CANBERRA, Sept 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Australia’s national science agency revealed that, it has named 150 new species in the last 12 months.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), yesterday released a list of the species it has named, including 13 new types of soldier fly.
Bryan Lessard, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, from the CSIRO’s National Research Collections Australia, said, naming species was key to protecting Australia’s biodiversity.
A study by Deloitte Access Economics in June found, every dollar invested in discovering new species delivers 35 Australian dollars (25.6 U.S. dollars) in economic benefits.
“Many of the thirteen new soldier flies I named are from areas impacted by the Black Summer bushfires,” Lessard, who goes by the moniker ‘Bry the Fly Guy’ said, in a release.
“Two of these, Opaluma opulens and Antissella puprasina, have now been recognised as endangered species under International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, and are known only from Lamington National Park in Queensland, an area that was significantly burned in the bushfires.
“This year we identified an exotic species of mosquito, Culex tritaeniorhynchus, that can transmit Japanese encephalitis virus, and was detected in Australia for the first time. It was initially mistaken for an undescribed native species.”
Insects make up the majority of animals on the list.
Three rare beetles were named Binburrum articuno, Binburrum zapdos and Binburrum moltres, after hard-to-find creatures in video game series Pokémon.
A new type of smooth-hound shark, from the Andaman Sea near Thailand, was named Mustelus andamanensis, after researchers distinguished it from a closely related species it was previously grouped with.– NNN-AGENCIES
