The 9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion, also known as Pindall's Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion, was a unit that served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.  The battalion was formed in late 1862, in compliance with an earlier authorization by the Confederate States Congress for each brigade to have an associated battalion of sharpshooters.  When first formed, the men had no unique qualifications to serve as sharpshooters and were drawn from a defunct artillery battery, a partisan rangers unit, and infantrymen.  The unit's first major battle was the Battle of Prairie Grove in December 1862.

The first half of 1863 saw the battalion serving at various points in Arkansas.  When a Confederate force attacked the Federal-held city of Helena, Arkansas, on July 4, in the Battle of Helena, the 9th Missouri Sharpshooters saw action.  The unit was present in the Little Rock area during the Little Rock campaign later in the year, but saw no action.  In March 1864, it moved into Louisiana to oppose the Red River campaign, during which it fought at the Battle of Pleasant Hill in early April.  After Pleasant Hill, the battalion returned to Arkansas and was engaged at the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry on April 30.  The 9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion spent the rest of the war at various points in Louisiana and Arkansas before the Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Theater surrendered on May 26, 1865. The steamboat carrying the unit back to Missouri sank in the Red River of the South, killing at least 12 men of the battalion.

Background and formation
At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, the state of Missouri was politically divided.  The Governor of Missouri, Claiborne Fox Jackson supported secession and the Confederate States of America, and created the pro-secession Missouri State Guard.  Opposing the secessionists were troops from the Federal army.  In July, the anti-secession elements of the Missouri legislature voted to remain in the United States, while in November, Jackson and the pro-secession legislators voted to join the Confederacy. The resulting Confederate government of Missouri functioned as a government-in-exile.  Pro-secession and Confederate forces won several battles, but by the end of 1861, were restricted to the southwestern portion of the state.  In March of the following year, a Federal victory over Confederate and Missouri State Guard forces at the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas resulted in the Federals gaining control of Missouri.

On April 21, 1862, the Confederate States Congress authorized each brigade of infantry to be assigned a battalion of sharpshooters.  Per law, these battalions were to be armed with long-range rifles and were to consist of three to six companies.  On November 25, Major General Thomas C. Hindman ordered his subordinate division commanders to form the sharpshooter battalions if practical.  One of Hindman's division commanders, Brigadier General Mosby Monroe Parsons, had two weeks earlier formed a sharpshooter company to serve with a brigade of Missouri troops.  Two more sharpshooter companies were formed on November 29, and the three were consolidated together into a battalion commanded by Major Lebbeus A. Pindall, at a camp near Fort Smith, Arkansas.  According to historian James McGhee, the men assigned to the sharpshooter unit do not appear to have been exceptional marksmen or to have been otherwise uniquely qualified to serve as sharpshooters.  The first of the three companies was drawn from a defunct artillery battery (Foster's Battery) and a partisan ranger unit (Lawther's Partisan Ranger Regiment), while the others were pulled from infantry units.

Service history

Prairie Grove

After forming, the battalion moved north as part of a brigade commanded by Parsons, as Brigadier General Daniel M. Frost was now in divisional command.  On December 6, Parsons' brigade (including Pindall's battalion), along with some Arkansas cavalry, advanced to Reed's Mountain. This position controlled the Cane Hill road.  The Arkansans were initially unable to drive a small force of Federal cavalry off the mountain, so Parsons was asked to support them. He sent Pindall's battalion into the fray.  Not long before sundown, the Federal forces withdrew off of the mountain.

On December 7, in the Battle of Prairie Grove, Parsons' brigade was held in reserve to guard against a Federal flank attack for the first part of the battle.  In the afternoon, Parsons' brigade moved to the front, but Hindman ordered Pindall's battalion to remain in the rear near a church with Tilden's Missouri Battery.  At this time, the battalion was about 130 men strong.  It remained in the rear for about an hour, but was ordered forward when Parsons requested support for his right flank.  Parsons ordered an attack, which had some success.  Shortly before sunset, Parsons ordered another attack, but it was repulsed.  No surviving official report by Pindall about the unit's actions during the battle is known to exist. The unit suffered three casualties during the fighting, all wounded.

Pindall's battalion then served in front of the brigade line as a screen until the Confederates withdrew at around midnight.  Hindman's army initially fell back to Van Buren, where it remained for about three weeks before retreating to Little Rock.  Pindall's battalion was stationed at Little Rock until May 1863, when it moved to a camp along the White River, upriver from Jacksonport.  On June 7, the battalion was strengthened when a company from the 2nd Northeast Missouri Cavalry Regiment was integrated into the unit.

Helena and Little Rock
Confederate Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes led an offensive against the Federal-held city of Helena, Arkansas, with hopes of relieving some of the pressure on Vicksburg, Mississippi.  In late June, Pindall's battalion began moving towards Helena, and arrived in the area on July 3, 1863.  When the Confederates attacked in the Battle of Helena the next day, the battalion was aligned in front of Parsons' brigade.  Along with a unit of Arkansas troops from the local area, Pindall's battalion drove in the Federal skirmish line, and the Missouri sharpshooters then opened fire on the Federal soldiers manning artillery pieces in a defensive work known as Battery C atop Graveyard Hill.

Two Confederate attacks against Graveyard Hill failed, but the third captured Battery C.  The first Confederate soldier to enter Battery C may have been an officer from Pindall's battalion.  However, the Confederates who had taken Graveyard Hill were unsupported.  A continued attack towards Helena was repulsed, and the Confederates on Graveyard Hill came under concentrated Federal fire and were forced to retreat.  According to historian Ed Bearss, Pindall's battalion suffered 43 casualties; historian James E. McGhee states that the battalion's losses at Helena were instead 39 men. It was only 190 men strong on July 5. After Helena, the unit withdrew with the Confederate army to Des Arc and then back to Little Rock. In August, Parsons, without authority, sought to transfer men from a cavalry unit to an artillery battery.  When the cavalrymen and their officers were not willing to switch branches of service, Parsons' brigade inspector used Pindall's battalion and part of the 10th Missouri Infantry Regiment to force the transfer. In August, Federal forces from Helena advanced towards Little Rock in the Little Rock campaign.  Pindall's battalion joined other Confederate infantry in building fortifications across the Arkansas River from the city, but Federal cavalry crossed the river further downstream, avoiding the defenses.  While Confederate cavalry fought Federal forces in the Battle of Bayou Fourche on September 10, the rest of the Confederate troops abandoned Little Rock.  Pindall's battalion saw no fighting in the campaign.

Pleasant Hill and Jenkins' Ferry

Pindall's battalion withdrew with the rest of the Confederate army into southwestern Arkansas, and spent the winter of 1863–1864 at Camden and Spring Hill.  In March 1864, Federal forces led by Major General Nathaniel P. Banks began the Red River Campaign, a push up the Red River of the South towards Shreveport, Louisiana.  The campaign was politically and economically motivated, hoping to establish Abraham Lincoln's 1863 plan for political reconstruction in Louisiana, prevent collaboration between Confederate forces and the Second French intervention in Mexico, and acquire cotton to send back to Federal textile mills.  Parsons' brigade, including Pindall's battalion, was transferred to northwestern Louisiana in March to reinforce Confederate forces opposing Banks' campaign.  While encamped south of Shreveport in late March, Parsons was elevated to division command, and Pindall's battalion became part of a brigade commanded by Colonel Simon P. Burns. McGhee believes that this time frame was when Pindall's battalion was formally designated the 9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion.

Parsons' division began moving towards the front lines on April 5, but did not arrive until four days later, too late to participate in the Confederate victory at the Battle of Mansfield.  After their arrival in the afternoon of April 9, Parsons' division formed on the right of the Confederate line as part of the deployments for the Battle of Pleasant Hill.  Parsons' men attacked with initial success, defeating a Federal brigade, but were then counterattacked in the flank by additional Federal troops.  The 9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion was caught in the resulting melee that ended with Parsons' men being driven to the rear.  The collapse of Parsons' division prevented a Confederate success like the one the day before at Mansfield.  Pindall's unit lost 2 killed and 8 wounded in the fighting at Pleasant Hill.

On March 23, Federal forces commanded by Major General Frederick Steele had left Little Rock with the intention of moving south towards Shreveport to join Banks' campaign. Steele's offensive has become known as the Camden Expedition.  With insufficient quantities of food and forage, Steele decided to instead move towards Camden on April 12, which the Federal forces occupied three days later.  As Banks' campaign had been defeated, Confederate General E. Kirby Smith decided to take Parsons' and two other divisions into Arkansas to attack Steele, with the march beginning on April 14.  Confederate troops defeated elements of Steele's army at the Battle of Poison Spring (April 18) and the Battle of Marks' Mills (April 25), and having learned of Banks' defeat, Steele ordered a retreat from Camden on April 26.  Smith's Confederates pursued.

During the pursuit, heavy rains began, and the ground turned muddy and swampy.  The Confederates caught up to Steele on April 30, and attacked in the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry.  The terrain was waterlogged and allowed for only a portion of the Confederate force to be engaged at one time.  Burns' brigade went to the Confederate right.  Charging, Burns' brigade forced Federal troops back about  before being repulsed by reinforcements.  Parsons' men were eventually ordered to withdraw so that Walker's Greyhounds could enter the fighting. All of the Confederate attacks at Jenkins' Ferry were repulsed, and Steele's army was able to reach Little Rock safely in early May. The 9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion had 1 man killed and 4 wounded; the unit was cited by Burns for "sturdy and unwavering courage".

War's end

Along with the rest of Parsons' division, the battalion spent the rest of the war camped at various points in Arkansas and Louisiana.  On May 1, Smith's force moved to Tulip, Arkansas, where Parsons' division remained until May 12, although the rest of the Confederate force continued south earlier.  The men then continued to the Haynesville, Louisiana, area, before returning to Arkansas.  Parsons' division made a long-term encampment near El Dorado.  When Parsons' men left the camp near El Dorado in August, the division was separated, with Burns' brigade sent to Monticello.  While at Monticello, Burns' brigade skirmished with Federal troops on September 10, which was the unit's last combat experience.

Burns' brigade spent the winter of 1864–1865 at Camden.  Pindall's battalion was strengthened on January 20, 1865, with the addition of two companies that had been recruited during Price's Missouri Expedition in 1864.  That same day, Pindall was promoted to lieutenant colonel; Gabriel S. Kendrick became the unit's major in place of Pindall.  The battalion now consisted of six companies, all of whom consisted of Missouri troops; they were designated with the letters A through F.  Morale among the Confederate troops in the Trans-Mississippi sank in May when news arrived of the surrender of the Confederate forces of Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston to the east.  On May 26, the Confederates in the Trans-Mississippi surrendered as well.  The 9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion journeyed to Shreveport, where the men were paroled on June 7.  The battalion was sent back to Missouri on the steamboat Kentucky; the vessel sank in the Red River during the trip. At least 12 men of the battalion died in the wreck. Besides those who died when Kentucky sank, 17 were killed in action and a further 24 died of various diseases during the time the battalion existed. During the time the battalion existed, about 550 men served in it.

Notes

References

Sources
  Note: ISBN printed in book is 0-89029-516-3.

Sharpshooter units and formations of the American Civil War
Units and formations of the Confederate States Army from Missouri
1862 establishments in Arkansas
1865 disestablishments in Louisiana

9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion


The Saint Louis Billikens are the collegiate athletic teams that represent Saint Louis University, located in St. Louis, Missouri. The Billikens compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference (where they are the westernmost member, and both the first member located west of the Mississippi and in the Central Time Zone). The school has nationally recognized soccer programs for men and women. The school has heavily invested in its on-campus athletic facilities since the 1990s with the creation of Hermann Stadium and Chaifetz Arena. Chris May is the current director of athletics of the St. Louis Billikens.

The Billiken name
An early SLU football coach, John R. Bender, is said to have been the inspiration for the nickname "Billikens," which is still used by the school's athletic teams. During the 1911 season, according to one version of the story, local sportswriters commented that Bender bore an uncanny resemblance to a charm doll called a Billiken, which was a national fad at the time. His squad became known as "Bender's Billikens" and the name stuck.

Sports sponsored

A member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, St. Louis University sponsors teams in eight men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports.

Baseball

In 2006, the Billiken baseball team earned the program's first NCAA tournament berth since 1966 by winning the Atlantic 10 Tournament. SLU's most successful baseball team of all time was the 1965 squad, which qualified for the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the College World Series. Darin Hendrickson has been the head coach since 2008 and guided the Billikens to NCAA Tournament appearances in 2010 and 2013. The team plays at the Billiken Sports Center.

Basketball

Simply known to some as "The Program", the Billikens were ranked first in the first AP basketball poll during the 1948–1949 season.

Ed Macauley of the Basketball Hall of Fame and SLU won the NIT championship in 1948 and have played in the NIT 18 times, most recently in 2004. Larry Hughes of the Chicago Bulls played one season at SLU in the 1997–1998 season, where he was selected as the consensus national Freshman of the Year. They have made the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 1952, 1957, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2019. The Billikens are currently coached by Travis Ford and has a popular celebrity fan base including John Stamos, Ruben Studdard, and Lil' Kim. The Program officially relocated from the Bauman-Eberhardt Center, the third oldest facility in NCAA Division I sports, to Chaifetz Arena on the eastern edge of campus for spring workouts in early April 2008.

Coach Rick Majerus died December 1, 2012.

Soccer

The men's soccer team has won 10 national titles (1959–60, 1962–63, 1965, 1967, 1969–70, 1972–73), the most in NCAA Men's Soccer Championship history. SLU also holds the record for most NCAA Tournament appearances with 44. Several Billikens have gone on to play professionally, including Shane Battelle, Brad Davis, Vedad Ibišević, Brian McBride, Matt McKeon, Al Trost, Dipsy Selolwane, Mike Sorber, Joe Clarke, Bob Madison, Martin Hutton, Jack Jewsbury, Tim Ward, Brett Branan, Will John, and Tim Ream. The soccer team plays at Hermann Stadium on campus. Since 2018, Kevin Kalish has been the head coach. Legion 1818 is the official supporters group for the team.

NCAA Championships
 Men's Soccer: 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1967(co-champion), 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973

Swimming and Diving

Saint Louis University head swimming and diving coach Jim Halliburton was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 5 2018, during a ceremony held at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis. Now in his 18th season at Saint Louis, Halliburton has guided the Billiken men's and women's teams to more than 500 victories. He ranks sixth in career wins among NCAA Division I swim coaches.

Softball

Under head coach Christy Connoyer, the Billikens won their first Atlantic 10 Conference regular season title in 2023. However, the team has yet to win the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament and subsequently has failed to appear in the NCAA Division I softball tournament.

Volleyball

Under head coach Anne Kordes, the women's volleyball team made its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2006, the program's first post-season bid since earning a spot in the 1995 National Invitation Tournament. The Billikens returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2008 and finished the season ranked No. 8 in the RPI and No. 21 in the final Bison/AVCA Coaches Top 25 Poll. Kordes led the Billikens back to the NCAA Tournament in 2009, receiving an at-large bid. The team plays its home games in the Chaifetz Pavilion on the eastern edge of campus.

Football

The university fielded an intercollegiate squad from 1899 to 1949, going undefeated in 1901, 1904 and 1906. The final home game for the Billikens was on November 24, 1949, a 35–0 loss against Houston. Saint Louis finished the 1949 season with a 2–6–1 record. St. Louis competed at the club level during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although the school no longer has a football team, they made a lasting mark on the sport as the 1906 team, coached by Eddie Cochems, threw the first legal forward pass in college football history, Bradbury Robinson to Jack Schneider on September 5, 1906, vs. Carroll College at Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Conferences
SLU has had six conference affiliations since 1937. SLU has been affiliated with the Missouri Valley Conference (1937–1974); the defunct Metro Conference (1975–1982); the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, now known as the Horizon League (1982–1991); the defunct Great Midwest Conference (1991–1995) and Conference USA (which was created by a merger between the Metro and Great Midwest Conferences). SLU joined the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2005.

The Bilikens were a charter member of Conference USA in 1995, but left to join the A10 in 2005. By the time Saint Louis left C-USA, it was one of four members of the conference without football programs. The other three also left C-USA in 2005. Charlotte, which joined the A10 at alongside SLU, returned to C-USA in 2013, the same year it launched a football program (becoming the only one of the four schools that now plays football). DePaul and Marquette both left for the Big East Conference, and in 2013 became two of the "Catholic 7" that formed the core of the reconfigured Big East Conference.

Club sports

Ice hockey

SLU fields an American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division II Men's Ice Hockey team in the Mid-American Collegiate Hockey Association (MACHA). The team plays home games at the Webster Groves Ice Arena Webster Groves, MO. Up until the 2006 season, SLU Hockey and Saint Louis University were working together to build an arena that would not only house the SLU Hockey team, but local youth organizations and campus uses. Ultimately, plans fell through and the team continues to call Webster Groves Ice Rink their home rink.

In 2011, the Billikens captured their first MACHA Gold Championship and advanced to the Central Region Qualifier before falling two games short of a National Championship birth.

In 2013, SLU Hockey hosted the ACHA Men's Division II National Championships at the Hardee's Iceplex in Chesterfield, MO. 16 teams from around the United States competed for the right to claim the National Championship. SLU Hockey went 1-2 in pool play and failed to advance and Michigan State University would claim the National Championship. The tournament also featured a St. Louis Blues Alumni vs. ACHA Division II All-Stars game to raise money for local charities around the St. Louis area.

In 2013, rumors of a new hockey rink being built on or near SLU campus began to surface that would finally bring the SLU Hockey team and youth hockey back to the city of St. Louis. This new facility would act both as the St. Louis Blues (NHL) Official Practice Facility and home for SLU Hockey. Meeting between former SLU President Lawrence Biondi and Blues executive Bruce Affleck were rumored to have taken place and locations scouted for a possible rink.

Saint Louis University once fielded an NCAA Division I hockey program that played in the CCHA from the 1970–1971 season until the program ended in 1979. The team was a strong team in the CCHA and over the nine seasons of play SLU made the championship six times.

The current club hockey team began play during the 1996–1997 season as a member of ACHA Division I.

Lacrosse
Saint Louis University (SLU) Men's Lacrosse team competes in the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) Division II and the Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference (GRLC). The program was founded in 1992. SLU has previously placed players on the All-American, 1st Team, 2nd Team, 3rd Team All-Conference, Honorable Mention Lists and the MCLA Scholar Athletes. The team is compiled mostly from students, who have played in elite Jesuit & Catholic high school programs across the country. Each individual brings their own unique skills, talents, and tricks. SLU Lax is known to play games commonly on the SLU Medical Center Stadium. Every year SLU competes against big Missouri schools such as Lindenwood University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Missouri State University just to name a few.

Coaching history
 2009 – Matt Gardiner, currently the Commissioner for the GRLC
 2010 – Ron Kelam
 2011 – Michael Van
 2012–present – Jimmy Greene

References

External links

Saint Louis Billikens


Guan De (; 12 July 1932 – 9 January 2018) was a Chinese aeroelasticity engineer and aircraft designer. He participated in the design and development of the Shenyang JJ-1 jet trainer and the Shenyang J-8 and J8-II interceptors. He served as Chief Engineer and Vice President of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and professor of Beihang University. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Biography
Guan was born 12 July 1932 in Beiping (now Beijing), Republic of China. His father, Yin Fengming (尹凤鸣), was educated in Japan, taught at the Baoding Military Academy, and held the rank of major general. Because of Japanese invasion of China, Guan did not go to school and was educated at home until the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945. After the war, he entered Beijing No. 5 High School and then the Department of Aeronautics of Tsinghua University.

After graduating from Tsinghua in 1952, he was assigned to work at the Bureau of Aviation Industry under the Second Ministry of Machine Building. In August 1956, Guan was transferred to the newly established Aircraft Design Office of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (then known as the 112 Factory), where he worked under director Xu Shunshou and deputy directors Ye Zhengda and Huang Zhiqian. He was one of the key engineers who designed the Shenyang JJ-1 jet trainer.

Guan De was the first person in China to study aeroelasticity. When the 601 Institute of the Ministry of National Defense was established in 1961, Guan was named the head of its aeroelasticity group. Beginning in 1964, he participated in the design of the Shenyang J-8 interceptor fighter aircraft. He was later promoted to Vice President of the 601 Institute.

In September 1982, Guan was appointed Chief Engineer and Vice President of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation. He was the on-site director of the Shenyang J-8II interceptor, working with chief designer Gu Songfen.

In 1985, Guan was appointed Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. He also taught as an adjunct professor and Ph.D. advisor at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (now Beihang University).

Guan was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1991. He survived the disease after undergoing nephrectomy, but was limited to working no more than six hours a week afterwards. He died on 9 January 2018 in Beijing, at the age of 85.

Awards
In 1978, Guan's research on aeroelasticity won the National Science Congress Award and the State Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Class). He was also awarded a Special Prize of the State Science and Technology Progress Award for his contributions to the development of the Shenyang J-8 and J-8II aircraft. He was elected a founding academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1994.

References

1932 births
2018 deaths
Chinese aircraft designers
Engineers from Beijing
Members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering
Tsinghua University alumni
Academic staff of Beihang University
Civil Aviation Administration of China

Guan De


A regency (Indonesian: kabupaten) is government division of Indonesia. First, the country is divided into provinces. Then, provinces are divided into regencies. The Indonesian word kabupaten is also sometimes translated as "municipality." Regencies and cities are divided into districts (called Kecamatan, or Distrik in Papua).

References

Subdivisions of Indonesia

Regencies of Indonesia


Buchaechum () is a Korean fan dance originating from various traditional and religious Korean dances. It is usually performed by groups of female dancers.

History
Buchaechum was created in 1954 by dancer Kim Baek-bong, who drew influences from both Korean shamanic ritual dances and traditional Joseon court and folk dances. It is said that Baek-bong was inspired by the graceful movements of butterflies and wished to incorporate this beauty into traditional Korean dance.

Koreans embrace Korean heritage and culture through the arts, specifically through dance. The Buchaechum, which can also be referred to as Korean fan dancing, is a traditional, beautiful way to represent Korean culture while embracing minority empowerment, (Lim, 2015). As Buchaechums display beautiful traditional Korean clothing, and colorful Korean fans, at the same time, Buchaechums also represent family, school, and Korean communities being able to come together as well as appreciating minority empowerment.

In 1992, the Korea Dance Association designated Buchaechum as a masterpiece, while in October of 2014, Buchaechum was designated as a cultural asset.

The Korean fan dance may used to have a more traditional setting; there has been an increase in change of the setting, performers, and audience of a traditional Buchaechum, (Kim, Crump, 1993).

Since 2006, the Korean Cultural Center has opened Korean Cultural Centers all over the world. These cultural centers are normally opened in major cities around the world. The events at these cultural centers have brought Buchaechum to many people who might otherwise have never experienced this part of the Korean culture. While many people will also find Buchaechum through the ingestion of other media, such as K-pop and Korean Drama, also known as K-drama, these cultural centers will sometimes hold events that can introduce attendees to other cultural aspects of the Korean people.

Performances
This dance is performed at many celebrations and events in Korea, and has become popular worldwide. Dancers use large fans painted with pink peony blossoms to create various formations that represent images such as birds, flowers, butterflies, dragons and waves. The dancers wear brightly coloured hanbok, the Korean traditional dress.
The outfit itself is considered an essential element in the overall performance. This includes a traditional Korean hanbok that includes the Chima (skirt) and Jeogori (jacket). The accessories includes various hair accessories such as ornamental hairpins or ribbons. There is also the Buchae (fans) that are large and colorful which adds an eye-catching dynamic to the overall flow of the dance.
Buchaechum is usually performed with minyo (folk song) or sanjo (instrumental solo) accompaniment, though court and ritual music is often used as well. The dance is known for showcasing the elegant and graceful aspects of classical technique in a format suitable for modern audiences.

Not only does performing Buchaechum show true Korean elegance, it also allows the audience to appreciate Korean culture, especially Korean fan dancing. This allows audiences to visually remember and take in how beautiful and calming the fan dance is, all with remembering sounds of the Korean drums played as well. Buchaechum allows individuals of other countries to celebrate Korean culture, and to celebrate multiculturalism. Not only are Buchaechums performed in Korean culture, but are celebrated in other countries such as Japan and the importance of dance in expressing identity. The Buchaechum shows grace and elegance while helping others understand the importance of being viewed to more of a modern audience. Various countries have been appreciating and understanding the importance of the Buchaechum, much more than in the past.

Outside Korea
It is possible to experience Buchaechum outside of Korea in Asia and globally.

China
According to a Hallyuism blog entry, Buchaechum is also popular in China. It is sometimes performed as a part of other spring celebrations as the movement "represents the blooming of flowers."

Japan
In Japan, many Korean cultural events took place to show their respect and allow Korean arts to stand out to others. In Japan, special events such as fairs or Korean festivals were created to help express diversity not only within the Asian community, but specifically the Korean culture. Buchaechums were one of many Korean events which took place in public areas, such as parks, schools, or community recreation centers. Participants in the Korean fan dance, which included mainly girls, hold bright colored fans as they dance to drums being played in the background.  Japanese schools helped create these events to show more appreciation of traditional Korean arts. While the country of Japan housed many Korean students, schools in Japan acknowledged the lack of funding in the Korean community education system. Japanese schools also did this to show how Japanese educators who may not respect or acknowledge Korean culture appreciate Korean dance more, especially when a lot of their students participate in the Buchaechum, (Lim, 2015). The performance of the Buchaechum of Koreans living in Japan helps Korean students' parents also realize the importance of their own culture. Korean adults who have lived in Japan with children may lose touch of their Korean culture, as they adapted to Japanese culture and customs.

Beyond Asia
Since the beginning of Hallyu or the Korean Wave, Buchaechum has gained in both recognition and popularity outside of Asia. Buchaechum is often showcased as part of Korean cultural performances at international events, festivals, and cultural exchanges. Korean embassies, cultural centers, and performing arts groups frequently present Buchaechum in various countries to promote Korean culture and foster cultural understanding.
The dance's captivating beauty, graceful movements, and vibrant costumes have resonated with audiences worldwide, leading to its popularity in countries with diverse cultural backgrounds. Buchaechum's inclusion in international cultural festivals and events has helped to raise awareness of this traditional Korean dance and its significance in Korean heritage. In cities and towns with a large presence of Korean immigrants, Buchaechum may be seen at yearly celebrations which may take place at a local church, temple, or cultural center. Not being tied to a specific religious tradition, the dance can be seen in many places as it is more of an expression of the Korean people.

Moreover, the accessibility of digital and social media platforms has enabled the wider dissemination of Buchaechum performances, allowing people from different parts of the world to experience and appreciate the art form. This is normally through wide-reaching platforms such as YouTube.

While Buchaechum's popularity might not be as pervasive as modern K-pop music or Korean dramas, its presence in the global cultural scene continues to grow, contributing to the appreciation and understanding of Korean traditional arts beyond Korea's borders. Some areas it could be experienced include cultural festivals, mixed celebrations and events, multicultural events that include Asian cultures, Korean-specific cultural showcases, along with religious and non-religious gatherings.

See also

Korean dance
Korean culture
Korean fighting fan

References

Korean dance
Group dances

Buchaechum


The Master is a fictional vampire that appears in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spin-off Angel. He was played by Mark Metcalf and is the first Big Bad of the Buffy series.

Fictional biography
The Master is an elderly vampire who has been the head of a Hellmouth underneath Sunnydale High School. He killed Buffy but she was resurrected by Angel. Buffy later killed him, ending the Order of Arelius.

Reception
The Master was seen as a good Big Bad for the show.

Angel (TV series) characters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
Buffyverse vampires
Fictional characters introduced in 1997

Master (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)


The phon is a logarithmic unit of loudness level for tones and complex sounds. Loudness is measured in  sones, a linear unit. Human sensitivity to sound is variable across different frequencies; therefore, although two different tones may present an identical sound pressure to a human ear, they may be psychoacoustically perceived as differing in loudness. The purpose of the phon is to provide a logarithmic measurement (like decibels) for perceived sound magnitude, while the primary loudness standard methods result in a linear representation. A sound with a loudness of 1 sone is judged equally loud as a 1 kHz tone with a sound pressure level of 40 decibels above 20 micropascal. The phon is psychophysically matched to a reference frequency of 1 kHz. In other words, the phon matches the sound pressure level (SPL) in decibels of a similarly perceived 1kHz pure tone. For instance, if a sound is perceived to be equal in intensity to a 1kHz tone with an SPL of 50dB, then it has a loudness of 50phons, regardless of its physical properties. The phon was proposed in DIN 45631 and ISO 532 B by Stanley Smith Stevens.

Definition

By definition, the loudness level in phons of a sound is the sound pressure level (in dB SPL) of a 1-kHz pure tone that is judged as having the same loudness. The phon unit is not an SI unit in metrology. It is defined as a unit of loudness level by the American National Standards Institute in the Acoustical Terminology standard ANSI/ASA S1.1-2013. Because the phon is a unit associated with a subjective percept, it is obtained by presenting the considered sound to a group of normal-hearing human listeners and by taking the median of the loudness levels they report.

Such measurements have been performed for known sounds, such as pure tones at different frequencies and levels. The equal-loudness contours are a way of mapping the dB SPL of a pure tone to the perceived loudness level in phons (see loudness for details).

See also
A-weighting

References

Further reading

External links
Explanation with definitions
Correlation between sones und phons − calculator

Hearing
Human-based units of measurement
Units of sound
Acoustics
Sound

Phon


Layer may refer to:

 A layer of archaeological deposits in an excavation
 A layer hen, a hen kept to produce eggs
 Layered clothing, wearing multiple layers of clothing

Fiction
 Layer, a female Maverick Hunter in the Mega Man X series

Science
 Stratum, a layer of rock or soil with similar composition
 Thermocline, a layer of temperature within an area of water

Technology

Computing
 Abstraction layer, a way of hiding the specifications of a function
 OSI model layers
 Internet protocol suite layers
 2D computer graphics#Layers, layers in two-dimensional (2D) computer graphics
 Layers (digital image editing), used in digital image editing to separate different elements of an image

Electronics
 DVD layer, such as in DVD dual layer recording
 Layer (electronics), a single thickness of some material covering a surface

Layer


Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are currently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 20,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. Some speciesincluding honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless beeslive socially in colonies while most species (>90%)including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat beesare solitary.

Bees are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. The most common bees in the Northern Hemisphere are the Halictidae, or sweat bees, but they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies. Bees range in size from tiny stingless bee species, whose workers are less than  long, to Megachile pluto, the largest species of leafcutter bee, whose females can attain a length of .

Bees feed on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for their larvae. Vertebrate predators of bees include primates and birds such as bee-eaters; insect predators include beewolves and dragonflies.

Bee pollination is important both ecologically and commercially, and the decline in wild bees has increased the value of pollination by commercially managed hives of honey bees. The analysis of 353 wild bee and hoverfly species across Britain from 1980 to 2013 found the insects have been lost from a quarter of the places they inhabited in 1980.

Human beekeeping or apiculture (meliponiculture for stingless bees) has been practised for millennia, since at least the times of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. Bees have appeared in mythology and folklore, through all phases of art and literature from ancient times to the present day, although primarily focused in the Northern Hemisphere where beekeeping is far more common. In Mesoamerica, the Mayans have practiced large-scale intensive meliponiculture since pre-Columbian times.

Evolution
The immediate ancestors of bees were stinging wasps in the family Crabronidae, which were predators of other insects. The switch from insect prey to pollen may have resulted from the consumption of prey insects which were flower visitors and were partially covered with pollen when they were fed to the wasp larvae. This same evolutionary scenario may have occurred within the vespoid wasps, where the pollen wasps evolved from predatory ancestors.

Based on phylogenetic analysis, bees are thought to have originated during the Early Cretaceous (about 124 million years ago) on the supercontinent of West Gondwana, just prior to its breakup into South America and Africa. The supercontinent is thought to have been a largely xeric environment at this time; modern bee diversity hotspots are also in xeric and seasonal temperate environments, suggesting strong niche conservatism among bees ever since their origins.

Genomic analysis indicates that despite only appearing much later in the fossil record, all modern bee families had already diverged from one another by the end of the Cretaceous. The Melittidae, Apidae, and Megachilidae had already evolved on the supercontinent prior to its fragmentation. Further divergences were facilitated by West Gondwana's breakup around 100 million years ago, leading to a deep Africa-South America split within both the Apidae and Megachilidae, the isolation of the Melittidae in Africa, and the origins of the Colletidae, Andrenidae and Halictidae in South America. The rapid radiation of the South American bee families is thought to have followed the concurrent radiation of flowering plants in the same region. Later in the Cretaceous (80 million years ago), colletid bees colonized Australia from South America (with an offshoot lineage evolving into the Stenotritidae), and by the end of the Cretaceous, South American bees had also colonized North America. The North American fossil taxon Cretotrigona belongs to a group that is no longer found in North America, suggesting that many bee lineages went extinct during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.

Following the K-Pg extinction, surviving bee lineages continued to spread into the Northern Hemisphere, colonizing Europe from Africa by the Paleocene, and then spreading east to Asia. This was facilitated by the warming climate around the same time, allowing bees to move to higher latitudes following the spread of tropical and subtropical habitats. By the Eocene (~45 mya) there was already considerable diversity among eusocial bee lineages. A second extinction event among bees is thought to have occurred due to rapid climatic cooling around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, leading to the extinction of some bee lineages such as the tribe Melikertini. Over the Paleogene and Neogene, different bee lineages continued to spread all over the world, and the shifting habitats and connectedness of continents led to the isolation and evolution of many new bee tribes.

Fossils
The oldest non-compression bee fossil is Cretotrigona prisca, a corbiculate bee of Late Cretaceous age (~70 mya) found in New Jersey amber. A fossil from the early Cretaceous (~100 mya), Melittosphex burmensis, was initially considered "an extinct lineage of pollen-collecting Apoidea sister to the modern bees", but subsequent research has rejected the claim that Melittosphex is a bee, or even a member of the superfamily Apoidea to which bees belong, instead treating the lineage as incertae sedis within the Aculeata.

The Allodapini (within the Apidae) appeared around 53 Mya.
The Colletidae appear as fossils only from the late Oligocene (~25 Mya) to early Miocene.
The Melittidae are known from Palaeomacropis eocenicus in the Early Eocene.
The Megachilidae are known from trace fossils (characteristic leaf cuttings) from the Middle Eocene.
The Andrenidae are known from the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, around 34 Mya, of the Florissant shale.
The Halictidae first appear in the Early Eocene with species found in amber. The Stenotritidae are known from fossil brood cells of Pleistocene age.

Coevolution

The earliest animal-pollinated flowers were shallow, cup-shaped blooms pollinated by insects such as beetles, so the syndrome of insect pollination was well established before the first appearance of bees. The novelty is that bees are specialized as pollination agents, with behavioral and physical modifications that specifically enhance pollination, and are the most efficient pollinating insects. In a process of coevolution, flowers developed floral rewards such as nectar and longer tubes, and bees developed longer tongues to extract the nectar. Bees also developed structures known as scopal hairs and pollen baskets to collect and carry pollen. The location and type differ among and between groups of bees. Most species have scopal hairs on their hind legs or on the underside of their abdomens. Some species in the family Apidae have pollen baskets on their hind legs, while very few lack these and instead collect pollen in their crops. The appearance of these structures drove the adaptive radiation of the angiosperms, and, in turn, bees themselves. Bees coevolved not only with flowers but it is believed that some species coevolved with mites. Some provide tufts of hairs called acarinaria that appear to provide lodgings for mites; in return, it is believed that mites eat fungi that attack pollen, so the relationship in this case may be mutualistic.

Phylogeny

External
This phylogenetic tree is based on Debevic et al, 2012, which used molecular phylogeny to demonstrate that the bees (Anthophila) arose from deep within the Crabronidae, which is therefore paraphyletic. The placement of the Heterogynaidae is uncertain. The small subfamily Mellininae was not included in this analysis.

Internal
This cladogram of the bee families is based on Hedtke et al., 2013, which places the former families Dasypodaidae and Meganomiidae as subfamilies inside the Melittidae. English names, where available, are given in parentheses.

Characteristics

Bees differ from closely related groups such as wasps by having branched or plume-like setae (hairs), combs on the forelimbs for cleaning their antennae, small anatomical differences in limb structure, and the venation of the hind wings; and in females, by having the seventh dorsal abdominal plate divided into two half-plates.

Bees have the following characteristics:

 A pair of large compound eyes which cover much of the surface of the head. Between and above these are three small simple eyes (ocelli) which provide information on light intensity.
 The antennae usually have 13 segments in males and 12 in females, and are geniculate, having an elbow joint part way along. They house large numbers of sense organs that can detect touch (mechanoreceptors), smell and taste; and small, hairlike mechanoreceptors that can detect air movement so as to "hear" sounds.
 The mouthparts are adapted for both chewing and sucking by having both a pair of mandibles and a long proboscis for sucking up nectar.
 The thorax has three segments, each with a pair of robust legs, and a pair of membranous wings on the hind two segments. The front legs of corbiculate bees bear combs for cleaning the antennae, and in many species the hind legs bear pollen baskets, flattened sections with incurving hairs to secure the collected pollen. The wings are synchronised in flight, and the somewhat smaller hind wings connect to the forewings by a row of hooks along their margin which connect to a groove in the forewing.
 The abdomen has nine segments, the hindermost three being modified into the sting.

The largest species of bee is thought to be Wallace's giant bee Megachile pluto, whose females can attain a length of . The smallest species may be dwarf stingless bees in the tribe Meliponini whose workers are less than  in length.

Sociality

Haplodiploid breeding system

According to inclusive fitness theory, organisms can gain fitness not just through increasing their own reproductive output, but also that of close relatives. In evolutionary terms, individuals should help relatives when Cost < Relatedness * Benefit. The requirements for eusociality are more easily fulfilled by haplodiploid species such as bees because of their unusual relatedness structure.

In haplodiploid species, females develop from fertilized eggs and males from unfertilized eggs. Because a male is haploid (has only one copy of each gene), his daughters (which are diploid, with two copies of each gene) share 100% of his genes and 50% of their mother's. Therefore, they share 75% of their genes with each other. This mechanism of sex determination gives rise to what W. D. Hamilton termed "supersisters", more closely related to their sisters than they would be to their own offspring. Workers often do not reproduce, but they can pass on more of their genes by helping to raise their sisters (as queens) than they would by having their own offspring (each of which would only have 50% of their genes), assuming they would produce similar numbers. This unusual situation has been proposed as an explanation of the multiple (at least nine) evolutions of eusociality within Hymenoptera.

Haplodiploidy is neither necessary nor sufficient for eusociality. Some eusocial species such as termites are not haplodiploid. Conversely, all bees are haplodiploid but not all are eusocial, and among eusocial species many queens mate with multiple males, creating half-sisters that share only 25% of each other's genes. But, monogamy (queens mating singly) is the ancestral state for all eusocial species so far investigated, so it is likely that haplodiploidy contributed to the evolution of eusociality in bees.

Eusociality

Bees may be solitary or may live in various types of communities. Eusociality appears to have originated from at least three independent origins in halictid bees. The most advanced of these are species with eusocial colonies; these are characterised by cooperative brood care and a division of labour into reproductive and non-reproductive adults, plus overlapping generations. This division of labour creates specialized groups within eusocial societies which are called castes. In some species, groups of cohabiting females may be sisters, and if there is a division of labour within the group, they are considered semisocial. The group is called eusocial if, in addition, the group consists of a mother (the queen) and her daughters (workers). When the castes are purely behavioural alternatives, with no morphological differentiation other than size, the system is considered primitively eusocial, as in many paper wasps; when the castes are morphologically discrete, the system is considered highly eusocial.

True honey bees (genus Apis, of which eight species are currently recognized) are highly eusocial, and are among the best known insects. Their colonies are established by swarms, consisting of a queen and several thousand workers. There are 29 subspecies of one of these species, Apis mellifera, native to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Africanized bees are a hybrid strain of A. mellifera that escaped from experiments involving crossing European and African subspecies; they are extremely defensive.

Stingless bees are also highly eusocial. They practise mass provisioning, with complex nest architecture and perennial colonies also established via swarming.

Many bumblebees are eusocial, similar to the eusocial Vespidae such as hornets in that the queen initiates a nest on her own rather than by swarming. Bumblebee colonies typically have from 50 to 200 bees at peak population, which occurs in mid to late summer. Nest architecture is simple, limited by the size of the pre-existing nest cavity, and colonies rarely last more than a year. In 2011, the International Union for Conservation of Nature set up the Bumblebee Specialist Group to review the threat status of all bumblebee species worldwide using the IUCN Red List criteria.

There are many more species of primitively eusocial than highly eusocial bees, but they have been studied less often. Most are in the family Halictidae, or "sweat bees". Colonies are typically small, with a dozen or fewer workers, on average. Queens and workers differ only in size, if at all. Most species have a single season colony cycle, even in the tropics, and only mated females hibernate. A few species have long active seasons and attain colony sizes in the hundreds, such as Halictus hesperus. Some species are eusocial in parts of their range and solitary in others, or have a mix of eusocial and solitary nests in the same population. The orchid bees (Apidae) include some primitively eusocial species with similar biology. Some allodapine bees (Apidae) form primitively eusocial colonies, with progressive provisioning: a larva's food is supplied gradually as it develops, as is the case in honey bees and some bumblebees.

Solitary and communal bees

Most other bees, including familiar insects such as carpenter bees, leafcutter bees and mason bees are solitary in the sense that every female is fertile, and typically inhabits a nest she constructs herself. There is no division of labor so these nests lack queens and worker bees for these species. Solitary bees typically produce neither honey nor beeswax.
Bees collect pollen to feed their young, and have the necessary adaptations to do this. However, certain wasp species such as pollen wasps have similar behaviours, and a few species of bee scavenge from carcases to feed their offspring. Solitary bees are important pollinators; they gather pollen to provision their nests with food for their brood. Often it is mixed with nectar to form a paste-like consistency. Some solitary bees have advanced types of pollen-carrying structures on their bodies. Very few species of solitary bee are being cultured for commercial pollination. Most of these species belong to a distinct set of genera which are commonly known by their nesting behavior or preferences, namely: carpenter bees, sweat bees, mason bees, plasterer bees, squash bees, dwarf carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, alkali bees and digger bees.

Most solitary bees are fossorial, digging nests in the ground in a variety of soil textures and conditions, while others create nests in hollow reeds or twigs, or holes in wood. The female typically creates a compartment (a "cell") with an egg and some provisions for the resulting larva, then seals it off. A nest may consist of numerous cells. When the nest is in wood, usually the last (those closer to the entrance) contain eggs that will become males. The adult does not provide care for the brood once the egg is laid, and usually dies after making one or more nests. The males typically emerge first and are ready for mating when the females emerge. Solitary bees are very unlikely to sting (only in self-defense, if ever), and some (esp. in the family Andrenidae) are stingless.

While solitary, females each make individual nests. Some species, such as the European mason bee Hoplitis anthocopoides, and the Dawson's Burrowing bee, Amegilla dawsoni, are gregarious, preferring to make nests near others of the same species, and giving the appearance of being social. Large groups of solitary bee nests are called aggregations, to distinguish them from colonies. In some species, multiple females share a common nest, but each makes and provisions her own cells independently. This type of group is called "communal" and is not uncommon. The primary advantage appears to be that a nest entrance is easier to defend from predators and parasites when multiple females use that same entrance regularly.

Biology

Life cycle

The life cycle of a bee, be it a solitary or social species, involves the laying of an egg, the development through several moults of a legless larva, a pupation stage during which the insect undergoes complete metamorphosis, followed by the emergence of a winged adult. The number of eggs laid by a female during her lifetime can vary from eight or less in some solitary bees, to more than a million in highly social species. Most solitary bees and bumble bees in temperate climates overwinter as adults or pupae and emerge in spring when increasing numbers of flowering plants come into bloom. The males usually emerge first and search for females with which to mate. Like the other members of Hymenoptera bees are haplodiploid; the sex of a bee is determined by whether or not the egg is fertilised. After mating, a female stores the sperm, and determines which sex is required at the time each individual egg is laid, fertilised eggs producing female offspring and unfertilised eggs, males. Tropical bees may have several generations in a year and no diapause stage.

The egg is generally oblong, slightly curved and tapering at one end. Solitary bees, lay each egg in a separate cell with a supply of mixed pollen and nectar next to it. This may be rolled into a pellet or placed in a pile and is known as mass provisioning. Social bee species provision progressively, that is, they feed the larva regularly while it grows. The nest varies from a hole in the ground or in wood, in solitary bees, to a substantial structure with wax combs in bumblebees and honey bees.

In most species, larvae are whitish grubs, roughly oval and bluntly-pointed at both ends. They have 15 segments and spiracles in each segment for breathing. They have no legs but move within the cell, helped by tubercles on their sides. They have short horns on the head, jaws for chewing food and an appendage on either side of the mouth tipped with a bristle. There is a gland under the mouth that secretes a viscous liquid which solidifies into the silk they use to produce a cocoon. The cocoon is semi-transparent and the pupa can be seen through it. Over the course of a few days, the larva undergoes metamorphosis into a winged adult. When ready to emerge, the adult splits its skin dorsally and climbs out of the exuviae and breaks out of the cell.

Flight

Antoine Magnan's 1934 book  says that he and André Sainte-Laguë had applied the equations of air resistance to insects and found that their flight could not be explained by fixed-wing calculations, but that "One shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality". This has led to a common misconception that bees "violate aerodynamic theory". In fact it merely confirms that bees do not engage in fixed-wing flight, and that their flight is explained by other mechanics, such as those used by helicopters. In 1996 it was shown that vortices created by many insects' wings helped to provide lift. High-speed cinematography and robotic mock-up of a bee wing showed that lift was generated by "the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency". Wing-beat frequency normally increases as size decreases, but as the bee's wing beat covers such a small arc, it flaps approximately 230 times per second, faster than a fruitfly (200 times per second) which is 80 times smaller.

Navigation, communication, and finding food

The ethologist Karl von Frisch studied navigation in the honey bee. He showed that honey bees communicate by the waggle dance, in which a worker indicates the location of a food source to other workers in the hive. He demonstrated that bees can recognize a desired compass direction in three different ways: by the sun, by the polarization pattern of the blue sky, and by the earth's magnetic field. He showed that the sun is the preferred or main compass; the other mechanisms are used under cloudy skies or inside a dark beehive. Bees navigate using spatial memory with a "rich, map-like organization".

Digestion
The gut of bees is relatively simple, but multiple metabolic strategies exist in the gut microbiota. Pollinating bees consume nectar and pollen, which require different digestion strategies by somewhat specialized bacteria. While nectar is a liquid of mostly monosaccharide sugars and so easily absorbed, pollen contains complex polysaccharides: branching pectin and hemicellulose. Approximately five groups of bacteria are involved in digestion. Three groups specialize in simple sugars (Snodgrassella and two groups of Lactobacillus), and two other groups in complex sugars (Gilliamella and Bifidobacterium). Digestion of pectin and hemicellulose is dominated by bacterial clades Gilliamella and Bifidobacterium respectively. Bacteria that cannot digest polysaccharides obtain enzymes from their neighbors, and bacteria that lack certain amino acids do the same, creating multiple ecological niches.

Although most bee species are nectarivorous and palynivorous, some are not. Particularly unusual are vulture bees in the genus Trigona, which consume carrion and wasp brood, turning meat into a honey-like substance.

Ecology

Floral relationships

Most bees are polylectic (generalist) meaning they collect pollen from a range of flowering plants, but some are oligoleges (specialists), in that they only gather pollen from one or a few species or genera of closely related plants. In Melittidae and Apidae we also find a few genera that are highly specialized for collecting plant oils both in addition to, and instead of, nectar, which is mixed with pollen as larval food. Male orchid bees in some species gather aromatic compounds from orchids, which is one of the few cases where male bees are effective pollinators. Bees are able to sense the presence of desirable flowers through ultraviolet patterning on flowers, floral odors, and even electromagnetic fields. Once landed, a bee then uses nectar quality and pollen taste to determine whether to continue visiting similar flowers.

In rare cases, a plant species may only be effectively pollinated by a single bee species, and some plants are endangered at least in part because their pollinator is also threatened. But, there is a pronounced tendency for oligolectic bees to be associated with common, widespread plants visited by multiple pollinator species. For example, the creosote bush in the arid parts of the United States southwest is associated with some 40 oligoleges.

As mimics and models

Many bees are aposematically coloured, typically orange and black, warning of their ability to defend themselves with a powerful sting. As such they are models for Batesian mimicry by non-stinging insects such as bee-flies, robber flies and hoverflies, all of which gain a measure of protection by superficially looking and behaving like bees.

Bees are themselves Müllerian mimics of other aposematic insects with the same colour scheme, including wasps, lycid and other beetles, and many butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) which are themselves distasteful, often through acquiring bitter and poisonous chemicals from their plant food. All the Müllerian mimics, including bees, benefit from the reduced risk of predation that results from their easily recognised warning coloration.

Bees are also mimicked by plants such as the bee orchid which imitates both the appearance and the scent of a female bee; male bees attempt to mate (pseudocopulation) with the furry lip of the flower, thus pollinating it.

As brood parasites

Brood parasites occur in several bee families including the apid subfamily Nomadinae. Females of these species lack pollen collecting structures (the scopa) and do not construct their own nests. They typically enter the nests of pollen collecting species, and lay their eggs in cells provisioned by the host bee. When the "cuckoo" bee larva hatches, it consumes the host larva's pollen ball, and often the host egg also. In particular, the Arctic bee species, Bombus hyperboreus is an aggressive species that attacks and enslaves other bees of the same subgenus. However, unlike many other bee brood parasites, they have pollen baskets and often collect pollen.

In Southern Africa, hives of African honeybees (A. mellifera scutellata) are being destroyed by parasitic workers of the Cape honeybee, A. m. capensis. These lay diploid eggs ("thelytoky"), escaping normal worker policing, leading to the colony's destruction; the parasites can then move to other hives.

The cuckoo bees in the Bombus subgenus Psithyrus are closely related to, and resemble, their hosts in looks and size. This common pattern gave rise to the ecological principle "Emery's rule". Others parasitize bees in different families, like Townsendiella, a nomadine apid, two species of which are cleptoparasites of the dasypodaid genus Hesperapis, while the other species in the same genus attacks halictid bees.

Nocturnal bees
Four bee families (Andrenidae, Colletidae, Halictidae, and Apidae) contain some species that are crepuscular. Most are tropical or subtropical, but some live in arid regions at higher latitudes. These bees have greatly enlarged ocelli, which are extremely sensitive to light and dark, though incapable of forming images. Some have refracting superposition compound eyes: these combine the output of many elements of their compound eyes to provide enough light for each retinal photoreceptor. Their ability to fly by night enables them to avoid many predators, and to exploit flowers that produce nectar only or also at night.

Predators, parasites and pathogens

Vertebrate predators of bees include bee-eaters, shrikes and flycatchers, which make short sallies to catch insects in flight. Swifts and swallows fly almost continually, catching insects as they go. The honey buzzard attacks bees' nests and eats the larvae. The greater honeyguide interacts with humans by guiding them to the nests of wild bees. The humans break open the nests and take the honey and the bird feeds on the larvae and the wax. Among mammals, predators such as the badger dig up bumblebee nests and eat both the larvae and any stored food.

Specialist ambush predators of visitors to flowers include crab spiders, which wait on flowering plants for pollinating insects; predatory bugs, and praying mantises, some of which (the flower mantises of the tropics) wait motionless, aggressive mimics camouflaged as flowers. Beewolves are large wasps that habitually attack bees; the ethologist Niko Tinbergen estimated that a single colony of the beewolf Philanthus triangulum might kill several thousand honeybees in a day: all the prey he observed were honeybees. Other predatory insects that sometimes catch bees include robber flies and dragonflies. Honey bees are affected by parasites including tracheal and Varroa mites. However, some bees are believed to have a mutualistic relationship with mites.

Some mites of genus Tarsonemus are associated with bees. They live in bee nests and ride on adult bees for dispersal. They are presumed to feed on fungi, nest materials or pollen. However, the impact they have on bees remains uncertain.

Symbiosis of Mycelium and Bess

Fungus properties
Recent studies have shown that mycelium provides honey bees and stingless bees with vital nutrients. Specific fungi, such as Zygosaccharomyces sp, Candida sp., and Monascus ruber, produce chemicals that fight against bacteria, fungal infections from different species, and viruses. Recently these types of bees have been observed eating mycelium, suggesting that honey bees have been "foraging mushrooms to collect antimicrobial medicine to boost their collective immunity" (White, K., 2022). Without these vital nutrients, honey bee morbidity rates rise, and the possibility of fungal infections can spike, leading to unhealthy bee hives and honey shortage. Fungal infections can also lead to colony collapse disorder, so the ingestion of mycelium lowers the morbidity rate of honey bees by preventing those fungal infections from happening. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is when worker bees abandon the queen bee and leave behind the brood and a few nurse bees. This however is not enough to sustain a hive as workers are required to construct and maintain the hive structure as well as produce honey. Colony collapse disorder can also happen when varroa mites infiltrate a hive. These mites will attack and eat bees inside a hive, making it impossible for them to continue to reproduce and make honey. The presence of varroa mites results in a decrease in bee population, deformed bees, an inability to reproduce on the bees part, and overall weakening of the colony. Varroa mites are only capable of reproducing inside of a honey bee colony, posing an even greater threat if they are able to infiltrate because it will destroy their home. Mycelium has been shown to germinate inside of varroa mites and grow from the inside out, killing the mites and protecting the bees. The extermination of mites by mycelium is a better alternative to pesticides that have shown to be toxic towards the bee colony. Mycelium also plays a role in boosting anti-inflammatory and antibacterial resistance in bees due to the ecdysteroids and Zygosaccharomyces found in mycelium, which are then fed to larvae, boosting the next generations immunity and improving overall hive health. Zygosaccharomyces are "spoilage yeasts that have an extreme resistance to acids and preservatives" and can "tolerate high concentrations of sugars and salts" (Deak, T., 2004). Honey bees depend on this source of steroids to allow them to develop properly during insect pupation.

Bee broods
The symbiotic relationship between bees and mycelium is found primarily in Brazilian stingless bees and Malaysian stingless bees - or more commonly honey bees. Bee broods are the larvae of honeybees. They can typically be found inside of a bee hive, and in man made hives especially, the honeybees can be found developing at different stages (eggs, larvae, and pupae) inside a hexagonal shape. Bee larvae are incapable of producing steroids at birth, so they ingest mycelium to receive vital nutrients they cannot create on their own such as ecdysteroids and Zygosaccharomyces sp (Paludo, C.R. et al. ). Once the honey bee eggs hatch, a white microbial film starts to grow on the boundary between the brood cell and the larval food supply, and is then ingested by the larvae to complete their development (Paludo, C.R. et al.).

Gut microbiota play an immense role in the health of the entire bee colony. Three studies were recently conducted and each introduced a new organism to the bees gut microbiota. The bees were fed aged pollen, the assembly of the gut microbiota was disturbed, and antibiotic tetracycline entered their diet. All three studies showed that the honey bees' ability to survive decreased drastically and they became more likely to contract parasites and fungal infections (Bonilla-Rosso, G. and Engel, P. (2018). The introduction of certain mycelium to the honey bees gut microbiota has the opposite effect to what took place in these three studies, highlighting the importance of what bees ingest and the impacts it has on their survivability during both the development and adult stages.

Bee-fungus symbiosis
As mentioned above, honey bees cannot produce steroids themselves, they must be ingested through their diet, specifically in the early development process. Larvae eat the fungus and the ecdysteroids and Zygosaccharomyces produced by the mycelium benefit the larvae. Ecdysteroids are naturally occurring steroids found in mycelium and they help enhance performance and reproduction, boosting honey production and keeping the hive population running at a stable rate. "Zygosaccharomyces sp. is essential for S. depilis larvae" ( Paludo, C.R. et al.). These sterols thus have a high impact on the survival rate of honey bees. Their ingestion determines whether the honey bees will be able to protect themselves against fungal infections, viruses, and whether or not they will have sufficient strength to increase honey production and the ability to pollinate a larger area and more frequently. With the research provided on the positive impact of mycelium on bees, the relationship between mycelium and honey bees is symbiotic in that the survival of bees and the mycelium's ability to help boost bee pollination, boosts the ability of the fungi to grow because bee pollination improves air and soil quality, thus boosting plant life. Allowing for a higher survivability rate for both bees and mycelium if they are able to perform their environmental roles properly without the interruption of harmful government approved pesticides. The recent studies done on the symbiotic relationship between mycelium and honey bees will prove to be vital in the argument towards lessening the types of chemicals legally allowed to be sprayed on produce. The use of pesticides on lawns and for other agricultural uses destroy the livelihood of mycelium by killing the soil it grows in, inhibiting bees from ingesting the necessary nutrients mycelium provides to survive.

Potential environmental impact
Pesticides have been diminishing the bee population recently due to a lack of regulations regarding what can and cannot be sprayed on produce to protect it from being damaged while it's being grown. When honey bees collect pollen and nectar for nutrition and to make honey, they are also ingesting harmful chemicals. These chemicals take a toll on the honey bees' already sensitive gut microbiome and lead to a higher morbidity rate in honey bees. "These microbes can suffer with toxic pesticides applied in agriculture, causing dangerous changes in the colony fitness and perturbing bee's health." (Yordanova, M. et al., 2022). Knowledge of how mycelium boosts honey bees immunity could be pivotal to the increase of a honey bee's lifespan and boost reproduction by helping implement new policies to prevent the use of harmful pesticides (Paludo, C.R. et al. ).

Relationship with humans

In mythology and folklore

Homer's Hymn to Hermes describes three bee-maidens with the power of divination and thus speaking truth, and identifies the food of the gods as honey. Sources associated the bee maidens with Apollo and, until the 1980s, scholars followed Gottfried Hermann (1806) in incorrectly identifying the bee-maidens with the Thriae. Honey, according to a Greek myth, was discovered by a nymph called Melissa ("Bee"); and honey was offered to the Greek gods from Mycenean times. Bees were also associated with the Delphic oracle and the prophetess was sometimes called a bee.

The image of a community of honey bees has been used from ancient to modern times, in Aristotle and Plato; in Virgil and Seneca; in Erasmus and Shakespeare; Tolstoy, and by political and social theorists such as Bernard Mandeville and Karl Marx as a model for human society. In English folklore, bees would be told of important events in the household, in a custom known as "Telling the bees".

In art and literature

Some of the oldest examples of bees in art are rock paintings in Spain which have been dated to 15,000 BC.

W. B. Yeats's poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree (1888) contains the couplet "Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, / And live alone in the bee loud glade." At the time he was living in Bedford Park in the West of London. Beatrix Potter's illustrated book The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse (1910) features Babbity Bumble and her brood (pictured). Kit Williams' treasure hunt book The Bee on the Comb (1984) uses bees and beekeeping as part of its story and puzzle. Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees (2004), and the 2009 film starring Dakota Fanning, tells the story of a girl who escapes her abusive home and finds her way to live with a family of beekeepers, the Boatwrights.

The 2007 animated comedy film Bee Movie used Jerry Seinfeld's first script and was his first work for children; he starred as a bee named Barry B. Benson, alongside Renée Zellweger. Critics found its premise awkward and its delivery tame. Dave Goulson's A Sting in the Tale (2014) describes his efforts to save bumblebees in Britain, as well as much about their biology. The playwright Laline Paull's fantasy The Bees (2015) tells the tale of a hive bee named Flora 717 from hatching onwards.

Beekeeping

Humans have kept honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, for millennia. Beekeepers collect honey, beeswax, propolis, pollen, and royal jelly from hives; bees are also kept to pollinate crops and to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers.

Depictions of humans collecting honey from wild bees date to 15,000 years ago; efforts to domesticate them are shown in Egyptian art around 4,500 years ago. Simple hives and smoke were used; jars of honey were found in the tombs of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun. From the 18th century, European understanding of the colonies and biology of bees allowed the construction of the moveable comb hive so that honey could be harvested without destroying the colony. Among Classical Era authors, beekeeping with the use of smoke is described in Aristotle's History of Animals Book 9. The account mentions that bees die after stinging; that workers remove corpses from the hive, and guard it; castes including workers and non-working drones, but "kings" rather than queens; predators including toads and bee-eaters; and the waggle dance, with the "irresistible suggestion" of  ("", it waggles) and  ("", they watch).

Beekeeping is described in detail by Virgil in his Georgics; it is also mentioned in his Aeneid, and in Pliny's Natural History.

As commercial pollinators

Bees play an important role in pollinating flowering plants, and are the major type of pollinator in many ecosystems that contain flowering plants. It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on pollination by insects, birds and bats, most of which is accomplished by bees, whether wild or domesticated. Over the last half century, there has been a general decline in the species richness of wild bees and other pollinators, probably attributable to stress from increased parasites and disease, the use of pesticides, and a general decrease in the number of wild flowers. Climate change probably exacerbates the problem.

Contract pollination has overtaken the role of honey production for beekeepers in many countries. After the introduction of Varroa mites, feral honey bees declined dramatically in the US, though their numbers have since recovered. The number of colonies kept by beekeepers declined slightly, through urbanization, systematic pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and the closure of beekeeping businesses. In 2006 and 2007 the rate of attrition increased, and was described as colony collapse disorder. In 2010 invertebrate iridescent virus and the fungus Nosema ceranae were shown to be in every killed colony, and deadly in combination. Winter losses increased to about 1/3. Varroa mites were thought to be responsible for about half the losses.

Apart from colony collapse disorder, losses outside the US have been attributed to causes including pesticide seed dressings, using neonicotinoids such as clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. From 2013 the European Union restricted some pesticides to stop bee populations from declining further. In 2014 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned that bees faced increased risk of extinction because of global warming. In 2018 the European Union decided to ban field use of all three major neonicotinoids; they remain permitted in veterinary, greenhouse, and vehicle transport usage.

Farmers have focused on alternative solutions to mitigate these problems. By raising native plants, they provide food for native bee pollinators like Lasioglossum vierecki and L. leucozonium, leading to less reliance on honey bee populations.

As food producers
Honey is a natural product produced by bees and stored for their own use, but its sweetness has always appealed to humans. Before domestication of bees was even attempted, humans were raiding their nests for their honey. Smoke was often used to subdue the bees and such activities are depicted in rock paintings in Spain dated to 15,000 BC.

Honey bees are used commercially to produce honey. They also produce some substances used as dietary supplements with possible health benefits, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly, though all of these can also cause allergic reactions.

As food
Bees are considered edible insects. People in some countries eat insects, including the larvae and pupae of bees, mostly stingless species. They also gather larvae, pupae and surrounding cells, known as bee brood, for consumption. In the Indonesian dish botok tawon from Central and East Java, bee larvae are eaten as a companion to rice, after being mixed with shredded coconut, wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed.

Bee brood (pupae and larvae) although low in calcium, has been found to be high in protein and carbohydrate, and a useful source of phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, and trace minerals iron, zinc, copper, and selenium. In addition, while bee brood was high in fat, it contained no fat soluble vitamins (such as A, D, and E) but it was a good source of most of the water-soluble B vitamins including choline as well as vitamin C. The fat was composed mostly of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids with 2.0% being polyunsaturated fatty acids.

As alternative medicine
Apitherapy is a branch of alternative medicine that uses honey bee products, including raw honey, royal jelly, pollen, propolis, beeswax and apitoxin (Bee venom). The claim that apitherapy treats cancer, which some proponents of apitherapy make, remains unsupported by evidence-based medicine.

Stings
The painful stings of bees are mostly associated with the poison gland and the Dufour's gland which are abdominal exocrine glands containing various chemicals. In Lasioglossum leucozonium, the Dufour's Gland mostly contains octadecanolide as well as some eicosanolide. There is also evidence of n-triscosane, n-heptacosane, and 22-docosanolide. However, the secretions of these glands could also be used for nest construction.

See also
 Australian native bees
  Fear of bees (apiphobia)
 Superorganism
 World Bee Day

Explanatory notes

References

External links

 "Apoidea" at All Living Thingsimages, identification guides, and maps of bees
 Bee Genera of the World
 Anthophila (Apoidea) – BeesNorth American species of bees at BugGuide
 Native Bees of North America at BugGuide
 "Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers"Science

Extant Early Cretaceous first appearances

Bee


Rap City is a music video television program block that originally aired on the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network from August 11, 1989, to November 8, 2008. The program was an exclusive showcase for hip hop music videos, and features interviews with and freestyles from popular rappers, and often has guest DJs serve as co-hosts.

History

Conception
The show was created by former BET VJ/producer Alvin Jones, a.k.a. "The Unseen VJ". This was a spin-off of the "Rap Week" segment of Video Vibrations, also hosted by "The Unseen VJ". While its competitor Yo! MTV Raps, which is now discontinued, mainly focused on popular rappers, Rap City also included videos from up-and-coming underground rappers.

In the Spring of 1999, Stephen G. Hill, then-President of Music Programming, took Rap City from its original format, a traveling show that went into the cities of the hottest rappers in the country, to an in studio format. Retitled Rap City: Tha Basement after meeting [at a DJ/Music Convention] DJ & radio personalities The Bassment Brothers: Trouble T & Phil the Thrill, who were doing a show called Friday Night in the Bassment on WKKV fm radio in Milwaukee, WI during this time. Big Tigger, the host chosen for the show, even resembled one of the brothers: Trouble T. So much so that his grandmother reached out to him to congratulate him about the show after mistaking Tigger for her grandson! Hill, Senior Producer Craig Henry and Producer John Tucker were credited with creating the studio format. Henry created a 360° basement set that gave the illusion of a real basement, and Tucker was noted for creating the iconic performance in the bathroom that became "The Booth".

Hosts and timeslots
Among notable previous hosts of the show are Chris Thomas (the first host of the show from 1989–1991). Throughout his run, Thomas was also known as "The Mayor of Rap City", or simply "The Mayor". Other hosts included Hans Dobson aka Prime (1989–1993), Prince DaJour (1991–1994), Joe Clair (1994–1999), Leslie Segar (a.k.a. Big Lez) (1994–1999), Big Tigger (1998–2005), DJ Mad Linx (2005–2006), J-Nicks (2005–2006) and Q-45 (2006–2008).

On September 13, 1999, Stephen G. Hill, BET's President of Music Programming, Senior Producer Craig Henry and Producer John Tucker  a new show to fit a studio format; Rap City was re-titled Rap City: Tha Basement and newly hosted by Big Tigger (a.k.a. Tigger), who succeeded Joe Clair and Big Lez. On August 28, 2000, BET moved the show to 4 p.m. On January 18, 2005, the show was repackaged and Big Tigger was replaced as host by Mad Linx, a DJ and radio personality. The transition was explained that Tigger's "mother" sold the basement and forced him out to live with his father. On October 3, 2005, Mad Linx went on hiatus to host BET Road Show; for the following several months, the show was hosted by J-Nicks, a native of St. Louis. Occasionally, special guests (such as a hip hop star) would host Rap City. The show's runtime was also shortened from two to one hour.

On December 28, 2005, BET returned the show to its original 5 p.m. time slot. Mad Linx returned to his weekday routine on February 2, 2006. J-Nicks left to work as a weekday radio DJ for WHTA Hot 107.9 FM in Atlanta. On August 14, 2006, Q45 replaced Mad Linx on the show. On September 25, 2006, the time slot for Rap City changed to 4 p.m., and then flipped back to 5 p.m. in October 2006. From that moment on, Q45 hosted the show on Weekdays. Mad Linx hosted Rap City Top 10 on Saturdays and Big Tigger hosted the show as Rap City Presents... specials.

On September 17, 2007, BET changed the time slot of Rap City to 1 a.m. ET, a time slot previously held by syndicated programming. In October 2007, due to series-low ratings, Rap City returned to its previous time slot at 5 p.m. In September 2008, Rap City obtained a new time of 3 p.m.

The Freestyle Booth

One of the most prominent and most popular segments of the show has been the freestyle booth. The booth was a segment that was added when Rap City becomes a studio format renamed Rap City Tha Basement. Producer John Tucker is credited with creating the now iconic segment The Booth located in the basement bathroom, where the elements gave a grassroots, raw feel to the show. In these particular segments, the guests would lay exclusive new (or often recycled) vocals on the spot. This came to be around Big Tigger's tenure, which also included a guest DJ every week. Seemingly, this concept was scrapped when "Tha Basement" concept left but it has since returned. This is now seen as a major staple of Rap City, although no hosts other than Joe Clair and Big Tigger have joined in during the freestyle sessions. On several occasions back in the early 2000s (decade), the freestyle booth was mostly, if not completely uncensored. Also, when special guests come and leave they leave with a signature, in the booth, on the wall.

Finale
On October 1, 2008, BET officially canceled Rap City. Its last airing was Saturday, November 8, 2008, and was replaced by now-cancelled The Deal on November 10, 2008. On Friday, June 12, 2009, a Rap City: Relapse special was aired on BET hosted by Big Tigger with guest Eminem. On November 6, 2013, Rap City returned with another special called EM360 with guest Eminem to promote his album The Marshall Mathers LP 2. In 2021, a Rap City '21 special was aired with Big Tigger as a host, with Fat Joe as guest.

References

Further reading

External links

1989 American television series debuts
1980s American music television series
1990s American music television series
2000s American music television series
2008 American television series endings
BET original programming
African-American television
Hip hop television

Rap City


Octopus  is a genus of cephalopod mollusc in the order Octopoda. The genus is quite typical of most octopods. They have two, large eyes and eight limbs with suckers. They have a hard beak, with the mouth at the center point of the arms.

Octopods have no internal or external skeleton, allowing them to squeeze through tight places and hide. Many stay in cracks between rocks or corals when they are not hunting. They are intelligent predators with a taste for crabs.

Octopods inhabit many regions of the ocean, especially coral reefs. For defense against predators, they hide, flee quickly, expel ink, or use colour-changing camouflage. They live rather short lives.

An octopus trails its eight arms behind it as it swims. All octopods are venomous, but only the small blue-ringed octopus is known to be deadly to humans.

There are about 300 octopod species, of which more than 100 are in the genus Octopus. Octopods make up over one-third of the total number of living cephalopods. The term 'octopus' may be used to refer to those in the genus Octopus. The term 'octopod' is correct for members of the order Octopoda in general.

Physiology: RNA editing
Octopods, like other advanced cephalopods, can edit their genome. They can adapt the nucleic acid sequence of the primary transcript of RNA molecules, more so than any other organisms. More than 60% of RNA transcripts for coleoid brains are recoded by editing, compared to less than 1% for a human or fruit fly. This has come at the cost of slower genome evolution.

Anatomy
Unlike most other cephalopods, most octopods have only soft body with no internal skeleton. They have no protective outer shell like the nautilus, which is another type of cephalopod.
A beak, similar in shape to a parrot's beak, is their only hard part.

Because of this, it is very easy for an octopus to squeeze through very narrow openings between rocks, for example squeezing through a hole as big as its eye.

Eyes
Octopod eyes are complex. In fact, they do not have a blind spot. A blind spot is a special place in the eyes that is not able to sense light. So, when we look somewhere, part of what is there is not actually perceived (the brain 'fills in' so we do not notice). However, an octopus does not have this problem.

The lens in octopod are movable. It moves back and forth to focus. This is the way a camera focuses. When a camera focuses on an object to take a picture, the lens moves back and forth until the image that the camera sees is in the right focus.

Colours
Some octopuses can use their chromatophores for more than camouflage. If they are not blending in with their surroundings, they can signal their feelings using colour. When they are relaxed, for example, they are a dull, grayish brown or orange-tinged colour. When they become angry, they can become red. If they feel scared, they may turn white.

Behaviour

Intelligence

Octopods are highly intelligent, probably more so than any other invertebrate. The exact extent of their intelligence and learning capability is much debated among biologists. Maze and problem-solving experiments have shown that they do have both short and long-term memory. Their short lifespans limit the amount they can learn.

Some octopods, such as the mimic octopus, can move their arms in ways which copy the movements of other sea creatures.

In laboratory experiments, octopuses can be readily trained to distinguish between different shapes and patterns. They have been seen in what some have described as play: repeatedly releasing bottles or toys into a circular current in their aquariums and then catching them. Octopuses often break out of their aquaria and sometimes into others in search of food.

The largest of the 300+ species of octopods, the giant octopus Enteroctopus, is large indeed. Mature males average about 50 pounds and females about 33 pounds. Their arm spans are about eight feet. They have even boarded fishing boats and opened holds to get in and eat crabs.

In the UK, cephalopods such as octopuses are regarded as honorary vertebrates under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. This gives them protection not normally given to invertebrates.

Octopods are the only invertebrate which have been definitely shown to use tools. At least four specimens of the veined octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) have been seen picking up discarded coconut shells, and then reassembling them to use as shelter.

Octopods are active and intelligent predators, with good eyesight and brains. They eat mostly crabs and some fish.

Defences
Octopods have a variety of defences. They use active camouflage and mimicry, controlled by their nervous system. Most can eject black ink clouds to help escape, and some can shed an arm in extreme danger. It wriggles, and attracts the attacker.

Reproduction and death
To reproduce, males use a specialized arm to put packets of sperm into the female's mantle cavity. Males die in a few months after mating. In some species, the female octopus can keep the sperm alive inside her for weeks until her eggs mature.

After they have been fertilized, the female lays about 200,000 eggs (this figure varies dramatically between species). The female cares for the eggs, guarding them against predators, and gently blows currents of water over them so they get enough oxygen. The female does not hunt during the one-month period spent taking care of the unhatched eggs, and may ingest some of her own arms for sustenance.

At around the time the eggs hatch, the mother leaves the lair and is too weak to defend herself from predators like cod, often succumbing to their attacks. The young larval octopuses spend time drifting in clouds of plankton, where they feed until they are ready to descend to the ocean bottom, where the cycle repeats.

All octopods for which we have data have a relatively short life expectancy. Some species live for as little as six months. Larger species, such as the North Pacific giant octopus, may live for up to five years under suitable circumstances.

Reproduction is a cause of death: males can only live for a few months after mating, and females die shortly after their eggs hatch. They neglect to eat during the (roughly) one-month period spent taking care of their unhatched eggs, but apparently they do not die of starvation. A biological explanation of these short lifespans (or rapid ageing) is not agreed at present. One idea is that the lifespan is limited by the number of safe niches in their environment. If adults lived longer, they would use up all the safe niches. In that case, the baby octopus would scarcely survive. It is known that the same niches are used by generations of octopods. They are usually in the calcium carbonate reefs which were formed in tropical waters.

Deep-sea octopod broods eggs
Off the coast of California, marine biologists have watched the same female octopus guarding her eggs for over four years. Their development took a long time because the water 1.4 kilometres down was very cold. They knew it was the same octopod because it had a characteristic scar. The research was done using a remote diving vehicle with cameras, lights and robotic arms.

References

Cephalopods

Octopus