New Spanish beetle species discovered

This video says about itself:

28 March 2012

Micro-CT anatomical study of the tiny aquatic beetle (Insecta: Coleoptera) Hydraena capta. Scanned with a Skyscan-1172 microtomograph (www.skyscan.be) at the Dept. of Zoology, Univ. of Granada. Spain, by Prof.Dr. Javier Alba-Tercedor.

From Wildlife Extra:

Two new beetles discovered in Spain

Two new endemic beetles discovered in Iberian Peninsula

June 2011. A European research team, with Spanish participation, has described two new beetle species measuring just two millimetres in length. The beetles were found in streams in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees mountains and in the Sierra de la Demanda mountains. Experts had previously thought that they belonged to another European species.

“These species, which have a restricted range, had been confused with another European species with a more extensive distribution (Hydraena saga) and so their independent evolutionary history was unknown” said Ignacio Ribera, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF) in Barcelona.

Hydraena diazi, one of the two new beetle species, was found in the Montseny Natural Park in Barcelona. Measuring between 2.2 and 2.4 millimetres in length, the insect also inhabits the Pyrenees.

Second new species

The study, which has been published recently in the journal Zootaxa, also confirms the existence of another new species, Hydraena fosterorum, discovered in another mountain chain, the Sierra de la Demanda (Burgos).

Individuals of this species, which are also found in the north of the Sistema Ibérico mountains (Sierra del Moncayo), measure between 2.15 and 2.30 millimetres. According to Ribera, the two species “are exclusive to well-conserved streams”, and are similar to the insects in the Pyrenees.

Britain: June 2011: A nationally rare beetle has been discovered in good numbers at a Worcestershire nature reserve. The leaf-rolling weevil has been found at the Wildlife Trust’s Trench Wood nature reserve between Droitwich and Worcester and its presence is testament to the management work the trust has been doing to benefit this and other insect species: here.

The ages of most North American insects can be deduced by applying a little knowledge of the species in question and by looking at the calendar: here.