There are constant new animal and plant species in Finland

World There are still large gaps in knowing the species. Insects and mushrooms are the worst known. Finns and their partners have excelled in new sports researchers around the world – both in tropics and in Finland.

“When all Finnish researchers are included, last year, over two hundred new species were sure to be photographed for science,” says the collection manager Heidi Viljanen From the Central Museum of Natural History.

For example, a new manure beetle was found in Madagascar, scientific name Scarabaeus Skala as well as the hell of a sponge Hygrocybe vindsy.

From Finland The science was described as a new nine of the species and more than ten species of mushrooms and lichen, one of these, one of these, Phlegmacium Fennicum. It is so far known only in the Keminmaa and Oulu areas.

Description of science is not a synonymous word for a word, because finding a species can sometimes take decades before its features, distribution and other features can be described for science.

Insect We know much worse than, for example, flower plants, where new species are rarely found. In addition to the species of the spit, new beetle, fly and mosquito species have been found in Finland in recent years.

« There are 24,000 insect species known in Finland, but in reality there are many more. Only some of the known species are known so well that it is possible to make a threat assessment. The lifestyle may not be known, » says Heidi Viljanen.

The situation is influenced by species abuse, the demanding of identification work and the lack of researchers. New species for science are found by comparing samples to the type individuals of the species and their original descriptions in scientific magazines. DNA analyzes are also commonplace today in finding new species.

Advanced enthusiasts are important for identifying insect species, but there are fewer and fewer. In particular, they find the species known elsewhere, but which are new in Finland. This was the case last summer, for example Chorthippus dorsing.

Also the colorful pajamas Graphosoma Italicum has arrived in our country.

« The pajamas looks as if it had a pajamas on. It is red -black and vertical on the top. The stomach is red and has black balls, » Viljanen describes.

Natural The more comprehensive the space can be monitored, the better known the species. In addition to insects, different fungi are easily hidden from the human eye. Even in the early summer, the forests see perennial dwarfs, lichens and casing mushrooms such as ear and huh mushrooms.

“About 8,000 mushroom species are known in Finland, but in reality there may be double the number,” says the Yli-Intendent Tuula Niskanen From the Central Museum of Natural History.

Mushrooms contain many unknown species for the same reasons as in insects.

« In addition, many fungi live as mycelium, for example, in the country, and only when they begin to produce spores for reproduction, we see them for a short time, » Niskanen sums up.

The diversity of fungi began to be better understood in the early 2000s with DNA studies.

« Then the truth began to dawn that there were a lot of mushrooms.

The new mushrooms described by Niskanen include a ruso footwear, Chroogomphus subfulmineusand a cramp squirrel, Hydnum Jussiiiwhich is a food sponge.

Mushroom Identification has accelerated in recent decades thanks to DNA sequencing. In this way, a new species named for Finnish people was also identified, living in symbiosis with conifers.

« It came for the first time 15-20 years ago as a museum sample collected in the 1960s, a dried sponge, » Tuula Niskanen remembers.

Based on the fungus DNA barcode, it became clear that this was a new species. The DNA barcode area is a section chosen by the research community of the organism, each group of organisms, which is suitable for species-level identification.

However, it took a long time before the fungus was discovered again in the terrain. An experienced fungus enthusiast Tapio Kekki He found a strange sponge in Keminmaa in 2015 and contacted researchers because its characteristics did not fit into any known sport.

However, the species was not described as new to science until nine years later, as the researchers did not have to do a scientific description of the sport before that time. Identifying and separating the species from all other species can be very laborious. New species of mushrooms can be found at such a frequency that there is simply not enough fungus researchers to describe all the species found at the same pace.

So at the moment, the bottleneck is not about finding new mushroom species, but in describing them.

Finnish titty is one of the sees that form a sponge root in combination with many trees such as pine, spruce or birch. They provide nitrogen to their host plants while also contributing to the decomposition of organic materials in the forests and in carbon circulation. The species was baptized into Finnish because it is only known for Finland – and so far only for the limestone of Keminmaa and Oulu.

According to Niskanen, new mushroom species can be found almost anywhere.

« And if you find a species typical of coniferous forests in the deciduous forest, it may be a sign of a new species. »