An insect species thought to be extinct keeps appearing in photos of pygmy seahorses

A small team of marine scientists from the University of the Ryukyus, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, and the Kuroshio Biological Research Foundation discovered that an insect species thought to be missing since 1957 has been photographed by citizen scientists for several years. I discovered what was in the photo. year.

In a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their analysis of photos posted on the iNaturalist Citizen Science website and what they learned from them.

The research team’s work began when a friend of one of the researchers gifted them a piece of coral recovered from a recent diving expedition. When they brought it back to the lab for study, the researchers discovered that it was crawling with bugs. After studying the insects, it was determined that they were Haplocilis anthogorgicola. It was relatively easy to determine which corals were inhabited by worms, as there were lines of burrows created by the worms on the surface of the corals.

They also pointed out that this insect species has only been observed and reported in a scientific journal once. Since then, no other sightings or studies have been recorded in academic journals.

Remembering that pygmy seahorses are popular photographic subjects for tourists diving among corals, the researchers began searching for photos of pygmy seahorses on the iNaturalist website. The iNaturalist website is a place where tourists and amateur scientists can post photos of creatures and objects related to science and research activities.

In doing so, they discovered that many photos of seahorses had images of H. anthogorgicola in the background. It turns out that the worm has been photobombing seahorses for years. Therefore, this worm never hid or disappeared, but was simply forgotten by marine scientists.

After examining images of the insect and its burrows, the researchers discovered that the insect is abundant and found in multiple locations across Asia. Overall, the insect was found in about three-quarters of all seahorse photos examined. They also found evidence suggesting that the earthworms were helping the corals by cleaning up floating debris.

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