14 DAY TRIAL // A whopping 101 new beetle species are described in a single paper recently published in the journal ZooKeys.
These new species were all discovered in New Guinea and entomologists say that they all belong to the same genus, Trigonopterus. Mongabay informs us that, although these beetles might strike ordinary folks as not all that different from one another, the insects nonetheless differ greatly in terms of DNA and reproductive organs.
Since finding names for all these new bug species would have been a tiresome endeavor, the researchers settled for opening a local phonebook and naming some of the bugs after popular surnames listed in it.
Presently, rainforests in New Guinea are disappearing at an alarming rate. Because of this, entomologists and wildlife researchers are doing their best to document whatever species still inhabit them.