An insect that was thought to be extinct since the 1930s has been rediscovered on Australia”™s Lord Howe Island.
According to a SciTechDaily report, the wood-feeding cockroach (Panesthia lata) saw its population decimated when rats arrived on the island around 1918. Maxim Adams, a biology student at the University of Sydney, discovered the insect population was still extant and living beneath a single banyan tree on Lord Howe Island.
“For the first 10 seconds or so, I thought ”˜No, it can”™t be”™,” said Adams. “I mean, I lifted the first rock under this huge banyan tree, and there it was.”
While not as cute as some of Australia”™s celebrated wildlife, the cockroaches play a vital part in the island”™s ecosystem.
“The survival is great news, as it has been more than 80 years since it was last seen,” said Atticus Fleming, board chairman for Lord Howe Island. “Lord Howe Island really is a spectacular place, it”™s older than the Galápagos islands and is home to 1,600 native invertebrate species, half of which are found nowhere else in the world. These cockroaches are almost like our very own version of Darwin”™s finches, separated on little islands over thousands or millions of years developing their own unique genetics.”
Photo courtesy Justin Gilligan / New South Wales Department of Public Environment.
