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  1. New Species of Parasitic Spider Flies Discovered in Australia

    Four new species of spider flies of the genus Panops have been discovered in Australia. The flies are described in a study published in ZooKeys: doi: 10.3897/zookeys.172.1889. Adult spider flies are considered important pollinators of flowers. It is the larvae that acts as a spider parasite. The larvae live as internal parasitoids of juvenile spiders.

    The newly discovered flies have large round bodies covered with dense hairs and black or metallic green to blue coloration, giving a jewel-like appearance. The larvae of these flies specialize in parasitizing mygalomorph spiders such as the trap door and Sydney funnel web spiders. Panops austrae is pictured above and Panops jade is pictured below.

    Read more: Sciencenewsblog

    (Photos by Shaun Winterton)

     
  2. rhamphotheca: Springtails:  An Arthropod Version of Morlocks by Jane J. Lee In the darkest depths of terra firma, springtails, a humble class of creepy-crawlies, quietly go about their business. Researchers documenting life in the world’s deepest cave, Krubera-Voronya on the eastern side of the Black Sea, discovered four new species of springtail, including the eyeless Anurida stereoodorata (inset), which subsist on fungi and decaying organic material. The intrepid scientists monitored sections of the cave for a month, looking for life using pitfall traps baited with cheese. Two of the species, Plutomurus ortobalaganensis (pictured above), found 1980 meters down, and Schaefferia profundissima found 1600 meters down, now hold the record for deepest living underground invertebrates, researchers report today in Terrestrial Arthropod Reviews. Their new finds bury the previous record-holder for deepest-dwelling springtail, Ongulonychiurus colpus, a Spanish cave creature found 550 meters down. And since these new species were one of the most common decomposers in Krubera-Voronya cave, they probably have no need to snatch creatures from the surface for food—as H.G. Wells’s subterranean Morlocks did in The Time Machine. (via: Science NOW)     (Image: Rafael Jordana and Enrique Baquero)

    rhamphotheca:

    Springtails:  An Arthropod Version of Morlocks

    by Jane J. Lee

    In the darkest depths of terra firma, springtails, a humble class of creepy-crawlies, quietly go about their business. Researchers documenting life in the world’s deepest cave, Krubera-Voronya on the eastern side of the Black Sea, discovered four new species of springtail, including the eyeless Anurida stereoodorata (inset), which subsist on fungi and decaying organic material. The intrepid scientists monitored sections of the cave for a month, looking for life using pitfall traps baited with cheese.

    Two of the species, Plutomurus ortobalaganensis (pictured above), found 1980 meters down, and Schaefferia profundissima found 1600 meters down, now hold the record for deepest living underground invertebrates, researchers report today in Terrestrial Arthropod Reviews. Their new finds bury the previous record-holder for deepest-dwelling springtail, Ongulonychiurus colpus, a Spanish cave creature found 550 meters down. And since these new species were one of the most common decomposers in Krubera-Voronya cave, they probably have no need to snatch creatures from the surface for food—as H.G. Wells’s subterranean Morlocks did in The Time Machine.

    (via: Science NOW)     (Image: Rafael Jordana and Enrique Baquero)

     
  3. Tiny New Species Hops Around Beliz (by Jennifer Welsh) (photo credit: Sam W. Heads, Steven J. Taylor)  A newfound species of a tiny, grasshopperlike insect seems to be quite lonely, being the first of its family to be discovered in Belize, according to researchers. Scientists from the University of Illinois found the little hopper in the tropical rain forests of southern Belizeand named it Ripipteryx mopana, after a tribe of Mayans native to the region known as the Mopan people. The grasshopperlike species uses its large jumping hind legs to escape predators. Read more: http://www.livescience.com/18490-tiny-grasshopper-belize.html

    Tiny New Species Hops Around Beliz

    (by Jennifer Welsh) (photo credit: Sam W. Heads, Steven J. Taylor) 

    A newfound species of a tiny, grasshopperlike insect seems to be quite lonely, being the first of its family to be discovered in Belize, according to researchers.

    Scientists from the University of Illinois found the little hopper in the tropical rain forests of southern Belizeand named it Ripipteryx mopana, after a tribe of Mayans native to the region known as the Mopan people. The grasshopperlike species uses its large jumping hind legs to escape predators.

    Read more: http://www.livescience.com/18490-tiny-grasshopper-belize.html