve-purple, with dark veins, standing 3–4 feet (0.91–1.22 m) high and growing freely in meadows, hedgerows and in fallow fields.


Malva sylvestris spreads itself on waste and rough ground, by roads and railways throughout lowland England, Wales and Channel Islands, Siberia and scattered elsewhere. It has been introduced to and has become naturalised in eastern Australia, in the United States, Canada, and Mexico as an invasive species.


Mammillaria heyderi is a species of cactus in the subtribe Cactinae. It is endemic to Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico and New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas in the United States.


Wild populations of M. esculenta subspecies flabellifolia, shown to be the progenitor of domesticated cassava, are centered in west-central Brazil, where it was likely first domesticated no more than 10,000 years BP. Forms of the modern domesticated species can also be found growing in the wild in the south of Brazil. By 4,600 BC, manioc (cassava) pollen appears in the Gulf of Mexico lowlands, at the San Andrés archaeological site. The oldest direct evidence of cassava cultivation comes from a 1,400-year-old Maya site, Joya de Cerén, in El Salvador. With its high food potential, it had become a staple food of the native populations of northern South America, southern Mesoamerica, and the Taino people in the Caribbean islands, who grew it using a high-yielding form of shifting agriculture by the time of European contact in 1492. Cassava was a staple food of pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas and is often portrayed in indigenous art. The Moche people often depicted yuca in their ceramics.
Spaniards in their early occupation of Caribbean islands did not want to eat cassava or maize, which they considered insubstantial, dangerous, and not nutritious. They much preferred foods from Spain, specifically wheat bread, olive oil, red wine, and meat, and considered maize and cassava damaging to Europeans. The cultivation and consumption of cassava were nonetheless continued in both Portuguese and Spanish America. Mass production of cassava bread became the first Cuban industry established by the Spanish. Ships departing to Europe from Cuban ports such as Havana, Santiago, Bayamo, and Baracoa carried goods to Spain, but sailors needed to be provisioned for the voyage. The Spanish also needed to replenish their boats with dried meat, water, fruit, and large amounts of cassava bread. Sailors complained that it caused them digestive problems. Tropical Cuban weather was not suitable for wheat planting and cassava would not go stale as quickly as regular bread.
Cassava was introduced to Africa by Portuguese traders from Brazil in the 16th century. Around the same period, it was also introduced to Asia through Columbian Exchange by Portuguese and Spanish traders, planted in their colonies in Goa, Malacca, Eastern Indonesia, Timor and the Philippines. Maize and cassava are now important staple foods, replacing native African crops in places such as Tanzania. Cassava has also become an important crop in Asia. While it is a valued food staple in parts of eastern Indonesia, it is primarily cultivated for starch extraction and bio-fuel production in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Cassava is sometimes described as the "bread of the tropics" but should not be confused with the tropical and equatorial bread tree (Encephalartos), the breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) or the African breadfruit (Treculia africana). This description definitely holds in Africa and parts of South America; in Asian countries such as Vietnam fresh cassava barely features in human diets.
There is a legend that cassava was introduced in 1880–1885 CE to the South Indian state of Kerala by the King of Travancore, Vishakham Thirunal Maharaja, after a great famine hit the kingdom, as a substitute for rice. However, there are documented cases of cassava cultivation in parts of the state before the time of Vishakham Thirunal Maharaja. Cassava is called kappa or maricheeni in Malayalam. It is also referred to as tapioca in Indian English usage.


A major cause of losses during cassava storage is infestation by insects. A wide range of species that feed directly on dried cassava chips have been reported as a major factor in spoiling stored cassava, with losses between 19% and 30% of the harvested produce. In Africa, a previous issue was the cassava mealybug (Phenacoccus manihoti) and cassava green mite (Mononychellus tanajoa). These pests can cause up to 80 percent crop loss, which is extremely detrimental to the production of subsistence farmers. These pests were rampant in the 1970s and 1980s but were brought under control following the establishment of the "Biological Control Centre for Africa" of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) under the leadership of Hans Rudolf Herren. The Centre investigated biological control for cassava pests; two South American natural enemies Anagyrus lopezi (a parasitoid wasp) and Typhlodromalus aripo (a predatory mite) were found to effectively control the cassava mealybug and the cassava green mite, respectively.
Several viruses are of economic importance. The African cassava mosaic virus causes the leaves of the cassava plant to wither, limiting the growth of the root. An outbreak of the virus in Africa in the 1920s led to a major famine. The virus is spread by the whitefly and by the transplanting of diseased plants into new fields. Sometime in the late-1980s, a mutation occurred in Uganda that made the virus even more harmful, causing the complete loss of leaves. This mutated virus spread at a rate of 80 kilometres (50 miles) per year, and as of 2005 was found throughout Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo. Altogether viruses are a severe production limitation in the tropics. They are the primary reason for the complete lack of yield increases in the 25 years up to 2021.
Cassava brown streak virus disease has been identified as a major threat to cultivation worldwide. Cassava mosaic virus (CMV) is widespread in Africa, causing cassava mosaic disease (CMD). Bredeson et al 2016 find the M. esculenta cultivars most widely used on that continent have M. carthaginensis subsp. glaziovii genes of which some appear to be CMD resistance genes.
A wide range of plant parasitic nematodes have been reported associated with cassava worldwide. These include Pratylenchus brachyurus, Rotylenchulus reniformis, Helicotylenchus spp., Scutellonema spp. and Meloidogyne spp., of which Meloidogyne incognita and Meloidogyne javanica are the most widely reported and economically important. Meloidogyne spp. feeding produces physically damaging galls with eggs inside them. Galls later merge as the females grow and enlarge, and they interfere with water and nutrient supply. Cassava roots become tough with age and restrict the movement of the juveniles and the egg release. It is therefore possible that extensive galling can be observed even at low densities following infection. Other pests and diseases can gain entry through the physical damage caused by gall formation, leading to rots. They have not been shown to cause direct damage to the enlarged storage roots, but plants can have reduced height if there was loss of enlarged root weight.
Research on nematode pests of cassava is still in the early stages; results on the response of cassava is, therefore, not consistent, ranging from negligible to seriously damaging. Since nematodes have such a seemingly erratic distribution in cassava agricultural fields, it is not easy to clearly define the level of direct damage attributed to nematodes and thereafter quantify the success of a chosen management method.
The use of nematicides has been found to result in lower numbers of galls per feeder root compared to a control, coupled with a lower number of rots in the storage roots. The organophosphorus nematicide femaniphos, when used, did not affect crop growth and yield parameter variables measured at harvest. Nematicide use in cassava is not terribly effective at increasing harvested yield, but lower infestation at harvest and lower subsequent storage loss provide a higher effective yield. The use of tolerant and resistant cultivars is the most practical management method in most locales.


A safe processing method known as the "wetting method" is to mix the cassava flour with water into a thick paste, spread it in a thin layer over a basket and then let it stand for five hours at 30 °C in the shade. In that time, about 83% of the cyanogenic glycosides are broken down by the linamarase; the resulting hydrogen cyanide escapes to the atmosphere, making the flour safe for consumption the same evening.
The traditional method used in West Africa is to peel the roots and put them into water for three days to ferment. The roots are then dried or cooked. In Nigeria and several other west African countries, including Ghana, Cameroon, Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso, they are usually grated and lightly fried in palm oil to preserve them. The result is a foodstuff called gari. Fermentation is also used in other places such as Indonesia (see Tapai). The fermentation process also reduces the level of antinutrients, making the cassava a more nutritious food. The reliance on cassava as a food source and the resulting exposure to the goitrogenic effects of thiocyanate has been responsible for the endemic goiters seen in the Akoko area of southwestern Nigeria.
A project called "BioCassava Plus" uses bioengineering to grow cassava with lower cyanogenic glycosides combined with fortification of vitamin A, iron and protein to improve the nutrition of people in sub-Saharan Africa.


Cassava, yams (Dioscorea spp.), and sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are important sources of food in the tropics. The cassava plant gives the third-highest yield of carbohydrates per cultivated area among crop plants, after sugarcane and sugar beets. Cassava plays a particularly important role in agriculture in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, because it does well on poor soils and with low rainfall, and because it is a perennial that can be harvested as required. Its wide harvesting window allows it to act as a famine reserve and is invaluable in managing labor schedules. It offers flexibility to resource-poor farmers because it serves as either a subsistence or a cash crop.
Worldwide, 800 million people depend on cassava as their primary food staple.  No continent depends as much on root and tuber crops in feeding its population as does Africa. In the humid and sub-humid areas of tropical Africa, it is either a primary staple food or a secondary costaple. In Ghana, for example, cassava and yams occupy an important position in the agricultural economy and contribute about 46 percent of the agricultural gross domestic product. Cassava accounts for a daily caloric intake of 30 percent in Ghana and is grown by nearly every farming family. The importance of cassava to many Africans is epitomised in the Ewe (a language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin) name for the plant, agbeli, meaning "there is life".
In Tamil Nadu, India, there are many cassava processing factories alongside National Highway 68 between Thalaivasal and Attur. Cassava is widely cultivated and eaten as a staple food in Andhra Pradesh and in Kerala. In Assam it is an important source of carbohydrates especially for natives of hilly areas.
In the subtropical region of southern China, cassava is the fifth-largest crop in terms of production, after rice, sweet potato, sugar cane, and maize. China is also the largest export market for cassava produced in Vietnam and Thailand. Over 60 percent of cassava production in China is concentrated in a single province, Guangxi, averaging over seven million tonnes annually.


M. religiosa can be found throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as North America, where it is considered introduced. Two confirmed stable populations are in Germany: one in Rhineland-Palatinate and one in Baden-Württemberg. In the last years, more reports have been made of the distribution of the animals in Northern Europe (Latvia, Estonia), as well.
Despite being an introduced species, it is the official state insect of Connecticut.


The intervals of oviposition after copulating depend on the food intake and the overall physical fitness of the female. On average, 11 days are needed for the female to form and deposit an ootheca, which contains around 100 to 200 eggs. Copulation usually takes place in September or October, but the eggs overwinter and the larva do not hatch until the following spring. Hatching is strongly influenced by environmental conditions such as temperature (at least 17 °C) and humidity. Females prefer to deposit their eggs on solid substrates at warm and sunny sites. Most eggs from one ootheca hatch at the same time along the entire convex site, as worm-like prelarvae (L1). The hatchings always occur in the morning.
The L1 just exists for a very short time; the first moult happens on or very close to the ootheca. The now-emerging nymphs already look a lot like the adults, but are maybe a tenth of their size. Very few animals (about 10%) survive this first instar stage due to lack of appropriately sized food, low temperatures, or insufficient humidity.
The L2–L6 stages generally last about 14 days each. During this time, a growth around 6 mm per stadium can be observed. Each stadium is completed with a moult. The L7 develops a more compact shape. Wing pads become visible. L7 and L8 show the same growth rate and duration as the previous stadia. After the next moult, the adult animal emerges. It now has wings and is fully developed. While more than eight moults have never been observed in M. religiosa, females usually need one more moult than males under similar circumstances.
Closely related mantids have been reported to be larger than M. religiosa and require more moults (9–11). The fact that females need a longer time to develop and more moults might be due to the difference in size.


M. r. beybienkoi is found in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, West Siberia, and Primorsky Krai (Russian Far East)
M. r. caucasica is found in Stavropol.
M. r. eichleri is found in Ethiopia, Mauritania, Niokolo-Koba, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, the Congo, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Zambia, and Anatolia.
M. r. inornata is found in India, Iran, Nepal, and Pakistan,
syn.  M. r.  akbari (Soomro et al., 2001)
syn.  M. inornata (Werner, 1930)
M. r. langoalata is found in Uzbekistan.
M. r. latinota if found in Kazakhstan.
M. r.  macedonica is found in North Macedonia.
M. r. major is found in Mombasa (Kenya).
M. r. polonica is found in Poland and Russia.
M. r.  religiosa is found in Africa, North America (Canada, United States), Europe, and Asia (Nepal), but not in South America or Australia.
syn.  M. r.  maroccana (Thunberg, 1815)
syn.  M. r.  radiata (Fischer-Waldheim, 1846)
syn.  M. r.  sancta (Fabricius, 1787)
M. r. siedleckii is found in Southeast Asia: Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Java, and Sulawesi.
M. r.  sinica is found in China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, and Vietnam.


The plant is native to Southern California and Baja California. Its range extends from the Transverse Ranges and Channel Islands through the Peninsular Ranges.
It grows by streams, in washes, and on slopes in chaparral and oak woodlands, at elevations up to 900 m (3,000 ft). It will tolerate a variety of soil types and acidities, but it requires seasonally moist soil. Vines can grow in full-sun to partially shaded conditions. It emerges soon after winter rains begin, grows until late spring, and dies back completely in the heat and dryness of summer.


It is common and widespread, breeding in all but the extreme north of Canada and Alaska and also in the Interior West through Idaho, Colorado, the Dakotas, and Minnesota, as well as eastern Washington and Oregon. The conservation status of this bird is Least Concern. The majority of the population breeds on wetlands in the Boreal Forest and subarctic river deltas of Canada and Alaska. Although wigeon are found in each flyway, they are most numerous in the Pacific Flyway. Key wintering areas here include the Central Valley of California and Washington's Puget Sound. Farther east, the Texas Panhandle, the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas, and the Caribbean also support large numbers of wintering wigeon.
This dabbling duck is migratory and winters farther south than its breeding range, in the southern half of the United States, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and the Mid-Atlantic coastal region, and further south into Central America, the Caribbean, and northwestern South America. It is a rare but regular vagrant to western Europe, and has been observed in significant numbers in Great Britain and Ireland since at least 1958.
In 2009, an estimated 2.5 million breeding wigeon were tallied in the traditional survey area—a level just below the 1955–2009 average. In recent decades, wigeon numbers have declined in the Prairie Pothole Region of Canada and increased in the interior and west coast of Alaska. The American wigeon is often the fifth most commonly harvested duck in the United States, behind the mallard, green-winged teal, gadwall, and wood duck.


It breeds in the northernmost areas of Europe and the Palearctic. It is the Old World counterpart of North America's American wigeon. It is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range. It migrates to southern Asia and Africa. In Great Britain and Ireland, the Eurasian wigeon is common as a winter visitor, but scarce as a breeding bird in Scotland, the Lake District, the Pennines and occasionally further south, with only a handful of breeding pairs in Ireland. It can be found as an uncommon winter visitor in the United States on the mid-Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It is a rare visitor to the rest of the United States except for the Four Corners and the southern Appalachians.


The gadwall breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic, and central North America. In North America, its breeding range lies along the Saint Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, south to Kansas, west to California, and along coastal Pacific Canada and southern coastal Alaska. The range of this bird appears to be expanding into eastern North America. This dabbling duck is strongly migratory, and winters farther south than its breeding range, from coastal Alaska, south into Central America, and east into Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Virginia, and then south all the way into Central America.
In Great Britain, the gadwall is a scarce-breeding bird and winter visitor, though its population has increased in recent years. It is likely that its expansion was partly through introduction, mainly to England, and partly through colonization by continental birds staying to breed in Scotland. In Ireland a small breeding population has recently become established, centred on County Wexford in the south and Lough Neagh in the north. The Gadwall is also seen in some parts of South Asia, particularly the southern part of India.


The American marten (Martes americana), also known as the American pine marten, is a species of North American mammal, a member of the family Mustelidae. The species is sometimes referred to as simply the pine marten. The name "pine marten" is derived from the common name of the distinct Eurasian species, Martes martes.  It is found throughout Canada, Alaska, and parts of the northern United States. It is a long, slender-bodied weasel, with fur ranging from yellowish to brown to near black. It may be confused with the fisher (Pekania pennanti), but the marten is lighter in color and smaller. Identification of the marten is further eased by a characteristic bib that is a distinctly different color than the body. Sexual dimorphism is pronounced, with males being much larger.
The diet is omnivorous and varies by season, but relies chiefly on small mammals like voles. They are solitary except during the mid-summer breeding season. Embryonic implantation is delayed until late winter however, with a litter of 1–5 kits born the following spring. Young stay with the mother in a constructed den until the fall, and reach sexual maturity by one year old.
Their sable-like fur made them a thoroughly trapped species during the height of the North American fur trade. Trapping peaked in 1820, and populations were depleted until after the turn of the century. Populations have rebounded since, with them being considered a species of least-concern by the IUCN; however, they remain extirpated from some areas of the Northeast, and of the 7 subspecies, one is threatened.


The American marten is broadly distributed in northern North America. From north to south its range extends from the northern limit of treeline in arctic Alaska and Canada south to New York. From east to west, its distribution extends from Newfoundland to western Alaska, and southwest to the Pacific coast of Canada. In Canada and Alaska, the American marten's distribution is vast and continuous. In the northeastern and midwestern United States, American marten distribution is limited to mountain ranges that provide preferred habitat. Over time, the distribution of American marten has contracted and expanded regionally, with local extirpations and successful recolonizations occurring in the Great Lakes region and some parts of the Northeast. The American marten has been reintroduced in several areas where extinction occurred, although in some cases it has instead been introduced into the range of the Pacific marten. It is considered extirpated from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Ohio, New Jersey, and Illinois.
Martens were once thought to live only in old conifer (evergreen) forests but further study shows that martens live in both old and young deciduous (leafy) and conifer forests as well as mixed forests, including in Alaska and Canada, and south into northern New England, and the Adirondacks in New York. Groups of martens also live in the Midwest, in Wisconsin and much of Minnesota. Trapping and destruction of forest habitat have reduced its numbers, but it is still much more abundant than the larger fisher. The Newfoundland subspecies (M. a. atrata) is considered to be threatened.
A broad, natural hybrid zone between the Pacific and American martens is known to exist in the Columbia Mountains, as well as Kupreanof and Kuiu Islands in Alaska. Several translocations of American marten have been made without regard to the Pacific marten, threatening the latter species. On Dall Island, American martens have been introduced and are hybridizing with the native Pacific marten population, which may put it risk. On many islands throughout the Alexander Archipelago, American martens have been introduced and are present, with no sign of the Pacific martens; it is unknown whether the islands previously had no marten species until American martens were introduced, or whether the Pacific martens existed on those islands previously but were extirpated by the introduced American martens. In addition, genetic evidence of introgression with American martens is present in other parts of the Pacific marten's range, which is likely also a consequence of American marten introductions.


Worldwide in the tropics. Asia, Africa, North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, Australia & Oceania.


The striped whipsnake is found throughout the western United States and northern Mexico. The northernmost part of its geographic range is in south central Washington, and continues southward into the Great Basin between the Cascade-Sierran crest and the continental divide. Its range then continues southeast across the continental divide into New Mexico and western and central Texas. The southernmost part of its range lies in Michoacán, Mexico. In the Western United States its range also extends outside of the Great Basin into the Rogue River Valley in southwestern Oregon and northern California. There is a population in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.


Mauremys leprosa is native to the western mainland Mediterranean Basin, stretching from the tip of southern France to the northwestern Maghreb (in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya). It is most frequent in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain).


Medeola virginiana is found from Ontario to Nova Scotia, south to Florida, and Louisiana. It grows in rich, moist forests, thickets, and woodlands.
It is listed as an endangered plant in Florida and in Illinois.


In the United States in 2014, the leading alfalfa-growing states were California, Idaho, and Montana. Alfalfa is predominantly grown in the northern and western United States; it can be grown in the southeastern United States, but leaf and root diseases, poor soils, and a lack of well-adapted varieties are often limitations.