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eBay unearths unknown insect

A scientist has discovered a a new species of insect on eBay.

Dr Richard Harrington paid £20 for the fossilised insect encased in amber, reports the Daily Telegraph. He thought it would make an interesting curio - but it turned out to be a long extinct and previously unknown species of aphid. It has now been named after Dr Harrington, vice-president of the UK’s Royal Entomological Society, who specialises in aphids.

He bought the fossil on the internet auction site from a man in Lithuania. “I had thought it would be rather nice to call it Mindarus ebayi,” said Dr Harrington. “Unfortunately using flippant names to describe new species is rather frowned upon these days.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .