Yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina)

Yellow-legged hornet or Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) is an animal species in Vespidae, wasps with white or yellow tarsi, has about 13 subspecies, queens are 30 mm long and males 24 mm, workers 20 mm long and build nests to accommodate thousands of colonies.

V. velutina has a velvety brown or black chest with a brown belly. Each ventral segment has a narrow yellow border except for the fourth segment which is orange, black head and yellow face but varies widely in color and several subspecies have been identified by geographic coverage.

The female has a stinger to defend the nest and kill prey. Large egg-shaped nests up to 50 cm in length. The nesting season is long and the colony usually starts with building a nest in low bush, then leaves after a few months and quickly builds a new nest in the tree.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Infraorder: Aculeata
Superfamily: Vespoidea
Family: Vespidae
Subfamily: Vespinae
Genus: Vespa
Species: Vespa velutina
Subspecies: Vespa velutina ssp. ardens, Vespa velutina ssp. auraria, Vespa velutina ssp. celebensis, Vespa velutina ssp. divergens, Vespa velutina ssp. flavitarsus, Vespa velutina ssp. floresiana, Vespa velutina ssp. nigrithorax, Vespa velutina ssp. variana

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

Sea stars from sunken woods Caymanostella scrippscognaticausa, Caymanostella davidalani and Caymanostella loresae

NEWS - Three species of sea stars from specimens collected from sunken woods at several locations along the Pacific margin of Costa Rica and near the Gulf of California (Mexico): Scripps sea star ( Caymanostella scrippscognaticausa sp. nov.), David Alan Lewis sea star ( Caymanostella davidalani sp. nov.) and Lores López Gómez sea star ( Caymanostella loresae sp. nov.) Caymanostellidae Belyaev 1974 have been found in logs from sinkholes at depths ranging from ~414 m to 6780 m in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The first described species C. spinimarginata Belyaev 1974 was collected in the Cayman Trench, Caribbean Sea, at depths of 6740-6780 m. Four species of Caymanostellidae are C. spinimarginata Belyaev 1974, C. admiranda Belyaev & Litvinova 1977, C. phorcynis Rowe 1989 and C. madagascarensis Belyaev & Litvinova 1991 which are morphologically identifiable based on the unique shape and arrangement of the abactinal plates, the shape of the abactinal spinelets, t

Quadrangle sunset bell (Drymonia quadrangulata) from Andean slopes of southern Colombia and northern Ecuador

NEWS - Quadrangle sunset bell ( Drymonia quadrangulata Clavijo & J.L.Clark, sp. nov.) from western Andean slopes of southern Colombia and northern Ecuador has historically been confused with D. killipii which is endemic to Colombia and restricted to the lowlands of the Chocó biogeographic region in the departments of Cauca, Chocó, and Valle del Cauca. Drymonia Mart. is the third largest genus in the neotropical Gesneriaceae, surpassed only by Columnea with 210+ species and Besleria with 175+ species. Drymonia comprises 87 species mostly concentrated in the northern Andes and the Chocó biogeographic region, especially in Colombia (40 species) and Ecuador (38 species). D. quadrangulata is a terrestrial herb or shrub, 0.6–1.5 m tall. Stem scandent basally and then erect, usually branched, adventitious roots usually absent, quadrangular in cross-section to strongly angulate, sometimes winged, 4.2–10.5 mm in diameter. Herbaceous to succulent, green to green with maroon spots, smooth,

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