A further 20 species ‘lost’ to science\u00a0were rediscovered during the expedition, including three iridescent species of fish and several species of ant-like flower beetles.<\/p>
The expedition was part of\u00a0Re:wild\u2019s Search for Lost Species<\/a> project, a global quest to find plants, animals and fungi that have been lost to science (though likely not to local communities) for at least 10 years \u2013 and sometimes hundreds of years.<\/p> In September 2023, a team of more than 30 researchers from Re:wild, Antananarivo University, American Bird Conservancy, The Peregrine Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society and Biodiversity Inventory for Conservation (BINCO), as well as local guides, set out into Makira’s forests to find mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates that have not been documented for 10 years or more (and not assessed as extinct by the\u00a0IUCN Red List of Threatened Species<\/a>). <\/p> Christina Biggs, lost species officer for Re:wild, explains that the Makira expedition was different to previous research trips.<\/p> \u201cIn the past the Search for Lost Species has primarily looked for one or two species on each expedition, but there are now 4,300 species that we know of around the world that have not been documented in a decade or more,\u201d says Biggs. <\/p> \u201cMadagascar is a biodiversity hotspot and Makira is an under-explored area within the country, so we decided to pilot a new model for lost species searches there. We convened a group of scientists to search for as many species as possible, and it proved successful.\u201d<\/p> Over the course of several weeks, and with the help of local guides and fishers, the team found three species of lost fish: the Makira rainbow fish (Bedotia alveyi<\/em>), lost since 2003, Rheocles sp.<\/em>, lost since 2006,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Ptychochromis makira<\/em>, lost since 2003. <\/p> But it wasn’t easy, admits Tsilavina Ravelomanana, a fish biologist at Antananarivo University.<\/p> \u201cWhen we didn\u2019t find anything during the first five days of the expedition it was very frustrating,\u201d says Ravelomanana. <\/p> \u201cWe sampled a small tributary of the Antainambalana River, then the main river, then upstream and then downstream, but we still didn\u2019t find any fish. We changed our strategy and sent our local guides on a two-to-three-day hike away from our base camp to interview local fishermen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p> After several days, local guides Melixon and Edm\u00e9 eventually found a Makira rainbow fish (a common fish to local communities) several days’ hike from the expedition\u2019s base camp along the Antainambalana River. A few days later they also found\u00a0Rheocles sp.,\u00a0<\/em>a small, iridescent fish with red highlights running down its body, and Ptychoromis makira<\/em>, which biologists think may only live in one small area near the community of Andaparaty.<\/p> Prior to the expedition, the team had a list of 30 species they were hoping to find in the forests of Makira, including several insects and bugs. But they found many more than this. <\/p> They discovered two species of ant-like flower beetles, lost to science since 1958, a variety of spider species, including five lost jumping spiders and 17 spiders that are new to science. <\/p> The team were particularly surprised to find a new species of zebra spider<\/a>, an animal not thought to live in the rainforests of Madagascar. The spider was spotted in the entrance of a small cave by team member Brogan Pett, director of the SpiDiverse working group at BINCO and doctoral candidate at the University of Exeter. <\/p> “I crawled a short way inside the cave and saw a few adult spiders guarding egg sacs\u2014they were quite large spiders and it was remarkable that they had gone unrecognised for so long.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote> \u201cI immediately recognised them as something special,\u201d says Pett. \u201cPendulous egg sacs is one of the characteristics of the family of zebra spiders this new species belongs to. I crawled a short way inside the cave and saw a few adult spiders guarding egg sacs\u2014they were quite large spiders and it was remarkable that they had gone unrecognised for so long.\u201d\u00a0<\/p> However, the most unexpected rediscovered species was a giant millipede: Spirostreptus sculptus<\/em>.<\/p> \u201cI personally was most surprised and pleased by the fact that the giant millipede\u00a0Spirostreptus sculptus<\/em>, not uncommon in Makira Forest, appeared to be another lost species known only from the type specimen described in 1897,\u201d says Dmitry Telnov, an entomologist with BINCO on the expedition team. <\/p> \u201cThe longest specimen of this species we observed in Makira was a really gigantic female measuring 27.5 centimetres (10.8 inches) long.\u201d\u00a0<\/p> Since returning from the expedition, the team has confirmed 21 rediscovered species:<\/p> Despite documenting lost 21 species, the expedition was unable to find a number of animals on their wish list, including the Masoala fork-marked lemur, a large chameleon known as Calumma vatososa<\/em>, and the dusky tetraka \u2013 an Old World warbler.<\/p> \u201cThe Makira Forest has the potential for two rare bird species, the dusky tetraka and the Madagascar serpent eagle, but we were not able to find them this time,\u201d says Lily Arison Rene de Roland, Madagascar program director for the Peregrine Fund. <\/p> \u201cI was surprised by the abundance of white-browed owl. In general this species is very localised and not very abundant, but it was very common in Makira.\u201d\u00a0<\/p> The rediscovery of so many species in Makira was deemed a success by the Re:wild team, but they point out that the forest is still facing pressure from agriculture, and species in the underexplored forest could face steep population declines before scientists have an opportunity to study them.\u00a0<\/p> More amazing wildlife stories <\/strong><\/p> The foot-long invertebrate, last recorded in 1897, was one of 21 species rediscovered on an expedition through the mountainous rainforests of north-east Madagascar. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":41196,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/gigantic-millipede-lost-to-science-for-126-years-rediscovered-in-remote-madagascan-jungle.jpg",1575,1050,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/gigantic-millipede-lost-to-science-for-126-years-rediscovered-in-remote-madagascan-jungle-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/gigantic-millipede-lost-to-science-for-126-years-rediscovered-in-remote-madagascan-jungle-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/gigantic-millipede-lost-to-science-for-126-years-rediscovered-in-remote-madagascan-jungle-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/gigantic-millipede-lost-to-science-for-126-years-rediscovered-in-remote-madagascan-jungle-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/gigantic-millipede-lost-to-science-for-126-years-rediscovered-in-remote-madagascan-jungle-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/gigantic-millipede-lost-to-science-for-126-years-rediscovered-in-remote-madagascan-jungle.jpg",1575,1050,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The foot-long invertebrate, last recorded in 1897, was one of 21 species rediscovered on an expedition through the mountainous rainforests of north-east Madagascar.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/41195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Lost species expedition<\/h2>
![\"Searching](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Makira-expedition-scaled.jpeg\")
Fishy finds<\/h2>
![\"Makira](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Makira-forest-scaled.jpeg\")
Big bugs<\/h2>
![\"Spirostreptus](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Giant-millipede-scaled.jpeg\")
![\"New](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Madagascarchaea-scaled.jpeg\")
Animals not found<\/h2>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"