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Swift , pestilent hunters lurk in the Tree , many camouflaged to face like lichen or bark . They do n’t sit and wait for quarry ; they actively pursue it . And when danger threaten , some even jump to the forest floor , fluttering to the ground like so many dead leaves .
That ’s the life of 19 newpraying mantis speciesdiscovered in Central and South America . The findings , herald today ( March 18 ) in the journalZooKeys , suggest the world of praying mantid diversity is largely mysterious .
Liturgusa krattorum, a new species of praying mantis discovered by Dr. Gavin Svenson of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, is named for Martin and Chris Kratt of the television show Wild Kratts. This female specimen was captured in dense rain forest along the Amazon River in northern Peru.
" Based on this study , we can predict that mantis mathematical group with similar home ground specialism in Africa , Asia and Australia will also be far more diverse than what is presently known , " subject investigator Gavin Svenson , an invertebrate animal scientist at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History , said in a statement .
Svenson light upon the fresh mantid , part of a group called bark mantis , in museum collections and in tropical forests . The continued existence of some of the coinage is unknown ; some are known only from specimen collected 60 years ago , before agriculture or development encroached on habitat . [ 6 Strange Species detect in Museums ]
Neotropical bark mantises last on tree diagram subdivision and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree torso , Svenson said . They ’re fleet of substructure , pall around Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree trunk like lizards when spotted . The mantises have flattened , streak body that mimic bark , moss , lichen or dead leaves . They fly poorly , so their last line of escape is to jump to the ground and blend in in with the detritus on the forest floor .
The 19 newfound metal money triple the previously known diversity of this group . Researchers once conceive a few species colonized wide areas of dominion . Now , it seems that , instead , many species have a small jumble of range .
Several of the species take skill notables as their namesakes . Liturgusa algoreiis appoint after former vice chairwoman Al Gore in honour of his environmental activism . Liturgusa krattorumgets its name from Martin and Chris Kratt , who create children ’s programs on biology . Liturgusa fossettihonors James Stephen Fossett , an aeronaut and explorer who died in an melodic phrase crash in 2007 . Finally , Liturgusa bororumhonors the native Bora multitude of the Amazon catchment basin .
Svenson also brought a personal touch to describing the new species : He named two of the mantis , Liturgusa tessaeandLiturgusa zoeae , after his daughter Tessa and Zoey .
