Rediscovery - Page 4 of 5

With the help of citizen scientists and the iNaturalist platform, the cicada Okanagana arctostaphylae, thought extinct, was rediscovered. The image shows the insect Okanagana fumipennis from the same genus. (© Patrick Alexander from Las Cruces, NM, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

8. March 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Rediscovered thanks to citizen science: cicada found again after 100 years

As National Geographic reported, the cicada species Okanagana arctostaphylae has been rediscovered more than a century after it was last seen. The discovery was made by nature observer Lucinda Collings Parker in her garden in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California. Parker photographed the striking red cicada in

The fairly large weevil Metapocyrtus (Orthocyrtus) bifoveatus, measuring 1.35 centimeters in length and rediscovered after around 100 years, is colored metallic green, blue and rust-brown. (© Tomislav Terzin et al, From deforestation to recovery: One new species and new record of the genus Metapocyrtus Heller, 1912 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae: Pachyrhynchini) from Negros Island, Philippines with the review of type material, Topola (2023). DOI: 10.5937/topola2312005T)

6. February 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Philippines: colorful weevil rediscovered after 100 years + new species found

Biologist Tom Terzin of the University of Alberta discovered two species of weevil in the rainforests of the Philippine island of Negros: one previously thought extinct and one entirely new species. What is especially interesting is that the finds, published in the journal Topola, show nature’s ability to recover after

Leopard-Barbe (Luciobarbus subquincunciatus) wiederentdeckt

The population of the leopard barbel has declined sharply over the past three decades, leading researchers to assume that this cyprinid fish had already become extinct. (© Photo by Metin Yoksu)

9. January 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Turkey: Leopard barbel thought lost rediscovered

According to a report by the non-profit conservation organization Re:wild, a team of ichthyologists recently rediscovered the leopard barbel or Mesopotamian barbel (Luciobarbus subquincunciatus) in the Turkish section of the Tigris River, after it was last documented in 2011. The rediscovery of this cyprinid marks the team’s second success, after

Attenborough-Langschnabeligel (Zaglossus attenboroughi) wieder entdeckt

Like platypuses, echidnas are curious mammals: spiny hedgehog-like creatures with a long, toothless beak that also lay eggs. The photo shows the specimen of Attenborough's long-beaked echidna collected in 1961, which is now housed at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands. (© Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

10. November 2023 Doreen Fräßdorf

Lost Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna rediscovered after more than 60 years

Until recently, only a single specimen of Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi) was known, collected by a Dutch botanist in 1961 in the forests of the Cyclops Mountains in western New Guinea. Now—62 years later—the shoebox-sized animal from the echidna family was tracked down again using camera traps. This was

Hollies are also known as winterberries or Christmas thorn and are found in all climate zones worldwide. Most of these plants are native to the subtropics and tropics. (© Kristina D.C. Hoeppner from Wellington, New Zealand, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

21. September 2023 Doreen Fräßdorf

Brazil: Extinct Tree Species Rediscovered After Nearly 200 Years

According to a report by the organization re:wild, an expedition team led by ecologist Gustavo Martinelli has now rediscovered the holly species Ilex sapiiformis in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. The tree species had been considered extinct for nearly two centuries. The Scottish biologist George Gardner first collected the plant

The rediscovered population of Kobe thismia is located in an area of less than 20 square meters, so its future survival is not guaranteed. Because of their strange-looking flowers, Thismia are known in English as "fairy lanterns" (Feen-Laternen). (© Kenji Suetsugu, Osamu Nakanishi, Tomiki Kobayashi, Nobihira Kurosaki, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

28. February 2023 Doreen Fräßdorf

Japan: “Fairy Lantern” Still Exists After All

As the team led by Kenji Suetsugu from the Japanese university in Kobe recently reported in the journal Phytotaxa, the Kobe thismia (Thismia kobensis), a plant species believed to have been extinct, was rediscovered in Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture after more than 30 years. The holotype and only known specimen of

The illustration shows the kilch and a deepwater char (bottom left) in Lake Constance. The deepwater char, which resembles a trout, shimmers slightly silver and has small, partly fringed fins. (© Walter, Emil, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

8. February 2023 Doreen Fräßdorf

Lake Constance: The deepwater char is back

The Tiefseesaibling or deepwater char (Salvelinus profundus), not seen since the 1970s and declared extinct in 2008 by the IUCN, has reappeared, according to a study published in November 2022 by scientists from the Langenargen Fisheries Research Station, the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich, and researchers from Switzerland

Größenvergleich Megachile pluto und Apis mellifera

Size comparison: Wallace's giant bee Megachile pluto and Western honey bee Apis mellifera (© Abalg with File:Megachile pluto.jpg and File:1911 Britannica - Bee - Apis mellifica.png, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

4. February 2023 Doreen Fräßdorf

Lazarus effect: Wallace’s giant bee, thought extinct, rediscovered

When a species thought to be extinct reappears, this is known as the Lazarus effect. That is exactly what happened with Wallace’s giant bee (Megachile pluto)—in fact, twice already: after the species was rediscovered for the first time in 1981, a research team has now rediscovered the thumb-sized insect on

While the head resembles that of a pigeon, the body of the pheasant pigeon resembles a pheasant. Generally, four subspecies are distinguished, which differ from the nominate form by their nape patch. The black-naped pheasant pigeon has a black nape patch. (© John Gerrard Keulemans, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

18. November 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

Not sighted for 140 years: Black-naped pheasant pigeon rediscovered

As Pat Leonard from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology reported yesterday, a team of scientists during an expedition to Papua New Guinea in September of this year rediscovered the black-naped pheasant pigeon (Otidiphaps insularis or Otidiphaps nobilis insularis), which had not been sighted for 140 years. The researchers captured the

The Lord Howe Island cockroach (pictured), last observed in the 1930s, has now been rediscovered. (© Friendbuddypalchamp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

4. October 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

Lord Howe Island cockroach rediscovered

The Lord Howe Island cockroach Panesthia lata, endemic to the Australian Pacific island of Lord Howe and not seen since the 1930s, was rediscovered in July 2022 when biologist Maxim Adams of the University of Sydney and his team visited the island. As the magazine Spektrum recently reported, they found