Our country has 2 new species of nocturnal butterflies, which were located in Guanacaste after 40 years of research.
The presentation of the new insects took place last Tuesday night in La Cruz, where it was announced that they were baptized with the name of the President of the Republic and the First Lady. In this way, both species will be called Tinaegeria carlosalvaradoi and Percnarcha claudiadoblesae, respectively.
As indicated by the authorities of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), through a press release, the recognition of the presidential couple is given “by the efforts of both for the conservation of Costa Rican biodiversity“. According to the MINAE database, Guanacaste is home to 65% of Costa Rica’s biodiversity and new species come to expand this variety.
“The finding comes after many years of research by a group of Costa Rican and American scientists, led by Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs since it is a very rare species and they have been studying for years”, adds the press release.
New butterfly species
The category of new species is achieved after registration by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The butterfly called Tinaegeria carlosalvaradoi lives in the rainforest of the Guanacaste Conservation Area and belongs to a little known family in the country. The other new species of butterfly, Percnarcha claudiadoblesae is also a nocturnal species that was located in the Guanacastecan conservation areas.
“In recent years we have been promoters and promoters of the use of a new technique for the identification of species using a segment of mitochondrial DNA (in animals) called species barcode. This has allowed us to estimate that in the Conservation Area of Guanacaste can exist about 15 thousand species of Lepidoptera; before using the codes to identify it was believed that they were about nine thousand, this is because only through this technique can difference in very similar species be detected, “said the Minister of MINAE, Carlos Manuel RodrÍguez.
