New insect discovered thanks to an amateur photographer and flickr
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www.worldweatheronline.com New insect discovered thanks to an amatuer photographer and Flickr
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Transcript of New insect discovered thanks to an amateur photographer and flickr
www.worldweatheronline.com
New insect discovered thanks to an amatuer photographer and Flickr
www.worldweatheronline.com
Entomologist Shaun Winterton discovered a new species of green lacewing in a very unusual place: on his computer screen. Thanks to one man’s love of nature photography and Winterton’s love of looking at pictures of bugs, this guy has been added to the catalogue of known species.
What’s this about?
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First discovery
When Winterton saw the photo taken by Guek Hock Ping in Malaysia, he knew that the lacewing was different than any he had ever studied. He contacted Guek to see if he had captured the insect, but he hadn’t, since to him it was just a nice looking bug he saw whilst on a hike. But Gruek travelled back to same spot a year later and was able to capture one of the insects and get it to Winterton for examination.
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Classified species
Guek documents what happened on his blog: “I first saw and photographed this species in the wild in its natural habitat on May 10, 2011. A few lacewing experts informed me that this could be a new species. Luckily, I came across this beautiful species again on January 27, 2012. Specimen was captured and sent to Mr. Winterton.”
Winterton then sent it to Steve Brooks at the Natural History Museum of London who not only confirmed that it was a new species, but found a matching specimen on file at the museum that no one had ever classified.
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The lacewing’s discovery
Guek, Winterton and Brooks worked together to write a paper on the lacewing’s discovery, naming it Semachrysa jade, taking its name from Winterton’s daughter.This incident points to the power of image hosting services as image crowdsourcing. Winterton now believes that this technique of discovering new species will become more common: “There are thousands of images a minute uploaded on Flickr. I think there are many more discoveries forthcoming, particularly as more people are getting out into the field.”
Perhaps the next time scientists are looking for new life, they might want to first check their social media accounts.
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New insect discovered thanks to an amateur photographer and Flickr
