The red slender loris is a small, nocturnal strepsirrhine primate native to the rainforests of Sri Lanka. This is No. 6 of the 10 focal species and No. 22 of the 100 EDGE mammal species worldwide considered the most evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered. Two subspecies have been identified, L. t. tardigradus and L. t. nycticeboides.
Plumeria, also known as frangipani, is a genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Rauvolfioideae, of the family Apocynaceae. Most species are deciduous shrubs or small trees. The species variously are endemic to the Neotropical realm, but are sometimes grown as cosmopolitan ornamentals in warm regions.
Elaeocarpus is a genus of nearly five hundred species of flowering plants in the family Elaeocarpaceae native to the Western Indian Ocean, Tropical and Subtropical Asia, and the Pacific. Plants in the genus Elaeocarpus are trees or shrubs with simple leaves, flowers with four or five petals usually, and usually blue fruit.
Prosopis juliflora is a shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae, a kind of mesquite. It is native to Mexico, South America and the Caribbean. It has become established as an invasive weed in Africa, Asia, Australia and elsewhere. It is a contributing factor to continuing transmission of malaria, especially during dry periods when sugar sources from native plants are largely unavailable to mosquitoes.
Myrmecophytes are plants that live in a mutualistic association with a colony of ants. There are over 100 different genera of myrmecophytes. These plants possess structural adaptations that provide ants with food and/or shelter. These specialized structures include domatia, food bodies, and extrafloral nectaries. In exchange for food and shelter, ants aid the myrmecophyte in pollination, seed dispersal, gathering of essential nutrients, and/or defense. Specifically, domatia adapted to ants may be called myrmecodomatia.
Colonel Richard Henry Beddome was a British military officer and naturalist in India, who became chief conservator of the Madras Forest Department. In the mid-19th century, he extensively surveyed several remote and then-unexplored hill ranges in Sri Lanka and south India, including those in the Eastern Ghats such as Yelandur, Kollegal, Shevaroy Hills, Yelagiri, Nallamala Hills, Visakhapatnam hills, and the Western Ghats such as Nilgiri hills, Anaimalai hills, Agasthyamalai Hills and Kudremukh. He described many species of plants, amphibians, and reptiles from southern India and Sri Lanka, and several species from this region described by others bear his name.
The common hawk-cuckoo, popularly known as the brainfever bird, is a medium-sized cuckoo resident in the Indian subcontinent. It bears a close resemblance to the Shikra, even in its style of flying and landing on a perch. The resemblance to hawks gives this group the generic name of hawk-cuckoo and like many other cuckoos these are brood parasites, laying their eggs in nests of babblers. During their breeding season in summer males produce loud, repetitive three note calls that are well-rendered as brain-fever, the second note being longer and higher pitched. These notes rise to a crescendo before ending abruptly and repeat after a few minutes; the calling may go on through the day, well after dusk and before dawn.
Osbeckia is a genus of plants in the family Melastomataceae. It was named by Carl Linnaeus for the Swedish explorer and naturalist Pehr Osbeck (1723–1805).
Carissa spinarum, the conkerberry or bush plum, is a large shrub of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), widely distributed in tropical regions of Africa, Southern Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Indian Ocean. It is most well known in Australia, where it is also called currant bush or, more ambiguously, native currant or even black currant. It is, however, neither closely related to plums (Prunus) nor to true currants (Ribes), which belong to entirely different lineages of eudicots. In India, it is also called wild karanda /wild karavanda, referring to the related karanda. Carissa spinarum is often discussed under its many obsolete synonyms.
The slender lorises (Loris) are a genus of loris native to India and Sri Lanka. The genus comprises two species, the red slender loris found in Sri Lanka and the gray slender loris from Sri Lanka and India. Slender lorises spend most of their life in trees, traveling along the tops of branches with slow and precise movements. They are found in tropical rainforests, scrub forests, semi-deciduous forests, and swamps. The primates have lifespans of approximately 15 years and are nocturnal. Slender lorises generally feed on insects, reptiles, plant shoots, and fruit.
Humboldtia laurifolia is a species of plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Kerala and Sri Lanka.
Archidendron bigeminum is a tree species in the legume family (Fabaceae). It is found in India and Sri Lanka. It is known as "kalitiya - කලටිය" in Sinhala.
Utricularia graminifolia is a small perennial carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia. It is native to Asia, where it can be found in Burma, China, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. U. graminifolia grows as a terrestrial or affixed subaquatic plant in wet soils or in marshes, usually at lower altitudes but ascending to 1,500 m (4,921 ft) in Burma. It was originally described and published by Martin Vahl in 1804. It has also recently been grown in planted aquaria. It is however not a true aquatic species, as seen in species from Utricularia subg. Utricularia.
The wildlife of Sri Lanka includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats. Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates of biological endemism.
Murdannia is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae.
Grewia tiliifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae sensu lato. A tree reaching 8 m (26 ft), it is found in monsoon and intermediate forest gaps and fringes of Sri Lanka, where the plant is known as "daminiya" in Sinhala and "chadachchi" in Tamil. It is also found in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Southeast Asia. Grewia tiliifolia is used in traditional medicine, using bark and roots for fractures, diarrhoea and skin diseases. Its wood is used for tool handles. The fruit is edible.
Crematogaster dohrni, is a species of ant of the subfamily Myrmicinae, which is a widespread species that can be found from Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and China.
Bhesa indica is a flowering plant tree species in the Centroplacaceae family. It is distributed along the tropical wet evergreen forests of the Western Ghats of India. It is considered synonymous with Bhesa paniculata by some authors.
Jamides coruscans, the Ceylon cerulean, is a small butterfly endemic to Sri Lanka that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family.
Tetracera sarmentosa is a vine/climber and shrub in the Dilleniaceae family. It is native to parts of Tropical and Temperate Asia, from Peninsular Malaysia to China and Sri Lanka.
