Regularly, when the exoskeleton is outgrown.Īrachnids moult regularly to grow, often becoming reclusive and fasting for long periods prior to a moult. Land hermit crabs bury themselves for many weeks while they moult and then consume their exoskeleton. Regularly, when the carapace is outgrown. Salamanders and frogs shed their skins regularly, then often eat it. Lizards, like snakes, rub against objects to help remove their shed skin and then consume the shed skin for calcium and other nutrients. Snakes rub against rough surfaces to assist removal of their shed skin. As the brightly-coloured breeding plumage of the males leaves them vulnerable to predation, they lose it through moulting, replacing it with eclipse plumage that aids in camouflage until their flight feathers regrow, upon which they moult again and regain their breeding colours. This seasonality in moulting is most preserved in Arctic breeds of dogs which shed twice each year whereas most other breeds moult once each year.Ĭhickens generally stop laying eggs when their moulting begins and recommence laying when their new feathers have re-grown.Īfter the end of the breeding season, most mallards moult their flight feathers. Moulting or shedding in canids, as in all mammals, is due to fluctuations in the amount of melatonin secreted by their pineal gland in response to seasonal sunlight variations rather than temperature variations. Some cats need brushing during moulting, since dead hairs can get trapped in the cat's fur. Cats have thicker fur during the colder winter months to keep them warm, then around spring and summer they shed some of their fur to get a thinner coat for the warmer summer months. In some groups, other body parts may be shed, for example, the entire exoskeleton in arthropods, including the wings in some insects.Ĭats moult fur around spring-summer time to get rid of their "winter coat". Moulting can involve shedding the epidermis (skin), pelage ( hair, feathers, fur, wool), or other external layer. In medieval times it was also known as "mewing" (from the French verb "muer", to moult), a term that lives on in the name of Britain's Royal Mews where the King's hawks used to be kept during moulting time before becoming horse stables after Tudor times. In biology, moulting ( British English), or molting ( American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at specific times of the year, or at specific points in its life cycle. A dragonfly in its radical final moult, metamorphosing from an aquatic nymph to a winged adult. For other uses, see Sloughing (disambiguation).
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