{"id":79404,"date":"2025-12-24T12:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T06:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=79404"},"modified":"2025-12-24T12:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T06:55:13","slug":"neelus-sikkimensis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/neelus-sikkimensis\/","title":{"rendered":"Neelus sikkimensis"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Neelus sikkimensis Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) recently discovered \u2018Neelus sikkimensis\u2019, the first of its genus in India, in the high-altitude region of Sikkim.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Neelus sikkimensis<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>new species of Collembola<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><b>tiny, soil-dwelling micro-arthropods.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was discovered in the high-altitude landscapes of <\/span><b>Sikkim<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It marks the <\/span><b>first-ever record<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the <\/span><b>genus Neelus in India.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It brings the total number of known species under this genus worldwide to eight.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It exhibits several <\/span><b>distinctive biological characteristics.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Microscopic Size: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An extremely small body <\/span><b>adapted for life deep within soil <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and moss.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Sensory Adaptation:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A complete <\/span><b>absence of eyes, typical of species living in dark, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">subterranean environments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Unique Morphology: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A specific \u201clabral chaetotaxy\u201d (arrangement of bristles on the mouthparts) that distinguishes it from its global relatives.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Key Facts about Arthropods<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arthropods are <\/span><b>invertebrates with jointed legs.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They make up about <\/span><b>75% of all animals on Earth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and have a major role in maintaining ecosystems as <\/span><b>pollinators, recyclers of nutrients, scavengers,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>food for other animals.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They include many animals we come across in our gardens, such as spiders, ants, centipedes, and slaters.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arthropods are divided into <\/span><b>four major groups:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>insects;<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>myriapods (including centipedes and millipedes);<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>arachnids (including spiders, mites, and scorpions);<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>crustaceans (including slaters, prawn, and crabs)<\/b><b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Key Facts about Collembola<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Collembola are among the most <\/span><b>abundant and diverse soil microarthropods, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which are found in almost <\/span><b>all (semi) terrestrial environments.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are among the <\/span><b>oldest and most abundant hexapods on Earth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and play a crucial <\/span><b>role in soil health and nutrient cycling.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are commonly <\/span><b>known as \u201cspringtails<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d because of their <\/span><b>ability to jump using a tail-like appendage.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are around 8,200 named species. <\/span><\/li>\n<li>They live in <b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">all types of soil<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">feed on algae, fungi, plant roots,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and<\/span><b style=\"font-size: inherit;\"> decaying organic matter.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraphindia.com\/west-bengal\/zoologists-find-new-species-of-tiny-soil-dwelling-insect-in-sikkim-prnt\/cid\/2139349\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TELE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neelus sikkimensis is a new species of Collembola\u2014tiny, soil-dwelling micro-arthropods. Read more about Neelus sikkimensis, Discovery, Biological Characteristics, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":79399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4385],"class_list":{"0":"post-79404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-neelus-sikkimensis","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}