The Mayo used the cactus as an herbal remedy. Pieces of the flesh were applied to wounds to inhibit bleeding. The cactus flesh was cooked in salted water and the solution was applied to infected wounds three times daily, followed by a sulfathiazole powder. The juice was consumed as an herbal tonic and to treat sore throat.


The fruits were used as combs by indigenous peoples. To make a hairbrush, the spines were removed from about two-thirds of the fruit, and the remaining spines were trimmed to about 1 cm in length.


Pachycereus pringlei, also known as Mexican giant cardon or elephant cactus, is a species of cactus native to northwestern Mexico in the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Sonora. It is commonly known as cardón, a name derived from the Spanish word cardo, meaning "thistle".
Large stands of this cactus still exist, but many have been destroyed as land has been cleared for cultivation in Sonora.
The fruit of this cactus was an important food for the Seri people in Sonora, who call the cactus xaasj.
A symbiotic relationship with bacterial and fungal colonies on its roots allows P. pringlei to grow on bare rock even where no soil is available at all, as the bacteria can fix nitrogen from the air and break down the rock to produce nutrients. The cactus even packages symbiotic bacteria within its seeds.


1.The tallest living cactus is a specimen of Pachycereus pringlei. The tallest cactus ever measured was an armless Saguaro cactus which blew over in a windstorm in 1986; it was 23.8 meters (78 feet) tall.


The rose-throated becard (Pachyramphus aglaiae) is a medium-sized member of the family Tityridae. Its genus, Pachyramphus, has traditionally been placed in Cotingidae or Tyrannidae, but evidence strongly suggest it is better placed in Tityridae. This species was named in honour of Aglaé Brelay.


The classification of the rose-throated becard was long controversial, with taxonomists arguing either that it was a cotinga or a tyrant flycatcher. However, genetic evidence indicates that it is in a separate family altogether.


Rose-throated becards usually occur in riparian areas of pine-oak woodlands and evergreen forest. They breed from south-easternmost Arizona and extreme southern Texas of the United States to western Panama. Breeding is local and sporadic in the US, and becomes more regular in Mexico. Birds are normally permanent residents, but birds found in the United States generally migrate for the winter.


The most distinguishing characteristics of this bird is the rose-colored neck bib found in adult males. Males are mostly gray in color, with a contrasting darker upperside and a pale gray underside. Males also show a black crown. Females are mostly brown in color, with a rusty brown upperside, and a pale buffy underside. The crown is a dark gray, not nearly as stunning as the males. Its usual call is a mournful "seeeeuuuwww".


Packera anonyma, called Appalachian ragwort and Small's ragwort, is a flowering plant in the Asteraceae (aster family).


The perennial herb is native to the lower Northeastern United States and across the Southeastern United States. Regions it is found in include the Appalachian Mountains and the southeastern Great Lakes states. It inhabits rock outcrops, roadsides, woods, and disturbed areas.


Packera anonyma produces abundant yellow flowers in May and early June. It blooms April to May in the South, and early June to mid-July in the North.


Packera glabella (formerly Senecio glabellus) is one of several plants with the common name butterweed, this one has also been called cressleaf groundsel and yellowtop.  It is native to central and southeastern North America. It is toxic when eaten by humans.


Butterweed is found from Texas north to South Dakota and east to Ohio with a disjunct population in Delaware.  It grows in clay and loam soils in disturbed areas and in prairie and floodplain habitats.
Native
Nearctic:
Northeastern U.S.A.: Indiana
North-Central U.S.A.: Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma
Southeastern U.S.A.: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee
South-Central U.S.A.: Texas


NatureServe lists Packera glabella as Secure (G5) worldwide and Critically Imperiled (S1) in Nebraska, Imperiled (S2) in Kansas, and Vulnerable (S3) in North Carolina.


Packera obovata, the roundleaf ragwort or spoon-leaved ragwort, is an erect perennial herb native to Eastern North America. It was previously called Senecio obovatus. Basal and lower leaves are obovate with toothed margins, while upper leaves are pinnately divided. The ray flowers are yellow and the disk flowers orange-yellow, the inflorescences being held well above the foliage.


Packera obovata is an erect perennial herb growing to a height of up to 2 ft (60 cm). It has fibrous roots and a basal rosette of leaves up to 1 ft (30 cm) across. They are mid-green and hairless, circular, oval or obovate in shape and have crinkly toothed margins. The leaf stalks are about the same length as the leaf blades, green or purplish in colour and usually hairless; some have slight winging and may be cobwebby-pubescent. The flower stalk may also be cobwebby at the base, and bears two or three alternate pinnatifid leaves with irregular lobes. It is topped by a flat-headed panicle, each individual flower-head being up to 0.75 in (2 cm) in diameter. The flower-head has a single row of linear-lanceolate green bracts, eight to sixteen yellow ray-florets and a central mound of orange-yellow disk florets. Both ray and disk florets are followed by brown achenes set in tufts of white hair. The achenes are dispersed by the wind, and the plant can also spread by vegetative growth from stolons or rhizomes.


The native range of P. obovata is northern Mexico, the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, extending from Coahuila to Quebec and Ontario. It is most common in the southern half of the range. Typical habitats include moist but well-drained calcareous soils, wooded slopes, and rocky areas in shaded or semi-shaded locations.


Packera paupercula is a flowering plant species of the genus Packera and family Asteraceae, native to North America, where it is widespread across Canada and much of the United States. Its common names include balsam ragwort and balsam groundsel. It is a perennial herb that grows 1–3 feet (0.30–0.91 metres) tall. Its habitats include wet meadows, open woodlands, and rocky outcrops.
It flowers as early as April in the southern part of its range, and as late as August in the northern part of its range.


Packera paupercula taxonomically complex, with varying amounts of infraspecific taxa recognized by different authorities. No single classification to date has received wide acceptance. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew currently recognizes the following varieties:
P. paupercula var. appalachiana - Restricted to the Appalachian Mountains
P. paupercula var. paupercula - Widespread from Newfoundland to Alaska, south through the Rocky Mountains and Appalachians
P. paupercula var. pseudotomentosa - Native to the Midwest, Upper South, and Ontario
P. paupercula var. savannarum - Restricted to the upper Midwest


Paectes abrostoloides, the large paectes moth or sweetgum defoliator, is a moth of the family Euteliidae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1852. It is found in the US from Massachusetts to Florida, west to Arizona and north to Utah. It has also been recorded from the Antilles and Honduras.
The wingspan is 27–32 mm. Adult are on wing from April to October.
The larvae feed on the leaves of Liquidambar styraciflua.


Paederia foetida is a species of plant, with common names that are variations of skunkvine, stinkvine, or Chinese fever vine. It is native to temperate, and tropical Asia; and has become naturalized in the Mascarenes, Melanesia, Polynesia, and the Hawaiian Islands, also found in North America by recent studies.
Paederia foetida is known for the strong, sulphurous odour exuded when its leaves or stems are crushed or bruised. This is because the oil responsible for the smell, and found primarily within the leaves, contains sulphur compounds, including largely dimethyl disulphide.


It is sometimes planted as an ornamental, and has virtue in folk medicine. It is also used as a culinary spice in some traditional cooking in North Eastern and Eastern India.  In Hainanese cuisine, the leaves are ground into flour and mixed with rice to form noodles used in a sweet soup.


The caterpillars of four hawkmoth species are recorded to feed on P. foetida: Neogurelca hyas, Macroglossum corythus, M. pyrrhosticta and M. sitiene.


Paeonia brownii is a low to medium height, herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Paeoniaceae. It has compound, steely-gray, somewhat fleshy leaves and small drooping maroon flowers. Its vernacular name is Brown's peony, native peony or western peony. It is native to the western United States and usually grows at altitude, often as undergrowth in part-shade. The fleshy roots store food to carry the plant through the dry summers and produce new leaves and flowers the following spring.


Paeonia brownii is a glaucous, summer hibernating, perennial herbaceous plant of 25–40 cm high with up to ten stems per plant, which grow from a large, fleshy root. Each pinkish stem is somewhat decumbent and has five to eight twice compound or deeply incised, bluish green, hairless, somewhat fleshy leaves which may develop purple-tinged edges when temperatures are low. The blades of the leaflets or segments are oval to inverted egg-shaped, 3-6 × 2–5 cm, with a clearly narrowed, stalk-like foot and an stump or rounded tip. The bisexual flowers are cup-shaped, 2–3 cm when open, nodding, and are set individually at the tip of a branching stem, and bloom for 9–15 days. Flowering occurs from March to June (mostly mid-April to mid-May). The five or six overlapping sepals are a purplish green, cupped, and oval or almost circular, persist after flowering. The five to ten circular petals are usually shorter than the sepals, and grade in colour from brownish-maroon at the base, via wine red to greenish or yellowish on the edge. Each flower has 60-100 yellow stamens, consisting of filaments of 3–5 mm, that are topped by anthers of 2–4 mm long. These open in succession from the inside out shedding yellow pollen, starting from the second day. A disc consisting of about twelve fleshy cone-shaped greenish-yellow lobes of 2½-3 mm high surrounds the two to six (mostly five) glabrous, initially yellow-green to ultimately yellow-red carpels, each having a short style topped by a curved stigma that forms a ridge. These are receptive during the first two days that the flower is open. Fertilised carpels mature into 2–4 cm long follicles that have become leathery when ripe. About four seeds develop per follicle, which are yellowish-brown to black, round to oval and 6–11 mm in diameter. As all diploid peonies, Paeonia brownii has ten chromosomes (2n=10).


Brown's peony is most closely related to, and closest in appearance to the California peony, with which it constitutes the section Onaepia. Common characters include having rather small drooping flowers, with small petals and a very prominent disk which usually consists of separate segments, while the seeds are cylindrical rather than ovoid. P. browniii can still be easily distinguished from P. californica however, the latter having 35–75 cm high stems bearing seven to twelve leaves which are green, while the leaflet blade gradually eases into the leaflet stalk or lacks such a stalk all together, and the finest lobes are lanceolate or narrowly elliptic. P. brownii is usually only 20–40 cm high, has six to eight glaucous leaves per stem that suddenly narrow at their base and the finest segments are egg-shaped. In P. californica the petals are egg-shaped, and about 1½-2½ cm long, reaching beyond the sepals, while in P. brownii the petals are circular or wider than long, and about ¾-1½ cm long, definitely shorter than the sepals.


Paeonia brownii was first described in 1829 by David Douglas in the Flora boreali-americana which was edited by Hooker. No synonyms for this scientific name are known. Paeonia californica has been regarded a subspecies of P. brownii, but there are several morphological differences, the environmental circumstances in which each grows are different and the distributions of both species do not overlap, so currently there seems to be consensus that both need to be regarded as separate species.
Paeonia brownii and P. californica together make up the section Onaepia of the genus Paeonia. Precise relationships between the three sections remain ambiguous, and can be represented by the following phylogenetic tree.


The species is named after Scottish botanist Robert Brown.


Brown's peony grows in open dry pine forests such as stands of ponderosa pine, in sagebrush, in mountain brush, and in aspen stands at elevations of 200–3,000 m, where winters are long and cold, with little to no snow cover and the growing season is short. It occurs in northern California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. It is not native to Canada.
P. brownii is very specific when it comes to soil conditions. It will not thrive where the soil is excessively wet, nor if the soil becomes too dry. It performs best in well-drained situations.


In the Blue Mountains at about 1050 m altitude, P. brownii grows in an upland prairie on basalt-substrate close to conifer stands. In addition to a variety of grasses, the surrounding vegetation includes western monkshood, Hooker's and arrowleaf balsamroot, redstem ceanothus, pinkfairies, hairy clematis, dwarf larkspur, parsnipflower buckwheat, fernleaf and nineleaf biscuitroot, sulphur lupine, beardtongues species, virgate scorpion-weed, sticky and slender cinquefoil, sagebrush buttercup, dwarf and Nootka rose, common snowberry, American vetch and northern mule's ears. Brown's peony avoids drought by dying down completely in early summer, after flowering and surviving underground with stores of nutrients and energy in its thick rootstock. When parts of the plant are broken, bruised or damaged by predation it produces a pronounced bitter and unpleasant scent. Plants are rarely eaten, but caterpillars of the species Euxoa ustula, dark grey fishia and small heliothodes moth have been found to eat 1–2 mm holes in the flowers, although these species are better known from other host plants. Flowers give off the same smell more weakly and the lobes of the disc secrete a sweet nectar with a bitter aftertaste over the entire time the stigmas and anthers are fertile.


According to one source, wasps, such as the common aerial yellowjacket and Polistes aurifer, and sweat bees, in particular, Lasioglossum species, make up the majority of pollinators, in addition to hoverflies such as Criorhina caudata. Bernhardt et al., after studying an endemic population in Oregon's Blue Mountains, stated:
The most common pollen vectors were wasp queens in the family Vespidae, the large flower fly Criorhina caudata (Syrphidae), and females of various Lasioglossum species (Halictidae), all of which foraged exclusively for nectar.
 Although this plant produces a significant amount of pollen, the insects that pollinated it sought it for nectar. The study's authors argued that it is unlikely that the vespid wasps co-evolved with the plant, although they do benefit it by preying on moth larvae which consume it. The plant is a hexose-type nectar producer, with glucose being its primary sugar. The Lepidoptera typically seek sucrose-producing flowers. This plant also uses what the researchers described as an "unpleasant odor" to increase pollinator selectivity.


P. brownii seed is, in part, dispersed by rodents, which harvest seeds from the ripe, hanging fruit and store these in small caches up to 20 m away. In Washoe County, Nevada, the yellow-pine chipmunk, deer mouse, and the  Great Basin pocket mouse have been observed to do this. The seeds, however, are not considered to be  a choice food item, compared to pine kernels, which contain much more fat and protein. Abandoned seeds will germinate early in the next year, following the winter stratification, which breaks their dormancy.


Brown's peony is rarely cultivated because it has limited ornamental value due to its few and small flowers and the difficulty to grow it. It is highly intolerant of water during its summer dormancy. It is advised to place this plant in an area of the garden with superb drainage and sheltered from summer rains. Paeonia brownii tolerates sand.


Native Americans made the roots into a tea to treat lung illnesses.
The roots of P. brownii can be eaten for its nutrient content.. Indiginous tribe members would also use them as a medicine to cure cough, kidney problems, sexually transmitted infections, pneumonia, nausea, indigestion and tuberculosis.


This fern can be found throughout the North and South Islands, Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands.


Palafoxia arida is a species of flowering plant in the aster family, known by the common names desert palafox and Spanish needle.


It is native to the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert ecoregions of California, the Southwestern United States, and northwestern Mexico.


Palafoxia arida is an annual herb producing an erect, branching, glandular stem.  The rough-haired leaves are linear or lance-shaped and may exceed 10 centimeters long.
The inflorescence is an array of up to 40 flower heads. The cylindrical heads are about 2 to 3 centimeters long, lined with long, pointed phyllaries, and bearing up to 40 pink or white tubular disc florets.
The fruit is an achene over a centimeter long including the pappus.


There are two varieties:
Palafoxia arida var. arida — desert needle,  desert palafox.
Palafoxia arida var. gigantea — giant Spanish needle; the larger, reaching 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in maximum height.


Palafoxia callosa, commonly known as the small palafox, is a species of flowering plant in the aster family.
It is native to North America, where it is found in the south-central United States and in the state of Coahuila in Mexico. A disjunct population is found in the Blackland Prairie region of Mississippi in the United States. Its natural habitat is rocky, calcareous soil in glades and prairies. It is less commonly found along the banks of streams.
Palafoxia callosa is an annual. It produces heads of pink to white flowers in late summer and fall. Its narrow leaves are often wilted by flowering time.


Paleacrita vernata, the spring cankerworm, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by William Dandridge Peck in 1795. It is found in North America from the Atlantic Ocean west to Alberta, Texas and California.
The length of the forewings is 11–18 mm for males. The females are wingless. Adult males are on wing from February to late May.
The larvae feed on various deciduous trees and shrubs, but especially Acer, Ulmus, Betula and Prunus species. Oaks (Quercus) are also affected, and many homeowners place sticky bands around trunks of their trees to trap the migrating adults as they climb the tree to lay eggs. The eggs hatch, turning into numerous inch-long worms that can defoliate and kill a tree. The worms often fall from the canopy onto passersby. Usually they are suspended by a line of silk that they can climb back into the tree along, should a spring wind dislodge them from their meal of leaves.


The specific name is derived from Latin vernus, "spring (attributive)".


Pallenis spinosa, commonly known as spiny starwort or spiny golden star, is an annual herbaceous plant  belonging to the genus Pallenis of the family Asteraceae. The Latin name of the genus is derived from palea (chaff), referring to the chaffy receptacle, while the species name spinosa, meaning spiny, refers to the spiny bracts surrounding the flowers.


Pallenis spinosa reaches on average 60 centimetres (24 in) of height. Leaves are alternate, lanceolate or elliptical. The basal ones have short petioles, while the cauline ones are sessile or semiamplexicaul. A solitary inflorescence grows at the top of the branches. The large, slightly convex  receptacle shows numerous, yellowish orange, hermaphrodite disc florets and two whorls of yellow ray florets. The long, villous, involucral bracts end in an apical sharp-pointed spine. The flowering period extends from May through July. Fruits are achenes of about 2–2,5 millimeters of length.


This plant occurs in desert and coastal habitats of Southern Europe, North Africa, the Canary Islands and the Middle East.


These plants can survive in very dry environments and can be found on uncultivated sunny lands and on the roadsides at 0–1,400 metres (0–4,593 ft) above sea level.


The green shield bug (Palomena prasina) is a European shield bug species in the family Pentatomidae. The name might equally apply to several other species in the tribe Nezarini, or if referred-to as a "green stink bug", it might more appropriately belong to the larger North American bug, Acrosternum hilare. The adult green shield bug ranges in the colour of their backs from bright green to bronze, without any substantial markings. Green shield bugs are a very common shield bug throughout Europe, including Great Britain & Ireland, and are found in a large variety of habitats, including gardens. They have been found as far north as 63° N latitude.


In Europe, the bright green shield bugs appear in April or May, having hibernated as imagoes in humus during the winter. They live by eating the sap from within plants in apples, pears and hazelnuts. They fatten for a month and then mate in June.
The imago's coloration changes over the summer months from green to greenish browns even bronze to ready for the Autumn, after which the life cycle will end.
Mating is back-to-back. The female lays her eggs in hexagonal batches of 25 to 30, and a single female will lay three to four batches. After the eggs hatch, the green shield bug enter a larval stage (which is really their first nymphal stage) where, in general, they remain together in sibling communities. This is made possible by the excretion of an aggregation pheromone. In case of danger, another pheromone is released which causes dispersal. The larval stage is followed by four more nymphal stages as well as moulting between each one.
The green shield bug displays different colouration during each nymphal stage, light brown, black or green-black, and in the final stage, the imago, is bright green with short wings. Usually the imago stage is reached in September, with hibernation occurring in November.


Length
10 to 14mm.
Head
Frontal triangle covered with white pile. The middle frons with a thin brownish stripe and yellow brown pile to the eyes.; Sime blackish pile notednear the ocelli. The  face is reddish-yellow with whitish pollen and pile on the sides. The median stripe (tubercle) and cheeks shining, somewhat brownish.  Antennae reddish-yellow, arista bare. Eyes are  Holoptic in male. The occiput is black above, white pile below.
Thorax
Scudtum has three distinct grayish-olivaceous crescent shaped bands over a opaque black base color.,The first grey band is on the front border, the second just before the lateral suture, and the third, the broadest, is just in front of the scutellum,  yellowish; pleurae are yellowish with grayish pollen. The  scutellum is reddish-yellow with a  lighter posterior border and long yellow pile along posterior edge.
Abdomen
The first segment is  black, reddish-yellow on the sides. The second segment has  large reddish yellow lateral spots, not quite reaching the hind border, The opaque black in the middle is very narrow,  broader in front, and reaching across the segment in front of the indistinct  yellow-brown hind border. The third segment witb a large reddish- yellow spot  on the sides, usually more reddish, than the second segment and with a narrow yellowish hind border. Across the middle, a shining  baud with an opaque black spot in front and a similar colored band behind;  In the female the yellow spots on the third segment are often smaller or wanting. The fourth segment has a shining cross-band in front, opaque behind and a broadly yellow posterior border.
Wings
Wings are hyaline except basal portion a little yellowish and they have a brownish tinge below the stigma.cell. Vein R1 is short petiolate and  vein R4+5 distinctly sinuate. The spurious vein distinct.
Legs
The anterior and middle pairs yellowish or reddish, with the base of femora and tip of tibiae brownish. the hind femora considerably are dilated, usually broadly blackish, sometimes deep red.The  distal half of hind tibiae is blackish.


Palpita magniferalis, the splendid palpita snout moth, ash pyralid or ash leafroller, is a moth of the family Crambidae. It is found in eastern North America.
The wingspan is 23–27 mm. Adults are on wing from April to October.
The larvae feed on Fraxinus species.


Palpita quadristigmalis, the four-spotted palpita moth, is a moth in the family Crambidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Quebec and Ontario to Florida, west to Arizona and north to Colorado.
The length of the forewings is 13.5-14.5 mm. The forewings are translucent white with a dark brown strip along the costa containing three black dots in the basal half. The hindwings are white with a dark discal dot. Adults are on wing in May and June in the north and nearly year-round in the southern part of the range.
The larvae feed on Ligustrum species.
The larvae have also been found feeding on Olea europaea (olive) in Texas. They are recognized as a potential pest, as they are able to defoliate entire orchards and will also feed on the olive fruit.


Palpita vitrealis, common name jasmine moth or white pearl, is a species of moth of the family Crambidae.


This species occurs worldwide, including Africa (Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, South Africa), Asia, Australia and Europe. In Europe, it is mainly found in southern Europe, but may be found further north.


The wingspan of Palpita vitrealis can reach 27–31 mm. The body and the wings are translucent with a slight sheen. Eyes are large and reddish-brown. On the upper edge of the forewings is present a rather broad orange or brown border. The forewings also show two black spots in the middle. Legs are white and brown ringed.


These moths mainly fly from August till late October, depending on the location. They feed on nectar of various flowers, including ivy and buddleia. This species shows a migratory nature. The larvae are initially yellow, later becoming green. They can  grow to a length of about 2 cms. They feed on the leaves of the host plants, mainly jasmine (Jasminum officinale), privet (Ligustrum species), Forsythia, Arbutus unedo and european olive (Olea europaea).  In Africa the preferred host plants are Sida rhombifolia, Grewia, Helicteres isora, Schima noronhae and Randia scortechinii.  The larvae are considered a pest of olive fields, as they attack the leaves and fruits. The final instar of the larvae spins some leaves together and form a silky cocoon to pupate.


Palpopleura lucia, the Lucia Widow, is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and possibly Burundi. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, rivers, intermittent rivers, shrub-dominated wetlands, swamps, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, and freshwater springs.


Palthis asopialis, the faint-spotted palthis moth, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1854. It is found in North America, from Florida north to Ontario and west to Texas.
The wingspan is 19–23 mm. The moth flies from January to October depending on the location. There are at least two generations in the north-east. There are more generations in the south.
Recorded food plants include Bidens species, and the leaves of beans, corn, and oak.


Paltothemis lineatipes, or red rock skimmer, is a species of skimmers in the family Libellulidae. It is found in the Americas.
Paltothemis lineatipes is considered to be least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The population is stable.


Panax trifolius, commonly called dwarf ginseng, is plant native to the Northeastern and Appalachian regions of North America. It is found in low mesic woods with acidic soils.
It produces an umbel of white flowers in late spring. This species was used for traditional medicine by Native Americans. Its tubers can be eaten raw or boiled.


Panchlora nivea, the Cuban cockroach or green banana cockroach, is a small species of cockroach found in Cuba and the Caribbean, and along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas, and has been observed as far north as Summerville, South Carolina. It is found in subtropical or tropical climates.
The females can grow up to 24 mm and the smaller males are 12 to 15 mm long.  It is winged and a strong flier, pale green to yellowish green in color, with a yellow line running up the sides.  The nymphs  are brown or black in color and are burrowers.
It is usually an outdoor species and is rarely found indoors, so is not considered a pest. The adults can often be found in shrubbery, trees, and plants. The young can be found under logs and other debris.  It is often attracted to both indoor and outdoor lights and it is mainly a nocturnal species.
It is often a popular pet roach due to its relatively pleasant green color, and because it is not an invasive indoor species. It is also used as food for other pets.
The ootheca (egg case) is 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long, is curved, and has indentations that show where the eggs are located. A study found that they contained 28 to 60 eggs (average 46). The ootheca is carried internally by the female until the eggs hatch. At 24 °C (75 °F) the eggs hatch in about 48 days, after which male nymphs mature in about 144 days, and female nymphs mature in about 181 days.


Pancratium maritimum, or sea daffodil, is a species of bulbous plant native to the Canary Islands and both sides of the Mediterranean region and Black Sea from Portugal, Morocco and the Balearic Islands east to Turkey, Syria, Israel and the Caucasus. In the parts of its range on the south Bulgarian and north Turkish and Georgian coasts of Black Sea. It is also naturalized in southern California, Bermuda and the Azores.
Pancratium maritimum grows on beaches and coastal sand dunes, often with much of the leaves and scapes buried in the sand. Other vernacular names are sea lily, sand daffodil, sand lily and lily of St. Nicholas, (although it is not a true lily). The specific epithet maritimum means "of the sea".


Pancratium maritimum is a bulbous perennial with a long neck and glaucous, broadly linear leaves, evergreen, but the leaves often die back during hot summers. Scape to 40 centimetres (16 in). Flowers 3–15 in an umbel, up to 15 cm (6 in) long, white. Corona two-thirds as long as the tepals. The flowers have a pleasing, exotic and very subtle lily scent, which only becomes apparent during still, windless summer nights that allow the delicate fragrance to become perceptible. Flowering is from August to October.


4'-Hydroxy-5,7-dimethoxy-8-methylflavan is a flavan found in P. maritimum.


Pancratium maritimum is pollinated by a hawk-moth named Agrius convolvuli. These insects visit the flower only when the speed of the wind is under 2 metres per second (6.6 ft/s). Even if the species is pollinated in an artificial way during windy weather the pollination is not effective. Pancratium maritimum is not receptive to its own pollen and must be cross-pollinated.


Easily grown but requires a very sunny position and a very well drained, sandy soil. Needs hot summers to induce flowering and is often a shy bloomer in cooler climates. Hardy to USDA zone 8. Tolerates temperatures down to about −5 °C (23 °F). Propagation by seeds or division after flowering. Seedlings may flower in their third or fourth year.


Pandemis limitata, the three-lined leafroller, is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Nova Scotia to British Columbia and from the east coast west to the Rocky Mountains and Arizona. It has also been recorded from Durango in Mexico.
The length of the forewings is 7–9.5 mm for males and 9–12 mm for females. The forewings are brown with fasciate markings. The hindwings are grey and white. Adults are on wing from June to August in one or two generations per year.
The larvae are leaf rollers. They feed on Acer negundo, Acer saccharinum, Alnus species (including Alnus incana and Alnus rubra), Betula species (including Betula papyrifera), Corylus species (including Corylus americana), Viburnum species, Euonymus atropurpureus, Cornus racemosa, Vaccinium species, Amorpha fruticosa, Trifolium species, Castanea species, Quercus species (including Quercus alba and Quercus macrocarpa), Myrica gale, Osmunda species, Malus species (including Malus domestica and Malus sylvestris), Prunus species (including Prunus avium and Prunus virginiana), Sorbus species, Populus species (including Populus alba, Populus balsamifera and Populus tremuloides), Salix species, Tilia americana and Ulmus species (including Ulmus americana and Ulmus rubra), and others. They feed on the terminal leaf growth and sometimes on the fruit of their host plant. Larvae reach a length of about 20 mm. They are entirely green and unmarked. Pupation takes place at the final larval feeding site.


The osprey /ˈɒspri, -preɪ/ (Pandion haliaetus), also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than 60 cm (24 in) in length and 180 cm (71 in) across the wings. It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts.
The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply. It is found on all continents except Antarctica, although in South America it occurs only as a non-breeding migrant.
As its other common names suggest, the osprey's diet consists almost exclusively of fish. It possesses specialised physical characteristics and exhibits unique behaviour to assist in hunting and catching prey. As a result of these unique characteristics, it has been given its own taxonomic genus, Pandion and family, Pandionidae.


The osprey was one of the many species described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work, Systema Naturae, and named as Falco haliaeetus. The genus, Pandion, is the sole member of the family Pandionidae, and used to contain only one species, the osprey (P. haliaetus). The genus Pandion was described by the French zoologist Marie Jules César Savigny in 1809. It has always presented something of a riddle to taxonomists, but here it is treated as the sole living member of the family Pandionidae, and the family listed in its traditional place as part of the order Falconiformes.
Other schemes place it alongside the hawks and eagles in the family Accipitridae—which itself can be regarded as making up the bulk of the order Accipitriformes or else be lumped with the Falconidae into Falconiformes. The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy has placed it together with the other diurnal raptors in a greatly enlarged Ciconiiformes, but this results in an unnatural paraphyletic classification.
The osprey is unusual in that it is a single living species that occurs nearly worldwide. Even the few subspecies are not unequivocally separable. There are four generally recognised subspecies, although differences are small, and ITIS lists only the first two.
Pandion haliaetus haliaetus – (Linnaeus, 1758): the nominate subspecies, occurring in the Palearctic realm.
P. haliaetus carolinensis – (Gmelin, 1788): mainland Americas. This form is larger, darker bodied and has a paler breast than the type of the first description.
P. haliaetus ridgwayi – Maynard, 1887: Caribbean islands. This form has a very pale head and breast compared with nominate haliaetus, with only a weak eye mask. It is non-migratory. Its scientific name commemorates American ornithologist Robert Ridgway.
P. haliaetus cristatus – (Vieillot, 1816): coastline and some large rivers of Australia and Tasmania. The smallest and most distinctive subspecies, also non-migratory. Some authorities have assigned it full species status as Pandion cristatus, known as the eastern osprey.


To date there have been two extinct species named from the fossil record. Pandion homalopteron was named by Stuart L. Warter in 1976 from fossils of Middle Miocene, Barstovian age, found in marine deposits in the southern part of California. The second named species Pandion lovensis, was described in 1985 by Jonathan J. Becker from fossils found in Florida and dating to the latest Clarendonian and possibly representing a separate lineage from that of P. homalopteron and P. haliaetus. A number of claw fossils have been recovered from Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments in Florida and South Carolina.
The oldest recognized family Pandionidae fossils have been recovered from the Oligocene age Jebel Qatrani Formation, of Faiyum, Egypt. However they are not complete enough to assign to a specific genus. Another Pandionidae claw fossil was recovered from Early Oligocene deposits in the Mainz basin, Germany, and was described in 2006 by Gerald Mayr.


The genus name Pandion derives from Pandíōn Πανδίων, the mythical Greek king of Athens and grandfather of Theseus, Pandion II. Although Pandion II was not used to name a bird of prey, Nisus, a king of Megara, was used for the genus. The species name haliaetus (Latin: haliaeetus) comes from Greek ἁλιάετος haliáetos "sea-eagle" (also ἁλιαίετος haliaietos) from the combining form ἁλι- hali- of ἅλς hals "sea" and ἀετός aetos, "eagle".
The origins of osprey are obscure; the word itself was first recorded around 1460, derived via the Anglo-French ospriet and the Medieval Latin avis prede "bird of prey," from the Latin avis praedae though the Oxford English Dictionary notes a connection with the Latin ossifraga or "bone breaker" of Pliny the Elder. However, this term referred to the bearded vulture.


The osprey differs in several respects from other diurnal birds of prey. Its toes are of equal length, its tarsi are reticulate, and its talons are rounded, rather than grooved. The osprey and owls are the only raptors whose outer toe is reversible, allowing them to grasp their prey with two toes in front and two behind. This is particularly helpful when they grab slippery fish.
The osprey is 0.9–2.1 kg (2 lb 0 oz – 4 lb 10 oz) in weight and 50–66 cm (19+1⁄2–26 in) in length with a 127–180 cm (50–71 in) wingspan. It is, thus, of similar size to the largest members of the Buteo or Falco genera. The subspecies are fairly close in size, with the nominate subspecies averaging 1.53 kg (3 lb 6 oz), P. h. carolinensis averaging 1.7 kg (3 lb 12 oz) and P. h. cristatus averaging 1.25 kg (2 lb 12 oz). The wing chord measures 38 to 52 cm (15 to 20+1⁄2 in), the tail measures 16.5 to 24 cm (6+1⁄2 to 9+1⁄2 in) and the tarsus is 5.2–6.6 cm (2–2+5⁄8 in).
The upperparts are a deep, glossy brown, while the breast is white and sometimes streaked with brown, and the underparts are pure white. The head is white with a dark mask across the eyes, reaching to the sides of the neck. The irises of the eyes are golden to brown, and the transparent nictitating membrane is pale blue. The bill is black, with a blue cere, and the feet are white with black talons. A short tail and long, narrow wings with four long, finger-like feathers, and a shorter fifth, give it a very distinctive appearance.
The sexes appear fairly similar, but the adult male can be distinguished from the female by its slimmer body and narrower wings. The breast band of the male is also weaker than that of the female, or is non-existent, and the underwing coverts of the male are more uniformly pale. It is straightforward to determine the sex in a breeding pair, but harder with individual birds.
The juvenile osprey may be identified by buff fringes to the plumage of the upperparts, a buff tone to the underparts, and streaked feathers on the head. During spring, barring on the underwings and flight feathers is a better indicator of a young bird, due to wear on the upperparts.
In flight, the osprey has arched wings and drooping "hands", giving it a gull-like appearance. The call is a series of sharp whistles, described as cheep, cheep or yewk, yewk. If disturbed by activity near the nest, the call is a frenzied cheereek!
 Osprey call


The osprey is the second most widely distributed raptor species, after the peregrine falcon, and is one of only six land-birds with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is found in temperate and tropical regions of all continents, except Antarctica. In North America it breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to the Gulf Coast and Florida, wintering further south from the southern United States through to Argentina. It is found in summer throughout Europe north into Ireland, Scandinavia, Finland and Great Britain though not Iceland, and winters in North Africa. In Australia it is mainly sedentary and found patchily around the coastline, though it is a non-breeding visitor to eastern Victoria and Tasmania.
There is a 1,000 km (600 mi) gap, corresponding with the coast of the Nullarbor Plain, between its westernmost breeding site in South Australia and the nearest breeding sites to the west in Western Australia. In the islands of the Pacific it is found in the Bismarck Islands, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, and fossil remains of adults and juveniles have been found in Tonga, where it probably was wiped out by arriving humans. It is possible it may once have ranged across Vanuatu and Fiji as well. It is an uncommon to fairly common winter visitor to all parts of South Asia, and Southeast Asia from Myanmar through to Indochina and southern China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
The worldwide distribution of the species is unusual for land-based birds, and only recognised in five other species.


The osprey is piscivorous, with fish making up 99% of its diet. It typically takes fish weighing 150–300 g (5+1⁄2–10+1⁄2 oz) and about 25–35 cm (10–14 in) in length, but the weight can range from 50 g (2 oz) to 2 kg (4 lb 7 oz). Virtually any type of fish in that size range are taken.
Ospreys have vision that is well adapted to detecting underwater objects from the air. Prey is first sighted when the osprey is 10–40 m (33–131 ft) above the water, after which the bird hovers momentarily then plunges feet first into the water. They catch fish by diving into a body of water, oftentimes completely submerging their entire bodies. As an osprey dives it adjusts the angle of its flight to account for the distortion of the fish's image caused by refraction. Ospreys will typically eat on a nearby perch, but have also been known to carry fish for longer distances.
Occasionally, the osprey may prey on rodents, rabbits, hares, other mammals, other birds, small reptiles (such as snakes), frogs, salamanders, conchs, and crustaceans. Reports of ospreys feeding on carrion are rare. However, they have been observed eating dead white-tailed deer and opossum.


The osprey has several adaptations that suit its piscivorous lifestyle:
reversible outer toes
sharp spicules on the underside of the toes
closable nostrils to keep out water during dives
backwards-facing scales on the talons which act as barbs to help hold its catch
dense plumage which is oily and prevents its feathers from getting waterlogged.


The osprey breeds near freshwater lakes and rivers, and sometimes on coastal brackish waters. Rocky outcrops just offshore are used in Rottnest Island off the coast of Western Australia, where there are 14 or so similar nesting sites of which five to seven are used in any one year. Many are renovated each season, and some have been used for 70 years. The nest is a large heap of sticks, driftwood, turf or seaweed built in forks of trees, rocky outcrops, utility poles, artificial platforms or offshore islets. As wide as 2 meters and weighing about 135 kg, large nests on utility poles may be fire hazards and have caused power outages.
Generally, ospreys reach sexual maturity and begin breeding around the age of three to four, though in some regions with high osprey densities, such as Chesapeake Bay in the United States, they may not start breeding until five to seven years old, and there may be a shortage of suitable tall structures. If there are no nesting sites available, young ospreys may be forced to delay breeding. To ease this problem, posts are sometimes erected to provide more sites suitable for nest building. In some regions ospreys prefer transmission towers as nesting sites, e.g. in eastern Germany.
The nesting platform design developed by one organization, Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc. has become the official design of the State of New Jersey, U.S. The nesting platform plans and materials list, available online, have been utilized by people from a number of different geographical regions. Osprey-watch.org is the global site for mapping osprey nest locations and logging observations on reproductive success.
Ospreys usually mate for life. Rarely, polyandry has been recorded. The breeding season varies according to latitude; spring (September–October) in southern Australia, April to July in northern Australia and winter (June–August) in southern Queensland. In spring the pair begins a five-month period of partnership to raise their young. The female lays two to four eggs within a month, and relies on the size of the nest to conserve heat. The eggs are whitish with bold splotches of reddish-brown and are about 6.2 cm × 4.5 cm (2+1⁄2 in × 1+3⁄4 in) and weigh about 65 g (2+1⁄4 oz). The eggs are incubated for about 35–43 days to hatching.
The newly hatched chicks weigh only 50–60 g (1+3⁄4–2 oz), but fledge in 8–10 weeks. A study on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, had an average time between hatching and fledging of 69 days. The same study found an average of 0.66 young fledged per year per occupied territory, and 0.92 young fledged per year per active nest. Some 22% of surviving young either remained on the island or returned at maturity to join the breeding population. When food is scarce, the first chicks to hatch are most likely to survive. The typical lifespan is 7–10 years, though rarely individuals can grow to as old as 20–25 years.
The oldest European wild osprey on record lived to be over thirty years of age. In North America, great horned owls (Bubo virginianus), golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), and bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are the only major predators of ospreys, capable of taking both nestlings and adults. However, kleptoparasitism by bald eagles, where the larger raptor steals the osprey's catch, is more common than predation. The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), which is very similar to the bald eagle, may harass or prey on the osprey in Eurasia. Raccoons (Procyon lotor) can be a serious threat to nestlings or eggs if they can access the nest. Endoparasitic trematodes (Scaphanocephalus expansus and Neodiplostomum spp.) have been recorded in wild ospreys.


European breeders winter in Africa. American and Canadian breeders winter in South America, although some stay in the southernmost U.S. states such as Florida and California. Some ospreys from Florida migrate to South America. Australasian ospreys tend not to migrate.
Studies of Swedish ospreys showed that females tend to migrate to Africa earlier than the males. More stopovers are made during their autumn migration. The variation of timing and duration in autumn was more variable than in spring. Although migrating predominantly in the day, they sometimes fly in the dark hours particularly in crossings over water and cover on average 260–280 km (160–170 mi) per day with a maximum of 431 km (268 mi) per day. European birds may also winter in South Asia, indicated by an osprey tagged in Norway being monitored in western India. In the Mediterranean, ospreys show partial migratory behaviour with some individuals remaining resident, whilst others undertake relatively short migration trips.


Swedish ospreys have a significantly higher mortality rate during migration seasons than during stationary periods, with more than half of the total annual mortality occurring during migration. These deaths can also be categorized into spatial patterns: Spring mortality occurs mainly in Africa, which can be traced to crossing the Sahara desert. Mortality can also occur through mishaps with human utilities, such as nesting near overhead electric cables or collisions with aircraft.


The osprey has a large range, covering 9,670,000 km² (3,730,000 sq mi) in just Africa and the Americas, and has a large global population estimated at 460,000 individuals. Although global population trends have not been quantified, the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations), and for these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern. There is evidence for regional decline in South Australia where former territories at locations in the Spencer Gulf and along the lower Murray River have been vacant for decades.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the main threats to osprey populations were egg collectors and hunting of the adults along with other birds of prey, but osprey populations declined drastically in many areas in the 1950s and 1960s; this appeared to be in part due to the toxic effects of insecticides such as DDT on reproduction. The pesticide interfered with the bird's calcium metabolism which resulted in thin-shelled, easily broken or infertile eggs. Possibly because of the banning of DDT in many countries in the early 1970s, together with reduced persecution, the osprey, as well as other affected bird of prey species, have made significant recoveries. In South Australia, nesting sites on the Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island are vulnerable to unmanaged coastal recreation and encroaching urban development.


The Roman writer Pliny the Elder reported that parent ospreys made their young fly up to the sun as a test, and dispatched any that failed.
Another odd legend regarding this fish-eating bird of prey, derived from the writings of Albertus Magnus and recorded in Holinshed's Chronicles, was that it had one webbed foot and one taloned foot.
The osprey is mentioned in the famous Chinese folk poem "guan guan ju jiu" (關關雎鳩); "ju jiu" 雎鳩 refers to the osprey, and "guan guan" (關關) to its voice. In the poem, the osprey is considered to be an icon of fidelity and harmony between wife and husband, due to its highly monogamous habits. Some commentators have claimed that "ju jiu" in the poem is not the osprey but the mallard duck, since the osprey cannot make the sound "guan guan".
The Irish poet William Butler Yeats used a grey wandering osprey as a representation of sorrow in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889).
There was a medieval belief that fish were so mesmerised by the osprey that they turned belly-up in surrender, and this is referenced by Shakespeare in Act 4 Scene 5 of Coriolanus:
I think he'll be to Rome

As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it

By sovereignty of nature.


In Buddhism, the osprey is sometimes represented as the "King of Birds", especially in  'The Jātaka: Or, Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births' , no. 486.


In heraldry, the osprey is typically depicted as a white eagle, often maintaining a fish in its talons or beak, and termed a "sea-eagle". It is historically regarded as a symbol of vision and abundance; more recently it has become a symbol of positive responses to nature, and has been featured on more than 50 international postage stamps.
In 1994, the osprey was declared the provincial bird of Nova Scotia, Canada.
It is also the official bird of Södermanland, Sweden.
The cap badge of Rhodesia's Selous Scouts (1973-1980) was a stylized osprey.
Ospreys are a common feature of First nations artwork in the Pacific Northwest, such as Kwakwakaʼwakw art. They are often used to depict the mythical  thunderbird.


The osprey is used as a brand name for various products and sports teams, such as the Ospreys (a Welsh Rugby team) and Seattle Seahawks (an American football team of the National Football League). The official mascot of athletic teams at the University of North Carolina Wilmington is named Sammy C. Hawk. The Riverhawk is the mascot for Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The Osprey is the mascot of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida.


So-called "osprey" plumes were an important item in the plume trade of the late 19th century and used in hats including those used as part of the army uniform. Despite their name, these plumes were actually obtained from egrets.
During the 2017 regular session of the Oregon Legislature, there was a short-lived controversy over the western meadowlark's status as state bird versus the osprey. The sometimes-spirited debate included state representative Rich Vial playing the meadowlark's song on his smartphone over the House microphone. A compromise was reached in SCR 18, which was passed on the last day of the session, designating the western meadowlark as the state songbird and the osprey as the state raptor.


six of 10000 land based bird species include Pandion haliaetus [sensu lato] and species: great egret Ardea alba, the cattle egret Bubulcus ibis, the glossy ibis Plegadis falcinellus, the barn owl Tyto alba and the peregrine falcon Falco peregrinus.


Pangrapta decoralis, the decorated owlet, is a moth in the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Jacob Hübner in 1818. It is found in North America from Alberta to Nova Scotia south to Florida and Texas.
The wingspan is 20–28 mm. Adults are on wing from May to September. There are two to three generations per year.
The larvae feed on Vaccinium species.


Panicum capillare, known by the common name witchgrass, is a species of grass. It is native plant to most of North America from the East Coast through all of the West Coast and California. It can be  found as an introduced species in Eurasia, and as a weed in gardens and landscaped areas. It grows in many types of habitat.


Panicum capillare is an annual bunchgrass growing decumbent or erect to heights exceeding one meter (3 feet). It is green to blue- or purple-tinged in color. In texture it is quite hairy, especially on the leaves and at the nodes. The ligule is a fringe of long hairs.
The inflorescence is a large open panicle which  may be over half the total length of the plant, up to half a meter long. At maturity it fans out, spreading to a width over 20 centimeters. As the plant dies and dries, the panicle may break off whole and becomes a tumbleweed.


Megathyrsus maximus, known as Guinea grass and green panic grass, is a large perennial bunch grass that is native to Africa and Yemen. It has been introduced in the tropics around the world. It has previously been called Urochloa maxima and Panicum maximum. It was moved to the genus Megathyrsus in 2003.


Panopoda carneicosta, the brown panopoda, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1852. It is found in North America from Ontario, Quebec and Maine, south to Florida, west to Texas, north to Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The wingspan is 38–46 mm. Reported flight periods vary. Charles V. Covell Jr. gives a flight period of May to August, and Ohio State University gives a flight period of April to September. They are most seen in June and July though. There is one generation per year in the north, possibly two in the south.
The larvae feed on the leaves of basswood, oak, hickory and willow.


Panopoda rufimargo, the red-lined panopoda, is an owlet moth in the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Jacob Hübner in 1818. It is found in North America.
The MONA or Hodges number for Panopoda rufimargo is 8587.


Panoquina ocola, the ocola skipper or long-winged skipper, is a species of butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found in Paraguay north through tropical America and the West Indies to south Texas, and strays occur north to southeast Arizona, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, southern Ontario, and New York.
The wingspan is 35–43 mm.
The larvae feed on Oryza sativa, Saccharum officinarum and Hymenachne amplexicaulis.


Panoquina ocola ocola (Florida to Ohio, Mexico to Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela to Peru, Suriname)
Panoquina ocola distipuncta Johnson & Matusik, 1988 (Dominican Republic)


This species is native to Europe (mostly) and Northern Asia.


These scorpionflies can be usually found in hedgerows and patches of nettle.


Panorpa communis can reach a body length of about 30 millimetres (1.2 in). The common scorpionfly has a black and yellow body, with a reddish head and tail. The male has a pair of claspers at the end of its tail (for holding the female during mating), giving it a scorpion-like appearance, although it is not a stinger.
The adult insect has a wingspan of about 35 millimetres (1.4 in), with wings that are mostly clear, but have many dark spots or patches. Its head, mounted with large eyes, is drawn into a prominent, downward pointing beak, which opens at the tip of its head.
In the female, the eighth abdominal segment is the shortest, almost twice shorter than the seventh; the sixth is narrowed towards the back.
The larva resembles a caterpillar and grows up to 20 millimetres (0.79 in) long. It has three pairs of thoracic legs and eight pairs of prolegs.


The adult is seen between May and September. They eat dead insects (although they sometimes eat live aphids), sometimes taking them from spider webs and plant sap.
Although fully winged, the adults rarely fly very far and spend much of their time crawling on vegetation in damp, shaded places near water and along hedgerows. Panorpa communis is a univoltine species. Eggs are laid in soil annually and the larvae both scavenge and pupate there.


Pantographa limata, the basswood leafroller moth,  is a moth of the family Crambidae. It is found in North America, including Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Quebec.
The wingspan is about 38 mm.
The larvae feed on Tilia species. They roll the leaves of their host plant. The larvae are green with a black head.
The moth eats basswood, oak and rock elm.


The bearded reedling (Panurus biarmicus) is a small, sexually dimorphic reed-bed passerine bird. It is frequently known as the bearded tit, due to some similarities to the long-tailed tit, or the bearded parrotbill. It is the only species in the family Panuridae.


The bearded reedling was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 10th edition of Systema Naturae in 1758. He placed it in the genus Parus with the tits. The species has since been placed with the parrotbills in the family Paradoxornithidae, after they were removed from the true tits in the family. More recent research suggests it is a unique songbird – no other living species seems to be particularly closely related to it. The species is now placed in the monotypic family Panuridae. Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the bearded reedling is most closely related to the lark family Alaudidae. The current genus name, Panurus, is from Ancient Greek panu, "exceedingly", and ουρά, "tail". The specific biarmicus is from "Biarmia", a Latinised form of Bjarmaland, formerly part of what is now the Arkhangelsk Oblast area of Russia.


This is a small orange-brown bird, L 16.5 cm (6.5 in), with a long tail and an undulating flight. The bill is yellow-orange. The male has a grey head and black moustaches (not a beard); the lower tail coverts are also black. The female is generally paler, with no black moustache. Flocks often betray their presence in a reedbed by their characteristic "ping" call.


This species is a wetland specialist, breeding colonially in large reed beds by lakes or swamps. It eats reed aphids in summer, and reed seeds in winter, its digestive system changing to cope with the very different seasonal diets.
The bearded reedling is a species of temperate Europe and across the Palearctic. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate other than eruptive or cold weather movements. It is vulnerable to hard winters, which may kill many birds. The English population of about 500 pairs is largely confined to the south and east with a small population in Leighton Moss in north Lancashire. In Ireland there is a small but growing population, mainly in County Wexford. The largest single population in Great Britain is to be found in the reedbeds at the mouth of the River Tay in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, where there may be in excess of 250 pairs.


Papaver cambricum, synonym Meconopsis cambrica, the Welsh poppy, is a perennial flowering plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae. It has yellow to orange flowers and is widely grown as a garden plant. It is a native of damp, rocky sites in upland areas of Western Europe from the British Isles to the Iberian Peninsula. It has been used since 2006 as the basis for the logo of the political party Plaid Cymru.


Papaver cambricum has pinnately divided leaves composed of pinnately divided leaflets. The plant can grow between 30–60 cm (12–24 in) tall. It blooms between May and July.
The flower is distinctively yellow or orange with four petals, and coarsely hairy green sepals that fall off soon after the flower opens. It spreads easily from the numerous small black seeds produced in the summer, from a long, ribbed capsule that opens with flaps.


The species was originally named by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 Species Plantarum as Papaver cambricum. In 1814, Louis Viguier separated it from Papaver, making it the type species of his new genus Meconopsis. One of the reasons was the presence of a style: other species in the genus Papaver have unstalked stigmas, arranged in a disc shape, whereas P. cambricum has stigmatic surfaces at the end of a distinct style. Later, many newly discovered species from the Himalayas and adjacent regions of China were added to the genus. As Meconopsis cambricum, it was the only species in the genus native to Europe.
However, a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2011 showed that P. cambricum is not related to Meconopsis species, but is instead nested within Papaver, suggesting that Linnaeus' original name should be restored. However, this would have left the genus Meconopsis without a type species and hence without a valid name, unless the name were to be conserved. A proposal to retain Meconopsis for the Asian species was accepted in 2017, with the conserved type Meconopsis regia G.Taylor. The genus transfer is accepted by many sources.


Papaver cambricum is endemic to upland areas of Western Europe; it is found natively in the mountains of the Iberian Peninsula, the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and some western parts of the British Isles (Wales, south-western England and parts of Ireland). It has, however, been widely naturalised outside its native range.
Papaver cambricum lives in damp, shady places on rocky ground. In its most western locations, it is increasingly found on more open ground with less cover. It is especially well adapted to colonising gaps and crevices in rocks and stones. This habit has enabled it to colonise the urban environment, growing between paving slabs and at the edges of walls.


On 24 February 2006, the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru adopted a stylised image of P. cambricum as its party logo.


Papaver somniferum, commonly known as the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae. It is the species of plant from which both opium and poppy seeds are derived and is also a valuable ornamental plant, grown in gardens. Its native range is probably the eastern Mediterranean, but is now obscured by ancient introductions and cultivation, being naturalized across much of Europe and Asia.
This poppy is grown as an agricultural crop on a large scale, for one of three primary purposes. The first is to produce seeds that are eaten by humans, known commonly as poppy seed. The second is to produce opium for use mainly by the pharmaceutical industry. The third is to produce other alkaloids, mainly thebaine and oripavine, that are processed by the pharmaceutical industry into drugs such as hydrocodone and oxycodone. Each of these goals has special breeds that are targeted at one of these businesses, and breeding efforts (including biotechnological ones) are continually underway. A comparatively small amount of Papaver somniferum is also produced commercially for ornamental purposes.
The common name "opium poppy" is increasingly a misnomer as many varieties have been bred that do not produce a significant quantity of opium. The cultivar 'Sujata' produces no latex at all. Breadseed poppy is more accurate as a common name today because all varieties of Papaver somniferum produce edible seeds. This differentiation has strong implications for legal policy surrounding the growing of this plant.


Papaver somniferum is an annual herb growing to about 100 cm (40 in) tall. The plant is strongly glaucous, giving a greyish-green appearance, and the stem and leaves bear a sparse distribution of coarse hairs. The large leaves are lobed, the upper stem leaves clasping the stem, the lowest leaves with a short petiole. The flowers are up to 30–100 mm (1–4 in) diameter, normally with four white, mauve or red petals, sometimes with dark markings at the base. The fruit is a hairless, rounded capsule topped with 12–18 radiating stigmatic rays, or fluted cap. All parts of the plant exude white latex when wounded. In Australia, plant density for optimal cultivation is about 800,000 per hectare.
Papaver somniferum was formally described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in his seminal publication Species Plantarum in 1753 on page 508.


The species shows polymorphism in wing appearance, though this is limited to females, which are often given as an example of Batesian mimicry in insects. This female-limited mimicry was first described in 1869 by Roland Trimen. Males have a more or less uniform appearance throughout the species' range, but females come in at least 14 varieties or morphs.
Some female morphs share a very similar pattern of colouration with various species of distasteful butterfly (e.g. from the Danainae, a subfamily of nymphalids), while others have been found that mimic male appearance (andromorphs). The persistence of these various morphs or different types of females may be explained by frequency dependent selection. Cook et al. suggest that Batesian mimics gain a fitness advantage by avoiding predators, but suffer harassment from males (see sexual conflict), whereas andromorphs (male mimics) are vulnerable to predation but are not harassed by male mating attempts.
Morphs are divided into three general groups based on patterning: the hippocoon group, the cenea group, and the planemoides group. The hippocoon group holds the largest amount of morphs; phenotypes within this group are characterized by four bands of alternating black and color patterns. Within the cenea group patterns are greatly dominated by black coloration and contain small splotches of color. The planemoides group has black bands surrounding the outside of the wing with a large splotch of color through the middle of the wing. This group also contains the female forms that are male-like mimics. Diversity in the wing patterns of each group is seen mostly in the coloration of each organism, while black patterns are generally consistent in each morph.
Phenotypic variation within the female morphs of Papilio dardanus has been found to be controlled at one locus named H that contains at least 11 different alleles. Recent studies have narrowed down the region of H to approximately 24 genes that is centered around the engrailed (en) gene which codes for specific transcription factors. The engrailed site has been found to have non-synonymous mutations throughout individuals in the species which would allow the divergence of each morph. Studies support that the engrailed gene in Papilio dardanus is monophyletic and has only evolved once within the species. Findings also suggest that the many different mimetic alleles in the Papilio dardanus genome are solely from mutations in the species. In other words, alleles did not enter into the genome from genetic transfer from other species.
Different combinations of the alleles at H lead to the variety of forms seen within the species. Genetic crosses of individuals found a general dominance hierarchy within the alleles. Allele combinations also determine not only which morph will be expressed but the actual size of the patterns shown.  Each allele is able to either influence a larger or smaller mimetic pattern in an organism.
Such female-limited Batesian mimicry is not unique to this species, even in the genus Papilio. For instance Papilio memnon shows a similar case of polymorphism in females. Similarly, male mimicry has been observed in another insect, a damselfly Ischnura ramburii which also appears to have evolved camouflage to avoid sexual coercion by males.


Papilio eurymedon, the pale swallowtail or pallid swallowtail, is a relatively common swallowtail butterfly found throughout much of the western North America. The species was first described by Hippolyte Lucas in 1852. It is found on the Pacific coast from northern Baja California to southernmost British Columbia, and inland to New Mexico and the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is present from the coast to western Montana, and from Wyoming to northern New Mexico. It is absent from most of Nevada and western Utah. It prefers open woodlands and forest clearings, especially near permanent bodies of water such as ponds, but also urban parks and is occasionally seen in suburban areas. Though not as common as the western tiger swallowtail, the pale swallowtail can be seen in large numbers at puddling parties where up to a dozen or more males may be gathered. There they join other species to sip water from damp soil to obtain nutrients for mating. Their appearance is quite similar to that of the western tiger swallowtail, except they are a white-cream color or very pale yellow. Some pale swallowtails also have differing amounts of red-orange patches on the top of the wings just above the tail. There is a submarginal band on the bottom of the hindwings. Tiger stripes and borders are thicker than those of western tiger swallowtails. The wingspan is typically 3.5 to 4.5 inches (8.9 to 11.4 cm).
The pale swallowtail has a single brood throughout most of its range, but two or more along the Pacific Coast. Adults fly from April to October and are most common in May and July. Caterpillars enter their pupal stage in the fall and overwinter before emerging as adults. Eggs are laid singly on host plants which include members of the genus Ceanothus, including buckbrush, mountain balm, and mountain lilac, as well as red alder, ocean spray, bitter cherry, and serviceberry species. Caterpillars are plump green with a single yellow band behind the thorax. They have two eye-shaped spots on the upper thorax, which may help frighten predators. Like most swallowtails, they have a red wishbone-shaped organ called the osmeterium, which pops out from behind the head and releases a foul odor to warn off predators. Caterpillars turn brown just before the fifth moult. The pupa is brown and looks like a piece of bark. As they pupate, they face upright, secure the tip of the abdomen to a branch with a silk thread, and hang freely.


Male. Upper-side rich brownish-black ; cilia alternated with white. Fore-wing with slender longitudinal streaks of golden-yellow scales within the cell, and hairy-scaled broad streaks between the outer veins ; lower base of the wing also sparsely speckled with golden-yellow scales. Hind-wing with a cream- white upper discal patch composed of three portions, a short almost quadrate portion in the costal interspace, and two lower large elongate portions in the subcostal interspaces, a few white or grey scales also being present below the lower portion ; at the anal angle is a dark purple-red circlet which generally partly encloses a round black spot, followed by a lower submarginal series of three, sometimes four, more or less apparent purple-red incurved lunules, the first or lower one sometimes forming a circle round a black spot ; in some specimens the lower lunule is obsolescent, in others all the latter are obsolete. Underside paler. Fore-wing with prominent greyish-white scaled slender cell-streaks and bread outer vein-streaks. Hind-wing with the upper basal area speckled with greyish-white scale.*, and three similar scaled slender longitudinal streaks within the cell, the base of the median and sub median vein also being white scaled; upper discal white patch composed of three smaller portions than on the upper-side; anal ocellus and a complete series of submarginal lunules dark red ; an inner sub anal confluent lunles also present in the lower median interspace ; the anal and sub anal lunules being speckled with violet-blue scales; beyond is a marginal row of more or less defined red-and-white scaled lunules.
Female. Upper-side and underside similar to the male, except that the base of the hind-wing is paler.

Body brownish-black; collar, front of head and palpi white-spotted; tegulae white fringed; legs and antenna black.
— Frederic Moore, Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. V


For terms, see: Morphology of Diptera
The wing length is 3–4.5 millimetres (0.12–0.18 in). It has small black lines. Tergites have red markings. Eye pilosity is uniform. Scutellum is black. Females cannot be identified.
See references for determination.


Habitat: Unimproved grassland, heathland, garrigue, dune grassland, open areas and pathsides in forest up to the Larix/Pinus uncinata zone, fen meadow. Flowers visited include umbellifers, Calluna, Jasione montana, Matricaria, Origanum, Polygonum, Potentilla, Solidago, Stellaria. It flies May to September. The larva feeds on aphids on low herbaceous plants.


As "based on both morphological and molecular evidence", Paragus haemorrhous Meigen 1822, Paragus coadunatus (Rondani, 1847) and Paragus ascoensis Goeldlin de Tiefenau & Lucas, 1981 appear to be synonyms of Paragus tibialis (Fallén, 1817)". Rojo et al (2006).


Parallelia bistriaris, the maple looper moth, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Jacob Hübner in 1818. It is found in eastern North America.
The wingspan is 33–43 mm (1.3–1.7 in). Adults are on wing from April to September. There is one generation per year.
The larvae feed on various trees, including birch, maple, and walnut.


Paraponera clavata is a species of ant, commonly known as the bullet ant, named for its extremely painful sting. It inhabits humid lowland rainforests in Central and South America.


The specific epithet of the ant, clavata, means "club-shaped". The generic name, Paraponera, translates to "near-Ponera". Due to its notoriety, the ant has several Native American, Spanish, and Portuguese local names in different geographical areas. Perhaps the best known name is the Venezuelan hormiga veinticuatro (the "24 ant" or "24-hour ant"), referring to the full day of pain that follows being stung; it can also refer to the time it takes to kill a human. In Brazil, the Portuguese names given by locals include formiga cabo verde, formigão, or formigão-preto (big black ant), and Native American-derived names are tocandira, tocandira, and tocanquibira. These names derive from the Tupi–Guarani tuca-ndy, which translates to "the one wounding deeply". Other names by which it is referred include chacha, cumanagata, munuri, siámña, yolosa, and veinticuatro hora hormiga. In Costa Rica, P. clavata is known as bala, meaning "bullet". P. clavata also has several common names; it is most commonly known as the bullet ant because of the extreme pain it delivers following a sting, similar to that of getting shot. Other names are the lesser giant hunting ant and conga ant.


Paraponera clavata was first described by Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775, who named it Formica clavata in his Systema entomologiae, based on a worker he collected. Fabricius incorrectly listed the type locality as India, as these ants are only found in Central and South America. In 1804, P. clavata was transferred to the genus Ponera by the French zoologist Pierre André Latreille. The genus Paraponera was established by the British entomologist Frederick Smith in 1858, and P. clavata was designated as the type species by monotypy (the condition of a taxonomic group having only a single taxon described). In his book, Smith would synonymise multiple taxa under Paraponera clavata, including Formica armata, Formica spininoda, Ponera tarsalis and Ponera clavata. Later publications would also synonymise more taxa, including Formica aculeata and Formica clavata. The genus was placed in a monotypic tribe, the Paraponerini, in 1901 by the Italian entomologist Carlo Emery, who stressed the importance of certain morphological characteristics of Paraponera; Emery had also placed the tribe close to the Ectatommini. This classification was accepted by the entomological community until 1958, where the American entomologist William Brown Jr. synonymised Paraponerini and transferred Paraponera to Ectatommini. It was treated as a valid tribe in 1994, but in 2003, the English myrmecologist elevated the rank of the tribe to subfamily level as Paraponerinae, being a part of the Poneromorph subfamilies.
Under the present classification, the bullet ant is a member of the genus Paraponera in the tribe Paraponerini, subfamily Paraponerinae. It is a member of the family Formicidae, belonging to the order Hymenoptera, It was once the sole member of its own genus and tribe until the extinct Paraponera dieteri was described in 1994 by the entomologist Cesare Baroni Urbani. The ant, described from Dominican amber, existed during the Early Miocene 15 to 45 million years ago. P. dieteri can be distinguished from P. clavata by its much narrower head, length, pronotum width, petiole width and other features. The good preservation of the fossil allowed comprehensive comparisons between the two species; the body sculpture of P. dieteri suggests that the genus as a whole exhibits a slow evolutionary rate.
P. clavata is the only living species in its subfamily. Although P. dieteri was the first extinct relative of P. clavata to be described, another Paraponera fossil had been examined earlier in the 1980s. The fossil, which was from the Miocene, was found embedded in Dominican Amber from Hispaniola; at the time of discovery, the ant was the largest fossil of its kind. It showed similar characteristics to P. clavata, although it was considerably smaller. The fossil also has biogeographic importance. As P. clavata is not found in the Greater Antilles, but rather in Central and South America, this suggests that moister tropical forests covered the island during the Tertiary period. This is further supported by the fact that P. clavata is a forest ant that forages on the ground and up into bushes and trees.


Worker ants are 18–30 mm (0.7–1.2 in) long and resemble stout, reddish-black, wingless wasps. Paraponera is predatory, and like all primitive poneromorphs, does not display polymorphism in the worker caste; the queen ant is not much larger than the workers. They are not aggressive ants but are vicious when defending the nest, when they produce a stridulating sound and sting with ferocity.


Paraponera is distributed throughout Central and South America, commonly found in the wet Neotropical realm. These ants are found in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica from the north, and in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil from the south. Colonies are found in lowland areas, at elevations ranging from sea level to 750 metres (2,461 ft). However, specimens have been collected at elevations of 1,500 metres (4,921 ft) in La Amistad International Park.


Colonies consist of several hundred individuals and are usually situated at the bases of trees. Workers forage arboreally in the area directly above the nest for small arthropods and nectar, often as far as the upper canopy; little foraging occurs on the forest floor. Nectar, carried between the mandibles, is the most common food taken back to the nest by foragers. Two studies in Costa Rica and on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) found about four bullet ant nests per hectare of forest. On BCI, the nests were found under 70 species of trees, six species of shrubs, two species of lianas, and one species of palm. Nests were most common beneath the canopies of Faramea occidentalis and Trichilia tuberculata, but these trees are also the most abundant in the forest. Nests were present more frequently than would be expected based on the abundance of the trees under Alseis blackiana, Tabernaemontana arborea, Virola sebifera, Guarea guidonia, and Oenocarpus mapora. The large number of nest plants suggests little active selection of nest sites by bullet ants. Small shrubs, however, are underused, probably because they do not provide access to the forest canopy. The study on BCI concluded that bullet ants may select trees with buttresses and extrafloral nectaries.


The bullet ant's sting is currently the highest on Schmidt's sting pain index, at 4.0+. According to Justin O. Schmidt, the pain is like ”Walking over flaming charcoal with a three inch nail embedded in your heel". Some victims compared the pain to that of being shot, hence the name of the insect. It is described as causing "waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours". Lymphadenopathy, edema, tachycardia and fresh blood appearing in human victim feces are common symptoms. Poneratoxin, a paralyzing neurotoxic peptide isolated from the venom, affects voltage-dependent sodium ion channels and blocks the synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. It is being investigated for possible medical applications.


The Sateré-Mawé people of Brazil use intentional bullet ant stings as part of their initiation rites to become warriors. The ants are first rendered unconscious by submerging them in a natural sedative, and then 80 of them are woven into gloves made of leaves (which resembles a large oven mitt), stingers facing inward. When the ants regain consciousness, an initiator repeatedly blows smoke at the ants, with the objective of making them agitated and aggressive. Once this is done, they make the boy wear the gloves on his hands. The goal of this initiation rite is to keep the glove on for 5 to 10 minutes. When finished, the boy's hand and part of his arm are temporarily paralyzed because of the ant venom, and he may shake uncontrollably for days. The only "protection" provided is a coating of charcoal on the hands, supposedly to confuse the ants and inhibit their stinging. To fully complete the initiation, the boys must go through the ordeal 20 times over the course of several months or even years.


Parapoynx maculalis, the polymorphic pondweed moth, is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by James Brackenridge Clemens in 1860. It is found in eastern North America, where it has been recorded from Alabama, Alberta, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Newfoundland, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. The habitat consists of ponds and streams.
The wingspan is 18–22 mm. The forewings are white, dusted with fuscous along the base and with a fuscous spot at the base of the fold. The hindwings are pure white.
The larvae feed on various aquatic plants. Young larvae are light yellowish brown with a dark yellowish-brown head.


The speckled wood belongs to the genus Pararge, which comprises three species: Pararge aegeria, Pararge xiphia, and Pararge xiphioides. Pararge xiphia occurs on the Atlantic island of Madeira. Pararge xiphioides occurs on the Canary Islands. Molecular studies suggest that the African and Madeiran populations are closely related and distinct from European populations of both subspecies, suggesting that Madeira was colonized from Africa and that the African population has a long history of isolation from European populations. Furthermore, the species Pararge aegeria comprises four subspecies: Pararge aegeria aegeria, Pararge aegeria tircis, Pararge aegeria oblita, and Pararge aegeria insula. These subspecies stem from the fact that the speckled wood butterfly exhibits a cline across their range. This butterfly varies morphologically down the 700 km cline, resulting in the different subspecies corresponding to geographical areas.


The average wingspan of both males and females is 5.1 cm (2 in), although males tend to be slightly smaller than females. Furthermore, males possess a row of grayish-brown scent scales on their forewings that is absent in the females. Females have brighter and more distinct markings than males. The subspecies P. a. tircis is brown with pale yellow or cream spots and darker upperwing eyespots. The subspecies P. a. aegeria has a more orange background and the hindwing underside eyespots are reddish brown rather than black or dark gray. The two forms gradually intergrade into each other. Subspecies P. a. oblita is a darker brown, often approaching black with white rather than cream spots. The underside of its hindwings has a marginal pale purple band and a row of conspicuous white spots. The spots of subspecies P. a. insula are a tawny orange rather than a cream color. The underside of the forewings has patches of pale orange, and the underside of the hindwing has a purple-tinged band. Although there is considerable variation with each subspecies, identification of the different subspecies is manageable.
The morphology of this butterfly varies as a gradient down its geographic cline from north to south. The northern butterflies in this species have a bigger size, adult body mass, and wing area. These measurements decrease as one moves in a southerly direction in the speckled wood's range. Forewing length on the other hand increases moving in a northerly direction. This is due to the fact that in the cooler temperatures of the northern part of this butterfly's range, the butterflies need larger forewings for thermoregulation. Finally, the northern butterflies are darker than their southern counterpart, and there is a coloration gradient, down their geographical cline.


The speckled wood occupies a diversity of grassy, flowery habitats in forest, meadow steppe, woods, and glades. It can also be found in urban areas alongside hedges, in wooded urban parks, and occasionally in gardens. Within its range the speckled wood typically prefers damp areas. It is generally found in woodland areas throughout much of the Palearctic realm. P. a. tircis is found in northern and central Europe, Asia Minor, Syria, Russia, and central Asia, and the P. a. aegeria is found in southwestern Europe and North Africa. Two additional subspecies are found within the British Isles: the Scottish speckled wood (P. a. oblita) is restricted to Scotland and its surrounding isles, and the Isles of Scilly speckled wood (P. a. insula) is found only on the Isles of Scilly. P. a. tricis and P. a. aegeria gradually intergrade into each other.


The eggs are laid on a variety of grass host plants. The caterpillar is green with a short, forked tail, and the chrysalis (pupa) is green or dark brown. The species is able to overwinter in two totally separated developmental stages, as pupae or as half-grown larvae. This leads to a complicated pattern of several adult flights per year.


Larval food plants include a variety of grass species such as Agropyron (Lebanon), Brachypodium (Palaearctic), Brachypodium sylvaticum (British Isles), Bromus (Malta), Cynodon dactylon (Spain), Dactylis glomerata (British Isles, Europe), Elymus repens (Lebanon), Elytrigia repens (Spain), Holcus lanatus (British Isles), Hordeum (Malta), Melica nutans (Finland), Melica uniflora (Europe), Oryzopsis miliacea (Spain), Poa annua (Lebanon), Poa nemoralis (Czechoslovakia), Poa trivialis (Czechoslovakia), but the preferred species of grass is the couch grass (Elytrigia repens). The adult is nectar feeding.


The growth and development of the speckled wood butterfly is dependent on the larval density and the sex of the individual. High larval densities result in decreased survivorship as well as a longer development and smaller adults. However, females are much more adversely affected by this phenomenon. They depend on their larval food stores during oviposition, so a high larval density in the larva stage can result in lower fecundity for females in the adult stage. Males can compensate for their smaller size by feeding as adults or switching mate-locating tactics, so they are less affected by high larval densities. A high growth rate can also negatively affect larval survivorship. Those with high growth rates will also have high weight-loss rates if food becomes scarce. They are less likely to survive if food becomes available once again.


In the speckled wood butterfly females are monandrous; they typically only mate once within their lifetime. On the other hand, males are polygynous and typically mate multiple times. In order to locate females, males employ one of two strategies: territorial defense and patrolling.
During territorial defense, the male defends a sunny spot in the forest, waiting for females to stop by. Another strategy is patrolling, during which males fly through the forest actively searching for females. Then, the female must make a choice between mating with a patrolling male or a territorial male. By mating with a territorial male, a female can be sure that she has chosen a high quality male, as the ability to defend a territory reflects the genetic quality of a male. Therefore, by choosing a territorial male, the female is being more picky about which male she chooses to mate with.
The choice is most likely dependent on the search costs associated with finding a mate. When actively searching for a male, a female must spend her precious time and energy, which results in search costs, especially when she has a limited life span. As search costs increase, female choosiness for a mate decreases. For example, if a female's life span is shorter, she has a higher cost associated with searching for the ideal mate. Therefore, she is likely to mate within a day of her emergence as an adult, and will most likely mate with a patrolling male, as they are easier to find. However, if a female lifespan is longer, then the search costs associated with finding a mate are lower. The female is then more likely to actively search for a territorial male. Since the search costs vary depending on environmental conditions, strategies vary from population to population.
Males employing different strategies, territorial defense or patrolling, can be differentiated by the number of spots on their hindwings. Those with three spots are more likely to be patrolling males, while those with four spots are more likely to be defending males. The frequency of the two phenotypes depends on the location and time of year. For example, there are more territorial males in areas where there are many sunny spots. Furthermore, the development of wingspots is influenced by environmental conditions. Therefore, the strategy employed by males is heavily dependent on environmental conditions.


Territorial defense involves a male flying or perching in a spot of sunlight that pierces through the forest canopy. The speckled wood butterfly spends the night high up in the trees, and territorial activity commences once sunlight passes through the canopy. The males often remain in the same sunspot until the evening, following the sunspot as it moves across the forest floor. The males often perch on vegetation near the forest floor. If a female flies into the territory, the resident male flies after her, the pair drops to the ground, and copulation follows. If another species flies through the sunspot, the resident male ignores the intruder.
However, if a conspecific, a male of the same species, enters the sunspot, the resident male flies towards the intruder almost bumping into him, and the pair flies upwards. The winner flies back towards the forest floor within the sunspot, while the defeated male flies away from the territory. The pattern of flight during this encounter depends on the vegetation. In an open understory, the pair flies straight upwards. In a dense understory, this flight pattern is not possible, so the pair spirals upwards.
In most of these interactions, the conflict is relatively short, and the resident male wins. The intruder most likely backs down as a serious confrontation could be costly, and there is an abundance of equally desirable sunspots. However, if both males believe they are the "resident" male, the conflict escalates. If a previous owner of the sunspot tries to reclaim his territory after he has left for mating, a longer and more costly fight ensues. In these serious fight, the winner of the contest is not predictable.
The abundance of territorial behavior depends on the environmental conditions. At the beginning of the mating season, fights over ownership of a sunspot territory are lengthy. The duration of the conflict quickly decreases during a period of two weeks. This pattern is correlated with the progression of the season, as temperature and male density rise. Sunspots are more attractive when temperatures are low, as they provide the warmth needed for higher levels of activity. As male density increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to hold onto a territory, so territoriality decreases and more males exhibit patrolling behavior.


In butterflies, asymmetrical wings are observed in three different ways: fluctuating (small, random variations from the standard bilateral symmetry), directional (variations that are biased towards a particular side so one wing is larger than the other), and antisymmetry (similar to directional but half of the individuals of the species find that a particular wing, such as their left, is larger, and the other half of the individuals find that their right is larger.
Both genders of the speckled wood butterfly exhibit asymmetrical wings; however, only males show directional asymmetry (likely to be caused by genetic factors). Also, females show more asymmetry in general compared to males. Within male speckled wood butterflies, the melanic form shows greater directional asymmetry and grows more slowly than the pale, territorial males. Furthermore, males that are most successful in territorial disputes are only slightly asymmetrical, as opposed to complete symmetry or asymmetry; this indicates that sexual selection affects asymmetry.


A female's fecundity is dependent on body mass, as females deprived from sucrose during their oviposition period have reduced fecundity. Therefore, heavier females will produce a larger number of eggs. In addition to body mass, the number of eggs laid by a female may also be related to the time spent searching for an oviposition site. The number of eggs laid is inversely proportional to egg size. However, egg size was not found to have any influence on egg or larval survival, larval development time, or pupal weight under experimental conditions. One explanation may be that there is a tradeoff between the number of eggs laid and the time spent searching for the optimal oviposition site. A female would produce more eggs in an optimal environment, so she can produce more offspring and increase her reproductive fitness.


Pararge xiphia (Fabricius, 1775) the Madeiran speckled wood butterfly
Pararge xiphioides Staudinger, 1871 the Canary speckled wood


Parasa chloris, the smaller parasa, is a species of slug caterpillar moth in the family Limacodidae.
The MONA or Hodges number for Parasa chloris is 4698.


Paraserianthes lophantha (syn. Albizia lophantha), the Cape Leeuwin wattle, Cape wattle, crested wattle or plume albizia, is a fast-growing wattle with creamy-yellow, bottlebrush like flowers. It is a small tree (uppermost height approximately 5 metres) that occurs naturally along the southwest coast of Western Australia, from Fremantle to King George Sound. It was first spread beyond southwest Australia by Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, who gave packets of P. lophantha seeds to early explorers under the assumption that if they planted the seeds at their campsites, the trees would indicate the routes they travelled.
It is considered a weed in the parts of Australia where it is not indigenous, as well as in New Zealand, South Africa, the Canary Islands, and Chile.


The longhorn crazy ant (Paratrechina longicornis), also known as "black crazy ant", is a species of small, dark-coloured insect in the family Formicidae. These ants are commonly called "crazy ants" because instead of following straight lines, they dash around erratically. They have a broad distribution, including much of the tropics and subtropics, and are also found in buildings in more temperate regions, making them one of the most widespread ant species in the world. This species, as well as all others in the ant subfamily Formicinae, cannot sting. However, this species can fire/shoot a formic acid spray from its abdomen when under attack by other insects or attacking other insects. When the longhorn crazy ant (Paratrechina longicornis) bends its abdomen while aiming at an enemy insect, it is most likely shooting its hard-to-see acid. This acid is normally not used on humans and normally does not affect humans. The black crazy ant can not harm humans in any way. These ants can be touched safely just like the common ghost ants.