New Aprasia aurita Population!
By Alix Baltais
This week we bring some particularly exciting news for the Aprasia project. We have discovered a new population of Aprasia aurita!!
While only one individual female was found we hope we can find a few more as the weeks progress. This site is quite small in relation to the other sites where the species has been found and is isolated by pine forests which hopefully means that this species has a wider distribution than originally thought.
Female Aprasia at the new site
This species is often difficult to find given that they spend the majority of their time buried in the soil.
The individuals that we have found under the tiles have been semi concealed in the leaf matter or soil when the tile is lifted, making them difficult to see at times. Fortunately they are fairly slow moving in comparison to their legged counterparts and are much easier to catch. There are two more rounds to go before Christmas, so stay tuned for some more exciting discoveries.
Aprasia individual partly concealed in leaf litter
