U.S. entomologists have found a strange new insect on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska.
Female Caurinus tlagu (Sikes DS / Stockbridge J)
The new species, named Caurinus tlagu (pronounced ‘tlu-gu’), belongs to the insect order Mecoptera which includes the scorpionflies, hangingflies, and snow scorpionflies.
The specific name is derived from the Alaska Native tribal language Tlingit meaning ‘ancient, forever’ or ‘old, from the past.’
These tiny flea-like insects measure about 2 mm long and feed on a leafy liverwort that grows in coastal forests.
“We process thousands of Alaskan insects specimens into our collections at the University of Alaska Museum every year so it’s rare that we see something that throws us for a loop,” said Dr Jill Stockbridge of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Female Caurinus tlagu (Sikes DS / Stockbridge J)
Dr Stockbridge and Dr Derek Sikes, also from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, are co-authors of a paper describing the new insect in the open access journal ZooKeys.
Dr Stockbridge added: “I called Derek, the Curator of Insects for the museum, into the lab and asked him what kind of insect this was and he didn’t even know the order!”
With a digital photo in hand they posted the image on Facebook so their colleagues could offer their opinions. It’s such a strange insect that, not surprisingly, most suggestions were wrong. One entomologist, Dr Michael Ivie of Montana State University, recognized it as the genus Caurinus of which only one species – Caurinus dectes from Washington and Oregon – was previously known.
Dr Sikes said: “in addition to being the second known species of such an usual group of insects, we were excited to learn from fossil evidence that these two species belong to a group that probably dates back over 145 million years, to the Jurassic!”
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Bibliographic information: Sikes DS, Stockbridge J. 2013. Description of Caurinus tlagu, new species, from Prince of Wales Island, Alaska (Mecoptera, Boreidae, Caurininae). ZooKeys 316: 35; doi: 10.3897/zookeys.316.5400
