Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi)

Jali or Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) is a species of plant in the Poaceae, annual shrub, many clumps, erect and large stems, 1-3 meters high, white powdery coating, roots rough and difficult to uproot, grows wild in forests and fields agriculture, several varieties are cultivated for food sources and craft materials.

C. lacryma-jobi has alternating leaves, ribbon-shaped strands, 8-100 cm long, 1.5-5 cm wide, pointed tip, base hugging stem, flat edge, rough surface like paper and main bone protruding on the back of the leaf.

Flowers come out of leaf axils and branching ends, are grain-shaped and have stalks. The fruit has a long stalk, oval in shape, green or white or blue or purple and hard skin when it is old.

Leaves are used for fiber. The widely cultivated varieties have soft fruit for pulp, while the hard wild varieties are used for beads on necklaces.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Tribe: Andropogoneae
Subtribe: Coicinae
Genus: Coix
Species: Coix lacryma-jobi
Varieties: Coix lacryma-jobi var. lacryma-jobi, Coix lacryma-jobi var. maxima

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 ...

Longulus soldier beetle (Ichthyurus longulus) is the first of dozens new species to be published

NEWS - Researchers report a new species of Ichthyurus longulus that is widely distributed in Shanxi, Gansu, Hubei, Chongqing, Guizhou and Guangxi in China. This species has some variation in pronotum coloration but can be easily distinguished from all other species. I. longulus is easily distinguished from all species from China by its uniform black elytra, in contrast to the mixed black and yellow bicolor elytra in other species. Each mesotibia is present with an apical spur in males, while it is absent in other species. In addition, the terminal abdominal tergite is characterized by a long lateral projection, about 3/5 of the tergite length. Furthermore, the aedeagus has a long setifore extension that is almost as long as the parameres. The legs are slender and the terminal abdominal tergite has a simple lateral projection in males. The specific name is derived from the Latin word longus meaning long, referring to the long setifore extension. The body length for both sexes is 13.5-...

Javanese grasshopper (Valanga nigricornis)

Wooden grasshopper or Javanese grasshopper ( Valanga nigricornis ) is an animal species of Acrididae, grasshoppers that have at least 18 subspecies, insects with very wide diversity in color and size, sexual dimorphism in which females are larger in size and paler in color. V. nigricornis in males has a length of 45-55 millimeters and females 15-75 mm. The head is square and green or yellow or brown or black in color. A pair of antennas has a black color. The eyes are large and gray or white or brownish. The hind legs are very large and have a green or yellow or brown or black color, plain or brindle. The limbs have two rows of large and long spines with black tips facing backward. The wings have a length exceeding the belly, a rough surface and are brown or green or yellow or black in color with pulse lines forming spaces filled with black color. The hind wings are rose red which will be visible when flying. Nymphs are pale green or yellow or brown or blackish in color. Javanese gr...

Dlium