New Beetle Species Discovered in World's Deepest Cave
Posted on July 2, 2014
A new species of beetle has been discovered in the Krubera cave in Russia's Western Caucasus. The Krubera cave is the world's deepest cave at 2,140 meters deep. It is the only cave in the world known to have a depth of over 2,000 meters. The beetle was discovered by researchers from two Spanish universities.
The hypogean ground beetle has been given the name Duvalius abyssimus. The beetles do have eyes unlike many insects specialized for cave-only life. Both a male and a female specimen were collected.
Vicente M. Ortuno, from the University of Alcala, says in the announcement, "The new species of cave beetle is called Duvalius abyssimus. We only have two specimens, a male and a female. Although they were captured in the world's deepest cave, they were not found at the deepest point."
A research paper on the cave beetle was published here in Zootaxa.