A new species of arthropod has been discovered in Canada. The primitive insect, named Haplocampa wagnelli, was found in a cave in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The bug, which was discovered near Port Alberni, could be a survivor of the last Ice Age, Fox News reports.
The cave where the creepy-crawly was found was, at one time, covered by a thick sheet of ice which is what has led scientists to believe the creature is an Ice Age leftover.
The new species “is rather interesting for its troglomorphic features: antennae with 32 antennomeres; olfactory chemoreceptors, each a multiperforated, folded-spiral structure; and numerous gouge sensilla,” the study revealed.
“In addition, it is one of the northernmost troglomorphic species to have colonized – presumably recently – an area occupied by the Late Wisconsinian North America ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum,” researchers added.
Around 26,000 years ago, before it began to recede, the Last Glacial Maximum occurred, covering huge parts of North America, Asia, and Northern Europe.
Alberto Sendra, an entomologist, and a local cave divers Craig Wagnell Tawney Lem and Felix Ossigi-Bonanno made the discovery.
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