Rare insect find sparks beetle mania
Tasmanian zoologists say they are delighted with the recent discovery of a beetle once thought to be near extinction.
After eight decades of occasional sightings, Tasmanian Field Naturalists and specialists have found dozens of Miena Jewel beetles alive and well on the Central Plateau.
Tasmanian museum invertebrates curator Simon Grove says researchers plan to look for more populations at Mount Wellington and Mount Field.
"Because it's a threatened species, the more we know about it the better we can hopefully conserve it into the future," he said.
"So knowing what it feeds on means we can model its distribution more readily, pick places to go looking for it next.
"So next year we hope to be back elsewhere in the highlands seeing if our understanding of the species helps us pinpoint further populations."
The Tasmanian museum's zoology curator, Catherine Byrne, says all beetles contribute significantly to the environment, and the more diversity there is, the better.
"They play an extremely important part in the eco system. Just by virtue of the fact there's so many different species doing different things, and vast numbers of them as well."
"They have lots of different roles in eco-systems. If they disappeared overnight we'd probably soon follow."