Walang batik (Valanga nigricornis insularis)

Walang batik or batik valanga (Valanga nigricornis insularis) is a grasshopper subspecies in Acrididae, living arborial in bushes and trees in open habitats, very large sexual dimorphism with 45-55 mm long males and 15-75 mm females, pale green nymphs with markings dark sign.

V. nigricornis insularis live in large groups to colonize the area, adult females are yellowish brown, yellowish or green with bluish-black markings and the hind wings will look rose red when flying.

Males have black fake wings, black-brown heads, black eyes, black antennae, chest and abdomen yellow with black features, reddish-brown legs with black features, brown underside, brown upper legs and black underside.

Walang batik has one generation every year with four eggs laid on moist soil in the clearing of the forest. The eggs will remain inactive throughout the dry season and take 6-8 months to hatch before the rainy season.

The hatching eggs produce nymphs for 6-7 instar stages before becoming adults which are usually in January-February. Nymphs and adults are diurnal and like to bask in the sun to eat leaves.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Order: Orthoptera
Suborder: Caelifera
Infraorder: Acrididea
Superfamily: Acridoidea
Family: Acrididae
Subfamily: Cyrtacanthacridinae
Tribe: Cyrtacanthacridini
Genus: Valanga
Species: Valanga nigricornis
Subspecies: Valanga nigricornis ssp. insularis

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

BLOG - On October 28, 2004, a paper was published in Nature describing the dwarf hominin we know today as Homo floresiensis that has shocked the world. The report changed the geographical landscape of early humans that previously stated that the Pleistocene Asia was only represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens . The report titled "A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia" written by Peter Brown and Mike J. Morwood from the University of New England with Thomas Sutikna, Raden Pandji Soejono, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo and Rokus Awe Due from the National Archaeology Research Institute (ARKENAS), Indonesia, presents more diversity in the genus Homo. “Immediately, my fever vanished. I couldn’t sleep well that night. I couldn’t wait for sunrise. In the early morning we went to the site, and when we arrived in the cave, I didn’t say a thing because both my mind and heart couldn’t handle this incredible moment. I just went down...

The ancestor of Homo floresiensis lived 700,000 years ago was smaller

NEWS - The remains of Homo floresiensis found by Australian-New Zealand archaeologist, Professor Mike Morwood (1950-2013) in Liang Bua cave, Flores, in 2003 gradually revealed its evolutionary origins. The very small adult leg bones belonging to the small-brained "Hobbit of Flores" are at least 700,000 years old. Previous archaeological evidence suggests that these tiny humans inhabited Liang Bua around 50,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens had long settled in southern Australia which ultimately gave rise to much debate about the origins of Flores humans. A hypothesis is that H. floresiensis is a hybrid of early Asian Homo erectus . Another hypothesis is the remains of a more ancient hominin from Africa before H. erectus and small-bodied from the start. If so, the likely candidates are Homo habilis or Australopithecus afarensis . Another hominin fossil ever found on Flores is the Mata Menge site 75 km to the east. The earlier site in the tropical grasslands of the So...

Large-leaved uvaria (Uvaria littoralis)

Kalak or large-leaved uvaria ( Uvaria littoralis ) is a species of plant in Annonaceae, shrub or small tree, erect, woody, young branches are blackish brown with white spots, growing in clumps on the shaded forest floor, in teak forests, clay soil, limestone and rocky rocks. U. littoralis has leaves in rows along the branches, zigzag, very short stalks and sitting alternately. The leaf blade is up to 25 cm long, up to 10 cm wide, pointed tip, heart base, a main vein in the middle with many small pinnate veins. Fan-shaped flowers, blood red, yellow center. Fruits grow at the end of the bunch and radial with a 1-2 cm long stalk. Young fruit is round and yellow, ripe fruit is oval or elongated and red to blackish blue. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Magnoliales Family: Annonaceae Tribe: Uvarieae Genus: Uvaria Species: Uvaria littoralis

Dlium