Cryptozoology is a field with a long, complex history, especially in terms of public perception. Despite what can be read online, it is a legitimate scientific field that consistently makes new discoveries and contributions to the greater scientific community. Cryptozoology studies a variety of creatures, including tiny insects, some of which are incredibly likely to be discovered very soon.
One that's gained much love, at least amongst my friends, is Megadytes ducalis - the largest species of predacious diving beetle (Dytiscidae), reaching 48mm in length.
Dytiscidae, the predacious diving beetles, are ravenous carnivores, their larvae are often called “water tigers” due to their voracious appetites. M. ducalis as mentioned above, is notable for its large size and rare status, for many years only being known from a single specimen. As such, it has been dubbed "the rarest insect in the world" by at least one source, and is also likely wrongly listed as extinct, hence the cryptozoological aspect.
This single specimen was described in David Sharp's 1882 monograph "On aquatic carnivorous Coleoptera or Dytiscidae". It was simply listed as coming from "Brazil", which certainly inhibited work being done on the bug. Due to its scarcity Megadytes ducalis was listed as extinct by the IUCN in 1994 (and again in 1996) and has not been assessed since (more on that later).
This sole specimen sat in the Natural History Museum of London all by itself until 2019 when ten additional specimens, including a female were found in Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, with exact locality data. These specimens gave an exact collection location - "San Antônio da Barra, Prov. de Bahia, Brésil"
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332512516
Eastern Brazil is home of the Cerrados, tropical savannas best known for their great biological diversity. The trading of insects collected in the Cerrados became a large part of Condeúba's economy during the late 19th century; bugs were often sold weekly at markets. From 1884 to 1914, the French entomologist Pierre-Émile Gounelle made seven self-financed scientific expeditions to eastern Brazil. During this time, he collected many bugs from these markets and documented their behavior. It is on these expeditions where he collected these ten specimens and brought them back to France, where they were forgotten quite quickly, laying in bins of unsorted water beetle material. The authors of the paper describing these specimens hoped that this more precise data would allow for modern research and even a potential rediscovery of the species. There was very little reason for Megadytes ducalis to be written off as extinct at all -
From 1991-1994 there were several species of predacious diving beetles discovered, including in North America. The vague locality data of the single specimen known at the time did not allow for better research, but also no conformation as to whether this bug was truly extinct. The IUCN Red List even dissuades species of low abundance from being put into this category "If the range of a taxon is suspected to be relatively circumscribed, if a considerable period of time has elapsed since the last record of the taxon, threatened status may well be justified". The extinct status of this species has been doubted by entomologists in published work. In Adriano Pereira Paglia's "Espécies ameaçadas da fauna brasileira: análise dos padrões e dos fatores de ameaça" -
“According
to Nelson Ferreira Jr. (pers comm.), from the Department of Entomology
at UFRJ, the lack of collections and studies on the distribution of
this insect may be the cause of some inaccuracies, and the fact that
they are listed as extinct may not correspond to reality”.
(This is not a direct translation, it has been tweaked slightly for clarity)
Essentially,
Megadytes ducalis is likely alive somewhere, or at least was for a
while past the date these specimens were collected. Megadytes ducalis is
an example of an "Enoch Taxa" -
Enoch Taxa are recognized taxa that
have been sighted or collected in small numbers within a short period
of time and then never again. There is no real reason for suspected
extinction, these animals are often simply listed as “Data Deficient” by
the IUCN.
Hopefully, Megadytes ducalis is rediscovered alive and well somewhere in eastern Brazil. But how likely is that?
Water beetles already face immense competition with fish, so are often forced to the rare bodies of water without fish. Urban expansion has rendered these fewer and fewer, and often more polluted, killing off these bugs Water beetles already face immense competition with fish, so are often forced to the rare bodies of water without fish. Urban expansion has rendered these fewer and fewer, and often more polluted, killing off these bugs.
To quote the 2019 specimen paper "During the last 25 years the cerrado has been increasingly threatened by industrial scale monoculture farming, particularly of soybeans. The unregulated intensification of industrial agriculture, the burning of vegetation for charcoal and the development of dams to provide irrigation have already been identified as potential threats to several rivers in the region."
Megadytes ducalis, if extant, is almost certainly in danger of going extinct. As such, research is needed as soon as possible.
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