GUWAHATI: An Indo-German research collaboration involving Rajiv Gandhi University and the University of Tübingen, Germany, has led to the discovery of 15 new species of rove beetles from Arunachal Pradesh.
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The newly identified species belong to the genus Stenus, a diverse group of rove beetles found across various habitats. The findings have been formally published in Linzer Biologische Beiträge, Volume 58(1), on pages 523–569, in a research paper titled “Steninae aus Arunachal Pradesh, Indien (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae)”.
The paper has been authored by renowned taxonomist Dr Volker Puthz, who documented and described the newly identified species as part of the research collaboration.
Three of the newly described beetles have been named after researchers associated with the project. These include Stenus gogoii, named in recognition of Dr Hiren Gogoi, along with Stenus dobiami, named after Dobiam Tagam, and Stenus sonui, named after Sonu Singh. All three researchers are associated with the Department of Zoology at Rajiv Gandhi University.
With the addition of these 15 species, the number of Stenus species recorded from Arunachal Pradesh has risen to 103, underlining the rich and still-underexplored insect biodiversity of the Eastern Himalayas.
The research paper provides the formal scientific documentation of the newly described species and adds significantly to the understanding of the diversity of rove beetles in Arunachal Pradesh.