A heated debate on whether a new species should be described without a physical specimen, i.e., by designating a photographed specimen to serve as a holotype, has been ongoing for a long time. Herewith, without nomenclatural actions, a new species of the Batrachidein pygmy grasshoppers belonging to the genus Scaria Bolívar, 1887 is identified from the Andean rainforest in Peru. This species is clearly different from all its congeners by morphology and coloration. Two individuals of this peculiar species are known only from the photographs found on iNaturalist. The species has not been observed since 2008 when the photographs were taken. A short historical overview of the topic is given, illustrating the pros and cons of photograph-based species description. The concepts of names, holotypes, research effort, and conservation are discussed and related to the problem at hand. The current state of the taxonomic community’s beliefs regarding this issue is reflected by the authors’ three unsuccessful attempts to name this new species.

Amazon, conservation, new species, Orthoptera, Peruvian Yungas, photography-based taxonomy, pygmy grasshopper, the ICZN

Describing species from photographs or illustrations is not a common practice, but it has been done a number of times (Fricke and Kacher 1982, Welch et al. 1986, Jonkers and Roersma 1990, Wallach and Jones 1992, Jones et al. 2005, Sinha et al. 2005, Robb et al. 2013, Cheng et al. 2015, Marshall and Evenhuis 2015, Ingrisch et al. 2016, Lonsdale and Marshall 2016, Nardelli 2016). Most of the names based on photographs are valid, but exceptions do exist (for an extensive historical overview of this practice, see Krell and Marshall (2017)). Some of these publications have sparked a debate about the validity of describing species in this way. The following paragraphs provide a brief overview of the current state of the debate. Some authors (Timm and Ramey 2005, Santos et al. 2016) have implied that the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999) prohibits naming a species without a physical holotype, which is not correct (see Discussion).

While Marshall and Evenhuis (2015) agree that collecting specimens is “highly desirable” as it allows for consideration of their internal morphology, microscopic and genetic characters and preservation of data for future access, they argue that, in certain cases, the specimens cannot be preserved and are getting harder to come by due to rigorous restrictions on collecting and transporting biological material, finally concluding that “collecting specimens is highly desirable, but it is indeed no longer required” because there is a growing number of high-quality photographs of taxa made by “digital collectors.” A prediction is made that “this situation will inevitably force the biodiversity community to adapt to growing numbers of new taxa recognized without benefit of dead, preserved type specimens” (Marshall and Evenhuis 2015). Löbl et al. (2016) consider such a practice dangerous, as it promotes quick capturing of visual data instead of careful observation. They fear that works describing taxa based on an incomplete set of characters (i.e., photographs) may encourage non-experts to try to publish their works, harming the whole field of taxonomy as a result. These fears are considered unfounded by Shatalkin and Galinskaya (2017), as there are indeed very rigid requirements (ICZN 1999) for describing species from photographic evidence. Marshall and Evenhuis (2015) cite Minteer et al. (2014) in claiming that “collecting specimens is no longer required to describe a species...” The work in question, though, presents a limited set of examples (birds, amphibians, and plants) where scientists played a role in the extinction of those animals and suggests using alternative means of sampling endangered species through high-resolution photography, audio recording, and nonlethal sampling. The case has never been made for insects, and Marshall and Evenhuis (2015) themselves agree that such a case would be difficult to make. Whether the cases illustrated by Minteer et al. (2014) even represent the issue was called into question by Krell and Wheeler (2014), but this is beyond the scope of our paper. Löbl et al. (2016) suggested publishing information about the existence of a new species without naming it. This is certainly possible but effectively discouraged due to the difficulty of finding a journal that would publish such a finding (Amorim et al. 2016). Having exhausted all the alternatives, we do exactly that.

Amorim et al. (2016) also suggest that, while being a fine addition to the process of describing a species, photographic evidence cannot replace the usual process of “collecting, preparing, comparing, describing, and delimiting species, that allows identifications (which are always hypotheses) to be double-checked.” We agree with this view but also feel the need to claim that there are and should be certain exceptions where blindly following this protocol could rob the scientific community of valuable knowledge. The immense administrative complexity of establishing a new species based on photographs has prevented us from doing so. An example to illustrate how photography-based taxonomy may introduce chaos is Presbytis johnaspinalli Nardelli, 2015, a new monkey species in the subfamily Colobinae, described from pictures of caged animals found on the Internet (Nardelli 2015). The morphological characters provided were not sufficient to clearly differentiate it from similar species, and some (Nijman 2015) have even suggested that the monkeys were bleached by the traders who were trying to make them more visually appealing. Nardelli (2016) responded to the criticism, defending his claims, but the status of Presbytis johnaspinalli remains unclear. In the case of Scaria sp., it is clear that this is a hitherto unknown species.

In this paper, we describe an unnamed species of a pygmy grasshopper (family Tetrigidae, subfamily Batrachideinae Bolívar, 1887), belonging to the tribe Batrachideini and genus Scaria Bolívar, 1887 (according to Cigliano et al. 2020) based on two photographs posted on the iNaturalist website by one of the authors (Roberto Sindaco; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9968031) and three previously unpublished photographs taken by Roberto Sindaco at the same time as the original two. The photographs, taken in August 2008 in Peru (Fig. 1), were posted in 2018, and the specimens photographed were identified by the senior author as a new species belonging to the subfamily Batrachideinae. Since the photographs were posted, no one has described the species, nor has there been another recorded sighting of it. Differences in morphology observed from the five photographs may be sufficient to propose a new species within the genus Scaria Bolívar, 1887. Despite that, we decide not to establish one. The taxonomic community does not accept photography-based taxonomy for reasons developed above. This is proven by rejections of this very manuscript when the naming of the species was included. Thus, this study aims to report an interesting unknown Scaria without nomenclatural actions. The specimens of the unnamed species were found in Peru (Bongará Province, Department of Amazonas, Peru), which is a part of the Neotropical biogeographic region. This area is home to an astonishing number of animal and plant species (Elton 1973), owing such diversity to favorable environmental factors and long evolutionary history (Condon 2008). Considering these facts, it is clear that there is a wealth of species unknown to science that are waiting to be described. Unfortunately, this impossible task (due to its sheer volume) is becoming even more discouraging due to the ongoing destruction of the entire region (Kehoe 2019). Drastic measures should be taken to reduce our negative impact on the environment because stable ecology is not only the playground of taxonomists, but also the cornerstone of the sustainability of life itself (Brown 1997, Kehoe 2019). The problem of declining biodiversity (Leather 2017, Forister et al. 2019) is only growing more significant, and cases such as this will keep happening. The unwillingness of the taxonomic community to discuss this issue and arrive at a set of rules that will apply to everybody equally is a major obstacle for scientists who find themselves in possession of publishable material in this field. With this paper, we hope to take a step towards an eventual solution.

Figure 1. 

Position of the only known locality of Scaria sp. Peroles near Yambrasbamba, marked with a star on the map of Peru with annotated Köppen–Geiger climate classification. Adapted from Beck et al. (2018).

Locality information.—The unnamed Scaria species is, for now, known only from a single locality in Peru. Peroles, near Yambrasbamba and 1905 m above sea level [5.670300°S, 77.918900°W], is one of the northernmost rainforests of the Peruvian Yungas and connects Amazon and Andes, a peculiar region where mosaics of unique rainforests reach extremely high altitudes. This ecoregion is considered to be in an almost critically endangered state (Beck 2018, WWF 2020). Although the locality is very close to two protected areas—the Cordillera Colan Natural Sanctuary and the Alto Mayo protected forest—the area is severely deforested and looks like a mosaic of patches of forest alternating with deforested areas for grazing cattle. This forest is known for hosting the critically endangered yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Oreonax flavicauda (Humboldt, 1812)), one of “The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates” (Shanee et al. 2019).

Taxonomy.—Taxonomy follows Orthoptera Species File (OSF; Cigliano et al. 2020), while nomenclature is in accordance with the International Code of the Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999). Systematics of the genus Scaria follows Cadena-Castañeda et al. (2019), who divided it by means of a cladistic analysis into three species groups— groups S. hamata (De Geer, 1773), S. lineata Bolívar 1887, S. producta Hancock, 1907—and S. laeta Günther, 1940 without assignment to any species group.

Comparative material examined.—Materials of Scaria species identified by Cadena-Castañeda et al. (2019) for which photographs were available and which were used by us for comparison with the new species are included in Table 1. Museum collections acronyms used are as follows: ANSP—The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; BYUC—Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA; CAUD—Colección de Artrópodos y otros Invertebrados de la Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá, Colombia; INPA—Coleção de Invertebrados do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Brazil; JSC—Collection Josip Skejo, Zagreb, Croatia; MNCN—Museo Natural de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain; MRSNT—Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali di Torino, Torino, Italy; NMW—Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria; SMDT—Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde, Dresden, Germany; UFAM—Coleção Zoológica Prof. Paulo Bührnheim, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, Brasil.

Morphological terminology.—Terminology of morphological characters follows Rehn (1904), Grant (1962), and Tumbrinck (2014). Batrachideinae is a subfamily with well-defined synapomorphies: 1) antennae usually more than 20 antennomeres, 2) anterior and mid femora with dorsal furrow, 3) female’s spermatheca with two diverticula, 4) square-shaped paranota, 5) frontomedial projection in the form of a spine, 6) fastigium of the vertex continuously and uniformly curved and marginally projected above the compound eyes, and 7) (usually) maculated tegmina. These characters are taxonomically reliable and have already been thoroughly discussed by several authors who have also listed exceptions (Bolívar 1887, Rehn 1904, Grant 1962, Tumbrinck 2014, Tumbrinck and Skejo 2017). Division of the genus Scaria into four species groups was supported by differences in the I) morphology of pronotum, II) male and female terminalia, III) head morphology, IV) general appearance of the anterior spine of pronotum, and V) body coloration. Key for identification of the species groups of genera Scaria was given in Cadena-Castañeda et al. (2019). Cadena-Castañeda et al. (2019) state that characters such as postocular stripe and tegmina maculation might represent homoplastic characters but are still useful in the identification key.

Artificial intelligence (AI) enhancement of photographs.—An AI service (letsenhance.io) was used to enhance the photographs from iNaturalist. We used the “smart enhance” setting with 2× upscaling. These enhanced photographs were used to discern small details, in combination with the original photographs, in order to avoid any potential visual artifacts in the upscaled photographs (Fig. 2). AI photography enhancement has proven to be a very useful tool in our case. We would like to note that it should be used with a measure of precaution, as the tool is not perfect, and visual artifacts in the upscaled photographs may appear. These problems are easily noted and avoided by people with experience with, in this case, animal morphology and anatomy.

There is a nameless new Scaria species from Peru, clearly distinguishable from other species of the genus. All of the species of that genus are clearly differentiable by their morphology and coloration, which are visible in photographs. The ICZN allows naming species from photographs if there is reason to do so; however, we did not manage to name this nameless species. We do not propose that photograph-based descriptions become the norm, only that in certain cases and for certain taxa this can be beneficial. We understand how important the physical holotype is, but because of numerous issues, we did not manage to collect one.

By the time a scientist collects, examines, and describes one new species, several more have gone extinct (Stork 2009). Every new species’ description serves as a reminder of those that could not be studied in time and are now irretrievably lost. We have thus decided to describe this nameless species, celebrating the role that taxonomy has on species preservation (O’Brien and Mayr 1991, Johnson et al. 2018). A charismatic name would have allowed it to reach a wider audience, but the nameless Scaria will nonetheless serve as a symbol of the species we wait for, hoping that it will not be only Godot.

We would like to acknowledge iNaturalist for providing an excellent platform for encouraging citizen science. This service allows people without formal training to participate in collecting valuable data that can help researchers around the globe. This paper is only a single example of the possibilities that are created by services such as iNaturalist. Thanks to Daniela Santos Silva for clarifying whether figure 17. in Cadena-Castañeda et al. 2019 represents a type specimen. Thanks to George Beccaloni for reading an early version of this paper and giving us valuable suggestions regarding the Discussion. Lastly, we want to thank the Journal of Orthoptera Research for their support in publishing this article. Special thanks go to the editors of JOR, Tony Robillard and Maria-Marta Cigliano, and reviewers Sigfrid Ingrisch and Hendrik Devriese for giving us advice for making this work publishable.