Villous Pitcher Plant

Plants > Carnivorous Plants

The Villous Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes villosa) is universally acclaimed among botanists as having the most dramatic, predatory-looking peristome in the entire plant kingdom. Confined exclusively to the frigid, mist-enshrouded subalpine peaks of Mount Kinabalu and Mount...

Sandy Stiltball

Fungi > Agaricomycetes

The Sandy Stiltball (Battarrea phalloides) is one of the most extraordinary and prehistoric-looking gasteroid fungi on Earth. Adapted to withstand scorching heat and desiccating winds in arid semi-desert scrublands, this elusive fungus erupts from a subterranean...

Ant House Plant

Plants > Myrmecophytes

The Ant House Plant (Myrmecodia beccarii) is a phenomenal epiphytic rubiaceous plant endemic strictly to the sun-drenched paperbark swamps and mangrove fringes of tropical north Queensland, Australia. Renowned for its swollen, labyrinthine stem tuber, this astonishing...

Silver Reflection Beetle

Invertebrates > Beetles

The Silver Reflection Beetle (Chrysina limbata) is celebrated across entomology as one of nature’s most stunning optical wonders. Inhabiting high-elevation tropical cloud forests in Costa Rica and Panama, this extraordinary ruteline scarab beetle possesses an...

White-necked Rockfowl

Birds > Passerines

The White-necked Rockfowl (Picathartes gymnocephalus), also known as the yellow-headed picathartes, is one of the most enigmatic and ancient passerines inhabiting the deep rainforests of West Africa. With its featherless, vibrant golden-yellow head, jet-black temporal...