Four New Species of Bush Crickets Discovered in Museum Collections
Posted on January 20, 2015
Four new species of bush crickets have been discovered in museum collections. Many species lie on museum shelves for years before they are finally examined and recognized as a previously unknown species. That is the case with these four bush cricket species.
One of the four species remained undiscovered on a museum shelf for over 100 years. The species was given the name Arostratum oblitum. It is pictured above. The name oblitum means "forgotten" in Latin. This is a good choice for the cricket that was overlooked for so many years.
The four bush crickets are all from Central Africa. Arostratum oblitum is found in Tanzania. It is described as a small species with very short wings and very long legs. The long legs and long antennae are evident in the photograph. A research paper on the new species can be found here in the journal ZooKeys.
Dr. Bruno Massa, the author of the study from the Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo, says in a statement, "My study supported by Synthesys project demonstrates that we have missed many interesting taxa once collected and put in museum collections and the forgotten for a long time. Probably many other new species are waiting to be discovered."