Earth and Space News

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

September Signals Spring Equinox for American Samoa and Jarvis Island

Summary: September signals a spring equinox for American Samoa and Jarvis Island but an autumn equinox for the rest of the United States.

September signals a spring equinox for American Samoa and Jarvis Island, as the only two U.S. possessions in the Southern Hemisphere, but an autumn equinox for the rest of the United States, as Northern Hemisphere occupiers.

The 2019 September equinox occurs Monday, Sept. 23, at 07:50 (7:50 a.m.), according to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Coordinated Universal Time functions as the world’s primary time standard.

The world’s time zones relate to Coordinated Universal Time as negative and positive offsets. Time zones that are east of the prime meridian, 0 degrees longitude, use positive offsets indicating time ahead of UTC. Time zones that are west of the prime meridian use negative offsets indicating time behind UTC.

American Samoa and Jarvis Island are located in the Southern Hemisphere. Both U.S. territories lie south of the equator in the South Pacific Ocean.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assigns geographic coordinates of 14 degrees 20 minutes south latitude, 170 degrees west longitude to American Samoa. Jarvis Island’s CIA geographic coordinates are listed at 0 degrees 22 minutes south latitude, 160 degrees 1 minute west longitude.

The two United States’ Southern Hemisphere territories share the same offset, UTC-11. Jarvis Island’s time zone and Samoa Standard Time (SST) zone lag behind Coordinated Universal Time by 11 hours.

American Samoa and Jarvis Island experience the instant of the 2019 September equinox Sunday, Sept. 22, at 8:50 p.m. local time. The September equinox announces astronomical spring for American Samoa and Jarvis Island. Meanwhile, the September equinox opens astronomical autumn for the rest of the United States, as Northern Hemisphere occupants.

Including American Samoa and Jarvis Island, 11 U.S. territories are located in the Pacific Ocean. Nine lie north of the equator. The Northern Hemisphere’s U.S. Pacific Ocean territories comprise two permanently inhabited territories (Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) and seven territories without native or permanent populations. The Northern Hemisphere’s seven uninhabited U.S. Pacific Ocean territories are Baker Island, Howland Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island.

The September equinox pairs annually with its counterpart, the March equinox. The annual March equinox marks astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere and astronomical autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

The equinoxes capture the points of perpendicularity in the angle formed by Earth’s rotational axis with the plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun. The lack of axial tilt away or toward the sun explains the equal receipt of the sun’s rays by Earth’s Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere at the instants of the March and September equinoxes (Latin: aequus, “equal” + nox, “night”).

The June and December solstices join the March and September equinoxes as announcers of Earth’s astronomical seasons. The June and December solstices concern the astronomical opening of summer and winter.

The June solstice signals astronomical summer in the Northern Hemisphere and astronomical winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The favoring of the Northern Hemisphere by Earth’s tilted rotational axis occasions the Northern Hemisphere’s experience of the June solstice as astronomical summer. The north polar terminus of Earth’s axis tilts toward the sun while the south polar terminus tilts away from the sun.

Contrastingly, December’s solstice initiates the Northern Hemisphere’s astronomical winter and the Southern Hemisphere’s astronomical summer. The favoring of the Southern Hemisphere by Earth’s tilted rotational axis induces the start of the hemisphere’s astronomical summer. The south polar terminus of Earth’s axis tilts toward the sun while the north polar terminus tilts away from the sun.

The takeaway for the September signal of the spring equinox for American Samoa and Jarvis Island is that the rest of the United States, as Northern Hemisphere occupants, experiences seasons oppositely from American Samoa and Jarvis Island, as Southern Hemisphere occupiers.

The U.S. Pacific Ocean territory of Jarvis Island joins American Samoa as only two U.S. possessions with opposite seasons from the rest of the United States; blue noddy (Procelsterna cerulea) at Jarvis Island: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via USFWS Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuge

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

American Samoa is one of only two U.S. possessions lying in the Southern Hemisphere; mountainous surround of Pago Pago harbor, Tutuila, American Samoa; February 2009 photo by Dr. Matt Kendall, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/NOS (National Ocean Service)/NCCOS (National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science)/CCMA (Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment)/BGB: NOAA Photo Library, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/51647007@N08/5123384618/

Espenak, Fred. “Solstices and Equinoxes: 2001 to 2100 Greenwich Mean Time.” AstroPixels > Ephemeris.
Available @ http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/soleq2001.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “2019 September Equinox Happens Sunday, Sept. 22, 0r Monday, Sept. 23.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/09/2019-september-equinox-happens-sunday.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “American Samoa Has Autumn Equinox While United States Has Spring Equinox.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/03/american-samoa-has-autumn-equinox-while.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “March Signals Autumn Equinox for American Samoa and Jarvis Island.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, March 20, 2019.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/march-signals-autumn-equinox-for.html

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. “Field Listing: Geographic Coordinates.” Central Intelligence Agency > Library > Publications > The World Factbook.
Available @ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2011.html

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. “Standard Time Zones of the World, May 2018.” Central Intelligence Agency > Library > Publications > The World Factbook.
Available @ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/graphics/ref_maps/physical/pdf/standard_time_zones_of_the_world.pdf

U.S.N.O. Astronomical Applications Department. “Equinox.” U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department > Information Center > Terms Used on This Website > The Astronomical Almanac Online.
Available @ http://asa.usno.navy.mil/SecM/Glossary.html#_E

U.S.N.O. Astronomical Applications Department. “Equinoxes.” U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department > Information Center > Phenomena of the Sun and Moon > Length of Day and Night at the Equinoxes.
Available @ http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/equinoxes.php

Monday, September 16, 2019

2019-2020 Met Opera Season Opens Monday, Sept. 23, With Porgy and Bess

Summary: The 2019-2020 Met Opera season opens Monday, Sept. 23, with George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and also offers Manon and Macbeth in the first week.

British soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, who made her American debut Aug. 12, 2018, as Bess at Seattle Opera, makes her Met Opera debut Oct. 13, 2019, as Bess in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess: Seattle Opera @SeattleOpera, via Facebook Dec. 20, 2018

The 2019-2020 Met Opera season opens Monday, Sept. 23, with George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and also presents Jules Massenet’s Manon and Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth in the season’s first week. Each opera receives two performances during the 2019-2020 Met Opera season’s opening week.

The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Porgy and Bess by American composer and pianist George Gershwin (Sept. 26, 1898-July 11, 1937) premieres Monday, Sept. 23, 2019, at 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The week’s second performance is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 27, at 8 p.m.

James Robinson directs the new production. The American stage director’s production team comprises Michael Yeargan, set designer; Catherine Zuber, costume designer; Donald Holder, lighting designer; Luke Halls, projection designer.

The Metropolitan Opera last presented George Gershwin’s folk opera 28 years 9 months ago, on Dec. 9, 1990. The 1990-1991 season’s staging revived the production designed by American opera and stage director Nathaniel Merrill (Feb. 8, 1927-Sept. 9, 2008) for the opera’s Metropolitan Opera premiere Feb. 6, 1985. Merrill’s production received 54 performances between the 1984-1984 and 1990-1991 Met Opera seasons.

In addition to the new production’s two opening week performances, Met Opera offers 12 performances during the 2019-2020 season. A third September performance takes place Monday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m.

Four performances are slated for October. The month’s performances take place Saturday, Oct. 5, at 1 p.m.; Thursday, Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 13, at 3 p.m.; Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 7:30 p.m.

Six performances are scheduled in January. The month’s performances take place Wednesday, Jan. 8, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time; Saturday, Jan. 11, at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Jan. 15, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 18, at 8 p.m.; Friday, Jan. 24, at 7:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 7:30 p.m.

Closing night’s performance takes place Saturday, Feb. 1, at 1 p.m.

The second opera presented during the 2019-2020 Met Opera season’s opening week is Manon by French Romantic Era composer Jules Massenet (May 12, 1842-Aug. 13, 1912). The season’s opening night for Manon takes place Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 7:30 p.m.

A second performance of Manon is given during the 2019-2020 season’s opening week. The second performance takes place Saturday, Sept. 28, at 12:30 p.m.

The 2019-2020 Met Opera season’s performances of Massenet’s Manon revive Laurent Pelly’s staging. The French opera and theatre director’s staging debuted March 26, 2012, as a new Met Opera production in the opera house’s 258th performance of Manon. The Metropolitan Opera’s most recent staging of Pelly’s production took place during the 2014-2015 season.

Laurent Pelly is credited as both director and costume designer. His production team comprises Chantal Thomas, set designer; Joël Adam, lighting designer; Lionel Hoche, choreographer; Christian Räth, associate director.

Beside Manon’s two opening week performances, the Metropolitan Opera offers five additional performances during the 2019-2020 season. All five performances take place in October. The month’s Manon performances are scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 5, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 26, at 1 p.m.

The third opera presented during the 2019-2020 Met Opera season’s opening week is Macbeth by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi (Oct. 10, 1813-Jan. 27, 1901). The season’s opening night for Macbeth takes place Wednesday, Sept. 25, at 8 p.m. The week’s second performance of Macbeth is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m.

The 2019-2020 Met Opera season’s performances of Verdi’s Macbeth revive Adrian Noble’s staging. The British theatre director’s staging debuted Oct. 22, 2007, as a new Met Opera production in the opera house’s 81st performance of Macbeth. The Metropolitan Opera’s most recent staging of Noble’s production took place during the 2014-2015 season.

Noble’s production team includes Mark Thompson as set and costume designer. The production’s lighting designer is Jean Kalman. Sue Lefton is the production’s choreographer.

Beyond two opening week performances, Macbeth also receives four performances during the 2019-2020 season. All four performances are scheduled for October. The month’s performances take place Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 4, at 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 12, at 8:30 p.m.

The takeaway for the 2019-2020 Met Opera season’s first week is that George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess opens the season Monday, Sept. 23, as a new production and shares opening week with revivals of Jules Massenet’s Manon and Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth.

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

In the 2019-2020 Met Opera season, Russian operatic soprano Anna Netrebko revives her 2014 Met Opera role debut as Lady Macbeth in British theatre director Adrian Noble's staging of Verdi's Macbeth: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook Sep. 30, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.10154710822610533/10154710822950533/

For further information:

“Metropolitan Opera Premiere: Porgy and Bess.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 279510 Metropolitan Opera Premiere Porgy and Bess {1} Metropolitan Opera House: 02/6/1985.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=279510

“New Production: Macbeth.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 352126 New Production Macbeth {81} Metropolitan Opera House: 10/22/2007.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=352126

“New Production: Manon.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 354438 New Production Manon {258} Metropolitan Opera House: 03/26/2012.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=354438

Opera Online. “James Robinson.” Opera Online > Encyclopera.
Available @ https://www.opera-online.com/en/items/personnalities/james-robinson

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Yellow-Bellied Flycatchers Are In and Over the Eastern United States

Summary: Yellow-bellied flycatchers, as fall migrants, are assembling still along northeastern borders or already in or over the southeastern United States.

yellow-bellied flycatcher (Empidonax flaviventris) in breeding habitat; Parc National des Grands-Jardins (Grands-Jardins National Park), southeastern Québec, eastern Canada; Tuesday, July 20, 2010, 11:46: Simon Pierre Barrette (Cephas), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Yellow-bellied flycatchers are among the North American flycatchers that annually appear in and over the eastern United States in September, October and earliest November and in latest March, April and earliest May.

Acadian (Empidonax virescens) and great crested (Myiarchus crinitus) flycatchers breed in the eastern United States even as yellow-bellied flycatchers brave northeastern breeding-place and southeastern migration-route states. Alder (Empidonax alnorum), least (E. minimus), olive-sided (Contopus cooperi) and willow (E. traillii) flycatchers conduct breeding and migrating seasons, like yellow-bellied flycatchers, respectively northeastward and southeastward. Yellow-bellied flycatchers draw grasses, mosses, rootlets and weed stems into signature nests lined with black plant fibers; fine grasses, moss stems and rootlets; and pine needles.

Mated, mature female yellow-bellied flycatchers establish each season's one-brood nest in needle-covered, twig-hidden, ground-level to 2-foot (0.61-meter-) high fallen or overhanging-tree roots, moss hummocks or mounds.

Mated, mature female yellow-bellied flycatchers fit into seasonal nests one-brooded, buff-cinnamon, brown, pink, purple-blotched, semi-glossy, smooth, sparse-speckled, subelliptical, white 0.67 by 0.51-inch (17 by 13-millimeter) eggs.

Yellow-bellied flycatchers, grouped scientifically by Spencer Baird (Feb. 3, 1823-Aug. 19, 1887), get each mother-to-be's seasonal, three to five-egg brood incubated and hatched within 15 days. Altricial (from Latin altrix, "nourisher"), helpless hatchlings and downy brown-olive nestlings have both parents as caregivers, feeders and teachers until they have independent nests as 13-day-olds. The Passeriformes (from Latin passer, "sparrow" and -formis, "shaped") perching order member includes among vocalizations abrupt brrrrt! and chu-wee! calls and che-bunk, che-lek and killink! songs.

The Tyrannidae (from Latin turannus, "tyrant" and Greek -ειδής, "-like") tyrant flycatcher family member journeys after fly, midge and mosquito prey and for berries and seeds.

Remote, secretive habitats and habits keep bird collectors and watchers from knowing about summer-occurring, winter-occurring yellow-bellied flycatchers other than during flight, foraging mating or parenting vocalizations.

Yellow-bellied flycatchers log big, green heads with yellow eye-rings, rounded crowns and olive-yellow throats; green backs with rounded, white-barred wings; dark-banded olive breasts; and yellow bellies. They manifest big, dark eyes; broad-based, dark bills; pale legs; and dark-clawed, one backward-pointing, three forward-pointing toes on anisodactylism (from Greek άνισος, "unequal" and δάκτυλος, "finger"). Yellow-bellied flycatchers, named scientifically Empidonax flaviventris (from Greek εμπι, "gnat" and αναξ, "master" and Latin flāvus, "yellow" and venter, "belly"), need long undulating, short foraging flights.

Yellow-bellied flycatchers observe 5.12 to 5.91-inch (13 to 15-centimeter) head-body-tail lengths, 7.09 to 7.87-inch (18 to 20-centimeter) wingspans and 0.28 to 0.53-ounce (8 to 16-gram) weights.

Yellow-bellied flycatchers parent hatchlings, nestlings and fledglings in the boggy, wet habitats of alder swamps and sphagnum-moss peatlands and the boreal habitats of coniferous, spruce forests.

Yellow-bellied flycatchers queue up in the breeding, summer months of June and July from Alaska through all Canadian provinces and territories, from Minnesota through New England. Four-plus-year life cycles require yellow-bellied flycatchers to range over the eastern United States on the Mississippi and Atlantic flyways as non-breeding fall and non-breeding spring migrants. Yellow-bellied flycatchers spend non-breeding, winter months between December and February in riverside lowland, second-growth forests and shaded coffee plantations, from Mexico, through Central America, to Panama.

For 15 years now, yellow-bellied flycatchers turn up in mid-September to trouble the last summer flies and mosquitoes around our eastern white pines and vernal pool.

Geographical distribution map of yellow-bellied flycatcher (Empidonax flaviventris) shows breeding (orange), migration (yellow) and non-breeding (blue) locations; Wikimedia Commons page created Sunday, May 27, 2018, by Cephas via UploadWizard: Cephas (Simon Pierre Barrette), CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Colin J.O. Harrison. 2005. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Princeton NJ; and Oxford, England, UK: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides. Second edition.

Baird, W.M.; and S.F. Baird. "Tyrannula flaviventris, (nob.)." Pages 283-284. "Descriptions of Two Species, Supposed To Be New, of the Genus Tyrannula Swainson, Found in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania." Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. I (1841-'42-'43), nos. 28, 29 (July and August 1843): 283-285. Philadelphia PA: Merrihew & Thompson, 1843.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1779383
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.31822006518252?urlappend=%3Bseq=291
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofaca01acad/page/283
Available via Journal Storage @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/4058399

"Bird Migration Routes." Last Updated 30 December 2013. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service > Wildlife & Habitat > Birds.
Available @ https://www.fws.gov/refuge/arctic/birds.html

BirdLfe International 2016. "Empidonax flaviventris." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22699839A93750697. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22699839A93750697.en
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22699839/93750697

Farnsworth, A.; and D. Lebbin. 2020. "Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher (Empidonax flaviventris)." In: J. Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D.A. Christie and E. de Juana. (Eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Barcelona, Catalonia Autonomous Community, Spain: Lynx Edicions.
Available @ https://www.hbw.com/species/yellow-bellied-flycatcher-empidonax-flaviventris

Gross, D. A.; and P. E. Lowther. 2011. "Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher (Empidonax flaviventris)." Version 2.0. In: A. F. Poole. (Ed.). The Birds of North America. Ithaca NY: Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Available @ https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/yebfly/introduction

Ross, Greg. 2001. "Empidonax flaviventris" (On-line). Animal Diversity Web. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
Available @ https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Empidonax_flaviventris/

Schuyler, Tamara. "Tyrant Flycatchers." In: Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Volume 10, Birds III: 269-289. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

"Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher." All About Birds.
Available @ https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-bellied_Flycatcher/id

"Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher Empidonax flaviventris." Audubon > Birds > Guide to North American Birds > Search.
Available @ https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/yellow-bellied-flycatcher

"Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher Empidonax flaviventris." Boreal Songbird Initiative > Comprehensive Guide to Boreal Birds > Search.
Available @ https://www.borealbirds.org/bird/yellow-bellied-flycatcher

"Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher (Empidonax flaviventris)." In: T.S. Schulenberg. (Ed.). Neotropical Birds Online. Ithaca NY: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/yebfly
Available @ https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/yebfly/overview

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Yellow Fever Mosquitoes Air a Killer on Magnum's A Kiss Before Dying

Summary: Yellow fever mosquitoes air a killer on Magnum's A Kiss Before Dying March 11, 2019, re-aired Sept. 13, 2019, as they abound around certain ambiences.

female yellowfever mosquito (Aedes aegypti), with characteristic lyre-shaped marking on dorsal surface of scutum, acquires blood-meal from human host; 2006 image, from Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL), identification number #9258, by CDC scientific photographer James Gathany: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Yellow fever mosquitoes air a killer on Magnum's A Kiss Before Dying crime action drama television series episode March 11, 2019, re-aired Sept. 13, 2019, as they abound around certain Hawaiian ambiences.

Director Bryan Spicer and writers Ashley Charbonnet and Barbie Kligman bare who brutalized and buried a Honolulu Police Department (HPD) detective and his dog and why. The first season's 18th episode considers Mike Trevino Jr.'s (Deniz Akdeniz) concerted cover-up of one perhaps accidental crime with the calculated commission of two conscious crimes. Dead yellow fever mosquitoes, described as dengue fever mosquitoes, divulge for private investigator Thomas Magnum (Jay Hernandez) where Detective Gordon Katsumoto's (Tim Kang) HPD mentor died.

Not one of six mosquito species ensconced as two day-biting and four night-biting exotics exists as endemically (from Greek ἐν, "in" and δῆμος, "people"), exclusively Hawaiian.

Twenty-seven- to 49-plus-day life cycles of the chikungunya-, dengue fever-, Mayaro-, yellow fever- and Zika fever-fomenting mosquito features subtropical and tropical-region year-round and temperate-region warm-weather breedability.

Adult females in the final life-cycle stage as mature fliers generate maximally five separate 100- to 200-egg batches after they maximally get five separate blood meals. Damp surfaces, such as containers and tree holes in farm and grove, sylvan (from Latin silvānus, "from woods, of woods") and urban habitats hold single-laid eggs. Each oval, smooth, 0.039-inch- (1-millimeter-) long egg is initially white, then shiny black for the two to seven days before hatching initiates the four-instar larval stage.

Larval yellow fever mosquitoes journey vertically underwater, as oxygen-breathing, short-siphon wigglers and wrigglers, through three two-day-long and the fourth three-day-long instars (from Latin instar, "form, likeness").

Water-holders such as puddles and tires keep bottom-feeding, surface-dwelling larvae healthy with edible algal organic particulate matter and microscopic organisms through 0.32-inch- (8-millimeter-) long fourth instars.

Larval stages last longer for female wigglers than male wrigglers, lengthen for all with cooler temperatures and lead to pupal stages as mobile, non-feeding, stimuli-responsive tumblers. Ingested air makes their abdomens expand sufficiently to move two-day-old pupae (from Latin pūpa, "girl") out as completely metamorphosed, 0.16- to 0.28-inch (4- to 7-millimeter) adults. Culicidae (from Latin culex, "gnat, midge" and Greek -ειδής, "-like") family members named Aedes aegypti (from Latin aedēs, "tomb" and aegyptī, "Egyptian") scientifically net pointed-tip abdomens.

Yellow fever mosquitoes, observed by Fredrik Hasselquist (Jan. 3, 1722-Feb. 9, 1752) and Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), obtain dark heads, bodies and legs.

Black, black-brown legs and thoracic (from Greek θώραξ, "breastplate"), sometimes abdominal uppersides respectively possess white-banded tarsi (from Greek ταρσός, "flat drying-frame") and lyre-shaped, violin-shaped white scales.

Adult females and males queue up black, black-brown proboscises (from Greek προβοσκίς, "elephant's trunk") below clypeus (from Latin clipeus, "round shield") segments with two white-scaled clusters. The female versus the smaller-sized male reveal blood-feeding, sharp-pointed fascicles (from fasciculus, "little bundle") and silver-tripped or white-scaled palpi (from Latin palpus, "feeler") versus nectar-feeding mouthparts. All four life-cycle stages, since their multidirectional spreads from African continental homelands, survive in subtropical and tropical sections year-round and in temperate sections during summer months.

Female yellow fever mosquitoes transmit painful, sometimes terminal viruses through blood-meal transfusions from human ankles and elbows even as their one good deed traps a killer.

HPD (Honolulu Police Department) Detective Gordon Katsumoto (Tim Kang), Juliet Higgins (Perdita Weeks) and Thomas Magnum (Jay Hernandez) watch as HPD Medical Examiner Noelani Cunha (Kimee Balmilero) scrutinizes a gravesite in Magnum PI's A Kiss Before Dying (season 1 episode 18): What2Vue @What2Vue, via Twitter March 11, 2019

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"A Kiss Before Dying." Magnum PI: The First Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, Oct. 22, 2018.

"Aedes aegypti - Factsheet for Experts." European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control > All Topics: A to Z > Disease Vectors > Facts > Mosquito Factsheets. Last updated 20 December 2016.
Available @ https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/disease-vectors/facts/mosquito-factsheets/aedes-aegypti

"Aedes aegypti Yellow Fever Mosquito." Biogents USA > All About Mosquitoes > Yellow Fever Mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti).
Available @ https://us.biogents.com/aedes-aegypti-yellow-fever-mosquitoes/https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/deh/Vector/pdf/AedesaegyptiFactSheet.pdf

"Aedes aegypti (Yellow Fever Mosquito) Fact Sheet." State of California - Health and Human Services Agency > California Department of Public Health > Division of Communicable Diseases Control. Last updated March 2014.
Available @ https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/deh/Vector/pdf/AedesaegyptiFactSheet.pdf

Clements, Alan N.; and Ralph E. Harbach. June 2018. "Controversies Over the Scientific Name of the Principal Mosquito Vector of Yellow Fever Virus - Expediency Versus Validity." Journal of Vector Ecology 43(1): 1-14.
Available @ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jvec.12277

"Estimated Potential Range of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in the United States, 2017." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention > Diseases & Conditions > Zika Virus Home > Mosquito Control. Last reviewed 23 February 2018.
Available @ https://www.cdc.gov/zika/vector/range.html

"Etymologia: Aedes aegypti." Emerging Infectious Diseases Volume 22, Number 10, October 2016: 1807. Center for Disease Control and Prevention > EID Journal. Page created, updated, reviewed 20 September 2016. https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2210.et2210.
Available @ https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/22/10/et-2210_article

Hasselquists, Fredric. 1757. "121. Culex (æsgypti)." Pages 430-431. In: Iter Palæstinum, eller Resa til Heliga Landet, förrättad ifrån år 1749 til 1752 med beskrifningar, rön, anmärkningar, öfver de märkvärdigaste naturalier, på Hennes Kongl. Maj:ts befallning, utgifven av Carl Linnaeus. Stockholm [Sweden]: Lars Salvius.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49678706
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Friday, September 13, 2019

Ajanta Cave 15: 200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings

Summary: Lions associated with Buddhist reincarnations and Hindu mythology appear in Ajanta cave 15 in the 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings.

Ajanta cave 15 acknowledges, in the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures in north-central India, animal appreciation that acclaims lions associated with Buddhist reincarnations and Hindu mythology.

Ajanta cave 15 bears emblematic, iconic, symbolic lions that bind the Hindu mythological beginnings of yoga postures to 10 bodhisattva (from Sanskrit बोधिसत्त्व, "enlightened existence") reincarnations. The yoga (from Sanskrit योग, "union") posture called simhasana (fom Sanskrit सिंह, "lion" and आसन, "seat") convokes those reincarnations for Buddhists. Ten of 549 reincarnations before his 550th as Siddhartha Gautama (from Sanskrit सिद्धार्थ, "successful" and गोतम, "light [dispels] darkness"), 624?-544 B.C.E.?, describe enlightened lions (Panthera leo).

The 200th anniversary year of Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures, European-accessed since April 28, 1819, encounters emblematic, symbolic lions in the Ajanta cave 15 shrine.

A famous function that lions fulfill in Hindu mythology flows from Shiva (from Sanskrit शिव, "auspicious"), ascetic and nataraja (from Sanskrit नर्त, "dancing" and राजन्, "king").

Hindu mythology gives Shiva the ascetic's ash-grayed body, matted hair and skull necklace and the drum-beating, flame-holding, ignorance-obliterating, four-armed dancer's cyclical dance of destruction and recreation. Shiva cyclically holds cosmic dances because he honed mindful breath and muscles as matted-haired yogi (from Sanskrit योगिन्, "ascetic") in tiger skin and with snow-white face. The first four of his 84 invented yoga postures include the seated lion pose with eyes intent upon the nose, mouth open and palms on thighs.

The 200th anniversary year juggles Hindu mythology in Ajanta cave 15 sculptures and in European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures in central-west Maharashtra state, India.

The Buddhist Sangha (from Sanskrit संघ, "multitude") knew Ajanta (from Sanskrit अजित, "invincible") between the third and first centuries B.C.E. and between the fourth and eighth centuries C.E.

The name Ajanta links to Maitreya Buddha (from Sanskrit मैत्रेय, "benevolent" and बुद्ध, "awakened"), successor, after 500 reincarnations, in the 25th century C.E. to Gautama Buddha. The Hindu religion of the Satavahana and Vakataka dynasties manifests itself in the Hindu mythology that marks Ajanta cave 15 and Ajanta monasteries and prayer halls. Ajanta cave 15, as 64.37- by 52.43-foot (19.62- by 15.98-meter) vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") monastery cave, nets eight dormitory cells for stone-carved, stone-pillowed beds.

Later monastery caves, such as Ajanta cave 15, offer the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures pillared verandas and pillarless halls.

Ajanta cave 15 possesses one sanctum sanctōrum (Latin, from Hebrew קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים, "holy of holies"), put previously in chaitya (from Sanskrit चैत्य, "memorial monument") prayer halls.

Second-phase itinerant artisans and monks quit sculpting shrines only in prayer halls once monastery caves queued up as dormitory cells with devotion-, instruction-, meditation-questing assembly halls. Ajanta cave 15 reveals carved corn-eating pigeons; face-relaxing, stress-reducing, vishuddha chakra-radiated (from Sanskrit विशुद्ध, "especially pure [throat]" and चक्र, "point") lion poses; and residual wall paintings. Jataka (from Sanskrit जातक, "born under") tales show Gautama Buddha's reincarnation as a pigeon surviving on pigeon food, unlike a crow slaughtered for stealing people food.

Ajanta cave 15 treats the 200th anniversary year of European-accessed Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures to lion-like and pigeon-transformed Gautama Buddha seated and surviving mindfully.

ground plan for Ajanta Cave 15; ca. 1850 pen-and-ink and wash drawing by Major Robert Gill (Sept. 26, 1804-April 10, 1879), from album of 26 ground plans and 16 folios of drawings of sculpture and architectural details in the Ajanta Caves, held at The British Library, St. Pancras, Central and North West London; Wikimedia Commons page created Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, by Ms Sarah Welch via UploadWizard: Ms Sarah Welch, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Major Robert Gill (Sept. 26, 1804-April 10, 1879), who made extensive copies of Ajanta Caves' artistry, sits at the Ajanta Cave 15 doorway, which he described as ". . . executed with considerable care, and in a good style of art."; J. Fergusson and R. Gill, The Rock-Cut Temples of India (1864), page 16: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vihara_No._15%E2%80%94Ajunta.jpg;
Not in copyright, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/rockcuttemplesof00ferg/page/n90/mode/1up;
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