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Home Environment Animals

New Butterfly Species Identified in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula

Bala Murali Krishna Yelchuri by Bala Murali Krishna Yelchuri
November 22, 2011
in Animals, Environment

The Nature is a treasure house of wonders. As we go on unlocking its secrets, more remains to be discovered. So is the hunt for finding new butterfly species.

New cryptic species a) Prepona laertesECO01 and b) Prepona laertesECO02, with interim names waiting for full characterization. Dorsal view. Humberto Bahena.

Mexican Scientists, led by Carmen Pozo of El Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Mexico, have claimed to have identified the new species while making a study on the Nymphalidae family of butterflies population in the Yucatan peninsula.

They had reported this in “Beyond the Colours: Discovering Hidden Diversity in the Nymphalidae of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico through DNA Barcoding” in the latest online journal PLoS ONE 6(11): e27776.

“Approximately 570 species of Nymphalidae have been reported in Mexico, and 121 of these occur in the Yucatan peninsula. Using DNA bar-coding, which uses the sequence of a standard short gene segment to provide information about biodiversity, they found evidence for several previously undiscovered, so-called ‘cryptic’  species that now await characterization,” the journal reported.

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The researchers had also noticed four cases where specimen had been misidentified based on the appearance. They had later corrected these erroneous classifications based on the DNA, highlighting the potential utility of this method.

There are about 160,000 known species of butterflies and moths in the world and scientists believe that a similar number still remains undiscovered.

Identification and characterization of these species is a complex process because each species has an immature caterpillar and a mature butterfly form, as well as the reliance on the physical appearance for classification.

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The latest DNA-based bar-coding technique came handy to the scientists for easy identification and characterization of the species.

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“This investigation has revealed overlooked species in a well-studied museum collection of Nymphalid butterflies and suggests that there is a substantial incidence of cryptic species that await full characterization.

 

The utility of bar-coding in the rapid identification of caterpillars also promises to accelerate the assembly of information on life histories, a particularly important advance for hyper diverse tropical insect assemblages,” the researchers observed.

Tags: butterflymexico
Bala Murali Krishna Yelchuri

Bala Murali Krishna Yelchuri

Science Journalist,Media Consultant and Journalism Educator, based in Hyderabad,capital city of Andhra Pradesh State, an emerging Silicon Valley of South India.Born on August 10,1952, completed Ph.D.,M.Phil and MA in JMC, MBA in HRD,Dip in Teaching Journalism(Berlin) and Dip in Advanced Journalism(Praha). Worked for over 35 years in the premier multi-lingual national news agency - United News of India(UNI) -in different capacities and places in India. Happily married to Krishna Kumari and have daughter Krishna Jyothi(Journalist-Hyderabad) and son Vamsi Krishna(Engineer-Noida). Life member-Indian Science Writers Association and Master Resource Person to the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC-Ministry of S&T-Govt of India). Life member Museums Association of India and President, Andhra Pradesh Journalists Union (APJU).Core committee member Malkolak Knowledge Centre,Hyderabad.

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