Costa Rica is located on the Central American Isthmus, surrounding the point 10° north of the equator and 84° west of the prime meridian. It has 212 km of Caribbean Sea coastline and 1,016 on the North Pacific Ocean.
Balsam is the resinous exudate which forms on certain kinds of trees and shrubs. Balsam owes its name to the biblical Balm of Gilead.
Styrax is a genus of about 130 species of large shrubs or small trees in the family Styracaceae, mostly native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the majority in eastern and southeastern Asia, but also crossing the equator in South America. The resin obtained from the tree is called benzoin or storax.
The wildlife of Costa Rica comprises all naturally occurring animals, fungi and plants that reside in this Central American country. Costa Rica supports an enormous variety of wildlife, due in large part to its geographic position between North and South America, its neotropical climate, and its wide variety of habitats. Costa Rica is home to more than 500,000 species, which represent nearly 5% of the species estimated worldwide, making Costa Rica one of the 20 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. Of these 500,000 species, a little more than 300,000 are insects.
Copaene, or more precisely, α-copaene, is the common chemical name of an oily liquid hydrocarbon that is found in a number of essential oil-producing plants. The name is derived from that of the resin-producing tropical copaiba tree, Copaifera langsdorffii, from which the compound was first isolated in 1914. Its structure, including the chirality, was determined in 1963. The double-bond isomer with an exocyclic-methylene group, β-copaene, was first reported in 1967.
Copaiba is an oleoresin obtained from the trunk of several pinnate-leaved South American leguminous trees. The thick, transparent exudate varies in color from light gold to dark brown, depending on the ratio of resin to essential oil. Copaiba is used in making varnishes and lacquers.
The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range that lies in the southeast half of Costa Rica and the far west of Panama. Much of the range and the area around it is included in La Amistad International Park, which also is shared between the two countries.
Maquenque Wildlife Refuge, is a protected area in Costa Rica, managed under the Arenal Huetar Norte Conservation Area, it was created in 2005 by decree 32405-MINAE.
The great green macaw, also known as Buffon's macaw or the great military macaw, is a critically endangered Central and South America parrot found in Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. Two allopatric subspecies are recognized; the nominate subspecies, Ara ambiguus ssp. ambiguus, occurs from Honduras to Colombia, while Ara ambiguus ssp. guayaquilensis appears to be endemic to remnants of dry forests on the southern Pacific coast of Ecuador. The nominate subspecies lives in the canopy of wet tropical forests and in Costa Rica is usually associated with the almendro tree, Dipteryx oleifera.
The subfamily Detarioideae is one of the subdivisions of the plant family Fabaceae (legumes). This subfamily includes many tropical trees, some of which are used for timber or have ecological importance. The subfamily consists of 84 genera, most of which are native to Africa and Asia. Pride of Burma and tamarind are two of the most notable species in Detarioideae. It has the following clade-based definition:
The most inclusive crown clade containing Goniorrhachis marginataTaub. and Aphanocalyx cynometroidesOliv., but not Cercis canadensisL., Duparquetia orchidaceaBaill., or Bobgunnia fistuloides(Harms) J. H. Kirkbr. & Wiersema.
Copaifera is a genus of tropical plants in the legume family Fabaceae. It includes 40 species native to the tropical Americas, west and central tropical Africa, and Borneo.
Amauroclopius ornatus is an assassin bug that is thought to prey upon bees. A. ornatus is associated with the cativo tree of Colombia.
Prioria is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. Members of this genus are found in Central America, Africa, southern Asia, and Oceania.
Beharus is a monotypic genus of assassin bugs belonging to the family Reduviidae. Its one described species, B. cylindripes, is found in South America, though not restricted to the Amazon basin.
Carmenta surinamensis is a moth of the family Sesiidae. It was described by Heinrich Benno Möschler in 1878, and is known from Brazil, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad, Panama and Costa Rica. The larvae of the species have been found on seeds of the plant Prioria copaifera, Pentaclethra macroloba, and plants in the genus Mora.
The Central American dry forests ecoregion, of the tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests biome, is located in Central America.
Playa Cativo is an eco-lodge located in Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica.
Peltogyne purpurea, commonly known as nazareno, or purpleheart, is a species of Peltogyne tree native to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and Panama, and also the Atlantic coast of Colombia.
Río Cuarto is a canton in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. The head city is in Río Cuarto district.
Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge, is a protected area in Costa Rica, managed under the Caribbean La Amistad Conservation Area, it was created in 1986 by decree. It protects both a land portion as well as a marine portion. In 2013 the refuge was renamed to honour the murdered environmentalist Jairo Mora Sandoval. In 2014 land along the coast containing a number of small towns was removed from the refuge, due to complaints from the local residents about evictions and destruction of property due to strict building codes. It is one of only two places in Costa Rica where manatees still occur. It is located in a coastal beach region, fronted by coral reefs and clothed in tropical forest, with 1950-3000mm yearly precipitation.
