/data/photo/2021/03/13/604c746ee021c.jpg "This giant cricket is named after New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern")
KOMPAS.com- Recently the researchers at New Zealand find new species insect, crickets giant named after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Crickets named latin Hemiandrus jacinda This is thought by researchers to reflect the same traits as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and the naming is awarded in her honor.
Reporting from The Guardian, Saturday (13/3/2021), a new species of giant flightless cricket is an insect endemic to New Zealand.
Named Hemiandrus jacinda because he is physically red, the same as the Labor Party in that country, and has long legs.
Professor of evolutionary ecology at Massey University, New Zealand, Steven Trewick and other scientists say the insect is a striking species and is considered beautiful.
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Researchers say that more than 100 different species of giant crickets are found in trees, caves, shrubs and sometimes found in suburban parks in New Zealand.
Like all members of the Hemiandrus insect group, this Jacinda cricket burrows in the ground, where it appears to hunt at night.
The newly discovered species is larger and more striking in color than the 17 other giant crickets on record.
Jacinda’s giant crickets are found in native forests of Northland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Coromandel in the upper North Island.
Discovery of a new species of giant cricket named Prime Minister New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern has been published in the journal Zootaxa for the first time on Friday (12/3/2021).
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New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has imposed strict lockdowns and geographic isolation so that the country of 5 million can eliminate the new coronavirus within its borders.–
Trewick further said the Jacinda giant cricket is an extraordinary species, because it is found near densely populated areas.
“(Giant cricket) Jacinda is not a faint little animal, but a big, strong insect with a flamboyant color,” said Trewick.
This discovery, he said, is evidence that efforts to discover new species continue amid the rapid changes in the environment, loss of natural habitats, and the drastic decline of the planet’s biodiversity globally.
“New Zealand crickets are a species-rich and diverse radiation that live in all types of habitats, but there is still a lot to recognize,” added Trewick.
Like the Jacinda crickets that have been found, Trewick warned that it is likely that the new giant cricket population has begun to decline and even go to extinction.
The survival of crickets is threatened by introduced predators, such as rats and cats, as well as the loss of their natural habitat due to modifications such as agricultural land.
The New Zealand Department of Conservation seeks to conserve these insects by classifying them, with significant variation among the species despite genetic similarities and large gaps in knowledge of their abundance and ecology.
Trewick said it also highlighted the similarities between the giant crickets and the prime minister. Because, according to him, both are very important for New Zealand.
Also read: Traffic Noise Sleigh Crickets Toward Extinction
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