Top 10 species

Making lists is human nature. Even in our scientific newspaper a column “10 facts about...” appeared. A year ago (TrV-Science No. 55) we wrote about the initiative of the International Institute for Species Exploration at the University of Arizona. Every year they publish 10 beautiful pictures. Last year it was the Top 10 Species for 2010 (Top 10 New Species for 2010). A year has passed and a new list has appeared - it’s already 2011.

This list contains the 10 most beautiful, bizarre, and funny species described in 2010. These species could have been discovered at any time, but the scientific article that describes this creature should have appeared last year. Well, let's get acquainted.

Glomeremus orchidophilus. Everything is very simple here. This cricket from Reunion Island is the only orthoptera known to entomologists and botanists that pollinates flowers. Specifically, orchids. Moreover, for the endangered orchid Angraecum cadetii, the cricket is the only pollinator. On the close relationship between the cricket and the flower - Hugel, S., C. Micheneau, J. Fournel, B. H. Warren, A. Gauvin-Bialecki, T. Pailler, M. W. Chase and D. Strasberg. 2010. Glomeremus species from the Mascarene islands (Orthoptera, Gryllacrididae) with the description of the pollinator of an endemic orchid from the island of Reunion. Zootaxa 2545:58–68.

Caerostris darwini. Darwin's tree spider weaves the world's largest orb web. The total area of ​​the web reaches 2.8 m2. Can you imagine how many flies you can catch in this net? It’s even funnier that at the same time as Darwin’s spider, a species of fly that was symbiotic with it was discovered. Do you want to know what their symbiosis is? Read: Kuntner, M. and I. Agnarsson. 2010. Web gigantism in Darwin's bark spider, a new species from Madagascar (Araneidae: Caerostris). The Journal of Arachnology 38(2):346–356.

Tyrannobdella rex. Everything about this leech is unusual. And the name (T. rex), and the place of discovery (the nose of the Peruvian girl, from which it was extracted), and sooooo teeth! Phillips, A. J., R. Arauco-Brown, A. Oceguera-Figueroa, G. P. Gomez, M. Beltran, Y. T. Lai and M. E. Siddall. 2010. Tyrannobdella rex n. gen. n. sp. and the evolutionary origins of mucosal leech infestations. PLoS ONE 5(4):e10057.

Mycena luxaeterna. Glowing mushroom. Of the one and a half million species of mushrooms, only 71 species of them glow not after ingesting certain types of mushrooms, but on their own. Therefore, the discovery of a new impressive sample is worthy of the Top 10. Moreover, it was not only discovered, but also 5 genes were discovered that are responsible for such a glow. Details: Desjardin, D. E., B. A. Perry, D. J. Lodge, C. V. Stevani, and E. Nagasawa. 2010. Luminescent Mycena: new and noteworthy species. Mycologia 102(2):459–477.

Psathyrella aquatica. Well, of course, the word aquatica will be in the title. Indeed, they are the first mushrooms whose fruiting bodies ripen under water. Apparently, a new sport is expected - mushroom diving! Frank, J. L., R. A. Coffan and D. Southworth. 2010. Aquatic gilled mushrooms: Psathyrella fruiting in the Rogue River in southern Oregon. Mycologia 102(1):93–107.

Halomonas titanicae. This bacterium, it seems, will become the main character in James Cameron's new blockbuster. It was discovered near the sunken Titanic, and it will be the cause of its final demise. The fact is that it was discovered on the Titanic. This modest organism devours iron oxide from the surface of a rusty ship. In a few hundred years it will be completely devoured. How it will be - read here: Sanchez-Porro, C., B. Kaur, H. Mann and A. Ventosa. 2010. Halomonas titanicae sp. nov, a halophilic bacterium isolated from the RMS Titanic. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 60(12):2768–2774.

Saltoblattella montistabularis. Did you also notice the word somersault in the name of the cockroach? This was found only in the Jurassic period, and now it has been discovered on our Earth, now! A cockroach, but it jumps like a grasshopper. Brrr... Bohn, H, M. Picker, KD. Klass and J. Colville. 2010. A jumping cockroach from South Africa, Saltoblat-tella montistabularis, gen. nov., spec. nov. (Blattodea: Blattellidae). Arthropod Sys- thematics and Phylogeny 68(1):53–39.

Varanus bitatawa. Apparently, this monitor lizard was included in the list of the most amazing species of 2011 because the two-meter lizard, living in the Philippines, did not come to the attention of biologists for a long time. Zoologists write about the reasons for their blindness here: Welton, LJ, CD Siler, D. Bennett, A. Diesmos, MR Duya, R. Dugay, ELB Rico, M. van Weerd and RM Brown. 2010. A spectacular new Philippine monitor lizard reveals a hidden biogeographic boundary and a novel flagship species for conservation. Biology Letters 6(5):654–658.

Halieutichthys intermedius. And this, apparently, is simply the most disgusting fish submitted to the competition in 2010. Discovered in the Gulf of Mexico. H.-C. Ho, P. Chakrabarty, and J. S. Sparks. 2010. Review of the Halieutichthys aculeatus species complex (Lophiiformes: Ogcocephalidae), with descriptions of two new species. Journal of Fish Biology 77(4):841–869.

Philantomba walteri. And the most amazing thing about this West African antelope is that scientists discovered this new species at... a Bushman meat market, where hunters sold the killed carcass. Maybe they should go to Odessa Privoz? You can find a lot of things there too. Why zoologists go to markets, read here: Colyn, M., J. Hulselmans, G. Sonet, P. Oude, J. de Winter, A. Natta, ZT Nagy and E. Verheyen. 2010. Discovery of a new duiker species (Bovidae: Cephaloph-inae) from the Dahomey Gap, West Africa. Zootaxa 2637:1–30.

If you also want to take part in the competition, nominations for the Top 10 species of 2012 are already open. You can nominate your species here: http://species.asu.edu/species-nomination .

Alexey Paevsky