Discovered three new species in New Zealand cave

New Zealand's National Water and Atmospheric Research Institute (NIWA) on June 27 said divers had discovered three new animals that had never been known during an expedition at one of the underwater caves. The deepest in the world in New Zealand.

According to Dr. Graham Fenwick, an expert at NIWA, this group of Australian cave divers has found a transparent crustacean 6-8mm long on the rock faces.

Paraleptamphopus

This species belongs to the lesser known Paraleptamphopus genus. Paraleptamphopus is one of two endemic varieties of the Paraleptamphopidae family.

In addition, divers also found a 1.5mm-diameter snail and an 8-meter-long moth in the Pearse Resurgence cave system in the mountains of Arthur near the city of Nelson on South Island.

The divers were in the 13-day Pearse Resurgence cave and performed 74 dives in water conditions at a temperature of 6.5 degrees C.

Mr. Fenwick asserted that these findings show that biodiversity exists even in the dark and harsh environments. Currently, the new species is named by scientists.

Pearse Resurgence is likely to be the deepest cold water cave in the world because after diving 194m, divers see this cave still deep.