Crab-plover

Birds > Shorebirds

The Crab-plover (Dromas ardeola) is a singularly unique coastal wading bird and the sole living representative of the avian family Dromadidae. Patrolling the sun-drenched intertidal sand flats, coral reefs, and mangrove fringes of the northwestern Indian Ocean, this...

Purple Pinwheel

Fungi > Mushrooms

The Purple Pinwheel (Marasmius haematocephalus) is widely acclaimed among field mycologists as one of the most exquisitely graceful, delicate, and vividly pigmented macrofungi in the tropical world. Emerging from decaying twigs and damp leaf mulch on tropical forest...

Thorn Bug

Invertebrates > True Bugs & Treehoppers

The Thorn Bug (Umbonia crassicornis) is an astonishing hemipteran insect belonging to the treehopper family Membracidae, renowned for its architectural spine that turns the bug into a living plant thorn. Clustered along the stems of leguminous trees across the...

Longnose Lancetfish

Fish > Deep-Sea Fishes

The Longnose Lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox) is one of the most formidable, prehistoric-looking, and voracious apex predatory teleosts patrolling the open oceans worldwide. Reaching lengths of up to seven feet, this scaleless, shimmering silver oceanic hunter is...

Mangrove Snake

Reptiles > Colubrid Snakes

The Mangrove Snake (Boiga dendrophila), also famously celebrated as the gold-ringed cat snake, is one of the most visually stunning and dramatic arboreal colubrids of Southeast Asia. Reaching lengths of up to eight feet, this magnificent rear-fanged serpent is...