Menjing (Alchornea rugosa)

Menjing (Alchornea rugosa) is a species of plant in the Euphorbiaceae, shrub or small tree, cylindrical stem, 1.5-5 meters high, petiole 0.5-3 cm long. leaf length 10-21 cm, leaf width 4-10 cm, thin, blunt base and jagged edges.

A. rugosa has flowers in terminal, branched, 7-25 cm long. Flowers are yellow or white or green. Fruits are round with linear indentations like crystals.

It grows in dense forests or open forests with elevations up to 600 meters and adapts well to dry soils, red soils and flooded soils.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Subfamily: Acalyphoideae
Tribe: Alchorneeae
Subtribe: Alchorneinae
Genus: Alchornea
Species: Alchornea rugosa

Jian Huang parasitoid wasp (Proaphelinoides huangi) from China strongly supported as sister group to Aphytis

NEWS - Jian Huang parasitoid wasp ( Proaphelinoides huangi Chen & Jiang, sp. nov.), reported from China based on standard DNA barcode COI, partial nuclear ribosomal 28S-D2 and 28S-D2 rDNA. The new species is similar to P. bendovi , P. elongatiformis , P. australis , P. assamensis and the genus Proaphelinoides is strongly supported as the sister group to Aphytis. Proaphelinoides Girault is a small genus in the Aphelinidae with 7 species worldwide. P. elongatiformis (Girault 1917) from Sri Lanka is the type species. P. australis from Australia (Girault 1922), P. bendovi Tachikawa (1984) from China, and 4 other species, P. anomalus Hayat (1984), P. chidambaramensis Manickavasagam & Menakadevi (2012), P. assamensis Hayat (2012) and P. ematus Hayat & Veenakumari (2016) from India. P. huangi can be distinguished from other species by yellow antennae, forewings with 10–14 feathers below the marginal vein, linea calva bordered proximally by a single row of setae, F3 1.0–1

Rhamphomyia kitadai, Rhamphomyia brunnipennis, Rhamphomyia decens and Rhamphomyia pennipes from Middle Eocene Kishenehn Formation

NEWS - Leland Kitada dance fly ( Rhamphomyia kitadai sp. nov.), brown wings dance fly ( Rhamphomyia brunnipennis sp. nov.), beautiful dance fly ( Rhamphomyia decens sp. nov.) and wing-footed dance fly ( Rhamphomyia pennipes sp. nov.) from the Middle Eocene Kishenehn Formation are described as species new to science. Females of Empidinae often display sexual ornamentation, an adaptation in the animal kingdom in general, often associated with males, especially in vertebrates. Ornamentation of female Empidinae includes legs with rows of relatively large pennate scales, enlarged and/or darkly pigmented wings and an expanded abdominal pouch. The ornamentation makes the female appear larger, more fertile and therefore more attractive to potential mates. Given the rarity of female sexual ornamentation, especially Empidini, it has become a model system for studying this phenomenon. The known fossil record includes several genera from the mid-Jurassic era dominated by two genera, Empis and

Namib desert petal-bush (Petalidium namibense), previously confused with P. englerianum, P. rossmannianum and P. variabile

NEWS - Namib desert petal-bush ( Petalidium namibense Swanepoel & A.E.van Wyk, sp. nov.), previously confused with Petalidium englerianum , Petalidium rossmannianum and Petalidium variabile was established as a new species with a restricted range in the southwest, west and northwest of Puros in the Kaokoveld Centre of Endemism, northwestern Namibia. Currently, 41 species of Petalidium Nees von Esenbeck (1832) have been described in Africa. The main centre of diversity for the genus is in northwest Namibia and adjacent southwest Angola. Namibia is home to 31 species, while 13 species have been recorded in Angola, 6 in South Africa, and 33 species have been recorded in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho. During several expeditions to the Puros region, Wessel Swanepoel discovered an unknown Petalidium characterized by a dwarf shrubby habit, many stems from below or above the ground, white flaking bark (corky on older stems), long dendritic trichomes and flowers i

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