National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR) under the Ministry of Environment (MOE) announced on the 11th that it verified the inhabitation of Sisyphus shaefferi, which used to be commonly found in 1970s, at Yeongwol, Gangwon.
Gymnopleurus mopsus is a familiar insect that makes a ball with animal’s feces as described in ‘Souvenirs Entomologiques,’ evoking childhood memories. Shaefferi is known to be varied as many as 40 species around the world, but only one species is recorded in Korea.
After the species was officially recorded to inhabit in Cheorwon and Yanggu, Ganwon-do, its inhabitation has not been confirmed to date.
As a part of the ‘project to secure voucher specimens’ of indigenous species, NIBR verified inhabitation of Sisyphus shaefferi while securing uncorfirmed insect species among recorded species.
Sisyphus shaefferi has very thin and long pastern joint and egg-shaped body in matt black color. After finding animal’s body or feces, it makes balls using feces and spawns one egg in each ball. NIBR aims to raise public’s awareness of the uncorfirmed species through the voucher specimens collection project.
No comments:
Post a Comment