New beetle species discovered in Japan’s subtropical forests

Jun 16 (miragenews.com) - A new weevil species was discovered in Japan’s pristine subtropical forests on Ishigaki Island and Yanbaru National Park in Okinawa.

Renowned for their remarkable biodiversity, the Ryukyu Islands are a chain of subtropical islands distributed between mainland Japan and Taiwan that boast a relatively isolated evolutionary history, and are home to a distinctive and fascinating insect fauna.

Researchers at the Okinawan Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have been placing net traps to monitor insects on Okinawa Island since 2015, and have captured a wide range of insects, including beetles, flies, wasps and bees, which are preserved in ethanol, dried and stored in the OIST insect collection. The newly discovered beetle species, Acicnemis ryukyuana, was successfully identified through microscope analysis and dissection by OIST entomologist Jake H. Lewis, who works as Collection Manager in the OIST Environmental Science and Informatics Section. ...continue reading

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