EIt was a chance discovery: Australian entomologist James Tweed discovered a fluffy object by chance while camping in the Gold Coast hinterland at the end of December 2021. At first he didn't think of anything else when he discovered it on a Lomandra leaf. But at second glance he realized that it was obviously a beetle he had never seen before.
“Measuring 9.7 millimeters tall, he was a striking red and black beauty covered in long white hair,” Tweed writes on the University of Queensland homepage. Back from his trip, Tweed scoured numerous taxonomic books, scientific papers and the Internet to find a match for the species, but nothing looked remotely similar.
Photos of the beetle that he posted to a Facebook group for Australian beetles attracted a lot of interest, but even the most experienced identification experts gave him no response. He then emailed the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC) in Canberra. The experts confirmed to Tweed that the beetle was a previously unknown new species.
It was only when Tweed personally visited the ANIC to compare his discovery with their extensive collection that it became clear to everyone that this was not only a new species, but also a new genus – or family of species.
“We chose the name Excastra for the genus, which is Latin for 'from the camp', and for the species name we decided on albopilosawhich translates to 'white and hairy,'” said Tweed, who made his discovery with colleagues published in the “Australia Journal of Taxonomy”.. “We don't yet know what these hairs are for, but our initial theory is that they make the insect look like it was killed by an insecticidal fungus.”
This would potentially deter predators such as birds from eating the insect. “But until someone finds more specimens and studies this species further, we can't say for sure why this beetle is so hairy.”
The area near Lamington National Park has been popular with entomologists for more than 100 years, making it puzzling that Excastra albopilosa has not yet been found. “I went back several times myself to look for more specimens, but I had no luck.”
Such accidental finds showed how many unknown species there are and how many of them could be threatened with extinction. “We are experiencing a rapid decline in biodiversity around the world, and it is difficult to conserve species that we don’t even know exist,” said Tweed. The best estimates are that there are 5.5 million insect species worldwide, of which only a fifth have been named and described.
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