Silk oak (Grevillea robusta)

Pohon perak or silk oak (Grevillea robusta) is a species of plant in the Proteaceae, a large, fast-growing evergreen tree with one main trunk, 5-40 m tall, bark dark gray and wrinkled, grows in tropical mountains, rainforests subtropical, dry and wet rainforests.

G. robusta has fern-like leaves, 10-34 cm long, 9-15 cm wide and is divided between 11-31 major lobes and each lobe is sometimes further divided into 4 minor lobes, each linear to narrow triangular. The tree will lose a lot of leaves before flowering.

Flowers arranged on one side and sometimes branched with a length of 12-15 cm. The carpel of each flower has a stalk 21-28 mm long. Flowers are bare and mostly yellowish orange or reddish. Flowering in September-November and the following fruit are bald follicles.

Silk oak loves full sun and is drought tolerant. Flowers and fruit contain toxic hydrogen cyanide. Wood is widely used for joints outside windows, furniture, cabinets, fences, musical instruments and shade in plantations.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Subfamily: Grevilleoideae
Tribe: Embothrieae
Subtribe: Hakeinae
Genus: Grevillea
Species: Grevillea robusta

Laniger bat tick (Ixodes lanigeri), new hard tick species (Ixodidae) from mouse-eared bats (Myotis) in Vietnam

NEWS - Researchers have identified Ixodes ticks from Vietnam based on morphological and molecular characteristics of females, nymphs and larvae as a new species, laniger bat tick ( Ixodes lanigeri ), which like other members of the Ixodes ariadnae complex appears to show a preference for vesper bats as a typical host. Historically, for more than a century and a half, only one species has been called the “long-legged bat tick”: Ixodes vespertilionis Koch. However, over the past decade, it has been molecularly recognized that long-legged ixodid ticks associated with bats may represent at least six species. Host associations and geographic separation may explain the evolutionary divergence of the new species from its closest living relative Murina hilgendorfi Peters in East Asia, Japan, as no Myotis or Murina spp. have overlapping distributions between Vietnam and the Japanese mainland. On the other hand, assuming that I. lanigeri may be present in other myotine bats and knowing that s...

Kemadih (Schultesianthus coriaceus)

Kemadih ( Schultesianthus coriaceus ) is a species of plant in the Solanaceae family. It grows as a climber and covers host trees. It is a perennial, multi-branched, hardwood plant with hard, brown bark and dark green young bark. S. coriaceus has thick leaves, 15 cm long and 8 cm wide. A central vein is linear, with a pointed tip and base. The upper surface is dark green and the lower surface is bright green. The petiole is 3 cm long. The flowers are fan-shaped with 5 inflorescences. The base is narrow, whitish-yellow or bright green, and 8 cm wide. Four inflorescences with brownish-white tips and one inflorescence with a green tip grow in the center. The fruit is green, 3.5 cm long, and the stalk is 2 cm long. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Solanales Family: Solanaceae Subfamily: Solanoideae Tribe: Solandreae Genus: Schultesianthus Species: Schultesianthus coriaceus

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 ...

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