Vampire Moth Discovered -- Evolution at Work

piggy submitted, created time 2 months 1 week (news.nationalgeographic.com)

A previously unknown population of vampire moths has been found in Siberia. And in a twist worthy of a Halloween horror movie, entomologists say the bloodsuckers may have evolved from a purely fruit-eating species.

Only slight variations in wing patterns distinguish the Russian population from a widely distributed moth species, Calyptra thalictri, found in central and southern Europe, known to feed only on fruit.

When the Russian moths were experimentally offered human hands this summer, the insects drilled their hook-and-barb-lined tongues under the skin and sucked blood.

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Giant frog found in Madagascar

Weird jellyfish from over 7000m below the surface

deepsea submitted, created time 1 year 4 months (www.jamstec.go.jp)

The Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC: Mr. Yasuhiro Kato, President) have observed a comb jelly (Ctenophore*1) of unique morphology. Analysis of images obtained in Ryukyu Trench, which is approximately 200km south off of Okinawa main island, showed it is highly possible to be a newly-discovered species and different from any currently known ctenophore.

The images were captured during the training dive of the ROV KAIKO on the sea floor at a depth of 7,217m in the Ryukyu Trench (2425N, 12775E : Appendix) on April 5, 2002

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Men worry more about penile size than women says

cappuccion submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.physorg.com)

The Tropical Eastern Pacific, a discrete biogeographic region that has an extremely high rate of endemism among its marine organisms, continues to yield a wealth of never-before-described marine animals to visiting scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Scientists describe five newly discovered species of nudibranchs, two of which Hermosillo collected in Panama.

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Sex Differences Help Spur New Species, Lizard Study Shows

New Bird Species Found In Idaho, Demonstrates Co-evolutionary Arms Race

BIOBOSS submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.sciencedaily.com)

One does not expect to discover a bird species new to science while wandering around the continental United States. Nor does one expect that such a species would provide much insight into how coevolutionary arms races promote speciation. On both fronts a paper to appear in The American Naturalist proves otherwise.

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New mammalian species discovered

BIOBOSS submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.sciencedaily.com)

A team of U.S. and Chinese paleontologists has discovered a new species of mammal that lived 125 million years ago in China.

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New species declared: Clouded leopard on Borneo and Sumatra

biscuits submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.biologynews.net)

Scientists have discovered that the clouded leopard found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra is an entirely new species of cat. The secretive rainforest animal was originally thought to be the same species as the one found in mainland Southeast Asia.

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