Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia. Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The country is the world's third largest island country with an area of 462,840 km2 (178,700 sq mi).
Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms, and also a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical Kingdom. It has been given different definitions. The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions split off Papuasia in its 2001 version.
The Brachycera are a suborder of the order Diptera. It is a major suborder consisting of around 120 families. Their most distinguishing characteristic is reduced antenna segmentation.
In West Africa, the Dahomey Gap refers to the portion of the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic that extends all the way to the coast in Benin, Togo, and Ghana, thus separating the forest zone that covers much of the south of the region into two separate parts. The forest region west of the gap is called the Upper Guinean forests or Guinean forest zone, and the portion east of the gap is called the Lower Guinean forests, Lower Guinean-Congolian forests, or Congolian Forest Zone.
The Phoridae are a family of small, hump-backed flies resembling fruit flies. Phorid flies can often be identified by their escape habit of running rapidly across a surface rather than taking to the wing. This behaviour is a source of one of their alternate names, scuttle fly. Another vernacular name, coffin fly, refers to Conicera tibialis. About 4,000 species are known in 230 genera. The most well-known species is cosmopolitan Megaselia scalaris. At 0.4 mm in length, the world's smallest fly is the phorid Euryplatea nanaknihali.
Acronychia is a genus of about fifty species of plants in the rue family Rutaceae. The leaves are simple or pinnate, and the flowers bisexual with four sepals, four petals and eight stamens. They have a broad distribution including in India, Malesia, Australia and the islands of the western Pacific Ocean. About twenty species are endemic to Australia.
The fauna of New Guinea comprises a large number of species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, invertebrates and amphibians.
The white-striped dorcopsis or greater forest wallaby is a species of marsupial in the family Macropodidae. It is found in the northern part of West Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. It is a common species in suitable tropical forest habitat and the IUCN lists its conservation status as being of "Least concern".
The black-spotted cuscus is a species of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae. It is among the largest members of the family, only being surpassed by the bear cuscus. It is a relatively colourful species found in forests of northern New Guinea. It is threatened by hunting and habitat loss, and has already disappeared from large parts of its range. Consequently, it is rated as Critically Endangered by IUCN.
The great flying fox, also known as the greater flying fox or Bismarck flying fox, is a species of megabat in the genus Pteropus, found throughout lowland areas of New Guinea and in the Bismarck Archipelago. Conflicting evidence suggests that its closest relative is either the spectacled flying fox or, jointly, the Pelew and insular flying foxes. Two subspecies are recognized. At up to 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) in weight, it is among the heaviest bats in the world and the largest bat in Melanesia. It is a gregarious animal which roosts with hundreds or thousands of individuals. In part due to its wide variation in color, it has many taxonomic synonyms, including Pteropus degener, Pteropus papuanus, and Pteropus sepikensis. It may forage during the day or night in search of fruit, including figs or fruits from the family Sapotaceae. It is considered a least-concern species by the IUCN, though its numbers have been negatively impacted by what appeared to be a disease, as well as by hunting for bushmeat that occurs across its range.
The insular flying fox or Pacific flying fox is a species of flying fox in the family Pteropodidae. It is geographically widespread, the most widespread flying fox in the Pacific: it is found in American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu.
The arcuate horseshoe bat is a species of bat in the family Rhinolophidae. It is found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines.
Novopsocus is a genus in the Pseudocaeciliidae family, with, until 2008, one described species endemic to New Guinea. It was later found that the specimens of two different species had been mixed, and an individual of a third species was found. The genus is characterised by a flat head with a sharp vertex, narrow, strap-like wings, and antennae with a broad, flattened first flagellar segment in the males of two species.
New Guinea is the world's second-largest island with an area of 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi). Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated by the 150-kilometre -wide Torres Strait from Australia. Numerous smaller islands are located to the west and east. The eastern half of the island is the major land mass of the independent state of Papua New Guinea. The western half, known as Western New Guinea, forms a part of Indonesia and is organized as the provinces of Papua and West Papua. The largest cities on the island are Jayapura and Port Moresby.
Stella's lorikeet is a species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It is endemic to New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.
Novopsocus magnus is a species of Pseudocaeciliidae that lives on the island of New Guinea. Males of this species were first thought by Thornton (1984) to be males of N. stenopterus, but Cuénoud (2008) showed that it is indeed a separate species by identifying real males of N. stenopterus and actual females of N. magnus. It is the largest species of the genus, and its males have peculiar antennae, with a first flagellar segment strongly broadened and flattened.
Novopsocus stenopterus is a Psocoptera species found in New Guinea. It is the type species of its genus, characterised by similar sexes, the males having antennae similar to those of females. There are two other species of Novopsocus.
Finschia is a genus of three recognised species of large trees, constituting part of the plant family Proteaceae. They grow naturally in New Guinea and its surrounding region, in habitats from luxuriant lowland rainforests to steep highland forests.
McIntyre's horseshoe bat is a species of horseshoe bat that is endemic to Papua New Guinea.
Tolokiwa Island, also known as Lottin Island, is an island in the Bismarck Sea. The island is volcanic in origin and part of the Bismarck Archipelago.
