Talk:Moult

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[edit] Temporal Note

I just corrected the word "biannually" to "semi-annually" in reference to dogs shedding their coats. For future reference, please note the following temporal terms:

  • Annual/annually - once a year; or one year only (e.g., plants that flower and die are "annuals")
  • Biennial/biennially or bi-annually - once every two years; or two years only
  • Triennial/triennially or tri-annually - once every three years; or three years only
  • Perennial/perennially - every year without end (e.g., plants that flower annually without dying or re-planting are "perennials")
  • Semi-annual/semi-annually - twice a year, especially once every six months.
  • Quarterly or tri-monthly - four times a year, once every three months
  • Quad-monthly - three times a year, once every four months (but nobody says "quad monthly" - they say either "three times a year" or "every four months").
  • Bi-Monthly - six times a year, once every two months
  • Monthly - twelve times a year, once every month
  • Semi-monthly - twice a month, typically the 1rst and 15th days of the month
  • Demi-semi-monthly - three times a month (but most people say "three times a month"), typically the first, tenth/eleventh and twentieth/twenty-first days of the month)
  • Bi-weekly - every two weeks, totalling 26 times per year (27 in some years).
  • Tri-weekly - every three weeks, totalling 17 times per year (18 in some years)
  • Quad-weekly - every four weeks (which is what people actually say; nobody says "quad-weekly"), totalling 13 times per year (as compared to monthly, which totals 12 times per year)
  • Semi-weekly - twice a week, especially twice during a five-day work/school week (e.g., Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday)
  • Demi-semi-weekly - three times a week (which is what people usually say), especially three times within a six-day work/school week (e.g., Monday, Wednesday and Friday; or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday)
  • Biurnal or bi-diurnal (very rare) - every other day (which is what everybody says)
  • Daily - every day —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.244.43.17 (talk) 01:42, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Separation?

Why is molting for insects and arachnids separated, wouldn't it make vastly more sense to just have a 'molting in arthropods' section that also includes crustaceans?

[edit] Bird moulting

I think any bird moulting article should include the specific reason(s) why it is necessary for moulting to happen in the first place.

[edit] Merger proposal

Moulting and ecdysis mean the same thing. The term ecdysis is not restricted to arthropods but applies to reptiles as well. Hence I propose to mege this article into Ecdysis. AshLin 12:48, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

But aren't there (at least) two different processes? I don't think it makes much sense to merge the moulting of an exoskeleton with the moulting of feathers and fur or with the shedding of reptilian skin. It might be that the articles need to be renamed (e.g. moulting (Ecdysozoa) or ecdysis (Ecdysozoa), moulting (vertebrates) and ecdysis (reptiles)), but the functions and mechanisms are really quite disparate and should not, in my opinion, be treated together. Our articles should be about the biological processes, and not about the ambiguities of the terms used for them. --Stemonitis 14:26, 29 August 2007 (UTC)