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

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 ...

Jomblang Cave

Jomblang Cave or Luweng Jomblang is a 50-meter vertical collapse doline type cave in Gunung Kidul Regency, Yogyakarta Province, Indonesia. This cave was formed due to geological processes in which soil and vegetation on the surface collapsed to the bottom of the earth into a sinkhole thousands of years ago into ancient forests in the cave. Inside the cave grows endemic vegetation and a place for conservation of ancient plants. Sunlight bursts into 90 meters of Luweng Grubug to form a light pole, illuminating the beautiful flowstone and water dripping from a height in a dark room. Characteristics Jomblang Cave is one of the caves of hundreds of caves in the Gunung Sewu Geopark . This doline collapse cave is formed due to the surface process collapsing and forming a sinkhole. Ancient plants that lived on the surface also fell to the bottom of the earth, adapted and continued to grow until now as a very rare endemic plant. This cave has a mouth hole 50 meters wide and 60 meters ...

Tanglehead (Heteropogon contortus)

Tanglehead ( Heteropogon contortus ) is a species of Poaceae, an erect grass, up to 65 cm tall, with leaves up to 13 cm long and 0.5 cm wide. The inflorescence is at the top and hairy. The tip is black. This plant forms dense colonies in forests, agricultural lands, roadsides, and abandoned areas. TAXON : Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Liliopsida Order: Poales Family: Poaceae Subfamily: Panicoideae Tribe: Andropogoneae Subtribe: Anthistiriinae Genus: Heteropogon Pers. in Syn. Pl. 2: 533 (1807) Species: Heteropogon contortus (L.) P.Beauv. in J.J.Roemer & J.A.Schultes, Syst. Veg., ed. 15[bis]. 2: 836 (1817) HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS : Andropogon contortus L. in Sp. Pl.: 1045 (1753) Heteropogon contortus var. hirtus Hack. in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Bras. 2(3): 267 (1883) Heteropogon hirtus Pers. (1807) Holcus contortus (L.) Stuck. in Anales Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, ser. 3, 4: 48 (1904) Sorghum contortum (L.) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. ...

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