The turkey vulture feeds primarily on a wide variety of carrion, from small mammals to large grazers, preferring those recently dead, and avoiding carcasses that have reached the point of putrefaction. They may rarely feed on plant matter, shoreline vegetation, pumpkin, coconut and other crops, live insects and other invertebrates. In South America, turkey vultures have been photographed feeding on the fruits of the introduced oil palm. They rarely, if ever, kill prey themselves; when they do it tends to comprise small weak offspring or very sick individuals of various animals, such as bird nestlings, as well as reptiles. Turkey vultures have also been observed eating coyote and domestic animal dung. The turkey vulture can often be seen along roadsides feeding on roadkill, or near bodies of water, feeding on washed-up fish. They also will feed on fish or insects that have become stranded in shallow water. Like other vultures, it plays an important role in the ecosystem by disposing of carrion, which would otherwise be a breeding ground for disease.
The turkey vulture forages by smell, an ability that is uncommon in the avian world, often flying low to the ground to pick up the scent of ethyl mercaptan, a gas produced by the beginnings of decay in dead animals. The olfactory lobe of its brain, responsible for processing smells, is particularly large compared to that of other animals. This heightened ability to detect odors allows it to search for carrion below the forest canopy. King vultures, black vultures, and condors, which lack the ability to smell carrion, follow the turkey vulture to carcasses. The turkey vulture arrives first at the carcass, or with greater yellow-headed vultures or lesser yellow-headed vultures, which also share the ability to smell carrion. It displaces the yellow-headed vultures from carcasses due to its larger size, but is displaced in turn by the king vulture and both types of condor, which make the first cut into the skin of the dead animal. This allows the smaller, weaker-billed turkey vulture access to food, because it cannot tear the tough hides of larger animals on its own. This is an example of mutual dependence between species. Black vultures tend to be more aggressive and often displace turkey vultures which appear to be intimidated especially by the feeding frenzy engaged in by the black vultures when they come in numbers (a behavior turkey vultures are apparently incapable of even when at a carcass in numbers), however pairs or individuals often seem to be able to peaceably share carrion with turkey vultures. However, in the tropics such as Peru, turkey vultures appeared to prevail regularly over black vultures, in 56% of cases, perhaps due to the smaller size of the region's black vultures. It is further subservient to large hawks such as red-tailed hawks, Harris's hawks and Buteogallus black hawks, as well as to large falcons like peregrine falcons and crested caracaras, despite most of these birds being rather smaller in body size than a turkey vulture. Often these raptors tend to engage in dive-bombing or other intimidation displays towards the vulture(s) to displace them from carrion or from perch sites. Presumably all sympatric eagles are also dominant, with bald eagles  confirmed to easily dominate turkey vultures in Florida. However, in the tropics Swainson's hawks and yellow-headed caracara (as well as lesser yellow-headed vultures) appear to be subservient to turkey vultures. Furthermore, turkey vultures are dominant over crows at carrion, but not over common ravens.


The lesser yellow-headed vulture (Cathartes burrovianus) also known as the savannah vulture, is a species of bird in the New World vulture family Cathartidae. It was considered to be the same species as the greater yellow-headed vulture until they were split in 1964. It is found in Mexico, Central America, and South America in seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, swamps, and heavily degraded former forest. It is a large bird, with a wingspan of 150–165 cm (59–65 in). The body plumage is black, and the head and neck, which are featherless, are pale orange with red or blue areas. It lacks a syrinx, so therefore its vocalizations are limited to grunts or low hisses.
The lesser yellow-headed vulture feeds on carrion and locates carcasses by sight and by smell, an ability which is rare in birds. It is dependent on larger vultures, such as the king vulture, to open the hides of larger animal carcasses as its bill is not strong enough to do this. Like other New World vultures, the lesser yellow-headed vulture utilizes thermals to stay aloft with minimal effort. It lays its eggs on flat surfaces, such as the floors of caves, or in the hollows of stumps. It feeds its young by regurgitation.


This is the lightest and smallest of the extant New World vultures despite sometimes measuring at least as long and longer winged than black vultures. The lesser yellow-headed vulture is 53–66 cm (21–26 in) in length, with a wingspan of 150–165 cm (59–65 in) and a tail length of 19–24 cm (7.5–9.4 in). Its weight ranges from 0.95 to 1.55 kg (2.1 to 3.4 lb). Its plumage is black with a green sheen. The throat and the sides of the head are featherless. The head and neck are bare of feathers, and the skin is yellow, with a reddish forehead and nape and a gray-blue crown. The irises of its eyes are red, its legs are white, and its beak is flesh-colored. The eye has a single incomplete row of eyelashes on the upper lid and two rows on the lower lid.
The tail is rounded and relatively short for a vulture; the tip of the closed wing extends beyond the tail. Immature lesser yellow-headed vultures have browner plumage, a dusky head, and a white nape.
The beak is thick, rounded, and hooked at the tip.
The front toes are long with small webs at their bases and are not adapted to grasping. The opening of the nostril is longitudinal, and the nostrils lack a septum. Like all New World vultures, the lesser yellow-headed vulture lacks a syrinx, and is therefore unable to make any sound other than a low hiss.
It differs in appearance from the similar greater yellow-headed vulture in several ways. It is smaller and is less heavily built than the greater yellow-headed vulture and has a shorter, thinner tail. The plumage is browner than the greater yellow-headed vulture's dark, glossy black plumage. Its legs are lighter in color, and its head is more orange-tinged than the more yellow head of the greater yellow-headed vulture. Its flight is also less steady than that of the greater yellow-headed vulture. The lesser yellow-headed vulture also prefers to live in savannas, as opposed to the preferred forest habitat of the greater yellow-headed vulture.
Besides the greater yellow-headed vulture, it is similar to the turkey vulture.


The lesser yellow-headed vulture flies solitarily, with wings held in a dihedral position. It glides at a low altitude over wetlands while locating food, and perches on fence posts or on other low perches. When flying, it travels alone and is rarely found in groups. The flight of the lesser yellow-headed is an example of static soaring flight, which uses thermals to maintain altitude without the need to flap its wings. This vulture rarely soars high in the air, preferring low altitudes. This bird is believed to be somewhat migratory in response to the changes in water level where it lives. The lesser yellow-headed vulture, like other New World vultures, has the unusual habit of urohidrosis, in which it urinates or defecates on its legs to cool them by evaporation.


Lesser yellow-headed vultures do not build nests, but rather lay eggs on the ground, cliff ledges, the floors of caves, or in the hollow of a tree. Eggs are cream colored and heavily blotched with brown and gray spots, particularly around the larger end. Two eggs are generally laid. The chicks are altricial—they are blind, naked and relatively immobile upon hatching. The chicks do not grow their down feathers until later. The parents feed their young by regurgitating pre-digested food into their beak, where the chicks then drink it. The young fledge after two to three months.


The lesser yellow-headed vulture is a scavenger and subsists almost entirely on carrion. It will eat roadkill or the carcass of any animal, but is also known to hunt for food, especially small aquatic animals in marshes. It prefers fresh meat, but often cannot make the first cut into the carcass of a larger animal because its beak is not strong enough to tear into the tough hide. The lesser yellow-headed vulture will no longer feed on a piece of carrion once the meat is in a state of extreme decay, as it becomes contaminated with microbial toxins. Like other vultures, it plays an important role in its ecosystem by disposing of carrion which would otherwise be a breeding ground for disease.
The lesser yellow-headed vulture forages using its keen eyesight to locate carrion on the ground, but also uses its sense of smell, an ability which is uncommon in the avian world. It locates carrion by detecting the scent of ethyl mercaptan, a gas produced by the beginnings of decay in dead animals.
The olfactory lobe of its brain responsible for processing smells is particularly large compared to other animals. This characteristic of New World vultures has been used by humans: ethyl mercaptan is injected into pipelines, and engineers looking for leaks then follow the foraging vultures.
King vultures, which lack the ability to smell carrion, follow the lesser yellow-headed vultures to carcasses, where the king vulture tears open the skin of the dead animal. This allows the smaller lesser yellow-headed vulture access to food, as it does not have a bill strong enough to tear the hide of larger animals. This is an example of mutual dependence between species. It is generally displaced from carcasses by both turkey vultures and king vultures, due to their larger size.


They make a cup nest on the ground or near the base of a shrub. The nest consists of three structural layers, including outer, inner, and nest lining layers. The outer layer consists of leaves and supporting branches, while the inner layer consists of material woven together. Nest lining consists of flexible material such as bark, roots, and seeds. The use of different parts of 27 plant species, including invasive/alien plants, has been documented. Nests contain three to five greenish-blue eggs that may or may not have brown spots. The eggs are incubated for 10 to 14 days by the female, while both parents feed nestlings. Young Veeries can leave the nest between 10 and 12 days after they hatch.
This bird has been displaced in some parts of its range by the related wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina). However, a case of interspecific parental care of a veery nest by a wood thrush has been documented in which a wood thrush provided more parental care to the veery nestlings than did the parents, possibly due to sexual solicitation by the female veery. Veeries are occasional hosts for the eggs of brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater). Veery males have been found to engage in behaviors similar to the polygynandrous Bicknell's thrush in that males may feed nestlings at more than one nest and there may be multiple male feeders at nests.


Threats to the veery include nest parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds, climate change, and alteration of Amazonian lowland forests. It is suggested that veeries are in decline, and breeding bird survey trend results indicate that veery populations declined across most of its range from 1966 to 2013. There have been concerns that the use of invasive/alien plant parts may decrease nesting success, but negative impacts have not been documented. Other potential threats include the loss of woodland habitat, squirrels, chipmunks, and raptors.


The hermit thrush's song has been described as "the finest sound in nature" and is ethereal and flute-like, consisting of a beginning note, then several descending musical phrases in a minor key, repeated at different pitches. It often sings from a high open location. Analysis of the notes of its song indicates that they are related by harmonic simple integer pitch ratios, like many kinds of human music and unlike the songs of other birds that have been similarly examined.


The canyon wren (Catherpes mexicanus) is a small North American songbird of the wren family Troglodytidae. It is resident throughout its range and is generally found in arid, rocky cliffs, outcrops, and canyons. It is a small bird that is hard to see on its rocky habitat; however, it can be heard throughout the canyons by its distinctive, loud song. It is currently in a monotypic taxon and is the only species in the genus Catherpes.


Similar to the rock wren in habitat, the canyon wren prefers steeper rocky environments, particularly in arid landscapes and deep canyons and terrain (sometimes including buildings, woodpiles, and rock fences). This species regularly uses riparian areas for foraging and has bred away from rocky substrate.


The canyon wren feeds on small insects and spiders. Since they live on large rocks, they use their long beaks to scope out small crevices. They also get their source of liquid from the insects they consume.


It feeds on insects and spiders by probing into crevices with its long bill. Its coloration is rustier than that of the rock wren, with a contrasting white throat and breast. The canyon wren is more often heard than seen, and its falling series of whistles is one of the more familiar bird calls of the canyons of the western United States.
It builds a cup nest out of twigs and other vegetation in a rock crevice. It lays 4 to 6 eggs, white with reddish brown and gray speckles. This species will use buildings to place its nest on and along the Bill Williams River a nest was found in a palm tree.


Catocala amatrix, the sweetheart underwing, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species can be found from Nova Scotia, south through Connecticut to Florida and west through Texas and Oklahoma to Arizona and north to Montana, Minnesota, and Ontario.
An exhibition model done by the Denton Brothers of Wellesley, Massachusetts was discovered in a consignment shop in Flagler Beach, Florida on September 12, 2013 by Brittany Durocher, a resident of that city. It was collected by the Denton Brothers in Virginia and named Catocala amatrix virginurus.
The wingspan is 75–95 mm. The moths flies from August to October depending on the location.
The larvae feed on Populus deltoides, Populus grandidentata, Populus nigra, Populus tremuloides, and Salix nigra.


Catocala grynea, the woody underwing, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Pieter Cramer in 1780. It is found in North America from Ontario and Quebec through Maine and Connecticut, south to Florida, west to Texas and north through Iowa to Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The wingspan is 40–50 mm. Adults are on wing from May to September depending on the location. There is probably one generation per year.
The larvae feed on Crataegus, Prunus and Malus.


The red underwing (Catocala nupta) is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1767 12th edition of Systema Naturae.
This is a large (80 mm wingspan) nocturnal Palearctic (including Europe species which, like most noctuids, is above and with the wings closed drably coloured to aid concealment during the day. It flies in August and September, and comes freely to both light and sugar.


C. nupta L.  Forewing pale grey powdered with darker grey, sometimes with dark grey banded suffusion, and in some cases yellowish-tinged; sometimes the cellspace before reniform coalescent with the spot below reniform, and a space along outer line, before it above middle and beyond it below, are all whitish: inner and outer lines double, black and grey; the outer line less oblique below middle and forming two more conspicuous angles on each side of vein 2, the lower one double, then deeply indented along vein 1 median shade generally clear and produced squarely outwards beyond the reniform, which has a thick black central lunule, a curved black inner edge, and a tridentate outer one; subterminal line pale and dark grey, the paler inner portion sometimes whitish; hindwing crimson with a central black band bent on vein 5, and a thick black terminal border, the inner edge of which is waved towards abdominal margin; — in the form concubina Hbn.  the red of the hindwing is brighter and the black median band more developed, being broader throughout and continued to inner margin; the lines of forewing blacker and the pale areas generally more developed; the subsp. nuptialis Stgr., from Tibet (Ili, Issyk-kul, Ala Tau) and the Altai Mts., has the forewing paler, more gaily marked, the submarginal line white, sharply edged with black; — the subsp. obscurata Oberth., from Amurland and Askold Island, is a much blacker form than the average European examples, though specimens from several localities in Europe are also dark: — ab. coerulescens Cockerell, named from a single example taken in Essex, has the hindwing blue instead of red; — ab. brunnescens ab. nov. represented by 3 rather small males captured in the neighbourhood of London, has the hindwing dark olive brown; in the ab. languescens ab. nov. the hindwing is yellowish white with a faint pink flush; a line example of this, but without locality label, exists in the Felder Collection, and a similar one is recorded by Mr. Tutt in British Noctuae, Vol. IV, p. 50; like other species with red hindwings nupta has an aberration in which that colour is supplanted by yellow, ab. flava Schultz, to which intermediate forms occur with the red only partially changed to yellow, or yellow only in one hindwing; - in ab. mutilata Schultz the black central band of hindwing is abbreviated and becomes obsolete a little below costa; — ab. fida Schultz differs from typical examples in having between the subterminal line and the termen a conspicuous dentated white line strongly edged with black; this example was from Silesia; — in the ab. dilutior Schultz the ground colour is generally paler, either brownish yellow with the dark markings slightly darker, or whitish grey with a faint yellowish intermixture; — ab. alterata ab. nov. (=ab. 6 Hmps.) has the black bands of  hindwing altered to grey. — ab. rubridens ab. nov. shows the red ground colour of the hindwing running out along veins 2 and 1 in the shape of sharp wedge-shaped teeth, almost interrupting the black median band which is swollen between them into a large horseshoe-shaped blotch; the single example in the Tring Museum is unfortunately without locality; — a strange, probably accidental, aberration from Munich, figured as ab. confusa Oberth., has the whole forewing blurred dark grey, with the inner and outer lines and reniform stigma darker but diffuse on a slightly paler median area; the median band of hindwing strongly curved, its outer edge diffuse, and its lower extremity running up. narrowly to inner margin towards base; the black terminal border projecting basewards as long narrow teeth along the veins with the red ground colour running up between them. Larva pale or dark grey ; only distinguishable from that of Catocala elocata by the absence of the dark dorsal and lateral bands, which are represented by lines.


Upperside, forewing: costa, apex and termen broadly brownish black, rest of the wing whitish, flushed and overlaid especially at base with metallic blue. Hindwing: costa and termen broadly fuscous or brownish black, the rest of the wing whitish flushed with metallic blue as on the forewing which, however, does not spread to the dorsal margin; a discal curved medial series of fuscous spots; a transverse, incomplete, postdiscal series of white sagittate (arrowhead shaped) lunules followed by a subterminal series of spots as follows, superposed on the brownish-black terminal border: two black geminate dots margined inwardly and outwardly with white, a large black spot crowned broadly with ochraceous inwardly and edged slenderly with white on the outer side in interspace 2, and anterior to that a transversely linear black spot encircled with white in each interspace. Cilia of forewing brown, of hindwing white traversed by a transverse medial brown line.
Underside: ground colour and markings as in the male. Antennas, head, thorax and abdomen similar to those of the male. Eyes in both sexes hairy.


Catopsilia florella, the African migrant, African emigrant, or common vagrant, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. It is found in Africa (including Madagascar),  Arabia (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman) and the Canary Islands. Like Catopsilia pomona, this species also has a habit of migration.
Many early authors mentioned the presence of this species in Asia; but those were probably due to confusion arises as Catopsilia pyranthe females exhibit a lot of seasonal variations. Catopsilia florella is not included as a species in India in any recent checklists.
The wingspan is 54–60 mm for males and 56–66 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round. From South Africa, adults migrate from summer to autumn. They fly in a north-eastern direction.
The larvae feed on Senna occidentalis, Senna septentrionalis, Senna petersiana, Senna italica, Cassia javanica, and Cassia fistula.


Catopsilia pomona, the common emigrant or lemon emigrant, is a medium-sized pierid butterfly found in Asia, Cambodia and parts of Australia. The species gets its name from its habit of migration. Some early authors considered them as two distinct species Catopsilia crocale and Catopsilia pomona.


The species has pale and dark morphs in Australia. The form crocale has the antennae black and the form pomona has the antennae pinkish or red. The development of these forms has been linked to photoperiod and temperature during growth.


Quoted from Bingham, C. T. (1907) The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Butterflies volume 2.
"On the female upperside the ground-color varies as in the male, but sometimes it is chalky white at the bases of the wings, with the terminal margins more or less broadly sulphur-yellow. Fore wings always with a round, occasionally quadrate, black discocellular spot variable in size; in some specimens the costa is black only towards the apex of the wing, in others broadly black throughout and opposite the apex of cell so widened out as to touch the discocellular spot. In lightly marked specimens in addition to the discocellular spot, there is only an irregular terminal black band dentate inwardly and widest at the apex of the wing; in others there is in addition a more or less diffuse highly curved macular postdiscal band that extends from the costa obliquely outwards down to vein 7, where it often touches the terminal black band, and thence is continued downward and slightly inclined inwards to interspace 1, getting gradually paler and fainter posteriorly. Hind wing: a series of terminal inter-spacial [sic] black spots that vary in size, and in the dark forms coalesce into a terminal black band."
"The underside varies from white with a light yellowish sometimes ochraeeous tinge to deep chrome-yellow; markings as in the male but still more variable; in var. catilla the spot at the apex of the cell in both fore and hind wings is enlarged into a large reddish blotch, the similar spot on the hind wing is sometimes so enlarged as to occupy the apex of the cell, the basal two-thirds of interspaces 4, 5, and 6, and the middle third of interspace 7; in some specimens it is continued posteriorly in a series of obscure lunules to interspace 1a. Antennae red, obscurely dotted with black, palpi and head above red, thorax clothed with long yellow, sometimes greenish hairs, abdomen pale yellow; beneath: palpi and thorax pale to dark yellow, abdomen white."


The newly hatched caterpillar is about 0.5 cm long and is yellowish green. In later instars the colour changes to a leafy green. The head is green and spotted with tiny black tubercules. The spiracles are covered with a continuous white line. Each segment of the body bears tiny shiny black tubercules. The tubercules immediately above the spiracular line being larger and more distinct giving the effect of a black line over the white spiracular line. The paired lines are found on both sides of the body and run from head to anus. The similar Catopsilia pyranthe caterpillar has a much broader black line leaving only a narrow green line on the back of the body.
The larva is described by Thomas Reid Davys Bell as "The head is round, green, the clypeus edged with brown, covered with small shiny black tubercles which... do not hide the colour of the head; the anal flap is rounded, but looks square at the extremity, and is covered with rows of small black tubercles... of which only the row along the spiracular line is conspicuous. The spiracles are oval, shiny and white. The colour is green with a spiracular white band touched with bright yellow on segments 2-5, and these segments, especially 3 and 4, are distinctly flanged on the spiracular line. Length 51 mm.


The white sucker (Catostomus commersonii) is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is commonly known as a "sucker" due to its fleshy, papillose lips that suck up organic matter and aufwuchs from the bottom of rivers and streams.
Other common names for the white sucker include bay fish, brook sucker, common sucker, and mullet. The white sucker is often confused with the longnose sucker (C. catostomus), because they look very similar.


The white sucker is a long, round-bodied fish with a dark green, grey, copper, brown, or black back and sides and a light underbelly. The fish also has typical features of primitive Cypriniformes fishes, such as a homocercal tail, cycloid scales, and dorsal, pectoral, and pelvic fin rays. When full grown, it can reach lengths of 12–20 in (30–51 cm) and weigh 2–6 lb (0.91–2.72 kg). The fish's suckermouth, with its fleshy lips, is located in an inferior position at the bottom of its head, as the fish obtains its food from bottom surfaces. The white sucker is often mistaken for different species of suckers and redhorses, but can be distinguished by the complete lateral line system containing 55-85 small scales. The white sucker is able to use chemosensory to sense and avoid predators and other conspecific species during day and night.


The white sucker is highly adaptable to different habitats and changing environmental influences.
Generally, the white sucker is found in small streams, rivers, and lakes in the Midwest and East Coast of the United States. The white sucker is also relatively tolerant of turbid and polluted waters. It does, however, have low breeding success in acidified waters, which can be caused by acid rain.


The white sucker is a bottom feeder, meaning that it uses its fleshy lips to suck up bottom sediments and other organisms that may be located there. It will eat almost anything it can, but most commonly small invertebrates, algae, and plant matter. Larger predatory fish species such as walleye, trout, bass, northern pike, catfish, muskellunge, and sauger naturally prey on the white sucker.


The white sucker usually spawns in shallow water or streams in April and May; spawning may possibly be initiated by temperature changes and runoff from early snow melt. Two or more males may gather with one female, which releases up to 10,000 eggs that can be fertilized by the gathered males.


The Brazilian guinea pig (Cavia aperea) (preá in Portuguese) is a guinea pig species found in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Cavia aperea has been successfully mated to the domestic guinea pig, Cavia porcellus, though many females become infertile in successive generations.
Brazilian guinea pigs are mainly diurnal animals and are narrower and longer than domesticated guinea pigs.


The Brazilian guinea pig has a wide distribution in South America at altitudes between 400 and 3,000 metres (1,300 and 9,800 ft) above sea level. Its range extends from Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela to northern Argentina. Its typical habitat is open grassland and savannah.


Cavia aperea is a herbivore and feeds on grasses and other herbs. It is diurnal, mainly emerging in the early morning to forage and again in the evening. It does not dig a burrow, but makes an intricate maze of surface tunnels that are 8 to 12 cm (3 to 5 in) wide. It has latrine areas beside the trackways where piles of bean-shaped droppings can be seen, as can piles of cut grass stems.
Breeding takes place at any time of year but mostly in the austral summer. The gestation period is about 62 days and females can have five litters in a year. The number of young born averages two and ranges from one to five. The minimum age at which the young adults can breed is thirty days.


This Ceanothus is native to Oregon, California, and northern Baja California, where it can be found in a number of habitats, especially chaparral.


Ceanothus cuneatus is a spreading bush, rounded to sprawling, reaching up to three meters in height. The evergreen leaves are stiff and somewhat tough and may be slightly toothed along the edges. The bush flowers abundantly in short, thick-stalked racemes bearing rounded bunches of tiny flowers, each about half a centimeter wide.
The fragrant flowers are white, sometimes tinted strongly with blue or lavender. The fruit is a round capsule with horns. It is about half a centimeter wide and contains three shiny dark seeds which are dispersed when the capsule explodes and propels them some distance. Harvester ants have been known to catch the seeds, which can lie dormant for a long time since fire is required for germination. This plant may be variable in appearance because it hybridizes easily with similar species.
While this shrub has a wide distribution in its range, certain varieties of the species are limited to small areas. The Monterey ceanothus (var. rigida), for example, is found only between the southern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area and San Luis Obispo County.


Ceanothus fendleri (Fendler['s] ceanothus, Fendler['s] buckbrush, deer brier) is a species of flowering shrub native to northern Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, west Texas and the northeastern Texas panhandle, Utah, Colorado, eastern Wyoming, and western South Dakota.  Its typical habitat is pine forests from 1,500 to 3,000 meters (4,900 to 9,800 ft) in altitude.


Fendler's ceanothus seldom exceeds 1 m (3.3 ft) tall. The stems and twigs are grayish green when young, reddish brown when mature, armed with spines up to 2.5 cm (0.98 in) long. The leaves are green and thick, and three-veined from the base.
The flowers are about 2 mm across and white, borne in thick clusters emanating from the leaf axils, particularly on the older stems.  They all open at once, so the plant is covered with bloom. This usually happens in June or July, but may be any time from April to October according to the altitude and weather. As in other ceanothuses, there are five spoon-shaped or hooded petals, each partly covering a stamen.
The fruits are three-celled capsules, pink and glossy, forming an approximate rounded equilateral triangle with the stem at the center.  They typically ripen in August and September. When dry these pods exhibit explosive dehiscence, throwing the seeds out forcefully. The seeds are glossy dark brown, about 2 mm across.


Deer are particularly fond of browsing on Fendler's ceanothus.  In a study at Beaver Creek, Arizona, it was important to mule deer all year and constituted up to 6.9 percent of their summer diet and might constitute even more where other forage species are less common.
Elk also eat it, as do North American porcupines, jackrabbits, and livestock to a lesser extent.
The caterpillars of Erynnis pacuvius, the buckthorn duskywing, feed on this plant and other species of Ceanothus.


Some have dried the leaves as a substitute for tea.
The Acoma and Laguna Pueblo people ate the fruits.
The Navajos combined this shrub and green gentian to make a medicine applied internally or externally, for "alarm and nervousness".


Ceanothus integerrimus, known by the common name deer brush, is a species of woody shrub in the family Rhamnaceae, native to the western United States in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon, and Washington. It grows in montane chaparral and woodlands regions, in hardwood forests, and in fir, spruce, and Ponderosa pine plant communities, being most abundant in the California chaparral and woodlands and Sierra Nevada.


Ceanothus integerrimus is a deciduous shrub from  1–4 metres (3.3–13.1 ft) tall with an open ascending to erect branch habit. It is a drought-tolerant phanerophyte. Nitrogen-fixing actinomycete bacteria form root nodules on Ceanothus roots. Its stems are round yellow to pale green in color with either small soft to straight stiff sharp hairs parallel to or in contact with the surface of the stem,.
The leaves are glossy, deciduous and 2.5–8 cm long. Leaves grow alternately on stems. The leaf petioles are less than 15 mm in length and the stipules are also deciduous. The leaf blade is lanceolate, elliptical or oblong to widely ovate in shape. Leaves can have one to two ribs from the base; they are also generally thin and have an acute to obtuse tip. Leaf margins are either entire or slightly dentate, more so towards the leaf tip. Leaf surfaces are light green and are ciliate or contain hairs visible only by magnification. The lower leaves are also hairy and lighter in color.
The flowers are white or blue and rarely pink in color. They are produced in raceme clusters of 15 centimeters or less and contain both male and female organs. The fruit is a sticky valved capsule about 4–5 mm in diameter with a slight crest; the seed is ejected from the capsule after splitting.
It regenerates by seed, shoot formation from the crown and stem, and also by layering when branches come in contact with soil. It has been suggested that some Ceanothus species do not resprout from the root after the crown has burned as a result of fire where most other species are able to regenerate. Pollination of flowers is primarily by bees.
Seed production occurs after about four years of age. High densities of seeds occur in the upper soil of Ceanothus communities. Seeds remain viable up to 24 years or more. Seed dormancy is broken by the removal of the seed coat by fire scarification or physical disturbance. Seeds germinate best at about 1 inch soil depth in shady areas in the spring following fire scarification.


C. integerrimus is an important part of forest regeneration after wildfires by providing nitrogen. It does this by creating nitrogen rich patches in the soil. The nitrogen source is created by its root association with nitrogen fixing bacteria.
Deer and specifically mule deer feed on C. integerrimus. Porcupines and quail have also been observed eating the stems and seeds. Nutritionally leaves are a good source of protein and stems and leaves also contain high levels of calcium. However, nutritional quality of leaves is seasonal and appears to be best from fall to early spring.


This shrub may exceed 3 meters in height and is covered in thick oval to nearly rectangular evergreen leaves. The inflorescences are small and sparse and are filled with small white to pale lavender flowers with dark centers. The fruit is a bumpy spherical red-green capsule about a centimeter wide. The inside of the capsule is divided into 3 valves, each valve holding a seed. The capsule dehisces neatly in three at the central band to release the seeds.


The lesser striped swallow (Cecropis abyssinica) is a large swallow. It breeds in Sub-Saharan Africa from Sierra Leone and southern Sudan south into eastern South Africa. It is partially migratory with South African birds wintering further north. West African birds leave the north of the breeding range in the dry season.


The red-rumped swallow (Cecropis daurica) is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It breeds in open hilly country of temperate southern Europe and Asia from Portugal and Spain to Japan, India, Sri Lanka and tropical Africa. The Indian and African birds are resident, but European and other Asian birds are migratory. They winter in Africa or India and are vagrants to Christmas Island and northern Australia.
Red-rumped swallows are somewhat similar in habits and appearance to the other aerial insectivores, such as the related swallows and the unrelated swifts (order Apodiformes). They have blue upperparts and dusky underparts.
They resemble barn swallows, but are darker below and have pale or reddish rumps, face and neck collar. They lack a breast band, but have black undertails. They are fast fliers and they swoop on insects while airborne. They have broad but pointed wings.
Red-rumped swallows build quarter-sphere nests with a tunnel entrance lined with mud collected in their beaks, and lay 3 to 6 eggs. They normally nest under cliff overhangs in their mountain homes, but will readily adapt to buildings such as mosques and bridges.
They do not normally form large breeding colonies, but are gregarious outside the breeding season. Many hundreds can be seen at a time on the plains of India.


The red-rumped swallow was formally described by Finnish-Swedish clergyman, explorer and natural scientist Erik Laxmann in 1769 as Hirundo daurica, using a specimen from Mount Schlangen, near Zmeinogorsk, Russia. It is now usually placed in the genus Cecropis created by German scientist Friedrich Boie in 1826, although it is arguable how distinct this genus is from Hirundo, and some authorities retain it in that genus. Boie's genus name Cecropis is from the Ancient Greek for an Athenian woman.  The specific daurica is derived from Dauria, a mountainous region to the east of Lake Baikal in Russia. The alternative genus Hirundo is the Latin word for "swallow". Some authorities consider the West African swallow to be a subspecies of the red-rumped swallow.
This species is believed to form a superspecies complex with Cecropis striolata. The widely distributed population shows a lot of variation and several have been named as subspecies.  Many of these are migratory and overlap in their wintering ranges and field identification of these forms is not reliable. The Sri Lankan breeding population hyperythra is a resident, and are now usually considered a distinct species, the Sri Lanka swallow. The underparts are deep chestnut and the nuchal collar is not well marked.
The population in mainland India, C. d. erythropygia, has the rump patch uniform dark chestnut without any dark shaft-streaks. The tail fork is shallow and the white patch on the inner web of the outer-tail feathers is indistinct. C. d. japonica breeds in eastern Asia and winters in Thailand, Burma, India and northern Australia. They are heavily streaked on the underside and have faint streaks on the rump. The population along the Himalayas, C. d. nipalensis, migrates to peninsular India in winter and breeds from Kulu in the west to Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh in the east. This population has the rump paler with dark shaft streaks. Subspecies C. d. rufula of Southern Europe, the Iberian Peninsula east to Baluchistan and Kashmir is resident and winters further south. The chestnut of rump fades to white towards the tail base. The nominate population breeds in Mongolia and Trans-Baikailia wintering in South and Southeast Asia. Subspecies C. d. gephyra of inner Mongolia is considered indistinguishable from the nominate subspecies. The African populations include C. d. kumboensis from the highlands of Sierra Leone and Cameroon; C. d. melanocrissus of the Ethiopian highlands and C. d. emini of Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Zambia. Many of the variations are separable only on tail and wing lengths and these vary with overlap across populations.


The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the organisation responsible for assessing the conservation status of species. A species is assessed as subject to varying levels of threat if it has a small, fragmented or declining range, or if the total population is less than 10,000 mature individuals, or numbers have dropped by more than 10% in ten years or with a continuing decline over generations. The red-rumped swallow has a huge range and a population numbered in millions. It is not known to be seriously declining in range or numbers, so it is classed as Least Concern.
The red-rumped swallow is extending its range northward in Europe, colonising France and Romania in recent decades. The European population is estimated at 100,000 to 430,000 breeding pairs or 300,000 to 1,290,000 individuals.


The commercial tree is most heavily cultivated in the rainforests of Asia, notably in Java (hence one of its common names), the Philippines, Malaysia, and Hainan Island in China, as well as in South America.
The flowers are an important source of nectar and pollen for honey bees and bats.
Bats are the primary pollinators of the night-blooming flowers.
Native tribes along the Amazon River harvest the fibre to wrap around their blowgun darts. The fibres create a seal that allows the pressure to force the dart through the tube.
The fiber is light, very buoyant, resilient, resistant to water, but very flammable. The process of harvesting and separating the fiber is labor-intensive and menial. It is difficult to spin, but is used as an alternative to down as filling in mattresses, pillows, upholstery, zafus, and stuffed toys such as teddy bears, and for insulation. It was previously much used in life jackets and similar devices until synthetic materials largely replaced the fiber. The seeds produce an oil that is used locally in soap and can be used as fertilizer.


The tree is a sacred symbol in Maya mythology.
Sacred tree in Palo, Arará and Santería.
According to the folklore of Trinidad and Tobago, the Castle of the Devil is a huge C. pentandra growing deep in the forest in which Bazil the demon of death was imprisoned by a carpenter. The carpenter tricked the devil into entering the tree in which he carved seven rooms, one above the other, into the trunk. Folklore claims that Bazil still resides in that tree.
Most masks coming from Burkina Faso, especially those of Bobo and Mossi people, are carved from C. pentandra timber.


Ceiba pentandra is the national emblem of Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Equatorial Guinea. It appears on the coat of arms and flag of Equatorial Guinea.
The Cotton Tree is a landmark in downtown Freetown, Sierra Leone, and is considered a symbol of freedom for the slaves that immigrated there.
Saigon, one of a number of older names for Ho Chi Minh City, may be derived from Sài (Sino-Vietnamese "palisade" etc.) and the Vietnamese name for the Kapok tree (bông) gòn, although, in this instance, the tree intended may well be, not the New World Ceiba pentandra, but the Old World Bombax ceiba.


The holly blue (Celastrina argiolus) is a butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family and is native to the Palearctic.
The holly blue has pale silver-blue wings spotted with pale ivory dots. Seitz describes it "Male above shining violet blue, only the apical portion of the costal margin being minutely edged with white. The female has both wings broadly bordered with dark, the margin of the hindwing bearing vestiges of ocelli. Underside silver-white, in the disc a row of black dots, some of which are elongate, and before the margin blackish shadowy dots. Egg very flat, whitish. Larva green or brown, marked with yellowish white, bearing catenulate stripes on the back, on segment 7 a gland to attract ants; head brown. On Ivy, Ilex, Evonymus, Rhamnus, Robinia, Genista, Spartium, Astragalus, Rubus, Erica, Pyrus and many other plants; in Europe visited usually by ants of the genus Lasius; in June and the autumn. Pupa mostly fastened to the underside of a leaf, ochreous with brown spots and markings. The butterflies in the spring and again in July, occasionally a third time at the end of August and in September, everywhere common, particularly at the flowers of ivy and brambles." In Europe, the first generation feeds mainly on the holly species Ilex aquifolium but the second generation uses a range of food plants.
The holly blue is the national butterfly of Finland.


Celastrina neglecta, the summer azure,  is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in North America. Layberry, Hall, and Lafontaine, in The Butterflies of Canada, describe the species:
The upper surface is pale blue with an extensive dusting of white scales, especially on the hindwing. In some females the blue is almost entirely replaced by white with a small amount of blue near the wing bases. Females have a broad blackish-grey band on the outer third and costa of the forewing. The underside is chalky white to pale grey with tiny dark grey spots and a zigzagged submarginal line on the hindwing.
Wingspan is 23 to 29 mm (0.91 to 1.14 in).
The summer azure occurs across most of eastern and central United States as well as southern Canada from Nova Scotia to southern Saskatchewan. Adults fly from mid-June until early October with two or three generations in the south.
The taxonomic status of this butterfly, originally described as Lycaena neglecta Edwards, 1862, has been in flux over the years. It was at one time treated as a synonym of Celastrina argiolus lucia (Lycaena lucia Kirby, 1837).


The Halloween pennant has been described as looking very similar to a butterfly. Its wings are entirely orange-yellow in color with dark brown bands, the Halloween inspiration for its common name. Dragonflies of its genus perch at the tips of plants, waving in the breeze like pennants. The young has yellow markings, including a stripe on its back. The adult male and female may develop pale red markings, especially on the face. This species is about 38 to 42 millimetres long. It is orange.


Celithemis fasciata (banded pennant) is a dragonfly in the skimmer family. It is native to the United States, where it is found in the south-central, southeastern, and eastern regions.
The extensive, sharply defined black markings on its wings are distinctive, but the pattern varies considerably; individuals from the northern part of its range tend to have less wing coloration. It is about 33 mm (1.3 in) long.
It lives around ponds, lakes, and ditches.


The leaves are eaten by a number of insects, particularly certain moth caterpillars. The berries are eaten by wildlife, including birds. Mule deer and bighorn sheep eat the fresh twigs. Beavers feed on the plant as well.


The berries and seeds have long been used as a food source by Native Americans of the Southwestern United States, including the Apache (Chiricahua and Mescalero), both fresh and preserved, and the Navajo, who eat them both fresh and ground.


The natural predators of the scarlet snake are snake-eating snakes such as the coral snake, and predatory birds and mammals. Scarlet snakes rarely bite when picked up by humans, although they can release a foul-smelling odor.


The two greatest threats that scarlet snakes face are the destruction of their habitats because of commercial development and the rising rate of road mortality. Other threats are illegal capture of the species for the pet trade and intentional killing.


Cenchrus ciliaris (buffel-grass or African foxtail grass; syn. Pennisetum ciliare (L.) Link) is a species of grass native to most of Africa, southern Asia (east to India), southern Iran, and the extreme south of Europe (Sicily). Other names by which this grass is known include dhaman grass, anjan grass, koluk katai and buffelgrass.


It was introduced in the 1930s into Arizona, United States, to provide grazing. The introduction was largely unsuccessful but the grass began to appear as a weed beside highways and in cleared fields or over-grazed land. It spreads very quickly and will often kill local native plants, such as palo verdes, by taking away nearby water. This plant has a very low ignition threshold and can burn even during the peak growing season. Its flammability (injurious to neighbors) and quick regrowth allow it to compete successfully against almost all vegetation in the Sonoran Desert region.
Another problem of buffelgrass in the Sonoran Desert is that it intensifies wildfires such that saguaro cacti that normally survive wildfires can erupt into flames when growing in areas taken over by the grass.
In Queensland, Australia, the grass has also been attributed to causing a decline in the native grass species fed on by the critically endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat, and cited as a factor in the wombats' decline. In South Australia, it is a declared plant under the Natural Resources Management Act and weed management activities are guided by the South Australia Buffel Grass Strategic Plan (2012–17).
In Australia's Northern Territory, invasive buffel grass was implicated in making fire control more challenging following the extensive wild fires that destroyed ancient trees in oases such as Standley Chasm in February 2019.


This an annual or biennial plant growing erect to a maximum height of one to 1.3 metres.
The stems are hairless and grooved.
It sometimes takes the shape of a mound, and it is finely to densely hairy to spiny. The leaves are dotted with resin glands. The lowermost may reach a length of 20 centimeters and are deeply cut into lobes. The inflorescence contains a few flower heads. Each is 1.5 to 2 centimeters long and oval in general shape. The phyllaries are green or straw-colored and tipped in tough, sharp yellow spines. The head contains many bright purple flowers. The fruit is an achene a few millimeters long which lacks a pappus.
It flowers from July until September, and the seeds ripen from August to October.
The Red Star-thistle has been identified as a Priority Species by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. It is identified as 'vulnerable' by the UNIC and is listed as Nationally Rare in the UK Red Data Book. There is no national or Sussex BAP for this species.


Picloram + 2,4-D, low volatile ester 2,4-D, Dicamba, and Fluroxypyr + Aminopyralid are recommended for use in New South Wales, and aminocyclopyrachlor + chlorsulfuron, aminopyralid, chlorsulfuron, clopyralid, clopyralid + 2,4-D, dicamba, diflufenzopyr + dicamba, picloram, and triclopyr + clopyralid for the Pacific Northwest of North America.


Centella contains pentacyclic triterpenoids, including asiaticoside, brahmoside, asiatic acid, and brahmic acid (madecassic acid). Other constituents include centellose, centelloside, and madecassoside.


It grows as a perennial plant, usually as a subshrub though it can take any form from a herbaceous plant to a shrub depending on conditions; the plants are usually woody at the base. The leaves are generally 5–8 cm in length.  Their form changes from the bottom to the top of the plant, the lower leaves being petiolate while the upper leaves are sessile. The leaves grow in opposite pairs and are oval or lanceolate in shape. The plant flowers profusely, and though the individual flowers are small (no more than 2 mm), the inflorescences are large and showy.  The flowers are small in rounded clusters each with 5 fused petals and a spur. The most typical color is a brick red or purplish red, but colors include deep crimson, pale pink, and lavender.  Centranthus ruber 'Albus' (about 10% of individuals) has white blooms. Flowering takes place in early summer and, in cool summer areas, continues sporadically throughout the summer and into fall. The cultivar 'coccineus' is especially long-blooming. The blooms have a strong and somewhat rank scent. They are pollinated by both bees and butterflies and the plant is noted for attracting insects. It is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including angle shades. Seeds have tufts similar to dandelions that allow wind dispersal, and as such can self-seed freely and become invasive if not properly controlled.


A native of the Mediterranean region, Centranthus ruber has been introduced into many other parts of the world as a garden escape. It is naturalised in France, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland and the United States. In the US it can be found growing wild in such western states as Arizona, Utah, California, Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon, usually in disturbed, rocky places at elevations below 200 m. It is often seen by roadsides or in urban wasteland. It can tolerate very alkaline soil conditions.  Because it can tolerate the lime in mortar, Centranthus ruber may frequently be seen growing in old walls in Italy, southern France and south-west UK.


The greater coucal or crow pheasant (Centropus sinensis), is a large non-parasitic member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes. A widespread resident in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, it is divided into several subspecies, some being treated as full species. They are large, crow-like with a long tail and coppery brown wings and found in a wide range of habitats from jungle to cultivation and urban gardens. They are weak fliers, and are often seen clambering about in vegetation or walking on the ground as they forage for insects, eggs and nestlings of other birds. They have a familiar deep resonant call which is associated with omens in many parts of its range.


The greater coucal is a large bird which takes a wide range of insects, caterpillars, snails and small vertebrates such as the Saw-scaled vipers. They are also known to eat bird eggs, nestlings, fruits and seeds. In Tamil Nadu they were found to feed predominantly on snails Helix vittata. They are also known to feed on the toxic fruits of Cascabela thevetia (Yellow Oleander). In oil palm cultivation, they have been noted as an avian pest due to their habit of eating the fleshy mesocarps of the ripe fruits.
They sunbathe in the mornings singly or in pairs on the top of vegetation with their wings spread out. The territory of a nesting pair has been found in southern India to be 0.9 to 7.2 ha (mean 3.8 ha). They are most active in the warm hours of the morning and in the late afternoon.
The calls are a booming low coop-coop-coops repeated and with variations and some duets between individuals. When duetting the female has a lower pitched call. Other calls include a rapid rattling "lotok, lotok ..." and a harsh scolding "skeeaaaw" and a hissing threat call.


The breeding season is after the monsoon in southern India but varies in other parts of its range but chiefly June to September.
Greater coucals are monogamous, and the courtship display involves chases on the ground and the male brings food gifts for the female. The female lowers her tail and droops her wings to signal acceptance. The nest is built mostly by the male over about three to eight days. The nest is a deep cup with a dome in dense vegetation inside tangles of creepers, bamboo clump or Pandanus crowns. They can be built as high as 6m above the ground and the typical clutch is 3–5 eggs. The eggs (of size 36–28 mm weighing 14.8 g ) are chalky white with a yellow glaze when laid that wears off. Both the male and the female take part in nest building. They lay 2 to 4 eggs that hatch after 15–16 days of incubation. The chicks take 18–22 days to fledge. A study in southern India found that 77% of the eggs hatched and 67% fledged. Nests with eggs were sometimes abandoned or marauded by the Indian jungle crow Corvus macrorhynchos culminatus.
Haemosporidia closely related to those that cause malaria have been found in their red blood cells. One species, Haemoproteus centropi, is described from cuckoos such as Clamator jacobinus and Centropus sinensis and is spread by mosquitoes. Immature Haemaphysalis ticks have been found feeding on greater coucals.


The bird is associated with many superstitions and beliefs. The deep calls are associated with spirits and omens.
In British India, it was noted that new-recruits to India often mistook it for a pheasant and shot it to find it "evil flavoured" giving it the nickname of "Griff's pheasant".
The flesh was once eaten as a folk cure for tuberculosis and pulmonary ailments.


The white-browed coucal or lark-heeled cuckoo (Centropus superciliosus), is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa. It inhabits areas with thick cover afforded by rank undergrowth and scrub, including in suitable coastal regions. Burchell's coucal is sometimes considered a subspecies.


The white-browed coucal is native to eastern and southern Africa, and the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Its range includes Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe in Africa, as well as Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It is a common species with a very wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed it as a "least-concern species".


Arizona bark scorpions are eaten by a wide variety of animals such as pallid bats, birds (especially owls), reptiles, and other vertebrates. Some examples include spiders, snakes, peccaries, rodents, and other scorpions. Development, pesticides and collecting scorpions for research or the pet trade also reduces the bark scorpion population.
The painful and potentially deadly venom of Arizona bark scorpions has little effect on grasshopper mice. Scientists have found the scorpion toxin acts as an analgesic rather than a pain stimulant in grasshopper mice.


The Arizona bark scorpion is nocturnal, and particularly well adapted to the desert: layers of wax on its exoskeleton make it resistant to water loss. Nevertheless, Arizona bark scorpions hide during the heat of the day, typically under rocks, wood piles, or tree bark. Arizona bark scorpions do not burrow, and are commonly found in homes, requiring only 1/16 of an inch for entry.
Arizona bark scorpions prefer riparian areas with mesquite, cottonwood, and sycamore groves, all of which have sufficient moisture and humidity to support insects and other prey species. The popularity of irrigated lawns, and other systems which increase environmental humidity in residential areas, has led to a massive increase in the number of these animals in some areas.
Centruroides scorpions are unusual in that they are the only genus in the Southwest that can climb walls, trees, and other objects with a sufficiently rough surface. Arizona bark scorpions practice negative geotaxis, preferring an upside down orientation, which often results in people being stung due to the scorpion being on the underside of an object.
The Arizona bark scorpion preys on small and medium-sized animals such as beetles, spiders, crickets, cockroaches, other insects and other scorpions.
The range of the Arizona bark scorpion is from southern California, southern Arizona and western New Mexico. They are also found in Baja California, Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico.


The Arizona bark scorpion is the most venomous scorpion in North America, and its venom can cause severe pain (coupled with numbness, tingling, and vomiting) in adult humans, typically lasting between 24 and 72 hours. Temporary dysfunction in the area stung is common; e.g. a hand or possibly arm can be immobilized or experience convulsions. It also may cause loss of breath for a short time. Due to the extreme pain induced, many victims describe sensations of electrical jolts after envenomation.  Two recorded fatalities have occurred in the state of Arizona since 1968; the number of victims stung each year in Arizona and New Mexico is estimated to be in the thousands.


Arizona bark scorpions are tan or light beige tone in color and very small, making them difficult to detect especially on natural terrain (rocky land, multiple vegetation and soil textured land). They are not known to seek out people, but look for places to hide unless provoked or defending their young.  Several methods of control have historically been used to control Arizona bark scorpions, such as physical barriers (scorpions are unable to climb smooth surfaces), pesticides, glue boards, and removing any scorpion congregation areas in the vicinity of the building.


The natural geographic distribution of C. vittatus is formed by several adjoining South-Central US states and northern Mexico. Beginning in the northern Mexico Border States, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas, C. vittatus’s range extends upward longitudinally through Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, to reach as far north as Thayer County, Nebraska. The area also extends laterally from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Rio Grande in New Mexico and south Colorado to the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in Missouri and Louisiana. In all, the range includes the following states: Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, and Texas.
Reports have also found C. vittatus in locations inconsistent with the aforementioned natural geographic distribution. Populations seem to be found only in particular cities outside its natural distribution, so it is thought likely that human activity has introduced C. vittatus to these areas. They include locations in Iowa (Harrison County), Kentucky (Marshall and Calloway Counties), Louisiana (East Baton Rouge Parish and Orleans Parish), Mississippi (Lamar, Pike, and Rankin Counties), Missouri (Clark County), North Carolina (Dare, Nash, and Wake Counties), and Tennessee (Rutherford and Shelby Counties). Additional sightings have occurred in Arizona (Maricopa County), California (Contra Costa County), and Colorado (Boulder County).
A wide geographic distribution allows C. vittatus to occupy desert, deciduous and coniferous forest, and temperate grassland [biomes], where they can be found in crevices under rock and surface debris, vegetation, old rural structures like sheds and barns, and houses during the day. At night, this species emerges from its daytime home and can be found on the open ground or in vegetation, like microphyllous desertic brushwood or other classifications.


While placement in the genus Centruroides implies this species is a semi-arboreal one, the striped bark scorpion spends a substantial amount of its time on the ground; and can be found  under rock and surface debris, within vegetation, and in weathered rural structures such as old sheds and barns during the day. The terrestrial preferences of this species carry into the night hours, when the scorpion emerges from its temporal shelter at or after sunset to forage for potential prey. Juveniles, however, spend a substantial amount of time in vegetation, likely to avoid predation to which they are more vulnerable. C. vittatus has a very dynamic diet which includes insects, smaller arachnids, and juveniles of the same species.  It is preyed on by birds, reptiles, some mammals, and larger arachnids.
Unlike most species of scorpion, C. vittatus is social, presenting it with more opportunities to mate and compete for mates. Consequently, the process of reproduction is both intricate and extensive. Males begin by engaging behavior to establish dominance to mate. They engage in a showdown that highlights tail-waving and shifting until one male backs down. Once one male has established he is the one to mate, he engages the female in the first “step” of courtship, called the promenade a deux (PAD). During this step, the smaller male maneuvers the female to a spot where he can deposit the spermatophore, a small capsule containing the male’s sperm, for reception. This step determines whether the female will assume the male’s spermatophore, as the male must hold the female long enough to coax her over the spermatophore. Larger males tend to have more success at maneuvering the female than smaller ones. If the male has successfully maneuvered her, the male and female move onto join together and rub chelicera in the “kiss” stage, where the female takes up the spermatophore. The female then allows about 8 months for gestation, whereupon she has live offspring which spend the time for at least one molt on the protection of her back.


Thousands of people are stung yearly by C. vittatus while barefoot or accidentally making contact with the scorpion in houses and other man-made structures. While a sting from C. vittatus is very rarely deadly, it is painful and causes localized swelling. Neurotoxins in the venom can also cause paresthesia and muscle spasms, while more severe cases have resulted in a more intense hypersensitive reaction, characterized by symptoms such as angioedema, abdominal cramping, chest tightness, flushing, lightheadedness, a large localized reaction, nausea and vomiting, syncope, shortness of breath, urticaria, wheezing, and in the most severe cases, anaphylactic shock. C. vittatus venom contains the toxin CvlV4, which has been shown to target and decrease the inactivation of NA+ channels located in the Dorsal root ganglia of Nociceptors (sensory neurons that detect pain), resulting in an prolonged activation of action potentials.  C. vittatus venom is composed of multiple proteins that serve as allergens to the human body. SDS-PAGE and IgE immunoblots reveal that nine of these proteins elicit an IgE-mediated immune response, which is known to be consistent with a hypersensitive reaction. In addition, Api-Zym and radial diffusion assays show that C. vittatus venom contains the enzymes alkaline phosphatase, esterase, esterase lipase, acid phosphatase, and phospholipase A.
While a C. vittatus sting is not typically deadly, and signs such as swelling can be treated using an ice pack, several other species from the genus Centruroides can have a deadly sting and medical attention should be sought immediately.


The white-lipped snail is very slightly smaller than the grove snail, the shell being usually about 2.5 cm (1 in) in maximum dimension. Like the grove snail (brown-lipped snail), it has considerable variability in shell colour and banding, although the shell of the white-lipped snail is perhaps most commonly yellow, with or without brown banding. The principal distinguishing feature of this species is a white lip at the aperture of the shell in adult specimens, although very rarely the brown-lipped grove snail can have a white lip, and vice versa.


The two species share many of the same habitats, such as woods, dunes and grassland, but the white-lipped snail tolerates wetter and colder areas than the brown-lipped snail can.


Cepaea nemoralis is among the largest and, because of its polymorphism and bright colours, one of the best-known snails in Western Europe. The colour of the shell of Cepaea nemoralis is very variable; it can be reddish, brownish, yellow or whitish, with or without one or more dark-brown colour bands. Names for every colour variant were established in the 1800s; but this system was later abandoned.
The thickened and slightly out-turned apertural lip usually dark brown, rarely white. The umbilicus is narrow but open in juveniles, and closed in adults. The surface of the shell is semi-glossy, and it has from 4½ to 5½ whorls. The width of the shell is 18–25 mm. The height of the shell is 12–22 mm.


Cephalanthera austiniae is a species of orchid known as the phantom orchid and snow orchid because the entire plant is white except for a few yellow markings on the flowers.
The orchid is native to the western United States (California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho), and to British Columbia, Canada. Cephalanthera austiniae is the only species of genus Cephalanthera native to the Western Hemisphere.
This is also the only Cephalanthera species entirely dependent on symbiotic mycorrhizae for its nutrition. This mycoheterotrophic orchid has no chlorophyll, so it makes no energy for itself.


The pigeon guillemot (Cepphus columba) (/ˈɡɪlɪmɒt/) is a species of bird in the auk family, Alcidae. One of three species in the genus Cepphus, it is most closely related to the spectacled guillemot. There are five subspecies of the pigeon guillemot; all subspecies, when in breeding plumage, are dark brown with a black iridescent sheen and a distinctive wing patch broken by a brown-black wedge. Its non-breeding plumage has mottled grey and black upperparts and white underparts. The long bill is black, as are the claws. The legs, feet, and inside of the mouth are red. It closely resembles the black guillemot, which is slightly smaller and lacks the dark wing wedge present in the pigeon guillemot. Combined, the two form a superspecies.
This seabird is found on North Pacific coastal waters, from Siberia through Alaska to California.  The pigeon guillemot breeds and sometimes roosts on rocky shores, cliffs, and islands close to shallow water. In the winter, some birds move slightly south in the northernmost part of their range in response to advancing ice and migrate slightly north in the southern part of their range, generally preferring more sheltered areas.
This species feeds on small fish and marine invertebrates, mostly near the sea floor, that it catches by pursuit diving. Pigeon guillemots are monogamous breeders, nesting in small colonies close to the shore. They defend small territories around a nesting cavity, in which they lay one or two eggs. Both parents incubate the eggs and feed the chicks. After leaving the nest the young bird is completely independent of its parents. Several birds and other animals prey on the eggs and chicks.
The pigeon guillemot is considered to be a least concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to its large, stable population and wide range. Threats to this bird include climate change, introduced mammalian predators, and oil spills.


The pigeon guillemot is one of three species of auk in the genus Cepphus, the other two being the black guillemot of the Atlantic Ocean and the spectacled guillemot from the Eastern Pacific. It was described in 1811 by Peter Simon Pallas in the second volume of his Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica. A 1996 study looking at the mitochondrial DNA of the auk family found that the genus Cepphus is most closely related to the murrelets from the genus Synthliboramphus.  An alternative arrangement, proposed in 2001 using genetic and morphological comparisons, found them as a sister clade to the murres, razorbill, little auk and great auk. Within the genus, the pigeon guillemot and spectacled guillemot are sister species, and the black guillemot is basal within the genus. The pigeon guillemot and the black guillemot form a superspecies.
There are five recognised subspecies of the pigeon guillemot:
Cepphus columba columba Pallas, 1811 – northeast Siberia through the Bering Sea
C. c. snowi (Stejneger, 1897) – northern & central Kuril Islands
C. c. kaiurka (Portenko, 1937) – Commander Islands to west-central Aleutian Islands
C. c. adiantus (Storer, 1950) – central Aleutian Islands to Washington
C. c. eureka (Storer, 1950) – Oregon & California
In the binomial name, the genus, Cepphus, is derived from the Greek kepphos, referring to an unknown pale waterbird mentioned by Aristotle among other classical writers, later variously identified as types of seabirds, including gulls, auks and gannets. The specific epithet, columba, is derived both from the Icelandic klumba, meaning "auk", and the Latin columba, meaning "pigeon". Pallas noted in his description of this species that the common name for the related black guillemot was Greenland dove. Snowi is dedicated to Captain Henry James Snow, a British seaman and hunter. The name of the subspecies kaiurka is derived from the Russian kachurka, meaning "petrel". Adiantus is derived from the Greek adiantos, "unwetted". The trinomial epithet of the subspecies C. c. eureka is from the motto of the state of California, which is derived from the Greek heurēka, meaning "I have found it".


The pigeon guillemot is a medium-sized auk, 30 to 37 cm (12 to 15 in) in length and weighing 450 to 550 g (16 to 19 oz). Both sexes are alike in appearance and mass, except for Californian birds where females were found to have larger bills than males. The summer or breeding plumage of the adult is mostly dark brown with a black sheen, with a white wing patch broken by a brown-black wedge.  In winter, the upperparts are iridescent black, often with black fringes giving a scalloped appearance, and the underparts and rump are white. The forehead, crown, lores, eye line and ear coverts are black with white tips, sometimes the tips are narrow and the head looks black.  In all plumages, the underwings are plain and dark. Adults moult into their winter or non-breeding plumage between August and October, taking around a month to complete and leaving the bird unable to fly for around four weeks. Birds moult into their breeding plumage between January and March. The legs and feet are red, with black claws. The iris is brown and the eye is surrounded by a thin unbroken white eye-ring. The bill is long and black and the inside of the mouth is red.
The juvenile pigeon guillemot resembles a winter adult but has underpart feathers tipped in brown, giving the appearance of barring, more brown feathers in the upperparts and its wing patch is smaller. Its legs are a grey-brown in color. It loses the brown underpart feathers after its first moult two to three months after fledging. Its moult to its first summer plumage is later than adults, happening between March and May, and first summer birds lack the glossy sheen of adults.
The differences between the subspecies are based on body measurements such as the culmen and wing length. These are larger in southern subspecies and smaller further north. The amount of white on the outer primaries and underwing coverts increases in northern subspecies, except for Cepphus columba snowi, where the white is reduced or entirely absent.
The pigeon guillemot walks well and habitually has an upright posture. When sitting it frequently rests on its tarsi. The wings of the pigeon guillemot are shorter and rounder than other auks, reflecting greater adaptation towards diving than flying. It has difficulty taking off in calm conditions without a runway, but once in the air it is faster than the black guillemot, having been recorded at 77 km/h (48 mph), about 20 km/h (12 mph) faster than the black guillemot. In the water it is a strong swimmer on the surface using its feet. When diving, propulsion is provided both by the wings, which beat at a rate of 2.1/s, but unusually for auks also by the feet. Pigeon guillemots have been recorded travelling 75 m (246 ft) horizontally on dives.
The pigeon guillemot is similar to the related black guillemot, but can be distinguished by its larger size, and in the breeding season by its dusky-grey underwing and the dark brown wedge on the white wing patch.


The pigeon guillemot ranges across the Northern Pacific, from the Kuril Islands and the Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia to coasts in western North America from Alaska to California. This bird's wintering range is more restricted than its breeding season range, the pigeon guillemot usually wintering at sea or on the coasts, from the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands to Hokkaido and southern California. In Alaska, some migrate south because of advancing sea-ice, although others remain in ice leads or ice holes some distance from the edge of the ice sheet. Further south, birds banded in the Farallon Islands in central California have been recorded moving north, as far as Oregon and even British Columbia. It generally is philopatric, meaning it returns to the colony where it hatched to breed, but it sometimes moves long distances after fledging before settling, for example a chick ringed in the Farallones was recorded breeding in British Columbia.
This bird's breeding habitats are rocky shores, cliffs, and islands close to shallow water less than 50 m (160 ft) deep. It is flexible about its breeding site location, the important factor being protection from predators, and it is more commonly found breeding on offshore islands than coastal sea cliffs. In the winter it forages along rocky coasts, often in sheltered coves. Sandy-bottomed water is avoided, presumably because this does not provide the right habitat to feed in. It occasionally can be found further offshore, as far as the continental shelf break. In the Bering Sea and Alaska, it feeds in openings in ice sheets.


Pigeon guillemots are generally diurnal, but have been recorded feeding before dawn and after sunset. They typically sleep in loose groups in sheltered waters or on shore close to water. They typically rest spaced apart, but mated pairs rest close together. Bathing and preening can also happen on shore or at sea.


The pigeon guillemot usually lays its eggs in rocky cavities near water, but it often nests in any available cavity, including caves, disused burrows of other seabirds, and even old bomb casings. It is noted that pigeon guillemots do not inhabit nests with gull eggs, specifically those of the western gull. This guillemot usually retains its nest site, meaning that nest sites are generally used multiple times, although it does not display this behaviour if its mate does not return to breed. The nests are found at a wide range of heights, from about 1 to 55 m (3.3 to 180.4 ft) above sea-level. Nesting sites are defended by established pairs, as is a small territory around the nest entrance of between 1–4 m² (11–43 sq ft). Both sexes defend the nesting site, although most defence is done by the male.
Foreign eggs in this guillemot's nest are generally removed. Nest competition with Cassin's auklet is occasional, the pigeon guillemot almost always just removing the eggs, and rarely pithing before removal. On the other hand, larger auk species, tufted puffins and rhinoceros auklets, have been reported evicting pigeon guillemots from their nesting crevices.
This guillemot nests at a variety of densities, ranging from a single individual to dense colonies. The nesting density is generally not affected by predation, although on a very local scale, nesting closer to neighbors has a slight advantage. Colonies are attended during the day and, except for birds incubating or brooding, adults do not remain in the colony at night. Birds usually arrive in the colony in the morning, with counts decreasing after early afternoon, when high tide is. Colony attendance is affected by the tide, more appearing when the tide is higher and less when the tide is lower, probably because the prey this bird feeds on is more accessible during low tide, thus more birds are away from the colony. The counts vary the most before laying, while they are relatively stable during incubation and egg laying.
Pigeon guillemots form long-term pair bonds, the pairs usually reuniting each year, although occasionally pairs divorce. The formation of the pair bond is poorly understood. It is thought that form of play known as "water games", which involves chasing of birds on and under the water at sea, and duet-trilling may have a function in maintaining the pair bond or act as a prelude to copulation. The red colour of the mouth may also be a sexual signal.
Usually arriving at its breeding range 40 to 50 days before laying starts, the pigeon guillemot breeds from late April to September. During this time, it generally lays a clutch of one or two eggs. The eggs have grey and brown blotches near the larger end of the egg and range in colour from creamy to pale blue-green. They measure 61.2 mm × 41.0 mm (2.41 in × 1.61 in) on average, but become longer when laid later in the breeding season. Incubated by both sexes, the eggs usually hatch after 26 to 32 days. The chick is brooded continuously by both parents for three days, and then at intervals for another two to four days, after which it is able to control its own body temperature. Both parents are responsible for feeding the chicks, and bring single fish held in the bill throughout the day, but most frequently in the morning.
The chicks usually fledge 34 to 42 days after hatching, although the time taken to fledge has been known to take anywhere from 29 to 54 days. Chicks fledge by leaving the colony and flying to sea, after which they are independent of their parents and receive no post-fledging care. After this, the adult also leaves the colony. Young birds do not breed until at least three years after fledging, with most first breeding at four years of age. While they may not return to breed, two or three year old birds may start attending the breeding colony before they reach sexual maturity, arriving in the colony after the breeding birds. Pigeon guillemots that reach adulthood have an average life-expectancy of 4.5 years, and the oldest recorded individual lived for 14 years.


The pigeon guillemot is a very vocal bird, particularly during the breeding season, and makes several calls, some of which are paired with displays, to communicate with others of its kind. One such display call pairing is the conspicuous hunch-whistle, where the tail is slightly raised, the wings held slightly out and the head thrown back 45-90° while whistling, before snapping back to horizontal. The function of this call is to advertise ownership of a territory. Another call, the trill, denotes ownership over larger distances. Trills can be performed singly or as duets between pairs; if performed as a duet then the call also functions to help reinforce pair bond. Trills are usually given from a resting position, except for the trill-waggle, which has the bird raising its tail, opening its wings and ruffling the feathers of its neck and head, followed by a waggling of its outstretched neck and head. This display is antagonistic in a context where pigeon guillemots are in a group and often is the precursor to an attack. Low whistles are made by unpaired males attempting to attract a mate, and are deeper than hunch-whistles and involve less movement of the head. Other calls made include seeps and cheeps made between mates and screams made in the presence of predators.


The pigeon guillemot forages by itself or in small groups, diving underwater for food, usually close to shore and during the breeding season within 1 km (0.6 mi) of the colony. It forages at depths from 6 to 45 m (20 to 148 ft), but it prefers depths between 15 and 20 m (50 and 70 ft). The dives can range from 10 to 144 seconds, and usually average 87 seconds, with an intermission between dives lasting around 98 seconds. Dives of two to ten seconds are typical when feeding on shoals of sandlance at the water's surface. Smaller prey are probably consumed underwater, but larger organisms are brought to the surface to eat after capture.
The pigeon guillemot mostly feeds on benthic prey found at the lowest level in a body of water close to the sea floor, but it also takes some prey from higher in the water column. It mainly eats fish and other aquatic animals. Fish taken include sculpins, sandfish, cod, and capelin; invertebrates include shrimp and crabs like the pygmy rock crab, and even rarely polychaete worms, gastropods, bivalves and squid. The diet varies greatly, based on where the individual bird is, the season, and also from year to year, as ocean conditions change prey availability. For example, invertebrates are more commonly taken in winter. The foraging method used by this species differs from that of auks in other genera. It hangs upside down above the seafloor, probing with its head for prey and using its feet and wings to maintain position. The chick's diet varies slightly, with more fish than invertebrates, particularly rockfish (family Sebastidae). Specialization in the prey taken by a pigeon guillemot when foraging for its chicks generally results in greater reproductive success, with a high-lipid diet allowing for more growth.
The adult pigeon guillemot requires about 20% of its own weight, or 90 grams (3.2 oz) of food each day. It doubles its rate of fishing when feeding the nestlings. As the nestlings get older, they are fed more, until 11 days after hatching, when the food generally levels out. The food they get, although, starts to decrease about 30 days after hatching.


Avian predation is the most common cause of egg loss in the pigeon guillemot. Species that prey on the nests include the northwestern crow, a common predator of both eggs and chicks, as well as glaucous-winged gulls, stoats and garter snakes. Raccoons are also common predators, preying on eggs, chicks, and adults. Adults are sometimes hunted by bald eagles, peregrine falcons, great horned owls and northern goshawks. In the water, they have been reported to be taken by orca and giant Pacific octopuses.
This bird, especially its chicks, is vulnerable to Aspergillus fumigatus, a fungal disease, while in captivity. It is also vulnerable to the cestode Alcataenia campylacantha. Ticks (Ixodes uriae) and fleas (Ceratophyllus) have been recorded on chicks as well.


The black guillemot or tystie (Cepphus grylle) is a medium-sized seabird of the alcid family, Alcidae, native throughout northern Atlantic coasts and eastern North American coasts. It is resident in much of its range, but large populations from the high arctic migrate southwards in winter. The bird can be seen in and around its breeding habitat of rocky shores, cliffs and islands in single or smalls groups of pairs. They feed mainly by diving towards the sea floor feeding on fish, crustaceans or other benthic invertebrates. They are listed on the IUCN red list as a species of least concern.
Both sexes have very similar appearances with black plumage and a large white patch on the upper side of their wings in summer. The bill is also black, being rather long and slender, while the feet are coral-red. In winter adult underparts are white and the upperparts are a pale grey with the back and shoulders exhibiting barred light grey and white patterning.
The birds breed in solitary pairs or small groups during their breeding season starting in late February and early May. Breeding pairs will typically lay 2-egg clutches and raise 2 chicks to fledging. Incubation typically lasts 28 to 32 days, once hatched chicks receive care from the parents until they fledge aged 30 – 40 days. Once fledged chicks are totally independent and by age three or four years they will begin to re-join their natal colony.
The genus name Cepphus is from Ancient Greek kepphos, a pale waterbird mentioned by Greek authors including Aristotle. The species name grylle was the local dialect name for this bird in Gotland at the time of Linnaeus's visit there in 1741. The English word "guillemot" is from French guillemot probably derived from Guillaume, "William".


The Black guillemot is a medium-sized bird with adults normally 30 to 32 centimetres (12 to 12+1⁄2 inches) in length and with wingspans of 52 to 58 cm (20+1⁄2 to 23 in). The bodyweight can range from 300 to 460 grams (10+1⁄2 to 16 ounces). Adults have both summer and winter plumage and there is no sexual difference in this that can be identified in the field. The English common name “Black Guillemot” references their strikingly black breeding summer plumage which is totally black except for a large white patch on the upper side of their wings. During the summer plumage, their legs, feet and inside of the mouth are all a bright coral-red, and their beak is a black. Adults lose their summer plumage in an early fall moult where their upper plumage become barred with light grey and white, their head is a pale grey, their underparts white, and legs and feet a pale red. They retain their white wing patch, black beak and red inside their mouth. The call in the breeding season is a high whistle. The red gape is also prominent then.
Juveniles and immatures can easily be identified by the spotting of the white wing patch with grey or brown feathers and is easy to see even at far distances in the field.


The Black Guillemot is a circumpolar species distributed in the boreal, low arctic and high arctic regions of the north Atlantic and arctic oceans and breeding between 43° and 82°N. The 5 listed subspecies inhabit different parts of this range. In North America they can be found as far south as the Gulf of Maine and New England and across parts of the northern coast of North America as far as Alaska, where they are replaced by the pigeon guillemot in the North Pacific. In Europe and Asia they are found from the British Isles and Northward across the northern coast of Asia. They are one of the few birds to breed on Surtsey, Iceland, a new volcanic island. In the UK it is a fairly common breeding bird in western and northern Scotland and Ireland. In the rest of Great Britain they only breed at St. Bees Head in Cumbria, the Isle of Man and on east Anglesey in north Wales. Approximately 40% of the population breeds in the high arctic where the largest colonies are found, 30% in the low arctic, and 30% in boreal waters. In the winter some of the birds in the high arctic waters are forced south by the winter ice making them seasonal migrants, but in more temperate zones the species is essentially resident.
Typically restricted to rocky shores, black guillemots utilize the cliffs, crevices and boulders for their nests, hunting the inshore waters for benthic prey. Compared to other auks they forage fairly close to the colony, in the breeding season mostly in inshore waters more than 50m in depth, farther afield in the winter months.


One of the early ornithologists that described aspects of the behaviour of the black guillemot was Edmund Selous (1857-1934) in his book The Bird Watcher in the Shetlands (1905). In the chapter titled 'From the Edge of a Precipice' he writes for instance that sometimes the black guillemots carry a fish they have caught in their beak for hours. He also gives further details about the behaviour.
They dive for food from the surface, swimming underwater. They mainly eat fish and crustaceans, also some mollusks, insects and plant material.


Ceratiola is a genus of flowering plants with a single species, Ceratiola ericoides, the sand heath, sandhill-rosemary or Florida-rosemary,  is a species of shrub usually included in the plant family Ericaceae, though treated by some botanists in the Empetraceae. It is the sole species in the genus Ceratiola.
It is native to subtropical scrub and dry sandy habitats in the coastal southeastern United States, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina. It commonly occurs together with sand pine and species of oak. Like sand pine, it is adapted to the harsh coastal environment where hot sun and fast draining white sandy soils are common. Cetatiola regenerate by seed after periodic forest fires.
Its habitat is important for the endangered Florida sand skink (Neoseps reynoldsi) in central Florida.
The name derives from the species' superficial similarity to the unrelated European shrub rosemary, familiar for its leaves used as a herb. Florida-rosemary is not edible.
Florida-rosemary can grow to about 1.5 to 8 feet tall. It flowers in spring, summer and fall, and grows in the maritime hammocks.


The carob (Ceratonia siliqua) is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible pods, and as an ornamental tree in gardens and landscapes. The carob tree is native to the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. Portugal is the largest producer of carob, followed by Italy and Morocco.
In the Mediterranean Basin, extended to the southern Atlantic coast of Portugal (i.e. the Algarve region) and the Atlantic northwestern Moroccan coast, carob pods were often used as animal feed and in times of famine, as "the last source of [human] food in hard times". The ripe, dried, and sometimes toasted pod is often ground into carob powder, which was sometimes used as an ersatz cocoa powder, especially in the 1970s natural food movement. The powder and chips can be used as a chocolate alternative in most recipes.


The carob tree grows up to 15 metres (50 feet) tall. The crown is broad and semispherical, supported by a thick trunk with rough brown bark and sturdy branches. Its leaves are 10 to 20 centimetres (4 to 8 inches) long, alternate, pinnate, and may or may not have a terminal leaflet. It is frost-tolerant to roughly 20 °F (−7 °C).
Most carob trees are dioecious and some are hermaphroditic, so strictly male trees do not produce fruit. When the trees blossom in autumn, the flowers are small and numerous, spirally arranged along the inflorescence axis in catkin-like racemes borne on spurs from old wood and even on the trunk (cauliflory); they are pollinated by both wind and insects. The male flowers smell like human semen, an odor that is caused in part by amines.
The fruit is a legume (also known commonly, but less accurately, as a pod), that is elongated, compressed, straight, or curved, and thickened at the sutures. The pods take a full year to develop and ripen. When the sweet, ripe pods eventually fall to the ground, they are eaten by various mammals, such as swine, thereby dispersing the hard inner seed in the excrement.
The seeds of the carob tree contain leucodelphinidin, a colourless flavanol precursor related to leucoanthocyanidins.


Although cultivated extensively, carob can still be found growing wild in eastern Mediterranean regions, and has become naturalized in the west.

The tree is typical in the southern Portuguese region of the Algarve, where the tree is called alfarrobeira, and the fruit alfarroba. It is also seen in southern and eastern Spain (Spanish: algarrobo, algarroba), mainly in the regions of Andalusia, Murcia and Valencia (Valencian: garrofer, garrofa); Malta (Maltese: ħarruba), on the Italian islands of Sicily (Sicilian: carrua) and Sardinia (Italian: carrubo, carruba), in Southern Croatia (Croatian: rogač), in eastern Bulgaria (Bulgarian: рожков), and in Southern Greece, Cyprus, as well as on many Greek islands such as Crete and Samos. In Israel, the Hebrew name is חרוב (translit. charuv). The common Greek name is χαρουπιά (translit. charoupia), or ξυλοκερατιά (translit. ksilokeratia, meaning "wooden horn"). In Turkey, it is known as "goat's horn" (Turkish: keçiboynuzu).
The various trees known as algarrobo in Latin America (Albizia saman in Cuba, Prosopis pallida in Peru, and four species of Prosopis in Argentina and Paraguay) belong to a different subfamily of the Fabaceae: Mimosoideae. Early Spanish settlers named them algarrobo after the carob tree  because they also produce pods with sweet pulp.


The vegetative propagation of carob is naturally restricted due to its low adventitious rooting potential. Therefore, grafting and air-layering may prove to be more effective methods of asexual propagation. Seeds are commonly used as the propagation medium. The sowing occurs in pot nurseries in early spring and the cooling- and drying-sensitive seedlings are then transplanted to the field in the next year after the last frost. Carob trees enter slowly into production phase. Where in areas with favorable growing conditions, the cropping starts 3–4 years after budding, with the nonbearing period requiring up to 8 years in regions with marginal soils. Full bearing of the trees occurs mostly at a tree-age of 20–25 years when the yield stabilizes. The orchards are traditionally planted in low densities of 25–45 trees per hectare. Hermaphrodite plants or male trees, which produce fewer or no pods, respectively, are usually planted in lower densities in the orchards as pollenizers.
Intercropping with other tree species is widely spread. Not much cultivation management is required. Only light pruning and occasional tilling to reduce weeds is necessary. Nitrogen-fertilizing of the plants has been shown to have positive impacts on yield performance. Although it is native to moderately dry climates, two or three summers irrigation greatly aid the development, hasten the fruiting, and increase the yield of a carob tree.


The carob tree is widely cultivated in the horticultural nursery industry as an ornamental plant for Mediterranean climates and other temperate regions around the world, being especially popular in California and Hawaii. The plant develops a sculpted trunk and the form of an ornamental tree after being "limbed up" as it matures, otherwise it is used as a dense and large screening hedge. The plant is very drought tolerant as long as one does not care about the size of the fruit harvest, so can be used in xeriscape landscape design for gardens, parks, and public municipal and commercial landscapes.


A popular albeit widely discredited theory of the origins of the name "white rhinoceros" is a mistranslation from Dutch to English. The English word "white" is said to have been derived by mistranslation of the Dutch word "wijd", which means "wide" in English. The word "wide" refers to the width of the rhinoceros' mouth. So early English-speaking settlers in South Africa misinterpreted the "wijd" for "white" and the rhino with the wide mouth ended up being called the white rhino and the other one, with the narrow pointed mouth, was called the black rhinoceros. Ironically, Dutch (and Afrikaans) later used a calque of the English word, and now also call it a white rhino. This suggests the origin of the word was before codification by Dutch writers. A review of Dutch and Afrikaans literature about the rhinoceros has failed to produce any evidence that the word wijd was ever used to describe the rhino outside of oral use.
An alternative name for the white rhinoceros, more accurate but rarely used, is the square-lipped rhinoceros. The white rhinoceros' generic name, Ceratotherium, given by the zoologist John Edward Gray in 1868, is derived from the Greek terms keras (κέρας) "horn" and thērion (θηρίον) "beast". Simum, is derived from the Greek term simos (σιμός), meaning "flat nosed".