'Juvenile' and 'immature', the terms can be
confused. BTW are you confused? There was a question made by one of the faculty members at R.U.to a research scholar
during her mid term PhD presentation.
Her work is on tillage, on how tillage affects
earthworm population. Her findings were explained in terms of the varying quantity
of juvenile and immature forms of earthworm after a certain time in the
collection from both the fields placed closer and monitored closely.
More juveniles were found in the plot were
tillage occurred. I am not to explain her results. It is her discretion.There is research paper on how tillage effects earthworm population. Go through if you like to.
“Anyways what is the difference between
them?’’, as one of the faculty members asked her. She explained it in terms of the
scale of their body lengths. I will try
to explain what the basic difference is.
David
James says Juvenile birds are by definition immature birds, but immature
birds are not necessarily juvenile.
Etymologically ‘juvenile’
is an adjective derived from a Latin
word juvenilis meaning a young person or of ‘belonging to youth’.
Image Courtesy
Remember “Peter Pan, the boy who would
not grow”, J.M. Berries play. This play is available online. The hero, Peter, was immature
because he would never age.
Birds which are not covered with feathers,
or unfledged are immature. Mark the word ‘unfledged’ which do not have
feathers. So, fledglings that are unfledged are immature.
A sophomore is immature.
Sophomore is regarded as self assured and opinionated but crude and immature. ‘Sophomore’
word in Indian context is less used. But those who have read Princess Diaries must
know Mia. Mia was a sophomore, a fifteen-year-old tenth grade private school
student. So she was immature.
Childish people are immature. So Peter Pan
was childish that is why he was immature. Immature people are having the
delicacy of youth, they are tender- hearted. And now this word to all of you: You should be like one big
happy family, full of sympathy toward each other, loving one another with
tender hearts and humble minds. This I am not saying, Bible says.
Still not clear. According to Juvenile Justice Act, a commonly known child law, "juvenile" or "child" means a
person who has not completed eighteenth year of age. Recently a juvenile
murder was in news in Bihar, when
Mr. Lalu and Mr. Paswan called upon a Bihar Bandh and their supporters
destroyed public property mercilessly. What a shame on their part.
After the boy was found, who was allegedly murdered, people who look for exploiting situations surfaced like earthworms that come out when we tap feet on earth in rainy season. Here we realize
that juveniles are also teenage people and immature are also teenage people.
But immature are those people who
would not mature into adults and juveniles are those who will mature into
adults.
Similarly earthworm, we know they regenerate when cut into two.They can grow into
two,when cut? Wonderful!
natural phenomenon. Poor we!
We don’t grow into two. Neither do they. The
part of earthworm’s body which has got clitellum grows and the other which does
not have, is worn out. The part when cut must have at least the clitellum and
ten body segments to grow into a complete worm.
At one time in earthworm population
in any mound, immature and matures are found. But after rains occurred
juveniles and semi-matures are found. This happens because matures die after reproduction
in august. So, semi-matures are more numerous in September.
The word immature should not have
been used in this context. It is vague. Semi-mature is the word instead.
Juveniles are smaller than immature. Immature, that is being talked about is
earthworm sexually semi mature and juveniles are worms that have hatched from
the cocoons.
Species to species size varies, therefore depth of their burrow
also varies. Adults, which scale larger in length, are found at depth in the
cross section of the soil taken, when sampling
is done. But juvenile and semi-matures are found near the soil cover, not much deeper as in earlier case.
So immature are sexually semi-mature
earthworm that are larger than juvenile forms; i.e., those earthworms that have
hatched recently from their cocoons.
In rainy season try tapping the earth with your feet. Small earthworms, both juveniles and immatures will come out after feeling the vibrations!
