|
Boisduval's Tree Nymph
''Sevenia boisduvali'', the Boisduval's tree nymph, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. There are four subspecies; all native to Africa. Description The following is a description for ''S. b. boisduvali'': The wingspan of Boisduval's tree nymph is 40–45 mm.Williams, M. (1994). ''Butterflies of Southern Africa: A Field Guide''. . The upper surface of the wings of the male are uniform dark brown, with small dark spots near the fringe of the hindwings. The female has an overall lighter brown colour on the upper surface, and orange-brown markings near the tips of the forewings. The dark spots near the fringe of the hindwings are more pronounced in females. The undersurface of the hindwings of both sexes are variegated grey and brown, and have an arc of seven dark spots encircled firstly by a greyish ring, and then an orange-brown ring. The undersurface of the forewing is orange brown with a row of four black spots near the tip. The female forewing also has two dark b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Daniel Johan Wallengren
Hans Daniel Johan Wallengren (8 June 1823 – 25 October 1894) was a Swedish clergyman and entomologist. Biography He was born in Lund, Sweden. Wallengren became a student at Lund University from 1842, was ordained a priest in 1847 and was appointed parish priest at Farhult and Jonstorp parishes. He undertook zoological studies with trips to Gotland and to Bohemia and Silesia, He also visited the museums in Braunschweig, Berlin and Copenhagen. Wallengren was responsible for studying and naming the butterflies collected by naturalist and explorer Johan August Wahlberg (1810–1856) at Kafferland (now Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ... in South Africa). Selected works *''Lepidoptera Scandinavioæ Rhopalocera'' (1853) *''Skandinaviens Heterocerf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
São Tomé
São Tomé is the capital and largest city of the Central African island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its name is Portuguese for " Saint Thomas". Founded in the 15th century, it is one of Africa's oldest colonial cities. History Álvaro Caminha founded the colony of São Tomé in 1493. The Portuguese came to São Tomé in search of land to grow sugarcane. The island was uninhabited before the arrival of the Portuguese sometime around 1470. São Tomé, situated about north of the equator, had a climate wet enough to grow sugarcane in wild abundance. 2,000 Jewish children, eight years old and under, were taken from the Iberian peninsula for work on the sugar plantations. The nearby African Kingdom of Kongo eventually became a source of slave labor as well. The island of São Tomé was the main center of sugar production in the sixteenth century; it was overtaken by Brazil by 1600. São Tomé is centred on a sixteenth-century cathedral, that was largely rebuilt in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assassin Bug
The Reduviidae are a large cosmopolitan family of the order Hemiptera (true bugs). Among the Hemiptera and together with the Nabidae almost all species are terrestrial ambush predators: most other predatory Hemiptera are aquatic. The main examples of nonpredatory Reduviidae are some blood-sucking ectoparasites in the subfamily Triatominae. Though spectacular exceptions are known, most members of the family are fairly easily recognizable; they have a relatively narrow neck, sturdy build, and a formidable curved proboscis (sometimes called a rostrum). Large specimens should be handled with caution, if at all, because they sometimes defend themselves with a very painful stab from the proboscis. Taxonomy The Reduviidae are members of the suborder Heteroptera of the order Hemiptera. The family members are almost all predatory, except for a few blood-sucking species, some of which are important as disease vectors. About 7000 species have been described, in more than 20 recognized subfa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leaf Margin
A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, flower, and fruit collectively form the shoot system. In most leaves, the primary photosynthetic tissue is the palisade mesophyll and is located on the upper side of the blade or lamina of the leaf but in some species, including the mature foliage of ''Eucalyptus'', palisade mesophyll is present on both sides and the leaves are said to be isobilateral. Most leaves are flattened and have distinct upper (adaxial) and lower (abaxial) surfaces that differ in color, hairiness, the number of stomata (pores that intake and output gases), the amount and structure of epicuticular wax and other features. Leaves are mostly green in color due to the presence of a compound called chlorophyll that is essential for photosynthesis as it absorbs light e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregarious
Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother wasp stays near her larvae in the nest, parasites are less likely to eat the larvae. Biologists suspect that pressures from parasites and other predators selected this behavior in wasps of the family Vespidae. This wasp behaviour evidences the most fundamental characteristic of animal sociality: parental investment. Parental investment is any expenditure of resources (time, energy, social capital) to benefit one's offspring. Parental investment detracts from a parent's capacity to invest in future reproduction and aid to kin (including other offspring). An animal that cares for its young but shows no other sociality traits is said to be ''subsocial''. An animal that exhibits a high degree of sociality is called a ''social animal''. The highe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sterculia
''Sterculia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae: subfamily Sterculioideae (previously placed in the now obsolete Sterculiaceae). Members of the genus are colloquially known as tropical chestnuts. ''Sterculia'' may be monoecious or dioecious, and its flowers unisexual or bisexual. Taxonomy Phylogeny A 27-million-year-old †''Sterculia labrusca'' leaf fossil is described from the Evros region in Western Thrace, Greece. Species The Plant List counts 91 currently accepted species. The accepted species are listed here, except as noted. *''Sterculia abbreviata'' E.L.Taylor ex Mondragón *''Sterculia aerisperma'' Cuatrec. *''Sterculia africana'' ( Lour.) Fiori – Mopopaja tree *''Sterculia albidiflora'' Ducke *''Sterculia alexandri'' Harv. – Cape sterculia *''Sterculia amazonica'' E.L.Taylor ex Mondragón *''Sterculia antioquia'' E.L.Taylor *''Sterculia apeibophylla'' Ducke *''Sterculia alexandri'' ( Jacq.) H.Karst. *''Sterculia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kigelia
''Kigelia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae. The genus consists of only one species, ''Kigelia africana'', which occurs throughout tropical Africa. The so-called sausage tree grows a poisonous fruit that is up to long, weighs about , and resembles a sausage in a casing. Etymology The genus name comes from the Mozambican Bantu name, ''kigeli-keia'', while the common names sausage tree and cucumber tree refer to the long, sausage-like fruit. Its name in Afrikaans ''worsboom'' also means sausage tree, and its Arabic name means "the father of kit-bags". Description It is a tree growing up to tall and it typically has spreading branches. The bark is grey and smooth at first, peeling on older trees. It can be as thick as on a diameter branch. The wood is pale brown or yellowish, undifferentiated and not prone to cracking. Foliage The tree is evergreen where rainfall occurs throughout the year, but deciduous where there is a long dry season. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macaranga
''Macaranga'' is a large genus of Old World tropical trees of the family Euphorbiaceae and the only genus in the subtribe Macaranginae (tribe Acalypheae). Native to Africa, Australasia, Asia and various islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the genus comprises over 300 different species. It was first described as a genus in 1806, based on specimens collected on the Island of Mauritius. ''Macaranga'' is noted for being recolonizers. ''Macaranga'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including ''Endoclita malabaricus''. ''Macaranga'' species often form symbioses with ant ( Formicidae) species (particularly ''Crematogaster'' ants of the subgenus '' Decacrema'') because they have hollow stems that can serve as nesting space and occasionally provide nectar. The trees benefit because the ants attack herbivorous insects and either drive them away or feed on them. Use * Macaranga gum, a crimson resin, is obtained from '' Macaranga indica''. * ''M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phyllanthus
''Phyllanthus'' is the largest genus in the plant family Phyllanthaceae. Estimates of the number of species in this genus vary widely, from 750David J. Mabberley. 2008. ''Mabberley's Plant-Book.'' third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press. to 1200. ''Phyllanthus'' has a remarkable diversity of growth forms including annual and perennial herbs, shrubs, climbers, floating aquatics, and pachycaulous succulents. Some have flattened leaflike stems called cladodes. It has a wide variety of floral morphologies and chromosome numbers and has one of the widest range of pollen types of any seed plant genus. Despite their variety, almost all ''Phyllanthus'' species express a specific type of growth called "phyllanthoid branching" in which the vertical stems bear deciduous, floriferous (flower-bearing), plagiotropic (horizontal or oblique) stems. The leaves on the main (vertical) axes are reduced to scales called "cataphylls", while leaves on the other axes develop normally. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Excoecaria
''Excoecaria'' is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae, formally described by Linnaeus in 1759. The genus is native to the Old World Tropics (Africa, southern Asia, northern Australia, and assorted oceanic islands). Etymology Genus name, ''Excoecaria'', is from the Latin word ''excaeco'', which means "to blind" and refers to the sap of the plants that can cause temporary blindness. Toxic latex The milky latex of ''Excoecaria agallocha'', also known as ''Thillai'', milky mangrove, blind-your-eye mangrove and river poison tree, is poisonous. Mangroves of this plant surround the ancient Thillai Chidambaram Temple in Tamil Nadu. Contact with skin can cause irritation and rapid blistering; contact with eyes will result in temporary blindness. It is distributed in the Pichavaram wetlands, near Chidambaram India, in Australia from northern New South Wales, along the northern coastline around to Western Australia.The latex is extremely poisonous. Even dried and powdered leave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sclerocroton Ellipticus
''Sclerocroton'' is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1845. There a total of 6 known species in this genus; 5 species in continental Africa and a single species in Madagascar.Govaerts, R., Frodin, D.G. & Radcliffe-Smith, A. (2000). World Checklist and Bibliography of Euphorbiaceae (and Pandaceae) 1-4: 1-1622. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ;Species # '' Sclerocroton carterianus'' (J.Léonard) Kruijt & Roebers - Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone # '' Sclerocroton cornutus'' (Pax) Kruijt & Roebers - C + SC Africa from Cameroon to Zimbabwe plus Ivory Coast # '' Sclerocroton integerrimus'' Hochst. - C + S Africa from Zaire to KawZulu-Natal, plus Guinea # '' Sclerocroton melanostictus'' (Baill.) Kruijt & Roebers - Madagascar # '' Sclerocroton oblongifolius'' (Müll.Arg.) Kruijt & Roebers - Zaire, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe # '' Sclerocroton schmitzii'' (J.Léonard) Kruijt & Roebers - Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sclerocroton Integerrimus
''Sclerocroton integerrimus'', the duiker berry, is a tree in the family Euphorbiaceae, from Southern Africa. Taxonomy This species was originally named as two species; ''Sclerocroton integerrimus'' Hochst. (1845) and ''S. reticulatus'' Hochst. (1845). When ''Sclerocroton integerrimus'' was united for the first time, Baillon (in Adansonia 3: 162. 1863) adopted the name ''Stillingia integerrima'' (Hochst.) Baill. for the combined taxon. This tree has also been named ''Sapium integerrimum''; with most literature referring to it by this name (2010). Distribution Found from the coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to Mozambique and Botswana.Pooley, E. (1993). ''The Complete Field Guide to Trees of Natal, Zululand and Transkei''. . Description A small to medium-sized tree growing up to 15m tall. Stem and branches Single or multi-stemmed, with smooth pale grey bark, and arching, weeping branches. The branchlets are reddish-brown, later becoming grey-brown in colour. Le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.png "Click for more on -> Leaf Margin")
_(8679258490).jpg "Click for more on -> Sterculia")
