Word: speciesism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Despite working with an insect collection of more than 28 million specimens, Barclay and his colleagues have been unable to identify the almond-shaped critter, about the size of a grain of rice, which has in the past year made itself at home in the sycamore trees on the 19th...
"My field work has taken me all over the world - to Thailand, Bolivia, Peru. So I was surprised to be confronted by an unidentifiable species while having a sandwich in the museum's garden," Barclay says.
In recent years, several new insects, spiders and beetles have been discovered in Britain, a trend many attribute to the ability of these species to survive winters warmed by climate change. In 2005, Edinburgh Zoo issued a public notice after several panicked Scots reported a non-venomous spider called a...
Whatever the reason for the appearance of the mysterious new bug in London, Barclay says its rampant spread around the city is harmless. However, "it does show what's possible [if more damaging species invade]."
The struggle to identify the critter displays not only the mystery of nature, but also the fickleness of the science of taxonomy. Identifying insect species can be extremely difficult; some scientists estimate we have managed to identify only 10% of the insect world so far. The rest, like Barclays' almond...