A New York
university's annual list of the 10 most bizarre new species discovered in the
animal and plant kingdoms has been topped by a mini-spider named after a hat
from the Harry Potter series.
Deutsche Welle, 20 May
The State
University of New York's College of Environmental Science's International
Institute for Species Exploration's "Top 10" list came from 10
countries across four continents and were selected from a total of 18,000 newly
discovered species, the institute said.
A tiny
spider (pictured above), less than 2 millimeters (a tenth of an inch), was
named after the bewitched Sorting Hat in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter book
series.
"The
shape of the spider's body, conical, with a jaunty bend in the narrow tip, is
reminiscent of the hat first owned by the famed wizard Godric Gryffindor,"
the institute wrote on its website.
The list further
includes "a strikingly colored freshwater stingray and two plants - a bush
tomato that appears to 'bleed' when it's cut and an orchid with the face of the
devil," it added.
Two leggy
creatures, the institute continued, included on the list, "were a
millipede with more than 400 legs and an amphibious centipede, along with a
marine worm that looks a lot like fried pastry."
The Top 10
(pictured above from top left)
- "Sorting Hat" Spider (Eriovixia gryffindori)
- Unexpected Katydid (Eulophophyllum kirki)
- Omnivorous Root Rat (Gracilimus radix)
- 414-legged Millipede (Illacme tobini)
- "Dragon" Ant (Pheidole drogon)
- Freshwater Stingray (Potamotrygon rex)
- Swimming Centipede (Scolopendra cataracta)
- Bush Tomato (Solanum ossicruentum)
- Endangered Orchid (Telipogon diabolicus)
- "Churro" Marine Worm (Xenoturbella churro)
The
"Top 10" has been published annually since 2008, with researchers
looking for diversity in the animal and plant kingdoms and those threatened
with extinction.
The
institute, according to its website, "is dedicated to the exploration,
inventory, and classification of earth's species, public awareness of the
biodiversity crisis, advocacy for the important roles played by taxonomy and
natural history museums, the advancement of cyber taxonomy and the application
of cyber and digital tools to accelerate and improve comparative morphology,
descriptive taxonomy, and phylogenetic classification."
The
"Top 10 New Species" list is released around May 23 each year to
coincide with the birthday of Carolus Linnaeus - the "Father of
Taxonomy," whose work in the 18th century was the beginning point for
modern naming and classification of plants and animals.
A further
10 million animal and plant species - five times more than already known - are
therefore not yet discovered worldwide.
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