A spectacular new ant species has been discovered by Phil Hoenle – in the rainforest just behind the research station. The paper in ZooKeys describes this new species, Odonotomachus davidsoni – and accompanies the formal description for the first time with 3D images, making Museum specimen accessible to the public. The species’ name was subject to an auction held in Washington, organised by Rainforest Trust, raising money for forest conservation in the Chocó. Here’s how the species was promoted by them.
The 3D images were obtained by a DISC3D (Darmstadt Insect Scanner) system (Ströbel et al. 2019 in ZooKeys). REASSEMBLY aims to promote the digitization of many tropical insects that are collected during the course of the project or already available in Museum collections. Also see DiNArDa e.V. and a collection of various species here.
Press coverage:
El Comercio: Una de las especies más grandes de hormiga fue hallada en Ecuador
Rainforest Trust: Species of Ant Discovered in Rainforest Trust Reserve Described First by New Technology