Meru phyllisae

Meruidae is a recently described family of aquatic beetles in the suborder Adephaga,[1] with only one genus and species, Meru phyllisae. This beetle species was first found in the early 1980s.[2] At 0.8 mm, it is one of the smallest adephagan beetles in the world. A recent survey of aquatic beetles of Venezuela prove that Meru is most common during the wet season, when larger areas of granitic rock surface are covered with water film, which the adult beetles as well as the larvae inhabit.

Meru phyllisae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Adephaga
Family: Meruidae
Spangler & Steiner, 2005
Genus: Meru
Spangler & Steiner, 2005
Species:
M. phyllisae
Binomial name
Meru phyllisae
Spangler & Steiner, 2005

Etymology

The name Meruidae comes from the local Pemon people word for waterfall, meru. The beetle was given this name because it can only be found in cascading water.[3]

Distribution

Meru phyllisae is only known from the natural cascading waterfalls in El Tobogán, Las Amazonas, Venezuela. Although it is remote location that is strongly protected, Venezuelan tourists visit the place because of its uniqueness, causing habitat degradation.[2]

gollark: Possibly.
gollark: No.
gollark: It keeps clogging up with spare maple wood.
gollark: This is my phyto-gro machine. It will probably break in a few minutes when some ratios get out of balance, and it's drawing something like 200RF/t.
gollark: Well, if I can find some diamonds and make a quarry to obliterate a chunk or two, maybe some will turn up.

References
  1. Steiner, Warren. 2005. Meruidae. Version 1 January 2005 (temporary). http://tolweb.org/Meruidae/29297/2005.01.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
  2. Paul J. Spangler, Warren E. Steiner JR (2005) A new aquatic beetle family, Meruidae, from Venezuela (Coleoptera: Adephaga) Systematic Entomology 30 (3), 339–357
  3. http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/icb344/abstracts/Meruidae.htm
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