Green weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina)

Rangrang or Asian weaver ant or green weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) is a species of insects in Formicidae, arboreal, rather large ants that are known to have high ability in forming webbing for nests, brown-red-green, social insects and forming colonies in very high populations.

O. smaragdina creates territorial, fierce temperament and attacks anything that approaches the area. Many tree owners in Southeast Asia use them to preserve fruit. The larvae are known as Kroto which are favored by birds being a secondary trading commodity for additional income by farmers.

Ant Weaver has two species that are still alive is the Asian weaver ant (O. smaragdina) which is widespread in tropical Asia and Australia, African weaver ant (O. longinoda) inhabits the tropics in Africa, while the other species in this genus are fossils.

They are the dominant ants in the open forest and make leaf nests which are held together with larval silk. Ants have been important in research on the integration of control, communication, territoriality, colonizing life and controlling agricultural pests.

Weaver ant is a true social insect, has a social structure and the life of the colony is very dependent on the tree. The queen are females, measuring 20-25 mm, green or brown in color and has the duty to spawn babies. The male is in charge of marrying the queen and dying.

The worker are females, measuring 56 mm, orange and greenish, in charge of caring for young ants. Warriors are females, measuring 810 mm, generally orange in color, having strong long legs, long antennae, large jaws, guarding nests, searching and gathering food for all colonies and building nests.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Formicinae
Genus: Oecophylla
Species: O. smaragdina

Elephant bell gourd (Trichosanthes tricuspidata)

Elephant bell gourd ( Trichosanthes tricuspidata ) is a plant species in the Cucurbitaceae, stems grow elongated to propagate or climb, many branches, cylindrical in shape and green in color. T. cochinchinensis has stem tips or branches that twist to attach themselves to a support or other plant. It grows to climb to cover a support, usually on another plant, up to several meters and creeps along the ground to reach another support. Arrow-shaped leaves, split base, sharp apex and two wings at an acute angle, have many veins ending at a sharp edge, green and have a long petiole. Single flower is white. The fruit is round to oval, ends with a tail, young green and turns red with maturity, thin skin, thick flesh and reddish yellow, has a short stalk and hangs. The seeds are in the middle of the fruit. Seeds are white, oval and flat. Black coated seeds. Elephant bell gourd grows wild in primary and secondary forests, agricultural land, roadsides, watersheds, especially on slopes, damp a

Namib desert petal-bush (Petalidium namibense), previously confused with P. englerianum, P. rossmannianum and P. variabile

NEWS - Namib desert petal-bush ( Petalidium namibense Swanepoel & A.E.van Wyk, sp. nov.), previously confused with Petalidium englerianum , Petalidium rossmannianum and Petalidium variabile was established as a new species with a restricted range in the southwest, west and northwest of Puros in the Kaokoveld Centre of Endemism, northwestern Namibia. Currently, 41 species of Petalidium Nees von Esenbeck (1832) have been described in Africa. The main centre of diversity for the genus is in northwest Namibia and adjacent southwest Angola. Namibia is home to 31 species, while 13 species have been recorded in Angola, 6 in South Africa, and 33 species have been recorded in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho. During several expeditions to the Puros region, Wessel Swanepoel discovered an unknown Petalidium characterized by a dwarf shrubby habit, many stems from below or above the ground, white flaking bark (corky on older stems), long dendritic trichomes and flowers i

Matthias Asmuss pitcairnia (Pitcairnia asmussii) from Venezuela similar to Pitcairnia xanthocalyx Mart. 1848

NEWS - Matthias Asmuss pitcairnia ( Pitcairnia asmussii Gouda spec. nov.) discovered by Matthias Asmuss from Caracas, Venezuela, and cultivated at the Utrecht Botanical Gardens is similar to Pitcairnia xanthocalyx Martius (1848), but with shorter flower stalks with larger sepals and petals, and dimorphic, non-petiolate leaves. Pitcairnia L’Heritier (1788) is a mostly terrestrial genus widespread from Mexico to Argentina with a total of 217 species and about 52 species known from Venezuela. In 2015 Matthias Asmuss from Caracas collected a new Pitcairnia from Aragua, Venezuela. The specimen is kept in the VEN herbarium, but due to the chaotic period in the country, it may have been lost, only the photo remains. At Utrecht Botanic Gardens, Eric Gouda obtained a young specimen from the collection in November 2018 and it flowered in May (2024). This living specimen is next to the type specimen used for the description. Pitcairnia asmussii is an acaulescent or short caulescent plant, flow

Dlium