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

Laniger bat tick (Ixodes lanigeri), new hard tick species (Ixodidae) from mouse-eared bats (Myotis) in Vietnam

NEWS - Researchers have identified Ixodes ticks from Vietnam based on morphological and molecular characteristics of females, nymphs and larvae as a new species, laniger bat tick ( Ixodes lanigeri ), which like other members of the Ixodes ariadnae complex appears to show a preference for vesper bats as a typical host. Historically, for more than a century and a half, only one species has been called the “long-legged bat tick”: Ixodes vespertilionis Koch. However, over the past decade, it has been molecularly recognized that long-legged ixodid ticks associated with bats may represent at least six species. Host associations and geographic separation may explain the evolutionary divergence of the new species from its closest living relative Murina hilgendorfi Peters in East Asia, Japan, as no Myotis or Murina spp. have overlapping distributions between Vietnam and the Japanese mainland. On the other hand, assuming that I. lanigeri may be present in other myotine bats and knowing that s...

Purhepecha oak (Quercus purhepecha), new species of shrub oak endemic to the state of Michoacán, Mexico

NEWS - In Mexico, several Quercus shrubby species are taxonomically very problematic including 8 taxa with similar characteristics. Now researchers report the purhepecha oak ( Quercus purhepecha De Luna-Bonilla, S. Valencia & Coombes sp. nov.) as a new tomentose shrubby white oak species with a distribution only in the Cuitzeo basin in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB). Quercus Linnaeus (1753) subdivided into 2 subgenera and 8 sections of which section Quercus (white oaks) has the widest distribution in the Americas, Asia and Europe. This section is very diverse in Mexico and Central America with phylogenomic evidence indicating recent and accelerated speciation in these regions. The number of shrubby oak species in Mexico is still uncertain. De Luna-Bonilla of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and colleagues found at least 3 taxa in the TMVB, specifically Quercus frutex Trelease (1924), Quercus microphylla Née (1801) and Quercus repanda Bonpland (1809). In 2016,...

Pundak scoliid (Scolia clypeata)

Pundak scoliid ( Scolia clypeata ) is an animal species in Scoliidae, arboreal insects, elongated body, blackish blue wings, round head, long legs, spending time perched on leaves in the shade in the bush, medium-sized trees in the forest and agricultural land. S. clypeata has a round, red head and a pair of large black eyes on the face. A pair of large antennae, red, jointed, black base and blunt tip. The neck is narrow and black. The back is dark brown and rough. The front shoulders on the right and left sides have a red plot color. The stomach is cylindrical, elongated, with long hair, droplet-shaped tips and shiny black color. A pair of elongated wings with multiple veins, rounded tips, blackish blue and shiny, piled together to cover the entire abdomen at rest. The legs are several joints and have long hair. Pundak scoliid live in forests or agricultural fields, spending much of their time perched on leaves in low shrubs or medium-sized trees, in shade and more solitary. King...

Dlium