New cricket from UNESCO reserve

12 Oct 2015 Scientists in NUS have discovered a new species of cricket from UNESCO Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve in Thailand.

Insect diversity in Southeast Asia is poorly understood because of its richness and incomplete sampling. In an attempt to document the insect diversity of UNESCO Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, surveys were conducted to collect Orthoptera (grasshopper, crickets and katydids). A team led by Mr TAN Ming Kai from the Department of Biological Sciences in NUS discovered one species of cricket from the genus Velarifictorus (Pseudocoiblemmus) was found to be new to Science. It was described and named as Velarifictorus (Pseudocoiblemmus) bilobus sp. n. Tan, Dawwrueng, Artchawakom, 2015.

Naming species new to science are important to other disciplines of science because species are information storage and retrieval units.

The next step to this research is to create an up-to-date checklist for the Orthoptera of Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve. Such a checklist provides baseline data for future studies in other disciplines (such as ecology, behavioural biology) and for use in conservation management.

The figure shows the habitus of male Velarifictorus (Pseudocoiblemmus) bilobus sp. n. Scale bar = 10mm. [Image credit: MK Tan]

Reference

Tan MK. “A new species of Velarifictorus (Pseudocoiblemmus) from Thailand” Gryllidae; Gryllinae; Modicogryllini with key to species. Zootaxa. 3981(1) (2015) 138.