Chula team wins New Species Award
A newly-discovered centipede species found by a research team from Chulalongkorn University two years ago won a 2017 Top Ten New Species Award from the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE).
This is the fourth time in less than a decade that the Chula research team has received the award.
Somsak Panha, director of the Centre of Excellence on Biodiversity, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, yesterday said it is a great honour that the centipede has been chosen among the world’s top 10 new species, along with other species from Asia, North America, South America and Oceania.
The centipede was named Scolopendra cataracta Siriwut, Edgecombe and Panha, 2016.
Scolopendra is the Latin scientific name for the group of large centipedes it belongs to, and cataracta means waterfall. The latter part of its name comes from those who discovered the species and the year it was confirmed to be a new discovery.
Mr Somsak explained the committee considered the species’ outstanding characteristics and its habitat in naming it. The centipede has shown outstanding ability in swimming and it lives off small water animals in waterfalls, he said.
Regular centipede species are usually found on dry land.
Warut Siriwut, the researcher who studied the swimming centipede, said a DNA study has confirmed this species is quite different from other centipedes.
He said this swimming centipede is more colourful compared to ordinary centipedes, which are usually dark brown with white and pale yellow legs.
He added that different DNA means different toxicology and further studies should be done on it.
The centre and the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute has signed a memorandum of understanding for further toxinology and toxicology research, in the hope of finding something that could benefit people.
According to the ScienceDaily’s website, the Top Ten new species for 2017 include a spider from India, a katydid from Malaysia, a rat from Indonesia, a millipede from the United States, an ant from Papua New Guinea, a stingray from Brazil, centipedes from Lao, Thailand and Vietnam, a bush tomato from Australia, an orchid from Colombo, and a churro, a sea worm, from Mexico.
The centipede found in Thailand has 20 pairs of legs and is up to 20cm long.
It is the first species of centipede ever observed to be able to plunge into water and run along the bottom in much the same manner as it does on dry land, according to the website.
The research team found the swimming centipede in 2015 at a waterfall in Khao Sok National Park in Surat Thani province and it was confirmed as a new species a year later.