‘Striking’ creature surprises scientists in Ecuador cloud forest. See the new species
On a beautiful, sunny morning in the forests surrounding Quito, Ecuador, researchers armed with nets and bottles of fish urine scoured the treeline.
With their eyes focused on the brown and green landscape, they were on a mission to attract a butterfly.
Earlier, a biologist who was interested in plants had taken a photo of an unidentified butterfly west of Quito and posted the picture on the ecological site iNaturalist, according to a study published May 20 in the journal Zootaxa.
The photo caught the eye of the researchers, and they set out to find the butterfly and identify it.
Over several days, the researchers captured multiple specimens of the mysterious butterfly, according to the study.
It was a new species.
“The discovery of such a remarkable new species in the immediate vicinity of Quito, the capital of Ecuador and a metropolis with a population of about three million people is, to say the least, most unexpected,” researchers said. “Among the Andean countries, Ecuador is by far the best known as far as the fauna of butterflies in general, and cloud forest butterflies in particular.”
But this butterfly was different.
Its body was a “chocolate-brown” color, and the wings were marked by thick, “brick-red” bands that ran from top to bottom.
The outside surface of their wings have a “heavy ripple pattern” that is “unique” from other species in the genus, according to the study.
The new species, named Corades yanacocha after the Reserva Yanacocha it calls home, was found along the main trail and near a small clearing at the edge of the forest where they maintain a territory, researchers said.
“One male in particular repeatedly returned to a single spot, usually a leaf or a twig at the tip of an isolated branch, where it would stay motionless until seeing another male or another butterfly flying by,” researchers said. “Males rested most of the time with their wings closed, which made them difficult to detect, but when the sun was shining they sometimes opened their wings, in a basking position, which is a frequent behavior among cloud forest butterflies given low temperatures in the morning.”
The Reserva Yanacocha was originally created to protect an endangered species of hummingbird, the zamarrito pechinegro, but now acts as a safe haven for other species to avoid overpopulation, agriculture and logging, industrial plantations and habitat loss, according to the study.
It may be this unique habitat that kept the species hidden for so long, researchers said, leading to the discovery that “bedazzled” the team.
“An obvious question is how can we know so little, seemingly, about the fauna of Andean cloud forests, even in areas which are reputedly well known and have been sampled for some 140 years,” researchers said. “The answer lies probably in the reclusive habitat of C. yanacocha. It is most probably restricted to a narrow elevational band close to timberline, an ecotone which is very rarely sampled for butterflies, in part also due to typically adverse weather conditions.”
More than 30 species were collected, according to the study, but researchers said more research is needed to seek out more elusive species in the area.
Quito is in northern-central Ecuador, situated in the foothills of the Andes Mountains.
This story was originally published May 29, 2024 at 2:51 PM with the headline "‘Striking’ creature surprises scientists in Ecuador cloud forest. See the new species."
