09/20/2025
A new species of aquatic beetle has been described from Finca Las Piedras!
Meet Nanelmis aguaje, a tiny riffle beetle (family Elmidae) that was just described by Cheryl Barr, an expert in this group, and Zunilda Escalante, our very own Lepidoptera research coordinator. The new species is completely aquatic and lives in streams that are bordered by “aguajales”, swamps dominated by the palm Mauritia flexuosa (known locally as “aguaje”, hence the name of the habitat). This beetle may be tiny – it measures in at just about two millimeters long – but it’s a big discovery nonetheless. So far N. aguaje is known only from the stream at our site, meaning that it is either very rare, has been overlooked in surveys elsewhere, or both. In addition, since streams like ours are drying up all across the Amazon due to combined impacts of deforestation and climate change, this new species may be threatened with extinction just as we are learning that it even exists. This is yet another example of why it’s important to both study biodiversity and protect habitat here, to ensure that this newly-discovered riffle beetle and all the other species it shares its aquatic home with survive long into the future.
Swipe right for a few pictures of aguajaels. These ecosystems are unique and poorly studied, so we’ve got much more work to do to figure out what other discoveries await in them!
