New species found in museum

Some weeks ago, Richard wrote a bloggo article about new species which turn up in museums, and cited the descovery of Delcourt's giant gecko as a case in point. Another example of this yndrome happened recently when a 90 year-old collection of Colombian butterflies in the British Museum (Natural History) was re-examined. Amongst the collection from the dry Magdalena valleys of Colombia was a specimen which, when Blamca Heurtas, the curator compared it with a recently found wild specimen was identified as Splendeuptychia ackeryi; a strange little satyrid with unusually hairy mouthparts.

Blanca Huertas is quoted as saying: ‘The collections here at the Natural History Museum are a treasure trove to be explored. We have almost nine million butterflies and moths in our collections, a comprehensive example of the Earth's diversity. But there are many new species still waiting to be discovered, both in museum collections and in the field.'