National Museum - Colombo

National Museum of Colombo, also known as Sri Lanka National Museum and Colombo Museum, is situated in Colombo 07 and is the largest museum in Sri Lanka. The Museum was founded in 1877 by a British Governor; Sir William Henry Gregory, during the time Sri Lanka was under the British Monarchy.

The Museum preserves national treasures and artefacts of the country and has three main sections; Natural Science Section, Cultural section and a library.

Natural Science section has again arranged into four main sub sections; Entomology, Zoology, Botany and Geology.

Tour of Kanneliya Forest Reserve

Kanneliya is a tropical low land rain forest of Sri Lanka and which is at Galle district. Kanneliya Nakiyadeniya and Dadiyagala is famous low land rain forests in Sri Lanka and its called KDN complex. Kanneliya is 35km Northeast of Galle .

Kanneliya forest covers total of about 5305.9 ha and core unit of the Kanneliya forest reserve is about 5108.2ha. Kanneliya lies between 6° 09 - 6° 18° N and 80 19° - 80 27° E. Kanneliya is very important to biological diversity. Several waterways, waterfalls, rivers and small waterways at Kanneliya. Gin River is main and biggest water way of Kanneliya forest reserve. The forest has been subjected to selective logging from 1940 to 0987. There fore, The forest department has developed a plan to management and develop the forest.

There are high proportion of endemism among the 234 identified woody tree spaces, with 141 being endemic to Sri Lanka. Totally there are 301 plant types can be found at Kanneliya forest reserve. Some 133 faunal species with 59 birds. 14 amphibians 32 butterflies, 7 snakes, 10 mammals.

Several conservation programs held in Kanneliya for project this forest. Along with the new conservation initiative this forest seems to have got a reasonable regeneration and rich bio diversity as mentioned above.

Galle and Rumassala

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Rumassala

    "Rumassala, known to colonialists as Buona Vista, is the subject of many legends. It features in the Ramayana, as the home of the beautiful queen Sita, hidden in the jungle nearby. Hanuman who was sent to fetch a medicinal plant for a wounded soldier, was unable to find it and brought the Himalayan mountains on which it was said to grow. He dropped a chunk at Unawatuna ('here it fell') to form the present mountain, where many medicinal plants still grow. There is a major magnetic anomaly near Unawatuna, which Arthur C. Clarke attributes to a meteorite strike, and it is said that satellites lose their orbits with unusual frequency overhead. The Portuguese had a dreadful reputation in Sri Lanka as looters and pirates, and are said to have given false light signals from Rumassala to lure unsuspecting Arab trading ships onto the rocks"
extracted from http://www.closenburghotel.com

Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

A fascinating study

W.M.C.D.Wijekoon, Dr. H.C.E.Wegiriya and Dr. C. N. L. Bogahawatte
Department of Zoology, University of Ruhuna.

Fireflies or “Lightning bugs” are the synonym given to this important group of insect. They are distributed worldwide with the greatest diversity of species occurring in the Oriental and the Neotropical regions of the world. Seven subfamilies inhabit in tropical and temperate regions.

The light emitting frequency and colour of light producing vary in different species of fireflies. In most firefly species both sexes have the flying ability, while in several species only the male can fly and the females are wingless and worm like, similar to their “larvae”. Though, they cannot fly, they have light emitting organs for searching food and mates in the dark

Two hundred and eighty species of fireflies have been recorded in Asia including 30 species from Sri Lanka. A reference firefly collection is also available in the National Museum, Colombo. If you are interested to see fireflies, you have to wait until 6.00 p.m. To ensure the best sightings of the visual displays of fireflies.
Their fascinating, automatically on, off light signalling pattern will be helpful to recognise even different individuals clearly at night. Studies revealed that they mostly inhabit in water associated open habitats and less visible in highly sheltered forest habitats.
However, after 8.00 p.m. they gradually move to tree tops to show their lightning behaviour to many members of their group. Definitely, the light emitting process is helpful to search their mates. So they can quickly find suitable partners in the dark and move towards them. It is indeed an elegant scene at night. Fireflies have their light emitting organ or “lantern” at the end of their abdomen. The male has two lanterns and the female has only one.

Flora and Fauna in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is the paradise of flora and fauna. The country has over 90 species of mammal (including elephant, leopard, bear and monkeys), hundreds of butterflies, over 80 snake species (including deadly cobras and vipers), and about 435 species of birds.

Sri Lanka has the distinction of having the world's oldest recorded wildlife preserve. More than 2000 years ago, in the 3rd century BC, a region in north central Sri Lanka was set aside by royal decree to be free of all hunting. Today, more than 8% of the land is preserved as national park or nature preserve.

Birds
Birds are numerous, many varieties from colder countries wintering on the island. Sri Lanka has well-organized game and bird sanctuaries. Of the 431 recorded species 251 are resident and no less than 21 are endemic to the island. Most of the endemic birds are restricted to the wet zone, e.g. the Ceylon Grackle or to the hill - country, e.g. the Ceylon Whistling Thrush, the Yellow-eared Bulbul etc. Some, such as the striking Redfaced Malkoha and the shy brown-capped Babbler can be found through out the island although confined to small areas of forests, National Parks and Forest Reserves. Among the best areas for these birds are the Sinharaja Forest Reserve and the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary.

Insect attack on world heritage site in Sri Lanka sparks controversy

An insect menace in Sigiriya ancient rock fortress in Sri Lanka has sparked controversy with the environmentalists and authorities arguing over the removal of wasps domiciled for eons in the fortress.
While the archaeological authorities are busy in wiping out the insects that harm the world famous frescoes, media and environmentalists charge that the environmental imbalance caused by the removal of wasps from Sigiriya caused the damaging insect population to thrive.
However, the allegation of the environmentalists is yet to be proven. Few months back the archaeological authorities used chemicals and fire to wipe out the wasps from Sigiriya. Environmentalists criticized this action as a violent move.
Wasps lived in Sigiriya for eons of years and when they were disturbed by the visitors, the wasps attacked causing panic and injury to visitors.

Insects of Sri Lanka

A small selection of other insects of Sri Lanka - click on the image for a larger photo.

Highly cryptic orthopteran species on green stem: Sathrophyllia rugosa (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Pseudophyllinae)

 
Large brown long-horned grasshopper: Mecopoda elongata (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Mecopodinae)

Red ants (Oecophylla smargadina)
  A red ant? or spider?  It's .....
The red ant spider: Myrmarachne plataleoides (not an insect but nevertheless...)

Tarantula ("divimakuluwa" in Sinhalese): Poecilotheria sp. There are currently 8 species known from Sri Lanka (the genus is restricted to South India & Sri Lanka). The oldest name is Poecilotheria fasciata. They are well known in the tarantula pet trade as "Sri Lankan Ornamentals". Arboreal.
Thanks to Priyantha Wijesinghe for identifications.

Insects

Insects (from Latin insectum, a calque of Greek ἔντομον [éntomon], "cut into sections") are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax, and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae. They are among the most diverse groups of animals on the planet, including more than a million described species and representing more than half of all known living organisms.[2][3] The number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million,[2][4][5] and potentially represent over 90% of the differing metazoan life forms on Earth.[6] Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species occur in the oceans, a habitat dominated by another arthropod group, the crustaceans.

The life cycles of insects vary but most hatch from eggs. Insect growth is constrained by the inelastic exoskeleton and development involves a series of molts. The immature stages can differ from the adults in structure, habit and habitat and can include a passive pupal stage in those groups that undergo complete metamorphosis. Insects that undergo incomplete metamorphosis lack a pupal stage and adults develop through a series of nymphal stages.[7] The higher level relationship of the hexapoda is unclear. Fossilized insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era, including giant dragonflies with wingspans of 55 to 70 cm (22–28 in). The most diverse insect groups appear to have coevolved with flowering plants.