Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2019 January 14

Science desk
< January 13 << Dec | January | Feb >> January 15 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.


January 14

edit

Etymology of oxime

edit

Our article on oxime doesn't say where the name comes from, and it is one of those rarely thought about functional groups that a person can get mixed up in their minds. Thinking about it, I would assume that the old nomenclature described at aldimine is the root of it, where the carbonyl is substituted with imine and optional side chain: our article has butyraldehyde -> butyraldehyde imine, acetaldehyde -> acetaldehyde N-methylimine as examples. Logically then, something like phosgene oxime could originate from "phosgene N-oxo imine" by the old nomenclature. I want to mention in our article then that oxime = N-oxo imine but I need a source for it and it isn't an easy thing to think how to search for. Can anyone point to a usable source (ideally, one we can access?). Note: this doesn't have to be the real historical etymology; it would be good enough to have a source to say that "this is the way you can remember it". Wnt (talk) 02:46, 14 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Well Wiktionary says it is a blend of oxygen and imide.[1] This is also supported by my Collins dictionary. oxygen + imide. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:59, 14 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The big Oxford Dictionary (Draft Third Edition entry of March 2005) says that it come from German oxim (oxy- + im- from imid imide). The first use of the German term seems to be V. Meyer & A. Janny 1882, in Berichte der Deutsch. Chem. Ges. 15 1324. Dbfirs 09:41, 14 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Mantises praying on birds and reptiles

edit

How do praying mantises kill large prey such as birds and reptiles? I have seen videos of them capturing such prey and videos of them eating it, but I still cannot figure out how they kill such prey. Surtsicna (talk) 19:39, 14 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Mantises aren't venomous and it seems they kill prey by eating it. Their forelegs are powerful and equipped with spikes that can hold a prey item in position while the mantis eats it alive, often starting with the head first. According to this news piece on a recent study of bird-eating mantises, they are ambush predators that "strike out and grasp their unsuspecting meal with their two front legs, while holding onto a leaf or grass with their four back legs. Then, while their food is still alive, they begin their feast. There is no poison involved." PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 20:32, 14 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
See also this. Ruslik_Zero 20:41, 14 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]