Date: January 31, 2019
Source: Pensoft Publishers
How many
citizen scientists does it take to discover a new species? A recent expedition
to the Ulu Temburong forest in Borneo proved that you only need 10 enthusiasts
with no professional training, yet fueled with curiosity and passion for the
outdoors, to find a new beetle the size of a pinhead in leaf litter.
The species,
named Clavicornaltica belalongensis,
is a tiny, 1.25-mm-long leaf beetle that eats moss on the forest floor.
Published in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal, it is the latest
discovery from Taxon Expeditions, an initiative that organises scientific field
trips to remote and biodiverse locations for teams of scientists and laypeople.
Unlike other
science/adventure trips, Taxon Expeditions gives a unique opportunity for
laypeople, or citizen scientists, to describe and publish new species of
animals and focus on the thousands of 'little things that run the world'.
Thanks to the initiative, they learn about tropical biology techniques while
participating in the process of taxonomy and the study of hidden biodiversity.
The new
beetle, for example, is one of hundreds of thousands of tiny beetle species
that inhabit the leaf litter of tropical forests and have remained unknown and
scientifically unnamed up to our days.
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