A Benefit of Collecting

[Stan Gorodenski]

I was reading in the recent issue of Science (April 19, Vol 296, No
5567, p. 445) that a new Order of insect has been discovered from
collected material in museums - London's Natural History Museum and the
Berlin Natural History Museum. The insect is also in amber 45 million
years old. The new insect Order is called Mantophasmatodea because of
certain resemblances to mantids and phasmids.

Had it not been for collectors, this Order could easily have been lost
through anthropogenic habitat destruction.
Stan

 
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