60 SCIENCE REPORTER June 2017

new friends from the wildMAYANGLAMBAM OJIT KUMAR SINGH

FUN QUIZ

1. Flowering plant (Sirdavidia solannona) is a new species named in honour of the naturalist Sir David Attenborough. The fl owers of Sirdavidia solannona are probably "buzz pollinated," a very specifi c type of pollination whereby bees use the vibration of their wings to extract the pollen grains onto their bellies. This plant species was discovered nearby the main road that runs through Africa’s Monts de Cristal National Park in______(A) Gabon (B) Gibraltar (C) Poland (D) Lithuania

2. Giant Sundew (Drosera magnifi ca) is the largest sundew ever seen in the New World and believed to be the fi rst new species of plant discovered through photographs posted on Facebook. This micro-endemic species is known to exist only at the summit of a single mountain 1,550 meters (5,000 feet) above sea level in _______(A) Colombia (B) Brazil(C) Argentina (D) Costa Rica

3. Zingiber bipinianum is a new species of ginger. It was discovered during fi eld exploration in Balpakram National Park located in the South Garo Hills of ______(A) Nagaland (B) Tripura (C) Meghalaya (D) Assam

4. Chelonoidis donfaustol is a distinct new species of giant tortoise. The new species was named in honor of a park ranger known as "Don Fausto" who worked 43 years to conserve the giant tortoises of Galapagos. It was discovered on the island of Santa Cruz located in ______(A) Borneo (B) Sri Lanka(C) Madagascar (D) Galapagos

5. Himalayan forest thrush (Zoothera salimalii) sounds like Adele’s. With rich clear, drawn out notes it is unlike the raspy, scratchy voice of the similar looking Alpine thrush. The bird’s scientific name honors the great Indian ornithologist Salim Ali. This bird species is only the fourth new bird to be discovered in India. Name the state of India from where this bird was discovered.(A) Sikkim (B) Mizoram (C) Arunachal Pradesh (D) Manipur

6. Anglerfi sh (Lasiognathus dinema) is a small but unique fi sh discovered recently. This new fi sh was found between 1,000-1,500 metres depth during a Natural Resource Damage Assessment process conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The species was discovered in the Gulf of ______(A) Aden (B) Munnar(C) Mexico (D) Bahrain

61 SCIENCE REPORTER June 2017

11. New species of seadragon (Phyllopteryx dewysea) having 240 mm length is a striking shade of ruby red with pink stripes on its snout. It is only the third known species of seadragon and found in slightly deeper and more offshore waters than the related common or leafy seadragons. The discovery was made off the coast of Western ______(A) Bhutan (B) Chile(C) Australia (D) Denmark

12. A new ape, nicknamed Laia (Pliobates cataloniae), was a small female that lived about 12 million years ago. Her discovery suggests greater morphological diversity existed at that time, in the Miocene, than previously thought, and raises the possibility that early humans could have been more closely related to gibbons than the great apes. Fragments of her remains were discovered in ______(A) New York (B) Angola(C) Barbados (D) Spain

13. This blind, unpigmented, multilegged animal represents a new subfamily, genus, and species of amphibious isopod. Luiuniscus iuiuensis has a behavior never seen before in its family; it constructs shelters of mud. The new species is unique among its cave-inhabiting relatives in having tapering plates at the base of its legs that give it a spiny appearance. The cave where the species was discovered is in___________.(A) Brazil (B) China(C) Africa (D) Hawaii

Contributed by Mayanglambam Ojit Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor of Zoology, Ramjas College, Delhi University, Delhi 110007; Email: ojit102005@yahoo.co.in

7. Tiny Beetle (Phytotelmatrichis osopaddington) is a new insect species found during a survey of insects in the aquatic environments that form in the hollows (phytotelmata) in the leaves and fl oral bracts of Zingiberales plants. They are only about 1 millimeter in length and discovered in______(A) Pakistan (B) Peru(C) Panama (D) Philippines

8. Hominin (Homo naledi) is a newly identifi ed species whose size and weight were similar to that of humans. Fossil remains of this previously unknown species of the genus Homo represent at least 15 different individuals. It is thought to have lived between 2.8 million and 2.5 million years ago in ______(A) South Africa (B) Saudi Arabia(C) Senegal (D) Switzerland

9. Bondarzewia zonata is a new species of mushroom collected for the fi rst time from India. The species is found in north _________ at an altitude of 2829 m.(A) Sikkim (B) Himachal Pradesh(C) Kashmir (D) Uttarakhand

10. Discovered on a herb bush in India, this tiny new species of toad is just 24 mm long from its snout tip to its cloaca and is named Blythophryne beryet. The genus has been named after Edward Blyth, the initiator of herpetological studies in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The common name given to this new species is______(A) Sikkim bush toad (B) Andaman bush toad(C) Nicobari bush toad (D) Andaman and Nicobar bush toad

Answers: 1. (A) 2. (B) 3. (C) 4. (D) 5. (C) 6. (C) 7. (B) 8. (A) 9. (A) 10. (B) 11. (C) 12. (D) 13. (A)