twelve new species of insects identified on the island

Eight flies, two wasps, a butterfly and a centipede have been discovered by scientists. It is the result of long sample collection work carried out in Corsica between 2019 and 2021.

In Corsica, twelve new species were discovered by scientists: eight flies, two wasps, a butterfly and a centipede, which had never before been described by researchers. Corsican Pine Hawkmoth, Thymalus Punicus, Tachydromia Corsicana… These are the scientific names of these new species detected by Julien Touroult and his colleagues. “We didn’t necessarily expect to find many new species in Corsica, because it remains an area that is quite well known.confides the director of Patrinat, which takes care of the national inventory of natural heritage. We were surprised to finally find new species, which look exactly like species already known on the continent, and groups so neglected that in fact they had not been sufficiently studied in Corsica. “

This is the result of long sample collection work carried out in Corsica between 2019 and 2021. Scientific field missions were organized in Corsica by the National Museum of Natural History, the French Biodiversity Office and the Corsican Community as part of the naturalist exploration program “La Planète Revisitée”.

During the three years, 19 sites were inventoried in Corsica. To collect these samples, scientists from the exploration program set up traps in the mountains, forests or on the Corsican coast. “We collect several tens of thousands of insects. It may seem quite enormous, but it is a very small fraction”assures Julien Touroult.

More than 3,900 species of terrestrial arthropods recorded

In all, this in-depth study of often neglected species identifies more than 3,900 species of terrestrial arthropods in total, of which 12 species are described as new to science and 148 constitute first records for Corsica.

“Today, with the biodiversity crisis, we realize that we do not yet know the species with which we inhabit the Earth and we have a renewal of taxonomy, of the need to explore living things.”

Julien Touroult, director of Patrinat

at franceinfo

And scientists still have work to do. Two million species have been described to date across the planet, but there are undoubtedly more than eight million remaining to be discovered.