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Newly discovered beetle species named after Filipino Jesuit priest
Newly discovered beetle species named after Filipino Jesuit priest
A newly discovered species of beetles has been named after former Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU) president and Jesuit priest Fr. Jose Ramon T. Villarin, S.J., the university said Thursday, Nov. 11.
Named Byrrhinus villarini, the small, dark, and hairy beetle was one of two new species of beetles discovered on the island of Negros in Western Visayas by Emmanuel D. Delocado and Hendrik Freitag from the Ateneo Biodiversity Research Laboratory of the Department of Biology.
“Delocado and Freitag decided to name the new species after Fr. Villarin in recognition of his strong push for the environmental research agenda in the University during his nine-year tenure,” the ADMU said. “Fr. Villarin is also a researcher in the field of environment and sustainability.”
The other species, Byrrhinus negrosensis, was named after the island of Negros from which both species were collected.
“The discovery was remarkable because the two species were the first additional new species of Philippine Byrrhinus in the last 28 years,” the university said.
“From five known species present in the country, there are now seven Byrrhinus species. Four of which, including B. villarini and B. negrosensis, are found only in the Philippines,” it added.
Moreover, the university noted that the discovery of the new species “comes at a time of heightened anthropogenic activities in the island of Negros, especially in the protected areas.”
“Thus, findings like this provide an additional reason to push for the continued protection of such pristine localities despite the strong movement to privatize and commercialize these areas,” the school said.
The discovery has been published in the international scientific journal ZooKeys in an article entitled “Two new species of Byrrhinus Motschulsky, 1858 (Coleoptera, Limnichidae, Limnichinae) from Negros, Philippines.”
The expedition to the Negros island was part of the “Freshwater biodiversity surveys” project funded by the School of Science and Engineering Industry 4.0 Research Fund (SI4-013) of Ateneo Research Institute of Science and Engineering (ARISE) and the Biodiversity Teaching in a Philippine-Cambodian-German Network (BIO-PHIL) project.
“The discovery was made in the scope of the Ph.D. dissertation of Delocado, which he successfully defended on 9 November 2021. Freitag served as his adviser,” the ADMU said.
“Currently, there are only four laboratories worldwide, including the Ateneo Biodiversity Research Laboratory, studying taxonomy and systematics of the beetle family Limnichidae (minute marsh-loving beetles) to which Byrrhinus belongs,” it added.