Dringo flea beetle (Altica cyanea)

Dringo flea beetle (Altica cyanea) is a species of animal in the Chrysomelidae, winged insects, less than 1.5 cm in size, shiny elytra and the majority are blue or at least sparkling blue, live in low bushes on forest floors and agricultural land.

A. cyanea has a cylindrical head and a chewing mouth. The pair of antennae are segmented and nearly equal in length to the body. The thorax has 6 legs and 2 pairs of wings. Soft folded wings and metallic blue elytra. The abdomen, which has 9-10 segments of chitin, is ring-like and is connected to soft tissues.

The larvae are black, have small bumps and have no thorns. Larvae and imago feed on the same leaves. The female produces 146 eggs and is yellowish in color. The life span from egg to death is 80-84 days.

The adult beetles chew the leaves causing large holes in the leaves, while the larvae cause soft, brown-colored mesh holes.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Infraorder: Cucujiformia
Superfamily: Chrysomeloidea
Family: Chrysomelidae
Subfamily: Galerucinae
Tribe: Alticini
Genus: Altica
Species: Altica cyanea

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

BLOG - On October 28, 2004, a paper was published in Nature describing the dwarf hominin we know today as Homo floresiensis that has shocked the world. The report changed the geographical landscape of early humans that previously stated that the Pleistocene Asia was only represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens . The report titled "A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia" written by Peter Brown and Mike J. Morwood from the University of New England with Thomas Sutikna, Raden Pandji Soejono, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo and Rokus Awe Due from the National Archaeology Research Institute (ARKENAS), Indonesia, presents more diversity in the genus Homo. “Immediately, my fever vanished. I couldn’t sleep well that night. I couldn’t wait for sunrise. In the early morning we went to the site, and when we arrived in the cave, I didn’t say a thing because both my mind and heart couldn’t handle this incredible moment. I just went down...

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