Betula alleghaniensis colored, peeling bark of yellow birch. For young trees where bark has not yet developed, yellow birch can also be identified by its hairy buds and stems; sweet birch has hairless buds. The yellow birch was first described by François André Michaux in 1812 as "Betula lutea". In 1904, Nathaniel Lord Britton described what he considered to be a new closely related species of birch as "Betula alleghaniensis", differing from "B. lutea" by its shorter fruiting scales and mostly cordate (vs. rarely cordate) leaf bases. After comparing the descriptions and illustrations of "B. lutea" and "B. alleghaniensis", Merritt Fernald found
Pteryx Pteryx Pteryx is a genus of beetles that is typically found in northern bogs in the Northern Hemisphere. They belonging to the family Ptiliidae which is referred to as feather-winged beetles as the hindwings are narrow and feather-like. Like most of the rest of the family, "Pteryx" are very small and live in rotting vegetative matter. They prefer rotting wood and are generally found under the bark of rotting logs or stumps. The "Pteryx" are less than 1 mm in length. They are polymorphic, in that they frequently occur in two forms, a normal variety, and a neonate form that