Rammang-Rammang karst

Rammang-Rammang Geopark is an area of 45,000 hectares (45 square kilometers) in the Maros-Pangkep karst mountain range in Salenrang Village, Bontoa District, Maros Regency, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, or about 40 km north of Makassar City. This is the third largest karst after Tsingy in Madagascar and Shilin in China.

Rammang-Rammang Geopark National Park includes karst mountains, forests, lakes, caves, prehistoric paintings, rivers and traditional villages. The site is not too far from Sultan Hasanuddin Makassar International Airport and only a few meters from the Maros-Pangkep axis road.

Karst is formed due to the process of dissolving a carbonate rock and producing a unique surface form in exokarst and indokarst. The mountains are vast and all are enchanting where many peaks loom alone and in groups. These karsts are in the middle of a stretch of rice fields with the beautiful Pute river flow.

This area has at least 268 caves with beautiful stalagmites and stalactites. It is more special that 89 of them are prehistoric caves which have frescoes by ancient people. These paintings are made from the incision of their palms.

The longest and deepest cave in Rammang-Rammang is shaped like a well. The deepest cave is 260 meters in Leaputte Leang, while the longest is Gua Salukkan Kallang for 2,700 meters.

Six new species forming the Sumbana species group in genus Nemophora Hoffmannsegg 1798 from Indonesia

NEWS - Sumbawa longhorn ( Nemophora sumbana Kozlov, sp. nov.), Timor longhorn ( Nemophora timorella Kozlov, sp. nov.), shining shade longhorn ( Nemophora umbronitidella Kozlov, sp. nov.), Wegner longhorn ( Nemophora wegneri Kozlov, sp. nov.), long brush longhorn ( Nemophora longipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.), and short brush longhorn ( Nemophora brevipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.) from the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia. The Lesser Sunda Islands consist of two parallel, linear oceanic island chains, including Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Sawu, Timor, Alor, and Tanimbar. The oldest of these islands have been continuously occurring for 10–12 million years. This long period of isolation has allowed significant in situ diversification, making the Lesser Sundas home to many endemic species. This island chain may act as a two-way filter for organisms migrating between the world's two great biogeographic regions, Asia and Australia-Papua. The recognition of a striking cli...

Banded dragonfish (Akarotaxis gouldae) diverged from Akarotaxis nudiceps 780,000 years ago

NEWS - A new species of dragonfish, Akarotaxis gouldae or banded dragonfish, off the western Antarctic Peninsula by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at Gloucester Point, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, highlights the unknown biodiversity and fragile ecosystems of the Antarctic. A. gouldae was named in honor of the Antarctic Research and Supply Vessel (ARSV) Laurence M. Gould and crew. The larval specimen was collected while trawling for zooplankton and was initially thought to be the closely related Akarotaxis nudiceps hundreds of thousands of years ago. DNA comparisons with A. nudiceps specimens held in collections at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Yale University, and the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris showed significant variation in mitochondrial genes that suggested the larval sample was a distinct species. Andrew Corso of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and colle...

Bush sorrel (Hibiscus surattensis)

Bush sorrel ( Hibiscus surattensis ) is a plant species in Malvaceae, annual shrub, crawling on the surface or climbing, up to 3 meters long, thorny stems, green leaves, yellow trumpet flowers, grows wild in forests and canal edges, widely used for vegetables and treatment. H. surattensis has stems with spines and hairs, branching and reddish green. Petiole emerges from the stem with a straight edge to the side, up to 11 cm long, sturdy, thorny, hairy and reddish green. The leaves have a length of 10 cm, width of 10 cm, 3-5 lobed, each has a bone in the middle with several pinnate veins, sharp tip, sharp and jagged edges, wavy, stiff, green surface. Flowers up to 10 cm long, trumpet-shaped, yellow with a purple or brown or red center, solitary, axillary. Epicalyx has forked bracts, linear inner branches, spathulate outer branches. Stalks up to 6-7 cm. The seeds have a length of 3-3.5 mm and a width of 2.5 mm. Bush sorrels grow in pastures, marshes, abandoned fields and plantations, ...

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