Saturday, October 01, 2016

High Strangeness for New Species

New species are turning up in a never-ending stream. Some are interesting but routine.   Scientists in India think they have five new species, of fleas, nice for them, but not unexpected.  
 A new genus of freshwater crab found in a Chinese pet market got a little more attention because it's bigger and really handsome-looking (photo in article here) as well as being important to carcinologists,  Some new species are more startling.  Bees who chew their way into sandstone to excavate burrows?  Totally wild.  New mammals always make news: this new rodent from Sikkim, a species of pika named Ochotona sikimaria,  is important and, of course, cute.   
Finally, a new ant might not be important by itself, but an ant found in frog vomit? OK, it doesn't live in the vomit or stomach of the poisonous frog in question - it was eaten, and thus not surprisingly dead.    And new ants are everywhere. But I can't recall a species discovered only because another species threw up.  

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