Manaus - Scientists at the Brazilian Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA) found during an expedition at least 65 species of insects that had never been seen in nature. The first estimate represents only a small part of what can still be found among the more than 100 000 insects they collected during their voyage, since the process of analyzing and cataloging species can take years and lacks specialists.
Among the new species already identified, there are four different types of bugs, six mantis and six sawyer beetles, eight mosquitoes, ten grasshoppers, 15 cicadas and 16 new species of flies. "The grasshoppers have been studied more deeply only recently in Amazonia and represent a very diverse group in the forest," says José Albertino Rafael, researcher at INPA and coordinator of the expedition. To be recognized, the insects have to be observed by scientists specialized in each group. Therefore, the expedition team consisted of over 20 researchers, who remained about 20 days in the forest. "If in a group there are ten species of insects, the expert must know the ten to say that the eleventh is new. If there are a thousand, you have to know the thousand," says Rafael.
According to him, it is difficult to estimate how many new species may exist among the insects collected on the trip. "We will not be able to work with all groups of insects because there are no specialists for all. Most insects will not be studied," he says. "Insects are the most diverse groups of organisms on Earth and, comparatively, there are fewer specialists to study them. In the world there are about 1 million known species. A reasonable estimate says that there may be up to 5 million, and Amazonia certainly has a big part of it."