Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around 350 kilometres (220 mi) south of Java and Sumatra and around 1,550 km (960 mi) north-west of the closest point on the Australian mainland. It lies 2,600 km (1,600 mi) northwest of Perth and 1,327 km (825 mi) south of Singapore. It has an area of 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi).
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae, a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Chinchillas are either of two species of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha. They are slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels, and are native to the Andes mountains in South America. They live in colonies called "herds" at high elevations up to 4,270 m (14,000 ft). Historically, chinchillas lived in an area that included parts of Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, and Chile, but today, colonies in the wild are known only in Chile. Along with their relatives, viscachas, they make up the family Chinchillidae. They are also related to the chinchilla rat.
Zeuxine, commonly known as verdant jewel orchids, is a genus of about eighty species of orchids in the tribe Cranichideae. They are native to parts of tropical Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia and some Pacific Islands. They have relatively narrow, dark green leaves and small, dull-coloured resupinate flowers with the dorsal sepal and petals overlapping to form a hood over the column. The labellum has a pouched base and its tip has two lobes.
Cicindela, commonly known as common tiger beetles are generally brightly colored and metallic beetles, often with some sort of patterning of ivory or cream-colored markings. They are most abundant and diverse in habitats very often near bodies of water with sandy or occasionally clay soils; they can be found along rivers, sea and lake shores, sand dunes, around dry lakebeds, on clay banks, or woodland paths.
Ornithocephalus is a genus of orchids comprising more than 50 known species widespread in South America, Central America, Southern Mexico, Trinidad and the Windward Islands.
Spiranthes cernua, commonly called nodding lady's tresses, or nodding ladies' tresses, is a species of orchid occurring from Maritime Canada to the eastern and southern United States. As the common name suggests cernua means "nodding," or "bowed" in Latin.
Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer was an American botanist and plant collector. He was mostly active in the Philippines, his collections being described as new species by both himself and other botanists. The Japanese sent him into Santo Tomas Internment Camp during the Philippines campaign and he died there.
Zeuxine exilis, commonly known as Ridley's jewel orchid or the slender jewel orchid, is a species of orchid that is endemic to Christmas Island where it grows in rainforest. It has three or four egg-shaped leaves and up to thirty small, dull reddish flowers crowded along a thin, hairy flowering stem. It was first recorded in 1904 but was not seen again until 2009.
Rhomboda polygonoides , commonly known as the velvet jewel orchid, is a species of terrestrial orchid that is native to New Guinea, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands and north-eastern Queensland. It has between five and nine narrow egg-shaped, purplish green leaves with a central white stripe and up to fourteen green and white resupinate flowers with the lateral sepals held nearly horizontally.
Flora Malesiana is a multi-volume flora describing the vascular plants of Malesia, published by the National Herbarium of the Netherlands since 1950. It currently consists of 204 full treatments, covering about 20% of a total of approximately 40,000 species.
Goodyerinae is an orchid subtribe in the tribe Cranichideae.
Zeuxine strateumatica, common names lawn orchid or soldier orchid, is a species of terrestrial orchids. It is widespread across much of Asia, including China, Japan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Iran, the Indian Subcontinent, Afghanistan, and Southeast Asia, as well as in New Guinea and in some of the islands of the Pacific. It is naturalized in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Tamaulipas, West Indies, Hawaii, California, and the southeastern United States from Texas to Georgia.
Zeuxine vietnamica is a species of terrestrial orchids spreading by means of underground rhizomes. It is endemic to Vietnam.
Cicindela longilabris, the boreal long-lipped tiger beetle, is a species of flashy tiger beetle in the family Carabidae. It is found in North America.
Eurythrips is a genus of thrips in the family Phlaeothripidae.
Spiranthes igniorchis, or fire ladies' tresses, is a species of orchid endemic to Florida.
