tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/species-knowledge-27948/articlesspecies knowledge – The Conversation2017-02-02T14:26:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/683642017-02-02T14:26:31Z2017-02-02T14:26:31ZA new approach to understanding subspecies can boost conservation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153583/original/image-20170120-5238-olisy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new understanding of subspecies, such as Reichenow's Helmeted Guineafowl, can help conserve the birds.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Warby/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earth is home to an estimated <a href="http://www.livescience.com/54660-1-trillion-species-on-earth.html">1 trillion species</a>. To date, only about 1.2 million have <a href="http://io9.gizmodo.com/5834097/there-are-87-million-species-on-earth-guess-how-many-we-have-actually-classified">been identified and described scientifically</a>. There’s good reason to increase this number. Each species could offer an adaptive, evolutionary solution to the many challenges presented by changing landscapes.</p>
<p>Biological species are often comprised of geographically distinct entities. These are known as subspecies, races or management units. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbd.int/gti/taxonomy.shtml">Taxonomists</a> and <a href="http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/61/11/857.full">phylogeographers</a> armed with this information ought to be able to identify those species with multiple evolutionary “solutions” in progress. These “solutions” should then be catered for to ensure the relevant species can be effectively conserved.</p>
<p>But this approach hasn’t been particularly successful, as the story of one giraffe species shows. </p>
<p><em>Giraffa camelopardalis</em> has <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2254591/">traditionally been partitioned</a> into 11 subspecies. New research suggests it actually <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/dna-reveals-that-giraffes-are-four-species-not-one-1.20567">comprises only four</a> morpho-genetic “entities” within it that warrant conservation action. </p>
<p>All four should be elevated to full species status. Why? To greatly simplify the strategy that’s needed for effective giraffe conservation.</p>
<p>A similar approach could help in developing meaningful conservation plans for many other species.</p>
<h2>A new approach is needed</h2>
<p>The subspecies category has been blatantly and subjectively misused to name <a href="http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/eebedia/images/3/3c/WilsonBrown1953.pdf">biologically trivial entities</a>. Historically, it was heinously abused to recognise up to 30 “races” <a href="http://theconversation.com/how-science-has-been-abused-through-the-ages-to-promote-racism-50629">of humans</a>.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to sort out the conservation “wheat” from the “chaff” when too many subspecies are defined. It diverts conservationists’ attention from what’s really important to maintain current diversity. It also distracts them from what is needed to cater for species’ ongoing evolution.</p>
<p>It’s time to rethink which entities are worthy “currency” for comparative biological research and conservation action. The answer might lie in <a href="http://conservationmagazine.org/2002/07/what-really-is-an-evolutionarily-significant-unit/">evolutionarily significant units</a>, or ESUs.</p>
<p>Taxonomists could then identify structured morphological and genetic variation within species. They could also highlight species’ evolutionary capacities to respond to changing environments. The greater this capacity, the more species can contribute to long-term macro-biodiversity over the landscape they occupy. </p>
<p>We tested this approach on two species: the Helmeted Guineafowl, and the Pocket Gopher.</p>
<h2>Conservation strategies</h2>
<p>There are currently 31 recognised subspecies of Helmeted Guineafowl. The evolutionarily significant units approach <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/74638#/summary">reduced this number</a> to nine. </p>
<p>For the Pocket Gopher, the number dropped <a href="http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/2/163?ijkey=bb46bb0385d58497d6b71c53ec9481b1710e71e2&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha">from 195 to three</a>.</p>
<p>There are three important points of assessment in this approach.</p>
<p>First is the co-possession of multiple, correlated morphological characteristics and genetic markers. These suggest a common phylogeographic genealogy.</p>
<p>Second is the co-possession of heritable, arguably adaptive anatomical, behavioural and ecological differences. These suggest there has been constrained interbreeding between well-marked subspecies.</p>
<p>Third is having geographically similar distributions to those of other well-marked evolutionarily significant units and full species.</p>
<p>This approach has enormous potential. If it’s properly applied, it could maximise the biggest evolutionary “bang” for limited conservation “bucks”. It’s a positive step towards focusing conservation efforts on products of past and ongoing evolution.</p>
<p>Conservation strategies should be directed towards maintaining the process of evolution, not just preserving its perceived products. Scientists need to understand more about how evolution in particular species has occurred. Then they can plan for those species’ future survival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Crowe received funding from: the South African National Research Foundation and Department of Science and Technology through the Percy FitzPatrick Institute's Centre of Excellence - Birds as Keys to Biodiversity Conservation; the African Gamebird Research, Education and Development Trust; and a range of international natural history museums. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paulette Bloomer receives funding from: the South African National Research Foundation and Department of Science and Technology through the Percy FitzPatrick Institute's Centre of Excellence - Birds as Keys to Biodiversity Conservation. </span></em></p>It’s difficult to sort out the conservation ‘wheat’ from the ‘chaff’ when too many subspecies are defined.Tim Crowe, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape TownPaulette Bloomer, Professor of Genetics, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/592372016-06-20T20:10:03Z2016-06-20T20:10:03ZWhy so many Australian species are yet to be named<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126860/original/image-20160616-19925-16gw7y1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of the many species in the Australian National Insect Collection.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIRO/Alan Landford</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Turns out that in Australia, you are probably closer than you think to hundreds or thousands of species that don’t have names. They are scientifically and culturally anonymous Australians.</p>
<p>If you live in a capital city, these unnamed Aussies are in your state or territory museum, and if you live in a regional area, they are living in your local nature reserve.</p>
<p>Why is this the case? Australia is acknowledged as a “megadiverse” nation, with a particularly large slice of the world’s biodiversity. Our natural environments span from tropical forest to alpine meadow, and from some of the driest deserts to mangrove swamps.</p>
<p>Because almost all of our species only live on this continent, it is up to us to study them. Here is the catch – because this is a large continent with relatively few people, there are also few dollars to fund such discovery research.</p>
<p>Of the estimated 500,000 Australian species, half are insects and only perhaps 20% to 30% of these have been named, so there are at least 100,000 unnamed Australian insect species. These unknown elements of biodiversity represent an almost completely untapped opportunity and resource.</p>
<h2>What’s in a name?</h2>
<p>So what’s in a name and why does it matter, all this naming in the name of science? Is it just a pointless, egotistical quest for scientific immortality?</p>
<p>No, turns out that it’s important, and often quite challenging. When they are minted, species names are carefully crafted so that they do not duplicate other species’ names. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126863/original/image-20160616-19925-1riodua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126863/original/image-20160616-19925-1riodua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126863/original/image-20160616-19925-1riodua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126863/original/image-20160616-19925-1riodua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126863/original/image-20160616-19925-1riodua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126863/original/image-20160616-19925-1riodua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126863/original/image-20160616-19925-1riodua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126863/original/image-20160616-19925-1riodua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The <em>Chrysolophus spectabilis</em> weevil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIRO/Rolf Oberprieler</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, one of the first Australian insects to be given a scientific name was the metallic green weevil discovered during James Cook’s first voyage, <a href="http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:a76736ca-febd-4a04-b787-ad196f79abb5#"><em>Chrysolopus spectabilis</em></a>, also known as the Botany Bay Weevil. </p>
<p>The Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius gave it that name in 1775, and no other animal can now have the name. Type that name into Google, and you will retrieve all sorts of information on it, including beautiful pictures, maps of its distribution, plants that it feeds on.</p>
<p>Worldwide, we have named more that 1.5 million species over the past 250 years, so finding a unique name also can take some careful sleuthing in online databases, such as the <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/online-resources/fauna/">Australian Faunal Directory</a>.</p>
<p>This is because species names are used as globally unique passwords to information. You can use the species name to search for information on the species in books, and online resources such as the <a href="http://www.ala.org.au">Atlas of Living Australia</a>. </p>
<p>If a species doesn’t have a name, any information on it is impossible to find. Conversely, if we gave every species the name Bob, information on any particular Bob would be impossible to separate out. </p>
<p>The research to figure out if a species is new can be very challenging. Some species physically look almost exactly the same as other species (they are called sibling species). And this can have real-world consequences.</p>
<p>I estimate that distinguishing a Queensland fruit fly (scientific name <a href="https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/plants/fruit-and-vegetables/a-z-list-of-horticultural-insect-pests/queensland-fruit-fly"><em>Bactrocera tryoni</em></a>), a major fruit pest, from one of its many closely related but harmless sibling fruit fly species, would be impossible for all but a few well-trained entomologists.</p>
<h2>The biosecurity factor</h2>
<p>But being able to accurately distinguish these species matters a lot in the real world when it comes to biosecurity and developing international trade. </p>
<p>It is almost always the case that species that are siblings in an anatomical sense are also very difficult to distinguish genetically; they very often have the same DNA barcode sequences, or overlapping sets of DNA sequences.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126871/original/image-20160616-19932-125h342.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126871/original/image-20160616-19932-125h342.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126871/original/image-20160616-19932-125h342.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126871/original/image-20160616-19932-125h342.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126871/original/image-20160616-19932-125h342.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126871/original/image-20160616-19932-125h342.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126871/original/image-20160616-19932-125h342.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126871/original/image-20160616-19932-125h342.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CSIRO postdoctoral fellow Dr Bryan Lessard is part of the team involved with naming new species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIRO/Alan Landford</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Government quarantine services often contract our scientists to develop protocols for distinguishing quarantine threats from harmless local species.</p>
<p>If you live in Canberra, you are very close to swarms of unnamed species in CSIRO’s <a href="http://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Collections/ANIC">Australian National Insect Collection</a>. We manage a collection of more than 12 million specimens, almost all of them from Australia. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, it is the largest collection of Australian insects in the world. </p>
<p>We have the vast majority of named Australian insect species in the collection, plus tens of thousands of unnamed species. The collection is like a vast hard drive of Australia’s biodiversity.</p>
<p>Our researchers continue the task of describing and understanding Australia’s insect species using more and more sophisticated techniques. </p>
<p>Unnamed species belong to a wide range of groups such as mosquitoes that bite humans, and innocent native beetles that look just like major timber and grain pests native to our overseas trading partners.</p>
<p>Often species wait in the collection for decades before study. A PhD student and I are in the process of naming an entire new lineage of flower pollinating insects in the collection, from specimens found in a remote corner of Western Australia 35 years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126872/original/image-20160616-19913-u1fku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126872/original/image-20160616-19913-u1fku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126872/original/image-20160616-19913-u1fku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126872/original/image-20160616-19913-u1fku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126872/original/image-20160616-19913-u1fku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126872/original/image-20160616-19913-u1fku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126872/original/image-20160616-19913-u1fku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126872/original/image-20160616-19913-u1fku.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of a new lineage of flies about to be formally named.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Xuankun Li (CSIRO and ANU)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We decide if a species is new by comparing it closely with all its named relatives, siblings and others. Hence the need to have a comprehensive set (a collection) in one physical or virtual place.</p>
<p>Because there are so many insect species, there are too many to compile a book or website with every species photographed and listed. Even if we did, it would have too many pages of very similar-looking species to flick through to make the comparisons. </p>
<p>So we use various identification tools to help us work out if a newly collected species already has a name, or needs one. </p>
<h2>I name that critter…</h2>
<p>Traditionally, we have used anatomical keys (<a href="http://anic.ento.csiro.au/insectfamilies/">What bug is that?</a>), that guide the user to an identification by making a series of carefully selected physical observations and comparisons. </p>
<p>But more recently, we’ve been using vast databases of <a href="http://www.boldsystems.org">molecular sequence barcodes</a>, analogous to the white pages for biodiversity, to help us decide whether the species is new or not.</p>
<p>The number of genetic mutations shared among populations are increasingly used as evidence of species status. </p>
<p>We are also experimenting with image recognition software to help us. A little bit like a criminal investigation, the best result is when all lines of evidence point in the same direction, telling us that the species is new.</p>
<p>Federal government and private industry joint initiatives, such as <a href="http://bushblitz.org.au">Bush Blitz</a>, are providing valuable information on the species in our national parks and other reserves, but we have a long way to go.</p>
<p>While we continue to grapple with the task of keeping trade routes open and managing and conserving our biodiversity for future generations and opportunities, remember the salient point here: most of Australia’s species are unnamed, and we know next to nothing about them.</p>
<p>If we have information on where these unnamed species occur, what features they have, or what they do in the environment, we cannot easily retrieve and analyse it. Hence we cannot readily distinguish native species from important overseas pests.</p>
<p>We also don’t have the information needed to make a choice about where to invest our conservation resources optimally. Efforts to build trade and conserve our biodiversity are compromised until we know more about Australian species. This compromise is a risk we don’t need to take. </p>
<h2>The census is coming</h2>
<p>We are on the eve of the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/2016">2016 Australian census</a>. What a great nation-building goal it would be to initiate a species census.</p>
<p>It would give us the confidence that we had a good handle on our biodiversity – what it is, where it occurs, how well we are conserving it and what properties make it beneficial or harmful to us.</p>
<p>In terms of Australia’s federal budget (somewhere around <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-03/budget-2016-cheat-sheet-charts/7359608">A$450-billion dollars</a>), the annual resources required for such a species census would be a drop in the ocean. </p>
<p>Are we responsible stewards of this ancient and fascinating land, or are we renting a share house? And can we really say that we know what it is to be Australian when we don’t know the names and addresses of most Australians?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59237/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Yeates receives funding from CSIRO, The Australian Biological Resources Study, the US National Science Foundation, and holds the Schlinger endowed research position at the Australian National Insect Collection. </span></em></p>At least 100,000 insects are among the many Australian species still to be formally identified. That’s a problem for any biosecurity experts who need to be able to spot potentially invasive bugs.David Yeates, Director of the Australian National Insect Collection, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/602152016-06-01T15:00:39Z2016-06-01T15:00:39ZWhat dragonflies say about our ignorance of the natural world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124491/original/image-20160530-7700-w1bb54.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This massive dragonfly, the Swordbearer Emperor _Anax gladiator_, is named for the blade-like spike at its tail tip.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright Jens Kipping</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of the 8.7 million species of animals, plants and fungi thought to live on Earth, we have only named <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21886479">1.2 million</a>: 86% of the natural world is uncharted. </p>
<p>For most people, both this incredible richness and our ignorance are hard to fathom. Imagine that each of the 6.5 million species thought to live on land – the rest is marine – had an equal share of it. Each species’ plot – also that of the human species – would cover an area only one-quarter the size of Manhattan. Expressed this way, we as humans have not just far overstepped our bounds, but mapped only the equivalent of Europe, India and China, which make up about 14% of global land surface. </p>
<p>What’s worse, the habits and status of only 80,000 species are known well enough to really assess our impact on them. Of those, <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/">29% risk extinction</a>. So, returning to the metaphor, the species that we’re actually familiar with equal only the combined area of Spain, France and Turkey. And if 29% of all species died out, that would equate to the entire New World voided of life. </p>
<p>In other words: while we’ve had an apocalyptic impact on the biosphere already, it has been charted as well today as the globe was in Columbus’s day. This matters because knowing other species can provide a moral counterweight to life’s runaway exploitation: intact biodiversity is the undeniable proof that humans can inhabit Earth without destroying it. </p>
<p>That’s why naming species is important. Names harness the power of recognition. They acknowledge the other exists. They introduce familiarity. As someone once exclaimed to me, “you don’t notice species until you know they can have a name!” </p>
<p>In an era of extinction, there are no greater priorities than to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arr2k7dwzSU">uncover our millions of cohabitants</a> and to <a href="http://jrsbiodiversity.org/grant/stellenbosch_dragonflies/">share our knowledge</a> of these species. This can be done through research, <a href="https://freshwaterblog.net/2015/06/01/discovering-the-dragonflies-and-damselflies-of-eastern-africa/">books</a>, websites, Red Lists of threatened species, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/africanfreshwater">field courses</a>, teaching materials and other media. But while every human relies on this knowledge, even if only by reaping the benefits of agriculture and medicine, few see its advance as their primary responsibility.</p>
<p>Few animals can raise that moral awareness of biodiversity better than dragonflies, literally rising from healthy freshwaters in colour and splendour.</p>
<h2>Breaking the anonymity trap</h2>
<p>Most of what is unknown is not just unseen, but not even being looked for.</p>
<p>There are 6,000 named dragonfly and damselfly species worldwide. These charismatic aquatic insects are regarded as well-known. But last December we published <a href="https://science.naturalis.nl/media/medialibrary/2015/12/60NewDragonflies_fullsize2.pdf">60 new species</a> in one article. This added one species to every 12 known ones in Africa. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Known from only one site near Cape Town, the endangered damselfly <em>Spesbona angusta</em> needs all the ‘Good Hope’ (<em>Spes Bona</em> in Latin) it can get.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright Jens Kipping</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course these species existed already, but were not noticed and documented before. Most unknown species may seem indistinct or concealed, requiring meticulous lab-work to uncover, but the 60 were found in accessible places all over Africa and are often recognisable even from a photo.</p>
<p>This May, English nature broadcaster Sir David Attenborough was given a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDnPUXTcdc&feature=youtu.be">new dragonfly species</a> from Madagascar for his 90th birthday. In the <a href="http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.19870!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/533172a.pdf">scientific journal <em>Nature</em></a> I explain that both the dragonfly and Attenborough’s legacy stand for a selfless and unconditional love of nature.</p>
<p>I am often asked what the “use” of dragonflies is. They are not studied because they are not proxies of human psyche and society like ants and apes. They are not feared and persecuted like mosquitoes and snakes. They do not feed people like fish, nor pollinate crops like bees.</p>
<p>Rather, the beauty and sensitivity of these creatures – and so many others – stand for the state and needs of nature before our own. Like the instant sense of insignificance when counting stars, biodiversity stretches our perspective on life. Each species is a world parallel to our own, evoking a sense of being among equals.</p>
<h2>What’s in a name</h2>
<p>If species embody sustainability and names give them faces, those tags best be memorable. The sparklewing damselfly <em>Umma gumma</em>, named for the rock band Pink Floyd’s album “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/ummagumma-mw0000191310">Ummagumma</a>” (slang for making love), is <a href="http://www.esf.edu/top10/">a special favourite.</a> The longleg dragonflies <em>Notogomphus kimpavita</em> and <em>N. gorilla</em> were named for the patron saint and conservation flagship of their Angolan and Ugandan regions respectively.</p>
<p>But who is out discovering species and introducing them to mankind? Nature is held hostage by humanity’s growing demands and so conservationists barely have time to find out who they really work for. Environmental consultancy is captive to the market. Many biologists have retreated into the lab. Without funds for discovery and disclosure, even natural history museums are giving up.</p>
<p>Only nine of our 60 new dragonflies were found while one of us worked for a university or museum. The other 33 were found while doing consultancy and 18 were found by a teacher. Much of the best biodiversity research and outreach now comes from devoted amateurs and academics working in their free time, showing how close biodiversity is to the human heart.</p>
<p>In a society governed by money, charity is what we do for others for free. But just as we cannot expect volunteers to protect the environment or eradicate poverty alone, we cannot continue life’s elementary and enlightening exploration without support. Nature needs more explorers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra receives funding from the JRS Biodiversity Foundation, USA.</span></em></p>There are 6,000 named dragonfly species worldwide but recently 60 new species were found showing how much more we can learn.Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra, Honorary research associate Naturalis Biodiversity Center and, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.