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...

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...

Tripa tiger moth (Nannoarctia tripartita)

Tripa tiger moth ( Nannoarctia tripartita ) is an animal species in the Erebidae, a moth with a forewing length of 14-18 mm, predominantly black or dark brown with white and orange hues, thick fur on the dorsal surface, long legs and antennae, living in forest scrub and agricultural land. N. tripartita in females has forewings 15-18 mm long, black or dark brown with slightly oblique transverse and few spots. The hind wings are yellow with large dark discal points and three other dots. Males have forewings 14-17 mm long, black or dark brown with transverse oblique postdiscal bands and several spots. The hind wings are yellow with brown costal margins, discal confluent points, wide ridges on the crest and angular points in the tornus. The head has a thin orange pattern and a pair of long black antennae. Long legs are black. Tripa tiger moths live in forest scrub, farmland and roadsides. More stationary by sticking to the leaf surface at the top. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropod...

Dlium