APSU’s Hamilton publishes long-awaited paper on new insect species

Clarksville, TN – In the eastern highlands of Brazil, near the densely populated city of Rio de Janerio, there exists many streams and rivers where caddisfly larvae thrive and over which the adults swim and mate. The tiny, drab-colored insects are related to moths and butterflies, but rather than having scale-covered wings like their familiar cousins, the wings are covered by small hairs.

But human expansion and development, in an effort to make room for the region’s millions of people, is threatening the habitats of these insects, and they are in danger of disappearing from the earth without anyone, even scientists, knowing of their existence. [Read more]