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Ten Million Aliens

Page 41

by Simon Barnes


  sea serpents 90

  sea skaters 409

  sea slugs 316

  sea spiders 329, 357

  sea urchins 98, 100

  sea wasps 91

  seabirds 298–301

  seagulls 138, 238n, 293n

  seals 77–80, 163, 357

  secretary bird 239

  segmentation 135, 143, 330

  Serengeti 86–7, 333

  sex see also reproduction

  arrow worms 206

  bootlace worm 155

  clams 304

  flatworms 105

  flowers 423

  lions 56

  penis worms 171

  praying mantis 397

  rotifers 217–18

  slugs 19, 20–1

  thorny-headed worms 223

  velvet worms 136–7

  sexual display 22–3

  sexual selection 220–1

  sharks 90, 405–7, 434–7, 442, 443

  Sharpe’s grysbok 86

  shearwaters 298

  sheep 22, 86

  shells 295–7, 314–15, 322

  shoebills 226, 318n

  short-tailed pygmy tyrant 318

  shrews 158, 208n, 234–5, 334

  shrimps 418

  Siberian tiger 63

  Silent Spring 382

  silk 352–3

  The Silver Chair 174, 262, 428

  silver Y moth 439

  simplicity 177, 222

  singing 26, 168–70, 177, 325–8, 377

  Sipunculids 210–11

  sirens 393

  sitatunga 87

  six-spot burnet moth 438

  size, Bergmann’s rule 312

  skates 443

  skua 298

  skylarks 319, 326

  slime 20, 136, 156

  slow worms 342, 354

  slugs 19–21, 37, 38, 129, 280, 316

  Smith, Ed 159

  snails 19, 37, 106, 166, 280, 322–4

  snake eagles 230n

  snakelocks anemone 81

  snakes 91, 126, 340–3, 348–50

  snout beetles 455

  snow buntings 317

  snowy owls 244

  soaring 238n, 300

  social hierarchies 70 see also colonies

  solifugids 358

  song thrushes 287, 326

  songbirds 327 see also singing

  Soricomorpha 158

  South America 132 see also Brazil; Colombia

  Spall, Timothy 130

  Spanish dancer 316

  sparrowhawks 236, 237, 239

  sparrows 319

  specialism 118

  species

  endemic 319n

  fuzzy definition 26–7

  new discoveries 25–6

  number 27 see also diversity

  sperm whales 90, 276

  spider crabs 337

  spider monkeys 43

  spiders 33, 46, 331–2, 340, 351–3, 357–8, 431–2

  Spinochordodes tellini 193

  sponges 58–60, 65–6, 177

  spookfish 442

  sport 214

  spotted hyena 69

  springboks 86

  springhares 154

  squid 90, 273–4, 275, 276, 283

  squirrels 153n

  Sri Lankan blue magpie 319

  St Frances de Sales 196n

  starfish 98, 99, 100

  starlings 319–20

  stars 157, 160

  Steinbeck, John 280–1n

  sterility 25–6

  stingrays 444

  stone curlews 153n

  storks 225

  strap-shaped hairy-backs 228

  stridulation 373

  subfamilies 38

  subspecies 94n

  sucking 409

  Suffolk 145, 146–7, 214, 270, 319, 349

  sun spiders 358

  sunflowers 113n

  Surinam toad 378

  survival

  adaptation 119, 121–2, 167n, 223

  natural selection 40, 355, 386n

  swallow-tailed hummingbird 264

  swallows 30, 259

  swallowtail butterflies 440

  swans 291–2

  swifts 30, 252n, 257–9

  swimming 39–41, 79, 412

  symbions 241–2

  symbiosis 72, 73–4, 82, 304, 428

  symmetry 98, 99, 105, 183, 316

  Systema Naturae 30

  systematics 29, 30

  tadpoles 367–9

  takahe 305, 306

  Tanzania 43, 86, 269, 333

  tapetum 153

  tapeworms 113–15

  tar baby termites 403

  tarantula 91

  tardigrades 120, 121

  Tasmanian tiger 189

  tawny owls 245–6, 252–3

  taxonomy

  changes 30–1, 94n, 268, 335–6

  fish 407

  invertebrates 45–6

  names 365n

  overview 28–32, 36–7

  reptiles 335–6

  tayra 77

  teal 293

  teddy bears 62, 145n

  teeth

  aardvarks 116–17

  carnivores 63, 79

  jawless fish 458

  kangaroos 191

  rodents 102, 130–1

  sharks 435–6

  teleology 223

  tender trap 118

  tennis 84

  tenpin-shaped hairy-backs 228

  tentacles 20, 89, 266–7, 274, 276, 289, 399

  termites 101, 117, 118, 401–4

  terns 251–2

  terrapins 362

  Testudines 362

  Tetrapodomorpha 458

  theories 151n

  Thomas, Jeremy 371, 373

  thorny-headed worms 222–3

  thread snake 342

  thrushes 287, 319, 326

  thylacine 189, 190

  ticks 359

  tigers 63

  Tiktaalik 458

  time 457–8

  Titanoboa cerrejonensis 342

  toads 377

  toco toucan 224

  tongues 164, 321, 342–3, 355

  torpor 252n, 264

  Torrey Canyon disaster 83

  tortoises 362

  toucans 224

  trains 111

  Travels with My Aunt 139, 196–7

  tree frogs 378

  tree snakes 343

  Trichoplax adhaerans 176–7

  true bugs 409

  tsetse fly 380

  tungara frog 378

  Turbellaria 105

  turtles 360–2, 363

  Tyler, Mary 28

  ubiquity 127, 128

  Ulysses 202, 215n, 223, 262, 296, 327n

  uniqueness 24, 116, 176

  vampire bats 184–6

  vascular systems 99

  velvet worms 134, 135–7

  venom 91, 208, 341, 342, 359, 444

  Venus elegans 315n

  Venus’s flower-basket 66

  Venus’s girdle 183

  Verne, Jules 273, 274

  vertebrates 39

  viperids 341

  virgin birth 26, 121, 136, 217

  Virginia opossum 22, 189

  Voltaire 83n

  Vonnegut, Kurt 369n

  vulture bees 424

  vultures 238–9

  wagtails 320

  wallabies 191

  Wallace, Alfred Russel 347, 446–7, 449

  wallcreeper 318n

  walrus 78n

  warblers 325–7

  wasps 50–2, 129, 430–1

  water 39–40

  water bears 119, 120, 121–2, 134

  water voles 147–8

  waterbirds 142, 292–4, 375–6

  Watership Down 132

  Watson, Lyall 174

  waxbills 320

  weasels 63, 77, 92n

  webs 352–3

  Weddell seal 79–80

  weevils 454–6

  werewolves 122
>
  whale sharks 435, 437

  whales

  blue whale 89, 163, 173, 273, 321, 338

  humpback whales 162–5, 168–70

  krill 338

  migration 252

  orcas 27, 164

  porpoises 163

  sperm whales 90, 276

  whipworms 128

  whitethroats 26

  Whitman, Walt 145, 311

  whooper swan 291

  whydahs 318

  wigeons 293

  wildebeest 86–7, 252, 334

  wildlife corridors 110, 111–12

  Wilson, Edward O 287

  Wimbledon tennis tournament 84

  The Wind in the Willows 147

  Withnail and I 423

  Wodehouse, PG 393

  wolf spiders 331–2

  wood owl 246

  woodlice 329, 338

  woolly mammoths 110

  worms

  acoelomorphs 260–1

  annelids 142–4, 282n

  bootlace worm 89n, 155

  earthworms 149–52

  flatworms 104–7, 150

  jaw worms 247–8

  Loa loa 72–3n, 104, 128

  nematodes 127–9

  nematomorphs 193–4

  peanut worms 210–11

  penis worms 171, 172

  ribbon worms 144, 155–6

  tapeworms 113–15

  thorny-headed worms 222–3

  xenoturbellids 254–5

  wrens 305

  wrong end of the stick 59

  xenoturbellids 254–5

  Yangtze river dolphin 174–5

  Yeats, WB 292n

  yellow-billed stork 225

  Yersina pestis 140

  Yoon, Carol Kaesuck 435n

  Zambia see also Luangwa Valley

  bees 424

  birds 25–6, 319n

  lechwe 93

  spiders 330–1

  termites 402, 404

  wildebeest 86

  zebras 53–4, 85

  Zen poetry 248–9

  Zimbabwe 203

  zooids 160–1

  zooplankton 91, 339

  Marble Arch Press

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

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  Copyright © 2014 by Simon Barnes

  Originally published in 2014 in Great Britain by Short Books.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  First Marble Arch Press hardcover edition February 2015

  Marble Arch Press is a publishing collaboration between Short Books, UK and Atria Books, US.

  Marble Arch Press and colophon are trademarks of Short Books.

  Cover design and illustrations by nathanburtondesign.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

  ISBN 978-1-4767-3035-6

  ISBN 978-1-4767-3036-3 (ebook)

 

 

 


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