When do glow worms glow?



The glow worm is not really a worm at all. It is a firefly in an early stage of development called the larval stage. Most adult fireflies never eat because they did all their eating when they were larvae. They hide during the daytime among the vegetation. After dark, the female climbs up plant stems and the top of her abdomen glows. The light from a larva’s glowing body attracts tiny flies and mosquitoes for the larva to eat.



The Waitomo Caves in New Zealand house a memorable type of glow worm. Tourists entering the Glowworm Grotto in small boats see thousands of lights on the cave ceiling. The glow worms look like stars in a night sky. If you cough or use a camera flash, the lights instantly go off. But wait quietly for a few minutes and they flicker back on, until the cave-ceiling ‘sky’ is again filled with ‘stars’.










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Woodworm, the larvae of the furniture beetle, cause lots of damage to timber both in buildings and in the wild. The damage is evident from the holes they leave behind.




 



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When do bees make honey?



Bees constantly make honey because it serves them as food. So the whole process of making honey is a way of storing up food for the bee colony. The first thing a bee does is visit flowers and drinks the nectar. Then it carries the nectar home in the honey sac. This is a bag like enlargement of the digestive tract just in front of the bee’s stomach. There is a valve that separates this section from the stomach.



The first step in the making of the honey takes place while the nectar is in the bee’s honey sac. The sugars found in the nectar undergo a chemical change. The next step is to remove a large part of the water from the nectar. This is done by evaporation, which takes place because of the heat of the hive, and by ventilation. Honey stored in the honeycombs by honeybees has so much water removed from the original nectar that it will keep almost forever! The honey is put into honeycombs to ripen, and to serve as the future food supply for the colony. Honeys differ in taste and appearance, depending on the source of the nectar.










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Honey is removed from the hive by various methods. It may be squeezed from the comb by presses, or it may be sold in the combs cut from the hive. Most honey, however, is removed from the combs by a machine known as ‘a honey extractor’.




 



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When do dragonflies eat?



Dragonflies are impressive insects with two pairs of powerful clear wings which enable them to catch insects on the wing. They have large eyes for spotting their prey. Dragonfly nymphs live in water and so the adults are usually seen near ponds, rivers and lakes. Some species have a feeding territory which they guard from other dragonflies – their clattering wings can sometimes be heard as they battle. When they mate, most species fly around in tandem before they lay their eggs in the water or among the waterside vegetation. Dragonfly nymphs are active carnivores. They feed on other insects, but can catch tadpoles or even small fish. On the underside of the head is a flap called the mask. This is armed with sharp jaws and fangs. At rest it is folded, but it can shoot out to catch its prey.










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A dragonfly’s eyes are large and five it almost all-around vision. They are sensitive to the slightest movement around them. If you look closely you will be able to see the individual facets of the eye. Each one contains its own lens; together they help form the image seen.




 



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When do caterpillars turn into butterflies?



Young insects develop in two main ways. Butterflies, bees and beetles, go through a process called metamorphosis. This means that their eggs hatch into larvae or caterpillars. Later these become a pupa or chrysalis, within an imago, or an adult insect, develops. The larvae may live in a different habitat from the adult and require different foods.



In species such as grasshoppers and locusts, the young that hatch from eggs look rather like small adults, and are called nymphs. As they grow, the nymphs shed their skins, looking more and more like adults each time.










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The wings of a bee or wasp can beat as many as 250 times per second during flight. The wings of midges can beat as many as 1,000 times per second – which accounts for the high-pitched whine that these tiny insects make.




 



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When do plants eat insects?



Plants growing in bogs and peaty areas often need to supplement their food supply by catching insects. Bog water contains very little nitrogen, but some bog plants can obtain this substance by catching and digesting insects. They are known as insectivorous plants. Other insectivorous plants are covered with sticky tentacles that trap flies. The most remarkable is the Venus flytrap plant. It has two clawed plates that slam together when a fly walks over them and touches a trigger hair. Other insect-eating plants are aquatic, catching tiny crustaceans in bladder-shaped underwater traps. Some of the largest insectivorous plants live in the tropical rainforests.










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Some insects use camouflage to blend into their environment, protecting themselves from predators. 




 



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When do trees lose their leaves?



A tree that loses its leaves in winter is called a deciduous tree. Trees that are about to lose their leaves in the autumn conserve their food supplies by withdrawing all the nutrients from the leaves. Chlorophyll is broken down in the leaves, causing their pigment to change. Eventually all the nutrients are moved from the leaves and they wither, turn brown and eventually fall from the tree.










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Every year a tree grows, it deposits a new layer of cells on the outside of its trunk, beneath the bark. This new layer is called an annual ring. By counting the annual rings it is simple to work out the exact age of a tree.




 



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When does pollination take place?



Pollination is the process of transferring pollen from the stamen to stigma. It is possible for flowers to pollinate themselves, or other flowers on the same plant – this is called self-pollination. It is, however, much better for the health of the species if cross-pollination occurs, i.e. pollen is transferred from one plant to another. The most common method involves insects that are attracted to the flowers for their nectar. Pollen grains stick to the insects’ bodies and are effectively transferred from one plant to another as the insect moves from flower to flower. Other, less attractive types of flower, use wind to transport their pollen.










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The flowers of orchids are highly specialized for pollination by insects. When the insect pushes into the flower to reach the nectar, the pollinia stick onto its head.




 



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When are seeds formed?



Seeds are the main means by which flowering plants reproduce and spread. After the plant has been fertilized the egg cells develop into a seed from which a new plant can develop. The seed contains an embryo from which the new plant will grow. It also contains a food store to nourish the embryo until it has developed roots and leaves. The seed is enclosed in a tough outer coating to protect it from drying out. Many seeds can be carried by the wind. Some even have a fluffy umbrella like the dandelion seed head, which enables them to be carried for very long distances.










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The biggest seed is the coco de mer, a kind of coconut that grows in the Seychelles, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean. The coco de mer seeds weigh 250 kg each.




 



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When do trees stop growing?



The simple answer to this question is that trees never stop growing. Trees are the largest tree of all is the Californian giant redwood which can grow nearly 100 m high and can have a trunk that is 11 metres thick. The oldest-known trees are bristle cone pine trees. They grow in the White Mountains in California, in the USA. Although they are quite small, some of these gnarled trees are more than 4,500 years old.



Environmental factors such as water availability, soil quality, and change in the weather can affect the growth of a tree. Water is pulled up from the roots to the top of the tree by their leaves.










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Bonsai trees are decorative miniature trees that were first developed in Japan. They grown in shallow dishes and the shoots and roots are carefully trimmed to stunt their growth. They can live for hundreds of years.




 



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When did the first plants appear?



Plants are organisms that use light as a source of energy and to produce the food they need in order to live and grow. The Earth’s original atmosphere contained poisonous gases. The lack of oxygen meant that no animals or plants could survive on the Earth. The earliest plants or plant-like bacteria began the process of photosynthesis, which releases oxygen as well as a waste product. This gas gradually built up in the atmosphere as the plant life spread, making it possible for oxygen-dependent animals to evolve.



Coral was formed by bacteria in much the same way as plants. It is made up of a variety of invertebrate marine organisms of a consistency. They live in colonies begun by just one polyp. Each polyp builds a hard skeleton around itself.










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Lichens are a mixture of algae and fungi. Many grow like a mat over rocks or tree trunks, while others look like a small branched plant.




 



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When do amphibians leave the water?



Although frogs and toads can live on land, they have to return to the water to breed. Common frogs can be found in many freshwater habitats. They often show up in garden ponds but are just as happy in lakes, canals and pools. Toads usually prefer wooded ponds and lakes and can sometimes be seen in boggy pools.



Frogs and toads are amphibians, which mean they are equally at home on land and water. Toads, however, generally spend more time away from water than most frogs. Their skin is leathery and watery and they do not lose water so easily on dry land. On land a frog hops to escape danger, whereas a toad will walk. The bodies of some frogs and toads have adapted to survive in very dry conditions, such as in deserts.










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A frog’s eyes are on top of its head so it can see above the water’s surface. This way he can keep a watch out for predators.




 



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When do animals become extinct?



According to the theory of evolution, some animal species become extinct because they are less successful than other species that gradually replace them.



These so-called ‘failed’ animals are also unable to adapt to changing circumstances. Humans have speeded up their extinction by changing the environment so rapidly that animals do not have the time to adapt. For example, the destruction of Indonesian rainforests has left nowhere for the orang-utan to live. It would take millions of years for the animal to evolve into a ground-living creature. Hunting is the main reason for the reduced numbers and probable extinction of animals such as the tiger, the blue whale, and the giant panda.










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The black rhino has been reduced down to about 2,250 due to poaching. Most of the ones that survive today live in protected game parks.




 



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When does a cygnet become a swan?



Young swans, or cygnets, are hatched with a complete covering of down and can take to the water as soon as they leave the nest, within 24 to 48 hours. Right from the beginning they can forage for themselves, but at least one parent remains with them, guarding, guiding and, initially, brooding them at night. The dark downy plumage is retained for two to six weeks and it then replaced gradually by the juvenile feathers. The flight feathers are the last to develop, taking from five weeks to as many months. By the age of six months the cygnets are practically indistinguishable from adults in plumage and in size.










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In captivity geese and swans have been known to live for more than 30 years; there are reports of geese exceeding 40 years of age. With luck and cunning a wild swan may survive for 15 to 20 years.




 



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When do birds migrate?



Migration is the mass movement of groups of animals or birds. It is caused by the need to find food, by climatic changes during the year, and by the need to breed. Every autumn, for example, swallows gather in large flocks to rest before they begin their long migration to Africa. Swallows, and their relatives, swifts and martins, all migrate to Africa when the weather becomes too cold for them to catch their insect prey. They return in the spring when the weather in northern Europe begins to warm up. The Arctic tern makes the longest-known migration of any bird we know, by travelling from the Arctic to the Antarctic and then back again. On its flight it passes through Japan, Alaska, Canada and Fiji before returning home again to breed.










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Many fish migrate in both fresh water and the ocean. Tuna make some of the longest migrations. The need to migrate is due to sea temperature, as fish need the correct temperature in order to breed.




 



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When an animal is termed a vertebrate?



An animal is classed as a vertebrate when it has a backbone to provide support for the muscles and protection for the spinal cord. Vertebrates include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The backbone is actually a series of small bones called vertebrate. They are joined together and locked with rope-like ligaments to provide a flexible but extremely strong anchor for the back muscles. The spinal cord runs down a channel inside the vertebrate, providing protection from damage. Some primitive fish, such as sharks and rays, have a spine made of a rough rubbery material called cartilage. There are approximately 45,000 living species of vertebrates. In size, they range from minute fishes to elephants and whales (of up to 100 tons), the largest animals ever to have existed. They are adapted to life underground, on the surface, and in the air.










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The duck-billed platypus is a very unusual, small, semi aquatic mammal. It lives in lakes and streams of eastern Australia and Tasmania. It is notable in having abroad, flat, rubbery snout, webbed feet, and in that it lays eggs.




 



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