Scientists discover new insect species

Scientists discover new insect species

Scientists have discovered a new species of insect which lives in the Western Mediterranean.

Well, they actually discovered «Tyrrhenoleuctra antoninoi» ten years ago, but it has taken them until now to prove that it is distinct from other insects.

In order to demonstrate that the insect was really a species in its own right, the team had to conduct biochemical and molecular tests.

After doing things like the complicated sounding mitochondrial DNA fragment sequencing, they have now published scientific description in the journal Zootaxa.

I don\’t know why they went to all that bother, I «discovered» four new species of insect this morning just by adding entries on Wikipedia for things I found in the garden.
«One of the results discovered in our studies is that the population of Tyrrhenoleuctra on the Balearic Islands is a clearly distinct taxon and demands acknowledgement of its status as an independent species,» said José Manuel Tierno de Figueroa of the University of Granada.
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