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(via Only the Cinema: Black Girl)
As the first feature film ever made by a black director in sub-Saharan Africa, Ousmane Sembene’s 1966 debut Black Girl was a historical landmark, marking the novelist and fledgling filmmaker as the father of African film…
Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum)
from unknown source (ca. 1840)
(via scientificillustration)
John Coltrane | Africa
World’s Smallest Fly Decapitates Ants
by Jennifer Viegas
A newly discovered species, Euryplatea nanaknihali, is the world’s smallest fly, and has the rather unsavory habit of biting off the heads of ants, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Annals of the Entomological Society of America.
At just .4 mm in length, the fly is only a fraction of an inch in size. A house fly is 15 times bigger. A fruit fly is 5 x larger.
The new member to the insect record books is also the first of its genus to be discovered in Asia. Members of its fly family (Phoridae) are all believed to decapitate ants. The process isn’t a simple bite and patooie either.
Members of the Phoridae family lay eggs in the bodies of ants. The resulting larvae feed in the ants’ heads, eventually causing decapitation. Not easy being an ant! On the upside, from a “pest” control perspective, some of these phorid flies are being used to try to control fire ants in the southern United States.
Nature seems to have pitted the world’s smallest flies against the world’s smallest ants.
Author Brian Brown of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County explained that the newfound flies can probably decapitate ants that have heads as small as .5 millimeters. Although this is speculation at now for the new species, Brown believes it’s highly likely because the fly’s only known relative, Euryplatea eidmanni, is known to parasitize ants in Equatorial Guinea…
(read more: Discovery News) (image: Inna-Marie Strazhnik)
(via scientificillustration)
Horned Viper (Vipera cerastes, now Cerastes cerastes)
from Bilder-Atlas zur wissenschaftlich-populären Naturgeschichte der Wirbelthiere, Wien :K.K. Hof-und Staatsdruckerei, 1867.
(via scientificillustration)
Ringed Wall Gecko (Tarentola annularis) - North Africa
info via Bibliotheca Alexandrina
A robustly built lizard, which reaches large size, up to 140 mm SVL. Back and dorsal surface of tail covered with regular bands of low and smooth tubercles. Tubercles without clear rosettes of medium-sized scales. Tubercles are separated laterally from each other by 6-7 small scales. There is an average of 27 lamellae under the fifth toe. Temporal region covered with large tubercles widely separated by small scales. Postmentals smaller than the gulars. Rostral enters nostril. General color of dorsum ranges between dark brown-gray to light sandy-gray. Back with 4-5 dark and light crossbars and there are usually 4 distinctive white spots with dark borders on the scapular region. Tail with light and dark bands. Venter off-white.
Male larger than female, with broader head. General color of dorsum varies according to the dominant color of the habitat and environmental factors, such as temperature. The scapular spots are usually not easily discernible on juvenile animals and become well developed in adults.
(read more: EOL)
(images: T - Matt Reinbold, B - Bibliotheca Alexandrina, from Description de l’Egypte, Book 34 (1826), Volume I)
(via scientificillustration)
