Nature & Environment

New insect species discovered on Flickr

By T.K. Randall
August 14, 2012 ·  16 comments

Image Credit: CC 2.5 Bruce Marlin Shaun Winterton had been looking through photographs of bugs on Flickr when he came across a particularly unusual specimen, a green lacewing with markings that he'd never seen before. The photograph had been taken by Guek Hock Ping during a hiking trip to the jungles of Malaysia. "I sent the link to a few colleagues of mine," said Winterton. "They hadn't seen it either. And I realized: This thing's new."

Winterton immediately contacted Geuk Hock Ping to see if he had a specimen of the insect for him to examine. Unfortunately he didn't, but as luck would have it a year later Guek returned from another trip to Malaysia and this time he'd managed to capture one. The insect was later sent for study and has since been confirmed as a genuine new species.[!gad]Shaun Winterton had been looking through photographs of bugs on Flickr when he came across a particularly unusual specimen, a green lacewing with markings that he'd never seen before. The photograph had been taken by Guek Hock Ping during a hiking trip to the jungles of Malaysia. "I sent the link to a few colleagues of mine," said Winterton. "They hadn't seen it either. And I realized: This thing's new."

Winterton immediately contacted Geuk Hock Ping to see if he had a specimen of the insect for him to examine. Unfortunately he didn't, but as luck would have it a year later Guek returned from another trip to Malaysia and this time he'd managed to capture one. The insect was later sent for study and has since been confirmed as a genuine new species.

Source: NPR | Comments (16)

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