Asthma plant (Euphorbia hirta)

Patikan kebo or asthma plant (Euphorbia hirta) is a species of plant in the Euphorbiaceae, an annual herb, prostrate or erect, growing to 60 cm, stems cylindrical, reddish green, hairy and producing abundant white latex, white or brown taproot.

E. hirta has leaves having short stalks, sitting in pairs and opposite on the stem. Strands are elliptical, margin serrated, up to 5 veins, hairy on both sides, completely green or have a dark red plot in the center.

The flowers are unisexual, grow in the axils of the leaves at each leaf node, have no petals and are generally on the stalk. The fruit is a capsule with 3 valves and produces seeds that are red and oval in shape with 4 sides.

Asthma plants grow in forests, open meadows, roadsides and agricultural land. Widely used in traditional herbal medicine in many cultures, especially for asthma, skin diseases, and hypertension. Consumed in the form of herbal teas as a traditional remedy for dengue fever and malaria.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Subfamily: Euphorbioideae
Tribe: Euphorbieae
Subtribe: Euphorbiinae
Genus: Euphorbia
Subgenus: Chamaesyce
Section: Anisophyllum
Species: Euphorbia hirta

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

Dazzling rove beetle (Apecholinus speciosus) from Mangshan, Hunan, has similarity to Apecholinus imitator

NEWS - Dazzling rove beetle ( Apecholinus speciosus Sun & Liu, sp. nov.) from Mangshan, Hunan, China, has similarity to Apecholinus imitator Smetana & Hu 2019 and phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial genome showed the two species form a sister clade to Ocypus and Dinothenarus, all belonging to the Ocypus lineage. Apecholinus Bernhauer 1933 was established with Apecholinus kaiseri Bernhauer 1933 as the type species established by monotypy. So far, 7 species have been described and are found only in East Asia. Of these, 6 species are in mainland China and Taiwan, only one species is native to North Korea. They are A. aglaosemanticus (He & Zhou, 2017), A. canifer Smetana & Hu 2019, A. fraternus (Fairmaire, 1891), A. imitator Smetana & Hu 2019, A. kaiseri Bernhauer 1933, A. liui (He & Zhou, 2017) and A. septentrionalis Senda & Han 2023. Apecholinus is recognized by mandibles each having one simple tooth on the medial edge, no subdental mandibul

Soft scale insect, repens scale (Pulvinaria rhododendri), on Rhododendron spp. in Northern Europe

NEWS - Repens scale ( Pulvinaria rhododendri Kahrer & Hodgson, Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) was discovered in Rhododendron spp. (Ericaceae) in Denmark and Norway which appears taxonomically close to P. camelicola Signoret and P. floccifera Westwood with an uncertain geographic origin, but is likely to have been introduced to northern Europe via imported live plants. P. rhododendri is distinguished from P. floccifera , P. camelicola and all other Pulvinaria species by a combination of characters-a medial band of large conical spinous setae extending from the anal plate anterior to the head and simple pores with strongly sclerotic margins present in a narrow medial band between the large conical spinous setae. The new species also differs from P. floccifera by the presence of a type III tubular canal submarginally between the lateral stigmatic clefts (vs. absent). The species is named after the genus of the host plant from which it is most commonly collected, Rhododendron

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