New Beetle Species Discovered in Bustling Metropolis

Researchers from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines have described a new species of water beetle in the nation's bustling capital.

Biology students and faculty members at the university conducted a survey of the small creeks, ponds and pools in wooded areas of the university campus, finding the new beetle as well as another that previously had never been documented on Luzon, the largest of the Philippine islands.

Finding the new species was a surprise for the researchers because of the dense urban population and concrete sea of buildings that sprawls across Manilla, where 1.6 million people live.

"I was so amazed that there are new species even in the Ateneo campus in the middle of Manila," said Arielle Vidal , a student and member of the survey team which discovered the new beetle.

Because the new species was found on the campus of Ateneo de Manila Univesity, where the department of biology is celebrating its 50th year of operation, the new beetle was named accordingly: Hydraena ateneo.

H. ateneo is of an understudied genus of water beetle, says Hendrik Freitag the author of the taxonomic description of the new beetle, which is published in the most recent edition of the journal Zookeys.

"The Long-palped Water Beetles (genus Hydraena) are in fact one of the most overlooked and diverse genera of aquatic beetles. Only 14 species of this genus -- all endemic -- are known from the country by now, but many more wait to be named and described. All of them display these extremely enlarged palps of the maxilla. These are real mouthpart appendages and not the antennae. Those species that were found in the Ateneo campus must have re-colonized the area after the tree cover has re-established in the last 50 years and the small creeks began to flow again."

In addition to the contribution of discovering and describing a new species, the researchers also say finding the H. ateneo is an important indicator of biodiversity, even in a highly urbanized area like Manila.

"The study has shown that small patches of semi-natural habitats amidst the densely populated and highly urbanized capital region can accommodate an astonishing assemblage of species," the researchers wrote in a news release. "This will hopefully be an inducement to protect and extend such islands of urban biodiversity in the cities."