By: Remy Melina, LiveScience Staff Writer
An annual inventory of newly discovered species lists more than 19,000 â half of them insects. A total of 9,738 insect species were first identified in 2009, the most recent year of data compilation. And that's not even counting spiders.
The 2011 State of Observed Species report, released Jan. 18 by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University, categorized 19,232 species that became known to science during the 2009 calendar year.
"As the number of species increases, so, too, does our understanding of the biosphere," said Arizona State entomologist Quentin Wheeler, a founding director of the institute. The report, the institute's fourth, showed a 5. (Read more...)
