Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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lepidopteran ... lesion

lepidopteran: any member of the insect order Lepidoptera, which, with as many as 100,000 species, is second in size only to the Coleoptera, the beetles. In addition to the familiar butterflies and moths the order includes the skippers, a worldwide group ...
Lepidus, Marcus Aemilius: Roman senator who attempted unsuccessfully to overthrow the constitution imposed by the dictator Sulla.
Lepidus, Marcus Aemilius: Roman statesman who held the highest offices of the republic.
Lepidus, Marcus Aemilius: Roman statesman, one of the triumvirs who ruled Rome after 43.
Lepontine Alps: segment of the Central Alps along the Italian-Swiss border, bounded by the Simplon Pass and Pennine Alps (q.v.; west-southwest), the Upper Rhone and Vorderrhein river valleys (north), Splugen Pass (Italian Passo dello Spluga) and the Rhaetian Alps (east-northeast), and the ...
leprechaun: in Irish folklore, fairy in the form of a tiny old man often with a cocked hat and leather apron. Solitary by nature, he is said to live in remote places and to make shoes and brogues. The sound of ...
leprosy: chronic infectious disease that affects the skin, the peripheral nerves (nerves outside the brain and spinal cord), and the mucous membranes of the nose, throat, and eyes. It is caused by the leprosy bacillus, Mycobacterium leprae. Destruction ...
Lepsius, Richard: German Egyptologist and a founder of modern, scientific archaeology who did much to catalog Egyptian archaeological remains and to establish a chronology for Egyptian history.
Leptaena: genus of extinct brachiopods (lamp shells) commonly found as fossils in Ordovician to Lower Carboniferous sedimentary rocks (between 505 and 320 million years old). The very distinctive shell of Leptaena is characterized by its wrinkled ornamentation and fine linear markings.
Leptines, Law of: (354 BC), ancient Athenian tax measure, subject of an early speech of the orator Demosthenes. The law, named for the man who proposed it, was backed by the Athenian statesman Aristophon; it sought to raise money for the state by ...
Leptis Magna: largest city of the ancient region of Tripolitania. It is located 62 miles (100 km) southeast of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast of Libya. Lying 2 miles (3 km) east of what is now Al-Khums (Homs), Leptis contains some of ...
Leptis Minor: small Carthaginian city located 10 miles (16 km) from modern Al-Munastir (Ruspinum), Tunisia. In Roman times it was the centre of a prosperous olive-growing district, and its exports included olive oil and pottery. It was Julius Caesar's base before the ...
leptochlorite: subgroup of chlorite minerals. See chlorite.
Leptodactylidae: family of frogs (order Anura), including more than 900 species, most of which are found in South and Central America. Leptodactylid frogs live in water, on land, or in trees. More than 300 species, most of them West Indian or ...
Leptodesma: extinct genus of pelecypods (clams) found as fossils in Silurian to Lower Carboniferous rocks (between 438 and 320 million years old). Its distinct shell, roughly oval except for a sharp outgrowth that extends posteriorly, makes Leptodesma easy to identify. A ...
Leptodus: extinct genus of articulate brachiopods, or lamp shells, of the Permian period (286 to 245 million years ago). Leptodus, a very specialized form characterized by an aberrant morphology, had an oysterlike pedicle valve, which anchored the shell to the substrate ...
Leptolepis: genus of marine fish thought to represent the ancestral form that gave rise to the teleosts, the dominant group of fishes in the world today. Leptolepis was abundant between 208 million and 144 million years ago in the world's Jurassic ...
lepton: any member of a class of subatomic particles that respond only to the electromagnetic force, weak force, and gravitational force and are not affected by the strong force. Leptons are said to be elementary particles; that is, they do not ...
Leptosol: one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Leptosols are soils with a very shallow profile depth (indicating little influence of soil-forming processes), and they often contain large amounts of gravel. ...
Leptospermum: genus of about 40 species of subtropical evergreen shrubs or small trees, in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), native to Australasia. Several species have been introduced to temperate regions and grown in greenhouses for their showy roselike flowers and almost needlelike ...
leptospirosis: acute systemic illness of animals, occasionally communicable to humans, that is characterized by extensive inflammation of the blood vessels. It is caused by a spirochete, or spiral-shaped bacterium, of the genus Leptospira.
Lerdo de Tejada, Sebastian: president of Mexico from 1872 to 1876.
Lerida: provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Catalonia, northeastern Spain. It was bounded by France and Andorra to the north and by the provincias of Gerona and Barcelona (east), Tarragona (south), and Zaragoza and Huesca (west). It was formed ...
Lerida: capital of Lerida provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Catalonia, northeastern Spain, on the Segre River near its confluence with the Ebro River. Of Iberian origin, the town then called Ilerda was taken in 49 BC from Pompey ...
Lerins, Abbey of: Cistercian monastery, originally founded about 410 by St. Honoratus of Arles on a Mediterranean island opposite Cannes (now in France). It flourished in the 5th century, when it was a centre of intellectual activity. Many highly educated monks, trained elsewhere, ...
Lerma River: river in west-central Mexico. It rises on the central plateau 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Toluca and flows northwestward through the state of Mexico, forms the short border between the states of Queretaro and Michoacan, and then meanders generally ...
Lerma, Francisco Gomez de Sandoval y Rojas, duque de: Spanish statesman who died a cardinal, having been the first of the validos-strong men or favourites-through whom the Habsburg kings were to govern Spain until the end of the 17th century.
Lermontov, Mikhail: the leading Russian Romantic poet and author of the novel Geroy nashego vremeni (1840; A Hero of Our Time), which was to have a profound influence on later Russian writers.
Lerner, Abba P.: Russian-born economist whose contributions included theoretical works on inflation, unemployment, and international trade.
Lerner, Alan Jay: American librettist and lyricist who collaborated with composer Frederick Loewe on the hit Broadway musicals Brigadoon (1947), Paint Your Wagon (1951), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960) and the film Gigi (1958).
Lerner, Max: American educator, author, and syndicated columnist who was an influential spokesman for liberal political and economic views.
Lernet-Holenia, Alexander: prolific and popular dramatist, poet, and novelist, many of whose works exhibit nostalgia for pre-World War I Austrian aristocracy. In particular, his novel Die Standarte (1934), by depicting military unrest in Serbia in 1918, illustrates the loss of authority in ...
Leros: island, one of the Dodecanese islands of Greece, in the Aegean Sea, east of the Cyclades and off the southwest coast of Turkey. It is surrounded by numerous islets and is full of creeks, with many promontories and deep bays. ...
Leroux, Gaston: French novelist, best known for his Le Fantome de l'opera (1910; The Phantom of the Opera), which later became famous in various film and stage renditions.
LeRoy, Mervyn: American motion-picture director whose wide variety of 75 films included dramas (Little Caesar [1930], I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang [1932], Thirty Seconds over Tokyo [1944]), romances (Tugboat Annie [1933], Waterloo Bridge [1940], Random Harvest [1942]), epics (Anthony ...
Lerroux, Alejandro: leader of the Spanish Radical Party who headed four governments during the period of centre-right rule (1933-35) in the Second Republic (1931-39).
Lerwick: chief town of Scotland's Shetland Islands, an archipelago lying 130 miles (210 km) north of the Scottish mainland. Lerwick is the most northerly town in Britain. It is situated on a fine natural harbour on Bressay Sound on the eastern ...
Les Baux-en-Provence: village, Bouches-du-Rhone departement, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region, southeastern France, on a spur of the Alpilles Hills rising abruptly from the valley floor, northeast of Arles. On this rocky hill, about 1,000 yards (900 metres) long ...
Les Cayes: town, southwestern Haiti, on the southern Caribbean shore of the southern peninsula. Founded in 1786, it was plagued by disease and pirates during colonial times. In 1815 the South American liberator Simon Bolivar visited the port to accept Haitian arms ...
Les Combarelles: cave famous for its prehistoric engraved designs, located near Les Eyzies in Dordogne, Fr. Thousands of superimposed engravings dating from the late Aurignacian through the middle Magdalenian periods suggest that the cave long served as the centre of a hunting ...
Lesage, Alain-Rene: prolific French satirical dramatist and author of the classic picaresque novel Gil Blas, which was influential in making the picaresque form a European literary fashion.
Lesage, Jean: Canadian public official who was premier of Quebec during the period of reform in the early 1960s.
lesbianism: the quality or state of intense emotional and usually erotic attraction of a woman to another woman.
Lesbos: (after its capital), largest island after Crete and Euboea in the Aegean Sea, forming with Lemnos and Ayios Evstratios islands the nomos (department) of Lesbos, Greece. The capital of the nomos is Mytilene (q.v.), chief town of the 629.5-square-mile (1,630.5-square-kilometre) ...
Lescaze, William: Swiss-born American architect best known for conceiving, in conjunction with George Howe, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building, or PSFS (1931-32), which effectively introduced the International style of architecture into the United States. It is considered one of the best-designed ...
Lesch-Nyhan syndrome: hereditary metabolic disorder affecting the central nervous system and characterized by incoordination, mental retardation, aggressive behaviour, and compulsive biting. The cause of the syndrome is a defective organic catalyst or enzyme, hypoxanthine-guanine-phosphoribo-syltransferase, which normally is particularly active in brain cells ...
Leschetizky, Theodor: Polish pianist and teacher who, with Franz Liszt, was the most influential teacher of piano of his time.
Lescot, Pierre: one of the great French architects of the mid-16th century who contributed a decorative style that provided the foundation for the classical tradition of French architecture.
Lesdiguieres, Francois de Bonne, duc de: (duke of) constable of France and Protestant leader who late in life abjured the faith.
leshy: in Slavic mythology, the forest spirit. The leshy is a sportive spirit who enjoys playing tricks on people, though when angered he can be treacherous. He is seldom seen, but his voice can be heard in the forest laughing, whistling, ...
lesion: in physiology, a structural or biochemical change in an organ or tissue produced by disease processes or a wound. The alteration may be associated with particular symptoms of a disease, as when a gastric ulcer produces stomach pain, or it ...