Water beetle species found in
Malaysia was named after the Titanic star for his environmental activism
Ian SampleScience
editor
Mon 30 Apr
2018 16.00 BSTLast modified on Mon 30 Apr 2018 22.00 BST
A new species of water beetle
found clinging to a sandstone rock in a fast-flowing stream that leads to a
waterfall in Malaysian Borneo has been named after the actor Leonardo
DiCaprio.
The tiny black insect, which has
a partially retractable head and slightly protruding eyes, was named after the
star of Titanic and The
Revenant for his environmental activism.
Citizen scientists who took part
in an expedition to Borneo’s Maliau Basin recovered the first known specimen
of Grouvellinus leonardodicaprioi from
a shallow stream about a kilometre above sea level. The 3mm-long beetle was
rather battered and lacked a front leg and antenna.
The field trip to Borneo was
arranged by scientists at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines and a
Dutch firm, Taxon Expeditions, that trains paying members of the public in the
scientific techniques used to capture, study and identify new species. The
beetle was named after DiCaprio after the citizen scientists and staff at the
Maliau Basin Studies Centre voted at a ceremony at the end of the trip.
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