Ten tiny beetles carry a poet's verses: China's misty mountains yield ten new species

Deep in the misty forests of Shennongjia in Hubei, China, small dark beetles scurry through the leaf litter at night — and there are far more kinds of them than anyone knew. After ten years of fieldwork and 365 specimens, scientists have described ten species entirely new to science, more than doubling the number known from the province. One is the smallest of its kind ever found in China, at under 5 millimetres long. All ten are named after Qu Yuan, the beloved ancient poet whose homeland was this same region — one for the poet himself, others for his verses and the moon's charioteer from his poems. The team says still more species are likely waiting in these mountains.