Scientists recently found species
It’s easy to imagine that we know everything there is to know about the world we live in. As humans, we’ve explored and discovered so much about this fantastic planet, but there are still many undiscovered species all around the world, hiding deep in the jungles, in remote caves, and lurking underground. Scientists are still exploring remote areas and making new discoveries. There are new plants and animals to be found in all kinds of places. Let’s take a look at three of these newly discovered species.
The first is a tiny Costa-Rican beetle that coexists with ants, depending on them not only for food sources but also transportation. Then we’ll look at another beetle, this time one that lives in complete darkness in caves in Southern China and whose body is adapted for a sightless life. Finally, we’ll look at a non-photosynthesizing plant from Japan that spends most of the year underground.
All of these creatures have something in common: they’re all highly-specialized, living in a specific ecological niche and adapted perfectly to that existence. Nature is an intricate, interconnected web of species, living together and depending on one another in a variety of ways. Two of them exhibit an exciting form of symbiosis, a close biological relationship with another species, and one is adapted to its environment in a way that makes it appear very similar to unrelated species that live in the same situation.
- Baffling beetle (Nymphister kronaueri)
This tiny beetle was discovered in Costa Rica by researchers studying army ants. It’s so small and so sneaky that it’s been living among one particular species of army ants without being noticed by researchers until recently. Army ants are nomadic and are known for their aggressiveness and hostility, but these beetles live among them and even use them for rides. The baffling beetle is one-quarter of the size of an army ant worker, only 1.5 millimeters long, and it has very powerful mandibles that it uses to latch onto the narrow waist of an ant. They also look very similar to an ant abdomen, which helped them evade discovery by researchers as well as possibly avoid detection from the ants. Experts suspect the beetle also releases pheromones similar to the ones produced by the ants to prevent itself from being detected.
This highly-specialized beetle benefits from the food sources that the ants make available as they swarm and kill much larger prey. Unlike other ants, army ants don’t build elaborate nests and stay in one place, so to continue benefiting from their food and protection, the baffling beetles must travel with them. They latch onto certain worker ants, seeming to favor ones that fall within a certain size range and get carried along to the ants’ next destination.
Many species live among colonies of ants, benefiting from them in various ways. Army ants often are accompanied by all kinds of animals, from birds that eat up insects that are disturbed by the ants, to mites and beetles that follow the ants as they migrate. There can be hundreds of different species that depend on these ant colonies for food or protection. The baffling beetle is one of these species, and the complex interactions between ant colonies and their symbionts are still being discovered and studied.
2. Cave Beetle (Xuedytes bellus)
Remote caves in China seem like an ideal place to find a new species, and that’s precisely what happened in Du’an, Guangxi Province, China. It’s currently the only known species in its genus, Xuedytes, which makes it a significant find. This creepy-looking beetle lives in a pitch-black cave. At first glance, this cave beetle looks more like an ant or a spider than a beetle, with its long antennae and legs. This unique appearance is an adaptation to living in total darkness. These cave beetles are less than half an inch long, and they’re entirely blind, so they use other senses to navigate the world. It has very long antennae, as well as a long neck and legs, in comparison to the rest of its body. This enhances the beetle’s sense of touch, enabling them to find their way around in the dark.
These features resemble those of other insects that are adapted for living in the total darkness of caves. This is an example of merging evolution: different species developing similar traits in response to similar environmental pressures. Xuedytes bellus is part of a general group of animals known as troglofauna (animals that live in caves). Many of these species have lost their eyesight completely and exhibit heightened senses of hearing, touch, and smell. Cave-dwelling insects tend to have elongated appendages and no wings, just as Xuedytes bellus shows.
The region of Southern China where this beetle was discovered has extraordinary biodiversity, and it’s home to the highest number of different cave-dwelling beetle species in the world. The Xuedytes cave beetle is yet another addition to this group. Wherever there’s a niche to fill, nature finds a way to fill it, and in this case, it’s with a little beetle that is perfectly adapted for the dark.
3. Magnificent Moocher (Sciaphila sugimotoi)
Everyone learns that plants use sunlight to produce energy through photosynthesis. There are also some plants that supplement this energy with carnivorism. However, this newly-discovered plant doesn’t use either of these strategies. The Sciaphila sugimotoi, colloquially called the magnificent moocher, does not depend on sunlight for energy. Instead, it relies on a symbiotic relationship with fungus for its strength. It is a newly discovered member of the genus Sciaphila, which are mycoheterotrophs: fungus parasites.
The magnificent moocher was found on the island Ishigaki in Okinawa, Japan. It’s very rare for new plants to be discovered in Japan, as the species there have been very well documented, but these parasitic plants are elusive because they spend most of their time entirely underground, feeding off of the roots of host fungi networks. They send up shoots and bloom for only a brief period each year, so it’s easy to miss them entirely if you’re not looking during their brief above-ground appearance.
The discovery of this plant is essential not only because it adds to the diversity of the genus, but it also indicates that there is a robust fungus network in the area that the plant was discovered. These networks are difficult to detect because they exist entirely below ground, but the presence of Sciaphila sugimotoi indicates that the underground ecosystem is healthy.
Symbiosis appears all throughout the natural world. This is a close long-term relationship that involves biological interaction. Some symbiotic relationships are mutual, while others are parasitic. They can include organisms that stay physically connected, like the Magnificent Moocher and the fungus it gets its energy from. They can also be separate organisms that have a long-term connection, like the baffling beetle and its army ant transportation. One classic example of a symbiotic relationship is clown-fish living among anemones, keeping them clean and fertilized, and in turn, being protected from potential predators who don’t want to risk being stung by the anemone.
In the plant world, symbiosis can be seen in many ways. Many flowering plants are pollinated by a particular type of insect, their flowers specifically designed to be accessible and attractive to them. Some trees live in symbiosis with ants, benefiting from the protection that biting insects can provide. Sciaphila sugimotoi has a symbiotic relationship with fungi.
All three of these unique species that we’ve looked at can teach us something new about the world we live in. Biodiversity is crucial for the health of our planet, and that only becomes more apparent as researchers continue to make new discoveries. The interactions between species are, and we’re learning more about them every day, as we observe beetles living with ants and plants feeding off of fungus. The brilliance of the natural world shines through in all of these interactions, and the importance of protecting all of this biodiversity becomes ever more evident.
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