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Glossary
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285 In this book I have tried to keep technical terms to a minimum. The use of some specialized terms, however, has been unavoidable. These have been defined in the text, but I have also assembled them here for easy reference. abdomen: Rear section of the body, containing the reproductive organs. adult: The fourth and final stage in the life cycle of butterflies and skippers. Adults are winged and are the reproductive stage. aestivation: A period of summer dormancy. See also: dormancy. antenna (plural: antennae): Long, thin sensory organs attached to the head. antenna club: Enlarged tip of the antenna; usually egg-shaped in butterflies and hooked in skippers. apex: The highest point along the curvature of the forewing, near the wingtip. Some skippers have spots in this area. band: A wide stripe of color on the wings. barren: A natural community that is an extremely dry habitat, characterized by sparse vegetation with very few trees. Barrens occur on several types of substrate, including sand, gravel, and bedrock. See also: glade. basking: To increase their body’s temperature, butterflies and skippers place their bodies directly in the path of the sun’s warming rays. To expose the body, butterflies and skippers hold their wings at certain angles: butterflies often hold their wings flat; grass skippers hold them at “jet” angles. bog: A wetland habitat, specifically a water-filled depression with a mat of vegetation floating on its surface. Bogs are acidic, nutrient-poor habitats, with no seepage or run-off—all water is obtained through direct precipitation . What are called bogs here in Indiana are technically not true bogs because they obtain some of their moisture from groundwater. However, they produce environmental conditions close enough to a true bog to support typical bog plants, such as Leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata), Roundleaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), and Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). carnivorous: An animal whose primary food is animal tissue, or meat. carrion: A dead and decaying animal, or parts of such. For example, roadkills. caterpillar: see larva. chrysalis (plural: chrysalises): The third stage in the life cycle of butterflies and skippers. The transformation from a larva to a butterfly is completed during the chrysalis (sometimes called pupa or “pupal”) stage. costal fold: A pouch of scent scales on the forewing of some male spread-wing skippers. coxa: The first segment of the leg; attaches the leg to the body. cuticle: The tough outer layer of the skin of an insect. deciduous: Trees that drop their leaves at the end of the growing season. diapause: Hibernation of butterflies is facilitated by diapause. Diapause is a multi-step process of arrested development indirectly induced by environGlossary Q 284-325 Glossary Biblio Index.indd 285 8/7/12 2:46 PM mental conditions. Before cold weather arrives, critical stimuli—usually decreasing daylight, but sometimes temperature—trigger the release of hormones which control the physiological changes characteristic of diapause. Diapause is usually genetically encoded into the life cycle of a species, so only one stage of the life cycle is sensitive to the environmental conditions that trigger its onset. Thus each species is programmed to diapause at the same stage year after year. Many butterflies diapause as half-grown larvae, others as chrysalides, some as eggs, and a few as adults. disc flowers: In asters, the tiny, tubular flowers which form the central disc. See also: ray flowers. dormancy: A recurring time during a plant or animal’s life when growth, development , and reproduction are suppressed; depending on the season in which dormancy occurs, a different name is used. See also: aestivation and hibernation. dung: Animal droppings, feces, manure, poop, or scat. egg: The first stage in the life cycle of butterflies and skippers. Eggs are deposited by females on or near plants that will be eaten by the second stage of the life cycle, the larva, after it emerges from the egg. exotic: A plant not native to Indiana. Most butterflies do not use exotic plants for larval hosts, relying strictly on native plants. eye: Sight organ, attached to the head. Butterflies have compound eyes, composed of many tiny optical units, or ommatidia. eyespot: Circular pattern on the wing that rsembles a bird or mammal eye. femur: The thigh, or third segment of the insect leg; one end attaches to the trochanter, the other provides an attachment point for the tibia. fen: A wetland habitat, specifically a type of seep spring community whose groundwater spreading and diffusing at the surface is alkaline, or high in...