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EOL/Google Earth Monarch Butterfly Tour Now Available

Every year eastern monarch butterflies begin a journey north from their overwintering grounds in Mexican forests. The epic migration spans generations and the better part of a continent.

EOL is pleased to announce a new Google Earth tour video showcasing the migration of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in North America, and the people that help them out along the way.

This Google Earth tour is accompanied by two companion podcasts, the first of which can be found here.

This Google Earth Tour was produced by Atlantic Public Media in cooperation with the Encyclopedia of Life Learning + Education group located at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.

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More on Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) on EOL
(photo by Ondřej Zicha [CC BY-NC] via Biolib.cz)
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More on Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) on EOL

(photo by Ondřej Zicha [CC BY-NC] via Biolib.cz)

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  • 1 month ago
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Rodents of Unusual Size Do Exist | Around The Mallsmithsonianmag.com
But­ter­cup and West­ley may have doubt­ed the ROUS’ exis­tence in 1987′s The Princess Bride, but the love-stricken pair quick­ly caught on when the “Rodents of Unusu­al Size” attacked.A team of sci­en …

R.O.U.S. exist?  Inconceivable! (see esp. http://flip.it/H1eS8)
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Rodents of Unusual Size Do Exist | Around The Mall
smithsonianmag.com

But­ter­cup and West­ley may have doubt­ed the ROUS’ exis­tence in 1987′s The Princess Bride, but the love-stricken pair quick­ly caught on when the “Rodents of Unusu­al Size” attacked.

A team of sci­en …

R.O.U.S. exist? Inconceivable! (see esp. http://flip.it/H1eS8)

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Plantingthehighline.org
The Chelsea Grass­lands in bloom.The High Line’s plant­i­ng design is inspired by the self-seeded land­scape that grew on the out-of-use ele­vat­ed rail tracks dur­ing the 25 years after trains stoppe …

Following up on my flip re: the High Line in NYC, this is an index of the plants you can expect to see blooming there, by month.  Very well done, which should not surprise anyone.
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Planting
thehighline.org

The Chelsea Grass­lands in bloom.

The High Line’s plant­i­ng design is inspired by the self-seeded land­scape that grew on the out-of-use ele­vat­ed rail tracks dur­ing the 25 years after trains stoppe …

Following up on my flip re: the High Line in NYC, this is an index of the plants you can expect to see blooming there, by month. Very well done, which should not surprise anyone.

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Beetles and Moths - A One Species at a Time Podcast from EOL
How much trouble can an unassuming black beetle no bigger than your fingernail be? Plenty, as we learn in this episode of One Species at a Time. Tiny stowaways like the European Gazelle beetle are arriving on container ships and wreaking havoc with native ecosystems. Long-standing pests like the gypsy moth have been joined by new exotic species that are crowding out North American fauna. Ari Daniel Shapiro journeys to the forests of Oregon to meet the beetles.
Listen to Podcast
Explore Extras
Subscribe to the One Species at a Time Podcast on Apple iTunes
To learn more about how to use EOL’s One Species at a Time podcasts in the classroom and in broadcast media, please see our Podcast Guide for Educatorsor contact the EOL Learning & Education group.
(photo of Delta Flower Beetle Trigonopeltastes delta by Lynette Schimming, CC BY-NC, contributed to EOL via the EOL Group on Flickr)
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Beetles and Moths - A One Species at a Time Podcast from EOL

How much trouble can an unassuming black beetle no bigger than your fingernail be? Plenty, as we learn in this episode of One Species at a Time. Tiny stowaways like the European Gazelle beetle are arriving on container ships and wreaking havoc with native ecosystems. Long-standing pests like the gypsy moth have been joined by new exotic species that are crowding out North American fauna. Ari Daniel Shapiro journeys to the forests of Oregon to meet the beetles.

Listen to Podcast

Explore Extras

Subscribe to the One Species at a Time Podcast on Apple iTunes

To learn more about how to use EOL’s One Species at a Time podcasts in the classroom and in broadcast media, please see our Podcast Guide for Educatorsor contact the EOL Learning & Education group.

(photo of Delta Flower Beetle Trigonopeltastes delta by Lynette Schimming, CC BY-NC, contributed to EOL via the EOL Group on Flickr)

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Climbing Perch - Anabas testudineus (Bloch)

Climbing Perch - Anabas testudineus (Bloch)

Anabas testudineus, a small fish from Indian waters, testudineus means “turtle like”(1) commonly called as climbing perch .This is a fish widely distributed throughout south and south east Asia. It is a very common fish found in the river and pond waters of Machilipatnam and Eluru of Andhra Pradesh. It is a Bengali delicacy and is frequently exported to West Bengal from Eluru. Its common name in Bengali is Koi and in Telugu it is called as “Gorkalu” This fish is a column feeder and a larvicidal fish (feeds upon mosquito larvae,(2) )and hence used to control mosquito larvae. Anabas is grayish green in color and has brown fins. It grows up to 9 inches and is a very hardy fish, due to the presence of accessory respiratory organ. (Rosette like structures found very close to the pectoral fin) and is known to survive for 8 years in captivity (3) basically a carnivorous fish, also known to eat rice (4)

 Body is covered by cycloid scales. Lateral line sense organ is identified by the black spots as conspicuous one at the base of the caudal fin (5)

 Male and female fishes are identified only during the breeding season, by the difference in their color. During the breeding season, the females show a brilliant orange color with shades of yellow on the ventral side of the abdomen and also on the pelvic fin. During spawning season the abdomen of the female is slightly bulged out.(6)

Climbing perch can live in water low in oxygen, polluted water, and also water with rotting vegetation. In such waters, the fish rises to surface and gulps air.

Anabas can survive out of water for about 6-10hours (7)

During dry seasons, the fish burrows in the mud and is in resting phase. It is interesting to see the fish travelling in troops on the ground, during early morning and at times of rain storm. This is a migratory fish, migrating from one pond to another during rainy season for spawning (8)

Legend about the Climbing Perch: As this fish is frequently found on tree tops and also found hanging from trees or living in water filled slits of a palm tree (9). It was believed that the fish would travel and climbing the trees. This was observed and confirmed by Lieutenant Daldrof of the Danish East India Company in the year 1797, so people believed it to be truly climbing perch for nearly 250 years. It was in the year 1927, that this myth about this fish as climbing perch was clarified by the study of B.K Das,(10) an Indian expert on fishes.

This fish, when travelling as troops are often caught by birds such as pond crows and kites catch and carry them off and park them on tree tops, and slits of trees. Perch can live without water for days and so were found alive on most of tree tops and hence the name as climbing perch. As the myth has been cleared, it is more appropriately now called as “Walking Perch” rather than as climbing perch. (11)

REFERENCES

http://www.aquarium-glaser.de/en/anabas-cf-macrocephalus_en_1177.html

G.Chandra, I.Bhattacharjee, S.N Chatterjee and A.Ghosh(2008); “Mosquito Control by larvivorous fish”; Indian Journal of Medical Research 127; pp-13-27

Flower, (1925) “ Contributions to our knowledge of the duration of life in vertebrate animals I. Fishes; Journal; Proc Zool Society, London 1; 247-267

Jeffery B.Graham (1997); in the book titled  “Air breathing Fishes, Evolution, diversity and adaptation” Academic Press

R.Premakumari  (1988); PhD thesis titled “ Some aspects of physiology of fish under nutritional stress” submitted to Osmania University, Hyderabad, INDIA

Shantha Vijaya raghavan,  (1981); “ Some aspects of Physiology of digestion on fish. PhD thesis ; Osmania University, Hyderabad, INDIA

Hughes ,G.M and Singh , B.N (1970) “ Respiration in an air breathing fish, the climbing perch, Anabas testudineus (Bloch) I .Oxygen uptake  and carbon dioxide release in to air and water”  J Expt Biology 53;265-280

Natarajan, G.M (1972); “ Studies on the respiration of Anabas scandens (Cuvier)”, M.Sc thesis submitted to ICAR, New Delhi, INDIA

Jesse Mitchell (1864), “On the Climbing habits of Anabas Scandens”, Annals  and Magazine of  Natural History 13; 117-119

Das,B.K (1927) “ The Bionics of certain air breathing fishes of Indian, together with an account of the development of their air breathing organs” Phil. Trans .Ser.B 216: 433; 183-219

Maurice Burton,(1984) ; Encyclopedia of  reptiles, amphibians and other cold blooded animals; BPC Publishers

Submitted by

Padmavathi Godavarthy

anjanipadmavathi@gmail.com

 

  • 1 month ago
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EOL is now on iTunesU!
The EOL team has gathered together a veritable treasure trove of biodiversity information, videos, podcasts and educational materials and made them available through iTunes University. 
Have a look at EOL on iTunesU and let us know what you think!
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EOL is now on iTunesU!

The EOL team has gathered together a veritable treasure trove of biodiversity information, videos, podcasts and educational materials and made them available through iTunes University.

Have a look at EOL on iTunesU and let us know what you think!

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    • #iTunesU
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Seagrass: A One Species at a Time Podcast from the Encyclopedia of Life
The species that was Àlex Lorente’s passion was an extraordinarily long-lived seagrass, once common along the coast of his native Spain. Tragically, Lorente himself was not to enjoy a long life: he died in 2012 at the age of 37. But his colleagues in marine conservation are working to make sure the links Lorente forged between scientists and fishermen survive, for the good of the Mediterranean that he cherished.
Listen to Podcast
Explore Extras
Subscribe to the One Species at a Time Podcast on Apple iTunes
To learn more about how to use EOL’s One Species at a Time podcasts in the classroom and in broadcast media, please see our Podcast Guide for Educators or contact the EOL Learning & Education group.
(Photo of Posidonia oceanica by Roberto Pillon, © WoRMS for SMEBD CC:BY-NC-SA  View source )
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Seagrass: A One Species at a Time Podcast from the Encyclopedia of Life

The species that was Àlex Lorente’s passion was an extraordinarily long-lived seagrass, once common along the coast of his native Spain. Tragically, Lorente himself was not to enjoy a long life: he died in 2012 at the age of 37. But his colleagues in marine conservation are working to make sure the links Lorente forged between scientists and fishermen survive, for the good of the Mediterranean that he cherished.

Listen to Podcast

Explore Extras

Subscribe to the One Species at a Time Podcast on Apple iTunes

To learn more about how to use EOL’s One Species at a Time podcasts in the classroom and in broadcast media, please see our Podcast Guide for Educators or contact the EOL Learning & Education group.

(Photo of Posidonia oceanica by Roberto Pillon, © WoRMS for SMEBD CC:BY-NC-SA  View source )

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Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) :: xeno-canto

xeno-canto.org

Common Cuckoo · Cuculus canorus · Linnaeus, 1758

Order: CUCULI­FORMES

Fam­i­ly: Cucul­i­dae (Cuck­oos)

Genus: Cucu­lus

Species: canorus

Map Legend

Subspecies

bakeri · Hartert, 1912
• canorus · Linnaeus, 1758
• fal …

Enjoy some bird sounds - specifically, an awful lot of them. EOL is delighted that xeno-canto is one of its content partners; we’re also big, big fans of their website. Enjoy.

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EOL Monday Update

With the coming of spring here in DC the streets are full of spring-breakers enjoying the sights - and today, even a bit of warm weather for a change.  The famous Cherry Blossoms are expected to “peak” between from April 3 to April 6, so if you’re planning on stopping by, it’s time to make plans.

At EOL we’ve got a number of projects early in their blooming season, courtesy of the Rubenstein Research Fellows and the Computable Data Challenge awardees.  As EOL works to provide support for researchers and public participation in science, projects like these are leading the way.

Speaking of seasons, we’re coming up on a few important milestones - our spring Executive Committee call, a briefing of our scientific advisory group related to EOL’s growing support for “computable data”, and continued progress with updates to our field guide tools.

And if you’ve been paying attention, EOL is creeping up on having 1.3 million taxon pages with content.  As much as I talk about this being a marathon and not a sprint, it’s very satisfying to see the progress we’ve made establishing a strong footprint of coverage in EOL.  The challenge now is to continue to build depth and variety.  Well, one of the challenges.

Two more items for you today:

1. The EOL Learning & Education Group at Harvard, in cooperation with their partners at Atlantic Public Media, continue to release OUTSTANDING podcasts.  You can subscribe to them at iTunes - make sure to listen to the latest episode on the Bowhead Whale.

2. The soft launch of the new EOL Magazine on Flipboard has illustrated some of the strengths and challenges of the medium, but mostly the strengths - Flipboard is a beautiful and fun way to share knowledge about life on Earth with all of you.  To learn more visit this link.

Please feel free to drop us a line via the blog if you’d like to get in touch and chat about ideas, about content, about software, whatever.  

Happy Monday,

bob corrigan | eol

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