Asian honey bee (Apis cerana)

Asian honey bee (Apis cerana) is an animal species in Apidae, honey bees that build nests consisting of many combs in cavities that have small entrances, eat pollen and nectar, are very social, live in forests and plantations in an ecosystem together with other bee species.

A. cerana has long, erect hair and covers compound eyes, helps pollen collection, the scutellum is very convex and the lobes are also on the hind wings. Adults are black, with four or five yellow stripes on the abdomen.

Workers use their hind legs to transport pollen and stingers instead of organs for laying eggs. The queen is a reproductive female, usually larger in size because of the enlarged reproductive organs. The drone is male, has bigger eyes, does not have a stinger and is a blunt stomach.

A nest is a simple vertical comb made of wax secreted by workers, whereas thermoregulation is produced by fanning and evaporation of water collected in the field. This large-scale storage tactic requires the construction of a stable and sturdy comb structure for storage of the honey.

The production of wax for combs is an expensive and energetic endeavor, colonies generally do not build entire structures early on. Colonies construct sequences of smaller combs that meet initial storage needs. After moving to a new hive, the colony will continue to enlarge the comb until there are sufficient storage units to meet all the honey needs.

In general, the initial series of combs can be about 20,000 cells, while the finished structure can contain up to 100,000. These nests are usually large enough to accommodate about 6,000 to 7,000 individuals and are found in a variety of external environments.

Asian honey bee maintains body temperature in the range 33-36C even though the ambient temperature varies between 12-36C. A mechanism demonstrating an effective nest thermoregulation system. Workers use evaporative cooling, which gathers outside the nest in hot weather and fan the wings to remove excess heat and humidity inside the hive.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Infraorder: Aculeata
Superfamily: Apoidea
Epifamily: Anthophila
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Apinae
Tribe: Apini
Genus: Apis
Subgenus: Apis
Species: Apis cerana
Subspecies: Apis cerana ssp. cerana, Apis cerana ssp. indica, Apis cerana ssp. japonica

Dry Valleys on Antarctic continent is the driest place in the world

The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world, rainfall is very low, only stretches of sand and rocks without rivers and plants further strengthen the view of drought. However, it turns out that the place is not the driest place in the world. Dry Valleys in Antarctica, although the continent is covered in ice, but has one part that is completely dry. Although the average rainfall in most of the Sahara Desert is less than 20 millimeters per year, there are still drier places. Dry Valleys in Antarctica is much drier where the average rainfall is 0 millimeters per year and gets the title of the driest place in the world. The valleys have so low humidity that there is almost no ice. This is the largest ice free place on the Antarctic continent. The area is surrounded by mountains that block ice from flowing into the valley. Drought is also caused by strong katabalic gusts from mountain peaks where cold air blows down the hill due to gravity. The wind has speeds of up to 322 k...

Tekijem (Cyperus cyperoides)

Tekijem ( Cyperus cyperoides ) is a plant species in Cyperaceae, annual grasses that grow in seasonal wetlands, open or shaded fields, swamps, ponds, rice fields, roadsides, open forests, secondary forests and shrubs at altitudes up to 1,800 m in the tropics. C. cyperoides has an upright, triangular shape, 20-75 cm tall from a very short rhizome and has no stolon. The lanceolate-shaped leaves are narrow and long, the tips are pointed, slippery, shiny, green and grow at the bottom and at the top of the stem. The terminal flower appears on the tip of the stem, cylindrical spiklet shaped and green. Each stem has two to seven flowers, each of which has a short or long stem that grows at the end of the stem together with the leaves. Tekijem grows solitary or in small groups at a distance. Propagating using vegetative and generative methods using seeds. At least three sub-species are Cyperus cyperoides cyperoides , Cyperus cyperoides flavus and Cyperus cyperoides pseudoflavus . Th...

Giant golden spider (Nephila pilipes)

Kemlanding or giant golden orbweaver ( Nephila pilipes ) is an animal species in the Araneidae, a web spider with a vertical and asymmetrical mesh, sexually dimorphic with elongated females up to 20 cm in size and has a large investment in egg production and web construction, whereas males only a few millimeters. N. pilipes displays female gigantism and male dwarfism. Females usually have a body size of 30-50 mm, the cephalothorax is 15 mm long and 10 mm wide. The stomach is 30 mm long, 15 mm wide and is mostly tawny with yellow stripes. The female has black or brown, covered in thick hairs. The two rows of eyes stick out towards the back. Plastron is mostly black and brown. The legs are very long, stick-shaped with several joints, black and yellow, lacking of hairs. Males are 5-6.5 mm in size, cephalothorax is 2.5 mm long and 2 mm wide. The stomach is 4 mm long and 1.5 mm wide. The front eye is bigger than the back eye. The legs are light brown with some hair. Yellow carapace with ...

Dlium