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A dragonfly in its radical final moult, metamorphosing from an aquatic nymph to a winged adult.. In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at specific times of the year, or at specific points in ...
When preening, a bird (such as this red lory) draws individual feathers through its beak, realigning and re-interlocking the barbules.. Preening is a maintenance behaviour found in birds that involves the use of the beak to position feathers, interlock feather barbules that have become separated, clean plumage, and keep ectoparasites in check.
They may be a form of self-mimicry, to draw a predator's attention away from the prey's most vulnerable body parts. Or they may serve to make the prey appear inedible or dangerous. Eyespot markings may play a role in intraspecies communication or courtship; a well-known example is the eyespots on a peacock's display feathers.
Some will wait for passing prey in or near the mouth of a burrow. Fishing spider with its prey, a Cameroon Clawed Frog tadpole. Hunting on water: Dolomedes spiders hunt by waiting at the edge of a pool or stream. They hold on to the shore with their back legs while the rest of their body lies on the water, with legs stretched out.
Anti-predator adaptation in action: the kitefin shark (a–c) and the Atlantic wreckfish (d–f) attempt to prey on hagfishes. First, the predators approach their potential prey. Predators bite or try to swallow the hagfishes, but the hagfishes have already projected jets of slime (arrows) into the predators' mouths.
Molting (or "ecdysis") serves a number of purposes - it allows old, worn skin to be replaced and can be synced to mating cycles, as with other animals. Molting occurs periodically throughout the life of a snake. Before each molt, the snake regulates its diet and seeks defensible shelter.
Predation has been described as the act of one animal capturing and killing another animal to consume part or all of their body. [52] Jeff McMahan, a moral philosopher, asserts: "Wherever there is animal life, predators are stalking, chasing, capturing, killing, and devouring their prey. Agonized suffering and violent death are ubiquitous and ...
With prey capture times of down to 5 ms (shrimpfish Centriscus scutatus) this method is used by the fastest feeders in the animal kingdom. The secret of the speed of pivot feeding is in a locking mechanism , in which the hyoid arch is folded under the head and is aligned with the urohyal which connects to the shoulder girdle .