Friday, 15 November 2013

Painted lady

Painted lady
The Cynthia group of colourful butterflies, commonly called painted ladies, comprises a subgenus of the genus Vanessa in the Family Nymphalidae. They are well known throughout most of the world.
It is a large butterfly (wing span 5–9 cm (2.0–3.5 in)) identified by the black and white corners of its mainly deep orange, black-spotted wings. It has five white spots in the black forewing tips and while the orange areas may be pale here and there, there are no clean white dots in them. The hindwings carry four small submarginal eyespots on dorsal and ventral sides. In Europe it migrates annually between North Africa, including Morocco, and northern Europe, using a sun compass for orientation. Its also found in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Painted lady on lantana camara plant. Lantana camara is a necter plant.

Thursday, 5 September 2013

Mystus tengara

Common Name: Tengara Catfish, Guinea Catfish, Pyjama Catfish.

Mystus tengara
Fishes of the genus Mystus Scopoli are small to medium-sized bagrid catfishes occurring in South Asia. Roberts (1994) recognized Mystus to have an elongate cranial fontanel reaching up to the base of the occipital process, long maxillary barbel, very long adipose fin, 11–30 gill rakers on the first gill arch and 37–46 total vertebrae, about equally divided between abdominal and caudal regions. He included only eight species under the genus. Mo (1991) characterized the genus to have a thin needle-like first infraorbital, twisted and thickened metapterygoid loosely attached to the quadrate by means of ligament or a small extent of cartilage. Jayaram & Sanyal (2003) and Ferraris (2007) respectively listed 44 and 33 species of Mystus as valid.  This species is easily distinguished by its small size, golden yellow color, and small adipose fin.

Friday, 12 July 2013

Festival of Biodiversity news

Festival of Biodiversity
13 and 14 July
10:00am to 10:10pm
VivoCity, Central Atrium B & West Boulevard
  • Exhibition
  • Free Children's art and Craft Workshops
  • Other free activities

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given species, ecosystem, biome, or planet. Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be highest at low latitudes near the equator,which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity.Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest and in mid-latitudinal band in all oceans.Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time but will be likely to slow in the future.Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions. One estimate is that <1%-3% of the species that have existed on Earth are extant.