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Article: Small wonders: Sharon Corey of CSIRO Entomology describes a journey to the little known.(Australia's arthropod fauna)(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Ecos
- Article date:
- July 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 CSIRO Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A quarter of a million species of arthropods (insects, spiders, jointed-legged creatures) are thought to inhabit Australia, but only 60000 of them have been formally described and named.
`Compared with animals and plants, the arthropod fauna of Australia is poorly known,' says Dr David Yeates, leader of the Biodiversity and Informatics project at CSIRO Entomology. `As custodians of our biological heritage, future generations oblige us to understand and preserve our fauna and flora,' Yeates says. `And we may be losing economically important species before we realise what role they play in maintaining our environment.
`Insects have been described as the ...