An anthelion is a luminous ring, or rings, seen by an observer, especially in alpine and polar regions, around the shadow of his head projected on a cloud or fog-bank, or on grass covered with dew, fifteen or twenty metres distant, and opposite the sun
when rising or setting. It is due to the diffraction of light. Research Anthelion
Dew is a deposition of water from the atmosphere upon the surface of the earth in the form of minute globules. During the day the earth both absorbs and emits heat, but after sunset its supply of warmth is cut off, though it still continues to radiate heat into the surrounding space. Grass, flowers, and foliage being good radiators, lose after sunset the heat which has previously been absorbed by them, without receiving any in return, and their temperature consequently falls considerably below that of the atmosphere. From the proximity of these cold substances the particles of vapour in the adjoining air are condensed and deposited upon their surfaces in the form of dew, or of hoar-frost where the temperature of the earth is below freezing.
When the sky is clouded the heat abstracted from the earth's surface by radiation is restored by the clouds, which, being good radiators, send back an equal amount of heat to what they receive; and a balance of temperature being thus maintained between the earth and the surrounding atmosphere, no dew is formed. The deposition of dew is likewise prevented by wind, which carries away the particles of air before the vapour contained in them has been condensed. Horizontal surfaces, and those which are exposed to a wide expanse of sky, receive a greater supply of dew than sheltered or oblique surfaces, where circumstances diminish the amount of radiation. The radiation from the earth's surface is one of those happy provisions for the necessities of living beings with which nature everywhere abounds.
The heavy dews which fall in tropical regions are in the highest degree beneficial to vegetation, which, but for this supply of moisture, would, in countries where scarcely any rain falls for months, be soon scorched and withered. But after the high temperature of the day the ground radiates under these clear skies with great rapidity, the surface is quickly cooled, and the watery vapour, which, from the great daily evaporation, exists in large quantities in the atmosphere, is deposited abundantly. This deposition is more plentiful also on plants, from their greater radiating power; while on hard, bare ground and stones, where it is less wanted, it is comparatively trifling.
In cold climates the earth, being cold and moist the clouds prevent the radiation of heat; the surface is thus preserved warm, and the deposition of dew is, in a great measure, prevented. Research Dew
Frost is the name given to the state of the weather when the temperature is below the freezing-point of water. The intensity of the cold in frost is conveniently indicated by the popular expression so many degrees of frost, which means that the temperature of the atmosphere is so many degrees below the point at which the freezing of water commences.
Frost is often very destructive to vegetation, owing to the fact that water, which is generally the chief constituent of the juices of plants, expands when freezing, and bursts, and thus destroys, the vesicles of the plant. In the same way rain-water, freezing in the crevices of rocks and roads, breaks up their surfaces, and often detaches large fragments.
Hoar-frost is frozen dew. It may either freeze while it is falling, when it is found loosely scattered on the ground; or being deposited as dew in the early part of the night it may freeze during a subsequent part of it, owing to radiation. It is generally seen most profusely in spring and autumn; because at those times, while on clear nights the cold is sufficient to freeze the dew, the days are at the same time sufficiently warm to cause a very considerable quantity of moisture to evaporate into the air.
Honey-dew is a sweet saccharine substance found on the leaves of trees and other plants in small drops like dew. There are two kinds; one secreted from the plants, and the other deposited by aphides. Different kinds of manna are the dried honey-dew or saccharine exudations of certain plants. Research Honey-dew
Alchemilla is a genus of plants of the family Rosaceae. The flowers are small and greenish; the leaves rounded in outline. The alpine species has compound leaves like a miniature lupine and is found over the Scottish Highlands. The genus is so named from its association with alchemists in former times, who collected dew from its leaves for their operations. Research Alchemilla
Ant is the popular name for hymenopterous (or membranous-winged) insects of various genera of the super-family Formicoidea. Ants are found in most temperate and tropical regions. They are small but powerful insects, and have long been noted for their remarkable intelligence and interesting habits. They live in communities regulated by definite laws, each member of the society bearing a well-defined and separate part in the work of the colony. Each community consists of males; of females much larger than the males; and of barren females, otherwise called neuters, workers, or nurses. The neuters are wingless, and the males and females only acquire wings for their Nuptial flight, after which the males perish, and the few females which escape the pursuit of their numerous enemies divest themselves of their wings, and either return to established nests, or become the foundresses of new colonies. The neuters perform all the labours of the ant-hill or abode of the community; they excavate the galleries, procure food, and feed the larvae or young ants, which are destitute of organs of motion. In fine weather they carefully convey them to the surface for the benefit of the sun's heat, and as attentively carry them to a place of safety either when bad weather is threatened or the ant-hill is disturbed. In like manner they watch over the safety of the nymphs or pupae about to acquire their perfect growth. Some communities possess a special type of neuters, known as 'soldiers,' from the duties that specially fall upon them, and from their powerful biting jaws.
There is a very considerable variety in the materials, size, and form of ant-hills, or nests, according to the peculiar nature or instinct of the species. Most of the British ants form nests in woods, fields, or gardens, their abodes being generally in the form of small mounds rising above the surface of the ground and containing numerous galleries and apartments. Some excavate nests in old tree-trunks. One little yellow ant (Myrmica domestica) is common in houses in Britain in some localities. Some ants live on animal food, very quickly picking quite clean the skeleton of any dead animal they may light on. Others live on saccharine matter, being very fond of the sweet substance, called honey-dew, which exudes from the bodies of Aphides, or plant-lice. These they sometimes keep in their nests, and sometimes tend on the plants where they feed; sometimes they even superintend their breeding. By stroking the aphides with their antennae they cause them to emit the sweet fluid, which the ants then greedily sip up. Various other insects are looked after by ants in a similar manner, or are found in their nests. It has been observed that some species, like the European Red Ant (Formica sanguinea), resort to violence to obtain working ants of other species for their own use, plundering the nests of suitable kinds of their larvae and pupae,which they carry off to their own nests to be carefully reared and kept as slaves. Amazon Ants (Polyergus rufescens) often keep between three and five times as many slaves as their own inhabitants in a nest.
In temperate countries male and female ants survive, at most, until autumn, or to the commencement of cool weather, though a very large proportion of them cease to exist long previous to that time. The neuters pass the winter in a state of torpor, and of course require no food. The only time when they require food is during the season of activity, when they have a vast number of young to feed. Some ants of southern Europefeed on grain, and store it up in their nests for use when required. Some species have stings as weapons, others only their powerful mandibles, or an acrid and pungent fluid (formic acid) which they can emit. The name ant is also given to the neuropterous insects otherwise called Termites.
In the 1990's a new species of ant, in appearance the same as any common garden ant, was discovered in Budapest and in 2009 the same species was found in Britain, which has a suicidal attraction to electrical fields - an attraction which overides even the desire to eat. Like American fire-ants, these ants are drawn in vast quantities to electrical switches where they die and can cause failure of the electrical system due to the numbers of ants involved, typically hundreds of thousands. In Texas, fire-ants are a major cause of traffic light failures, being drawn to the switch boxes where they die and short out the circuits. Research Ant
Aphis is a genus of insects (called plant-lice) of the order Hemiptera, the type of the family Aphides. The species are very numerous and destructive. The Aphis rosae lives on the rose; the Aphis fabae on the bean; the Aphis humuli is injurious to the hop, the Aphis granaria to cereals, the Aphis lanigera or woolly aphis equally so to apple-trees. The aphides are furnished with an inflected beak, and feelers longer than the thorax. In the same species some individuals have four erect wings and others are entirely without wings. The feet are of the ambulatory kind, and the abdomen usually ends in two horn-like tubes, from which is ejected the substance called honey-dew, a favourite food of ants. The aphides illustrate parthenogenesis; hermaphrodite forms produced from eggs produce viviparous wingless forms, which again produce others like themselves, and thus multiply during summer, one individual giving rise to millions. Winged sexual forms appear late in autumn, the females of which, being impregnated by the males, produce eggs. Research Aphis
The Briard is a French breed of guard dog, originally developed in the province of Brie during the 12th century to guard herds of sheep against wolves and other predators. With the decline of wolves the Briard was used as a herding dog. The Briard stands about 65 cm tall and has a flowing coat generally black in colour, and unusually the breed has retained the double dew claws on the hindlegs. A loyal breed they are also independent. Research Briard
Carnivorous plants are those which derive nourishment directly from the bodies of insects or other small creatures entrapped by them in various ways. Such plants, of which there are several hundred kinds, mostly belong to the natural orders Sarraceniaceae or Pitcher-plants (genera Sarracenia, Darlingtonia, etc.), Droseraceae (genera Drosera, Dioncea, Aldrovanda, etc.), Lentibulariaceae (genera Pinguicula, Utricularia, etc.), and Nepenthaceae (genusNepenthes).
In all these the apparatus for catching insects consists of a modified leaf or portion of a leaf, and in some the modifications are so curious and the adaptations so perfect that the plant seems almost endowed with intelligence. In the pitcher-plant order the leaf consists of a longer or shorter tube, ventrally winged, and sometimes crowned by a sort of hood. Insects are enticed to the leaves by means of a sugary secretion near the mouth, and sometimes also continued down the edge of the wing, so as to form what has been described as a 'saccharine trail' from near the ground up to the orifice. The tube when not hooded may contain rain, in addition to the secreted juice, but in the hooded forms rain is excluded.
In Nepenthes the sessile leaf-blade is continued as a twining tendril, which bears on its summit a pitcher closed in the younger plants by a hinged lid. The species of Drosera, or Sun-dew, of which some are common in British bogs, have their leaves provided with stalked glands, which exude a clear juice. When an insect alights on any of these glands, those in the neighbourhood bend towards it in order to secure it more effectively. In the allied Dioncea muscipula or Venus's Fly-trap of Carolina, however, the leaf-blade bears on its apex a sort of trap, consisting of two pieces hinged together. These have bristles on their outer ends and a few sensitive hairs on their inner faces, and if any of the hairs or the hinge is touched by an insect the trap closes and secures it. The common Butterwort of Britain (Pinguicula vulgaris) also has leaves which catch insects (and vegetable matters) by means of sensitive glandular hairs; and the Bladderworts (Utricularia) are provided with small submerged ascidia or pitchers. Research Carnivorous Plants
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Research Anthelion
