New insect species discovered on Flickr

Samantha Murphy
Mashable.com
August 13, 2012

Newly discovered species: Semachrysa jade

When wildlife photographer Hock Ping Guek posted a picture of a delicate fly with patches of color on its wings to photo-sharing site Flickr, he didn’t know he had come across a never-before-seen species of lacewing.

Guek uploaded the picture after photographing the lacewing last year in a forest in Selangor, Malaysia. Entomologist Shaun Winterton contacted him months later, when he spotted the picture online, and identified it as an entirely new lacewing species.

Guek sent a sample of the insect to Winterton for testing, and scientific journal ZooKeys recently published results of the findings.

“I first saw and photographed this species in the wild in its natural habitat on May 10, 2011,” Guek wrote on his blog. “A few lacewing experts informed me that this could be a new species. Luckily, I came across this beautiful species again on Jan. 27, 2012. Specimen was captured and sent to Mr. Winterton.”

Both Guek and Winterton got credit for the discovery of the new species, which they named Semachrysa jade.

This article first appeared on Mashable.com.

This article was posted: Monday, August 13, 2012 at 8:47 am

Tags: science, technology

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