Desert Arthropods: Life History VariationsIt is difficult for me to recollect a time when I was not fascinated with the very notion of a desert. Walt Disney's film, The Living Desert, which I initially saw when I was 8 years of age, provided me with my first glimpse of this wondrous yet seemingly ho stile environment. The images were hypnotic and captivating. I looked on in amazement at the promenade Cl deux of the male and female scorpions during courtship. Their rhythmic and coordinated movements as they grasped one another made them appear to glide in unis on over the surface of the sand, each individual totally absorbed with its partner. In the next minute the fern ale had suddenly and utterly transformed herself like some Jekyll and Hyde act, into an aggressive predator whose prior gregarious embrace was now a hold of death for the male. The indomitable desert grasshopper mouse, the ever sentient kit fox, the graceful shovel-nosed snake swimming in an endless sea of sand. |
Contents
Embryonic Development | |
Duration of Development | |
Reproduction | |
Individual Case Studies | |
Relationship Between Life History and Behavioral | |
References | |
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activity adaptations adult animals Aphonopelma Aphonopelma hentzi arachnids Araneae associated Baerg beetle behavior Biol biology body burrow cells centipedes Chapman characterized chelicerae Chihuahuan Desert clutch Crawford cycle deposited desert arthropods desert scorpions ecology egg mass embryo embryonic development Engelmann 1970 Entomol Soc Eremobates Eremobatidae evolution exhibit fecundity feeding females Foelix genetic germ band grasshoppers growth rate habitats Hadley hatching Henderson 1999 hentzi host Hymenoptera increase insects instars Johannsen and Butt larvae legs Lewis males marathoni maternal mating maturity membrane mesaensis millipedes mites molt Muma Mygalomorphae myriapods number of eggs nymphal nymphs observed Oecologia offspring oviposition parthenogenesis patterns pedipalps Pepsis period Polis and Sissom populations predators prey prosoma pseudoscorpions Punzo Punzo and Henderson Punzo F region reproductive result Riechert scorpions segments selection sexual significantly solifuges solifugids Solpugida species sperm spiders stage surface tarantula taxa temperature text for further theraphosids Univ Press wasp water loss Weygoldt yolk Zool