{"id":490,"date":"2016-09-05T18:38:46","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T18:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.viamedic.com\/blog\/?p=490"},"modified":"2012-09-05T18:38:46","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T18:38:46","slug":"new-insect-discovered-through-flickr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/current-health-news\/new-insect-discovered-through-flickr\/","title":{"rendered":"New Insect Discovered Through Flickr"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Insects can be more beautiful than you might expect. (Posted on Flickr by Diganta Talukdar. Downloaded Sept. 2012.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>Entemologist Shaun Winterton was browsing Flickr recently when he discovered a new species of insect.<\/p>\n

He was browsing photos of bugs online, when he came across some beautiful pictures of a new type of airy, green-and-purple winged insect. The pictures were posted on a blog called \u201cUp Close with Nature\u201d and were taken by the Malaysian photographer who runs the blog, Hock Ping Guek.<\/p>\n

Winterton contacted the photographer, pointing out that he may have discovered a new species of lacewing. Guek was able to locate the insect again about a year later, and this time captured a specimen. Guek contacted Winterton, letting him know that his new insect was sitting in a container in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Guek sent the specimen to Steve Brooks, an associate of Winterton\u2019s, who confirmed its status as a new species. Brooks was actually able to find a matching specimen in the<\/p>\n

Natural History Museum, where he works, but it had remained in the collection with being classified for decades<\/p>\n

The three later co-authored a paper, and decided to name the bug Semarchrysa jade, after Winterton\u2019s daughter, Jade. Fittingly, the paper was written collaboratively using Google Docs.<\/p>\n

Species Identification<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s interesting to think about just how far we have to go before we\u2019ve cataloged the species on Earth. You might think it\u2019s quite incredible to discover a new species of insect by going to your nearest computer, but the odds are probably better than you think.<\/p>\n

Quentin Wheeler<\/a> is an entomologist at Arizona State who founded the International Institute for Species Exploration. We\u2019ve currently catalogued over 2 million different living species, but Wheeler estimates that we have as many as 10 million additional plant and animal species to go.<\/p>\n

In fact, an annual inventory reports that 9,738 insects were identified for the first time in 2009. There\u2019s no reason to think that the feat of Guek, Winterton, and Brooks is less remarkable, though, as it\u2019s certain that most of these discoveries were made intentionally by entomologists who were out in the field working, not in front of their computers browsing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Entemologist Shaun Winterton was browsing Flickr recently when he discovered a new species of insect. He was browsing photos of bugs online, when he came across some beautiful pictures of a new type of airy, green-and-purple winged insect. The pictures were posted on a blog called \u201cUp Close with Nature\u201d and were taken by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-health-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t