Wikipedia:Picture of the day/April 2008

The Grenville Diptych was a

An adult Eggfruit Caterpillar Moth (Sceliodes cordalis), one of the species of the Pyralidae family of moths.

Photo credit: Fir0002

This

Image credit: Galileo spacecraft

The

Image credit: Al2/Jeff Dahl

The

Photo credit: Alain Carpentier

A map of the major cities and regions of Ancient Egypt during the dynastic period (c. 3150 to 30 BC). Egypt is traditionally divided into two halves: Lower Egypt (from the Mediterranean Sea to Dahshur, just south of Cairo) and Upper Egypt (extending south to Aswan). Further south, Egypt was bounded by the land of Kush (modern Sudan), and to the northeast, the Levant. Surrounded by harsh deserts, the river Nile was the lifeline of this ancient civilization. Memphis and Thebes were the capitals of lower and upper Egypt respectively.

Map credit: Jeff Dahl

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A Common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) bush showing a panicle with multiple flowers in bloom, and typical leaf structure.

Photo credit: John O'Neill

A pair of rice grasshoppers (Oxya yezoensis), a

Photo credit: Laitche

The jaguar (Panthera onca), shown here at Edinburgh Zoo, is a New World mammal of the Felidae family and one of four "big cats". The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and on average the largest and most powerful feline in the Western Hemisphere.

Photo credit: Pascal Blachier

This grand mosaic taken by the Cassini orbiter consists of 126 images acquired in a tile-like fashion, covering all of Saturn and its rings from one end of the planet to the other. The images were taken while Cassini was approximately 6.3 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) from Saturn.

Photo credit: Cassini orbiter

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Gilbert and Sullivan created fourteen comic operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado, many of which are still frequently performed today. However, events around their 1889 collaboration, The Gondoliers, led to an argument and a lawsuit dividing the two. In 1891, after many failed attempts at reconciliation by the pair and their producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, Gilbert and Sullivan's music publisher, Tom Chappell, stepped in to mediate between two of his most profitable artists, and within two weeks he had succeeded. This cartoon in The Entr'acte expresses the magazine's pleasure at the reuniting of D'Oyly Carte (left), Gilbert (centre), and Sullivan (right).

Image credit:

Capt.

Photo credit: United States Air Force

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Image credit: Voytek S/Jeff Dahl

The

A Green Grass-Dart Skipper Butterfly (Ocybadistes walkeri), perched on a succulent plant. The family Hesperiidae contains the skippers, named after their quick, darting flight habits. Many species of skippers look frustratingly alike and cannot currently be distinguished in the field.

Photo credit: Fir0002

A Hairy Toad Lily (Tricyrtis hirta), one of the species of the

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Pronounced sun dogs on both sides of a setting sun in New Ulm, Minnesota. Note the halo arcs passing through each. Sun dogs are an atmospheric optical phenomenon primarily associated with the reflection or refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals making up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Often, two or more can be seen on opposite sides of the sun simultaneously.

Photo credit: Erik Axdahl

United States Army pilots in action during World War I. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, known as the U.S. "Ace of Aces", conducts a bombing run over German lines.

Film credit: United States Army

A horehound bug (Agonoscelis rutila) on a horehound bush. A. rutila sucks the sap of the horehound plant, causing wilting of new shoots. Although they usually attack horehound, they may also swarm on a variety of other trees and shrubs.

Photo credit: Fir0002

The night

Image credit: Nicolas17

The

A group of female

The rotor of a modern

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