Discovery of New Species of Insects

The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) through the Zoologicum Bogoriense Museum (MZB) and the Karlsruhe Natural History Museum from Germany have successfully described 103 new species of Trigonopterus beetles. One of them is snout beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) of Trigonopterus genus where only one found in Sulawesi since 1885. Some of the 103 Trigonopterus beetles are named after fictional characters such as Asterix, Obelix and Idefix, and Yoda. Trigonopterus beetles are small-sized, have morphological similarities with one another and are difficult to be distinguished at a glance. Most of them can only be found in tropical rainforest habitats that are still in good condition.