Chest-Bursting Wasps Among 600 New Species Discovered in Australia

Written by Jessie Zhang on March 23, 2023. Posted in Current News

‘Salsa dancing’ spiders, tiny crabs dressed in sea sponge, and chest-bursting wasps are among some of the 626 new Australian species scientists discovered in the past 12 months

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said that scientists are discovering and naming about two new species every day.

“We have only discovered and named about a third of the species found in Australia,” Plibersek said in a statement on March 20.

While Australia has less than one percent of the world’s population, it has around eight percent of the world’s plants and animals.

“Australia is recognised as one of only 17 mega-diverse countries in the world, and with a result like this, it’s easy to see why,” she said.

The discoveries were celebrated on Taxonomist Appreciation Day on March 19, giving a nod to the work of scientists who name, classify, and describe Australia’s unique biodiversity.

“I want to thank everyone who has helped discover, name and better understand our amazing plants and animals,” Plibersek said.

“These scientists have classified tiny crabs, a new kind of cicada, and a coral that sways in our underwater reefs—just to name a few.”

It injects its larvae inside a living caterpillar, and when hatched, juvenile wasps will burst out of the hosts.

Taxonomy, the science of classifying species, puts names on species that make it easier for researchers, citizen scientists, and conservationists to talk about and study that exact species, according to Parks Australia entomologist Bryan Lessard.

“Scientists have documented only 30 percent of all the species on Earth, so it’s no surprise we are still uncovering hidden species,” he said.

“We can’t protect endangered or threatened species without knowing what they are and where they live. That helps us to look after them into the future.”

New Giant Spider Species

The news of the multitude of new species comes after scientists at the Queensland Museum announced that they had discovered a rare and giant species of trapdoor spider, with a size about as big as a mouse.

Published in The Journal of Arachnology, the scientists said they named the new species Euoplos dignitas as a tribute to its large size.

“The name is derived from the Latin dignitas meaning ‘dignity or greatness’ and is reflected by the impressive size and nature of the spider,” Queensland Museum’s principal scientist and lead author of the paper Michael Rix said.

However, these spiders live in the open woodlands habits of inland Queensland, which have been fractured by over 150 years of human development, and now include some of Queensland’s most threatened species.

“This species is known from only a very few locations around Eidsvold and Monto in Central Queensland and has lost much of its habitat to land clearing, which makes it likely to be an endangered species,” Rix said.

The Australian Biological Resources Study has recorded the 626 new species names along with the 150,000 native species already known.

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Header image: Jonas Tusch

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