Sulawesi’s new insect species named Asterix

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) through the Zoologicum Bogoriense Museum (MZB) in Bogor, West Java, and the Natural History Museum Karlsruhe, Germany, have successfully described 103 new species of Trigonopterus beetles.

There is a species of snout beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) of the genus Trigonopterus which was discovered in Sulawesi since 1885.

Among the 103 Trigonopterus beetles there are some of them named after fictional comic character names such as Asterix, Obelix and Idefix, and Yoda.

Trigonopterus beetles which are small have morphological similarities with each other, and therefore they are difficult to distinguish directly.

Most of these insect species can only be found in rainforest habitats.

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