Winged creature — with pink eyes — found at chapel in Greece. It’s a new species
Sunshine beat down on a small chapel in Greece with the kind of heat that drove even the smallest animals to seek shade. In the chapel’s yard, a pink-eyed creature sought refuge under a decorative stone — but not for long.
A scientist found the “elusive” animal and discovered a new species.
Sotiris Alexiou recognized this type of pink-eyed cricket as significant when he first encountered it in Attiki in 2013, but he wasn’t able to identify the insect until after his visit to the chapel in 2017, he wrote in a study published Feb. 9 in the Journal of Orthoptera Research.
Studying the colorful crickets, Alexiou realized he’d discovered a new species: Eupholidoptera kekrops, or the Cecrops bush-cricket.
Cecrops bush-crickets are small, measuring about 0.7 inches in length, the study said. They have “relatively short” legs, “solid black” wings and a green body.
A photo shows a Cecrops bush-cricket perched on a plant. It has a bright green coloring, pink eyes and pinkish-red underside.
One Cecrops bush-cricket was found “under a large marble slab where it appeared to be trying to avoid the high temperatures on an exceptionally hot summer day,” Alexiou wrote in the study. Another spotted earlier was found “deep within a small and dense thorny bush” in a “wasteland.”
Alexiou said he named the new species after Cecrops, sometimes spelled Kekrops, “the mythical first king of Attiki and founder of the city of Athens.”
So far, Cecrops bush-crickets have only been found in Attiki, a region near Athens and on the eastern slopes of Mount Hymettus, the study said.
“The fact that a population of bush-cricket proven to belong to an undescribed species remained elusive just at the outskirts of a modern European capital, Athens, is surprising,” Alexiou wrote.
The new species was identified by its body shape and other subtle physical features, the study said. Researchers did not provide a DNA analysis.
This story was originally published March 5, 2024 at 8:08 AM with the headline "Winged creature — with pink eyes — found at chapel in Greece. It’s a new species."
