ORANGE PIPE SPONGE  Leucosolenia botryoides

Common Name: Orange Pipe Sponge

Scientific name: Leucosolenia botryoides

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Porifera

Class: Calcarea

Order: Leucosoleniida

Family: Leucosoleniidae

Genus: Leucosolenia

Species: L. botryoides

Hermit Crabs - Helpful Tips for Care

First, remove from your mind the idea that these creatures are very low maintenance. It's not that they require a huge amount of your time, but they do require weekly bathing, new food every few days, new water every day, heat, and a regularly cleaned environment.

Habitat:

A hermit crab will be very comfortable in a 10-gallon or bigger aquarium with a few inches of sand or stones at the bottom. Two shallow dishes of water are required - one for salt water and one for dechlorinated fresh water. You can buy additives at pet stores in preparing each water dish. Sponges sitting in the dishes work very well to help add humidity to the habitat.

Latimeria chalumnae(Lobe Finned Fish)

     Latimeria chalumnae(Lobe Finned Fish)

Geographic Range

Off the coast of South Africa from Madagascar southward.

Biogeographic Regions: indian ocean (native) 

Habitat

Latimeria live in deep (apprx. 400m), cool(15-17 degrees centigrade), marine water. They generally inhabit lava beds.

Aquatic Biomes: oceanic vent; coastal

Physical Description

Latimeria has a single, large, elongated, pseudo-lung filled with fat, a vertually linear heart, shark-like intestines with a spiral valve, and an axial skeleton composed only of a hollow tube of cartilage called a notocord. They possess hinges in their skulls that allow then to consume large prey. Latimeria also has a special electroreceptive device called a rosteral organ in the front of the skull . Their color ranges from brown to dark blue, but it is believed that no two fish have exactly the same pattern. They are particularly mucilaginous; not only do the scales exude mucus, but their bodies continually ooze a large quantity of oil.

               The Suriname Toad Pipa pipa

Geographic Range

Pipa pipa inhabits the eastern region of South America, and Trinidad.

• Biogeographic Regions :
• neotropical 
   
  • native 

Habitat

Pipa pipa are highly aquatic, living in murky ponds and swamps.

• Aquatic Biomes: 
• lakes and ponds 
• rivers and streams

Physical Description

females: 105-171 mm males: 106-154 mm Pipa pipa are wide and greatly flattened with triangular-shaped heads. They are generally light brown, with darker brown spots on the back.

Females can be distinguished from males by a ring-shaped swelling at the cloaca, visible only when the animals are ready to breed.

The animals have very small black eyes which are lidless and beadlike.

Tips for Nontoxic Ant Control

How to keep ants outside the house without using toxic chemicals? So before they reach for the ant traps or bug spray or call the exterminator, homeowners should know that the toxic chemicals that kill ants are also harmful to humans and that scientific studies show that ants are intelligent animals who likely feel pain.

Did you know that similar to human gardeners, some ants use bacteria to produce higher-yielding, nitrogen-rich gardens? Or that leaf-cutter ants will overcome roadblocks between their colony and a food source by cutting smaller pieces of leaves and adding more workers to the line? And one study found that ants and other insects have the same chemical in their bodies that's known to transmit pain in humans.

SNAILS

The name snail applies to most members of the molluscan Class Gastropoda that have coiled shells. Other gastropods, which lack a conspicuous shell, are commonly called slugs, and are scattered throughout groups that primarily include snails. Snails are found in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments.

Snails move like worms by alternating body contractions with stretching, with a proverbially low speed (hence the term snail mail for postal services). They produce a slime in order to aid locomotion by reducing friction. The slime also reduces the snail's risk of injury and helps keep away potentially dangerous insects like ants. When retraced into their shells, snails cover the entrance with a 'trapdoor' like structure called an operculum.

In winter some snail species hibernate in their shells by closing the opening with a thin shell-like plate that they build only for this use and destroy in spring. Even some slug species build a shell-like object below their upper skin.

Snails come in a range of different sizes. The largest land snail is the Giant African Snail (Achatina fulica; Family Achatinidae), which can measure up to 30cm. Pomacea maculata (Family Ampullariidae), or Giant Apple Snail is the largest freshwater snail, with its size reaching 15 cm diameter and over 600 g weight. The biggest of all snails is Syrinx aruanus, a marine species living in Australia. Shell lengths up to 1 m have been reported.

           Gharial (Gavial, Indian Gharial)

Order: Crocodylia

Family: Crocodylidae

Subfamily: Gavialinae

Genus & Species: Gavialis gangeticus

APPEARANCE

The gharial is an unusual crocodilian with a very long snout. Gharials are one of the longest of the crocodilians, rivaling the Australian saltwater crocodile in length. They have an average length of 12.25-15.5 ft (3.6-4.5 m). Males are larger than females, and may reach maximum lengths of 21 ft (6 m). The females reach lengths of 13 ft (3.9 m). Gharials weigh 2200 lbs (977 kg).