[ruby-talk:14967] Array search idiom

Here's a question about a ruby idiom.  I have an array that contains
lines with mammal (classification. animal) pairs like the one found
in the code snippet.  I need to find the first contiguous list of
primates.  Assuming the array is called "a", here's how I solved the
problem.  This does what I want, but is there a better way?

The idea is that since the two conditions in the range can be disjoint
when it's used as a boolean, I skip lines (i.e., array entries) until
I get to the first one that's a primate, then pick up all the lines
until there are no more primates, the break out of the iteration.
There is one redundant check of the regexp when the first primate is
found.

a = [
"insectivora. shrews", "insectivora. moles", "insectivora. hedgehogs",
"dermoptera. flying lemurs", "chiroptera. bats", "primates. tree shrews",
"primates. lemurs", "primates. monkeys", "edentata. sloths",
"edentata. armadillos", "edentata. anteaters", "pholidota. scaly anteaters",
"primates. marmosets", "primates. great apes", "primates. humans",
"lagomorpha. hares", "lagomorpha. rabbits", "lagomorpha. pikas",
"rodentia. mice", "rodentia. rats"
]

first_group_of_primates = Array.new
a.each do |line|
    next unless line =~ /^primates\./ .. false
    break if line !~ /^primates\./
    first_group_of_primates.push line
end

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