The Sipuncula

The Sipuncula
Author: Edward B. Cutler
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2018-10-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1501723642

The Sipuncula, a group of ocean-dwelling worms related to annelids and mollusks, play a significant role in the bioerosion of coral reefs and are useful indicators of environmental conditions. The 155 species live in a wide variety of marine habitats at all depths, in sand and mud, in burrows in soft rock and dead coral, and inside such protective shelters as mollusk shells. Important food items for fish and invertebrate predators, they also recycle organic wastes and function as bioassay tools for human diseases such as cystic fibrosis and acute cholera. Edward B. Cutler brings together in this volume everything that is known about the entire phylum. An introduction, with practical information about collecting and handling the animals, is followed by Part One, which incorporates new systematic analyses made during the past twenty years and offers illustrated keys to all taxa, replacing the work of A.C. Stephen and S.J. Edmonds. Part Two reviews the past thirty years' work in such areas as ecology, muscular sysetms, blood chemistry, respiration, reproduction, and excretion. Part Three provides a new synthetic perspective on the phylum's zoogeography and evolutionary relationships, both to other phyla and within the phylum. It utilizes information from the fossil record, paleo-oceanographic data, and comparative studies of immunology, physiology, embryology, and anatomy.

Indian Insects

Indian Insects
Author: S Ramani
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2019-10-16
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0429590075

Insects are the most interesting and diverse group of organisms on earth, many of which are useful as pollinators of crops and wild plants while others are useful as natural enemies keeping pestiferous insects in check. It is important to conserve these insects for our survival and for this the diversity of insect species inhabiting the different ecosystems of our country must be known. The cornerstone to studies of any kind of organismal diversity is their taxonomic identity. Even after over two and half centuries of studies, so little is known of the insect wealth of our country. It has contributions from taxonomists who have been studying Indian insects for long, this book offers up to date information on many important groups of Indian insects seeking to fill the lacuna of a long felt need for a comprehensive work on the taxonomy of Indian insects. Salient features: Provides an up-to-date taxonomy of major insect groups of India Presents identification keys with illustrations of several important groups of Indian insects Gives a new insight into why insects are so abundant Addresses fundamental questions in mechanoreception and cross kingdom interactions using insects as model systems Indian Insects: Diversity and Science is a festschrift to Professor C. A. Viraktamath, an insect taxonomist par excellence. It has been designed to cater to the needs of academicians, researchers and students who wish to identify insects collected from local environments and will be an invaluable aid for those working in the areas of systematics, ecology, behaviour, diversity and the conservation of insects.