New Insect Species Discovered at Ashland Nature Center

By Jim White: Senior Fellow for Land and Biodiversity

It’s not every day that a new species of animal is found in Delaware. In fact, it is very rare indeed. However, in the summer or 2015 Adam Mitchel, a PhD candidate at the University of Delaware did just that. While collecting insects in a meadow at the Ashland Nature Center for his PhD research project on the effects of invasive alien plants on native insects, Adam found several insect specimens that he could not identify.  After examining them under a microscope in his lab he could only identify them as insects belonging to the Insect Order Thysanoptera commonly called Thrips (both the singular and plural of the noun has an (s). The Order Thysanoptera are minute insects with reduced wings, most species being around 1mm long. All but a few use sucking mouth parts to feed on the stems of plants. Several species are considered pest as they can damage crops and other plants. However, the vast majority of the 6,000 or so species are not pests to humans and are valuable members of the food chain.

This species of Thrips, new to science, was discovered at the Ashland Nature Center by entomologist Adam Mitchel. It has no English common name, but scientifically it is called Konothrips polychaeta.  Photo courtesy of Dr. Mitchel, from Goldarazena et al. (2017).

These tiny insects are not often studied unless they are considered pests and information on the many non-pest species is limited. Lucky for Adam, a professor from Belgium, Dr. Arturo Goldarazena…an authority on Thrips, was visiting the University of Delaware. Adam approached Dr. Goldarazena and asked if he would look at some of the Thrips specimens that he collected.  It did not take long for the professor to realize that he had never seen some of the specimens and declared that Adam might have discovered a new species. Adam agreed to give Dr. Goldarazena the specimens to study back in Belgium.  After an exhausting investigation the new species was described and published in Goldarazena et al. (2017). Its official scientific name is Konothrips polychaeta which loosely translates to “hairy tenacious woodworms”.  At this time, there is no common English name for this new species of Thrips. However, I propose to call it Mitchell’s Thrips.

Andropogon virginicus is the host plant for the newly discovered Thrips. Is the new species found wherever this plant exists??? Photo courtesy of Dr. Mitchel, from Goldarazena et al. (2017).

Finding a new species of animal or plant is a dream for biologists – finding them right under our noses in places like Ashland is even more exciting. Adam found the new species inside the flowers of the broom-sedge, Andropogon virginicus but he believes that Konothrips polychaeta probably feeds and breeds on other grasses and sedges that are abundant in the meadows and marshes at the Ashland Nature Center and beyond. These meadow and marsh habitats have been restored and maintained at several of Delaware Nature Society sites as part of the land and biodiversity management program. The program is dedicated to the conservation and preservation of native species and their habitats.

Dr. Adam Mitchel is a native Delawarean and discovered the new species of Thrips while he was a PhD candidate at the University of Delaware. Photo courtesy of Dr. Mitchel.

Dr. Adam Mitchel is a native Delawarean. He attended St. Marks High School and received his undergraduate degrees at the University of Delaware in Wildlife Conservation, Entomology, Plant Protection, Agriculture and Natural Resources (quad majored), and earned his master’s degree in Fish and Wildlife Management at Montana State University. Adam returned home to University of Delaware to obtain a PHD in Entomology and Wildlife Ecology (concentration: Entomology) at the time of the discovery of the Thrips. Adam is now employed as an Assistant Professor of Entomology at Tarleton State University in Texas.

Reference:

Goldarazena A, Mitchell AB and T. Hance (2017) Konothrips polychaeta sp.n. from Delaware, North America, with a key to the three species of this genus. Zootaxa 4341: 445-450.