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froghopper

(Encyclopedia)froghopper or spittlebug, small, hopping insect of the order Homoptera. The adult, under 1⁄2 in. (1.2 cm) long in most species, is triangular in shape and usually gray or dull green to brown. Most f...

Huckabee, Mike

(Encyclopedia)Huckabee, Mike (Michael Dale Huckabee), 1955–, American politican and Baptist minister, b. Hope, Ark. He attended Ouachita Baptist Univ. (B.A., 1975) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. H...

grosbeak

(Encyclopedia)grosbeak grōsˈbēk [key] [great beak], common name for various members of the family Fringillidae (finch family). Grosbeaks are characterized by their large conical bills. The male rose-breasted gro...

taiga

(Encyclopedia)taiga tīˈgə [key], northern coniferous-forest belt of Eurasia, bordered on the north by the treeless tundra and on the south by the steppe. This vast belt, comprising about one third of the forest ...

longevity

(Encyclopedia)longevity lŏnjĕvˈĭtē [key], term denoting the length or duration of the life of an animal or plant, often used to indicate an unusually long life. The average human life-span of threescore and te...

Lake District

(Encyclopedia)Lake District, region of mountains and lakes, c.30 mi (50 km) in diameter, Cumbria, NW England. It includes the Cumbrian Mts. and part of the Furness peninsula. The district comprises 15 lakes, among ...

Banks, Dennis James

(Encyclopedia)Banks, Dennis James, 1937–2017, Native American civil-rights activist, b. Leech Lake Reservation, Minn. Of Ojibwa (Chippewa) heritage, he helped found the American Indian Movement (1968) to fight fo...

rust, in botany

(Encyclopedia)rust, in botany, name for various parasitic fungi of the order Uredinales and for the diseases of plants that they cause. Rusts form reddish patches of spores on the host plant. About 7,000 species ar...

Beaumont

(Encyclopedia)Beaumont, city (2020 pop. 115,282), seat of Jefferson co., Tex., on the Sabine-Neches Waterway; inc. 1838. A ship channel provides the facilities of a m...

state flowers

(Encyclopedia)state flowers. Each state of the United States has designated, usually by legislative action, one flower as its floral emblem; the rose has been designated by Congress as the national flower of the Un...