Today, Felix had dragged his friends into a wet evergreen forest. He’d asked Orak to open a portal to Kibale National Park in Uganda. Now, the Gifted Four were walking around in a dense forest. They were surrounded by an intense greenness on all sides.
A sweaty Orak said, “Why are we here, Felix?”
Hanging upside down from a tree, Scorch shrieked in glee and said, “To have fun, you bore! I’d love to meet some chimpanzees!”
Felix simply smiled and said, “We are looking for a recently discovered insect called a leafhopper! Leafhoppers are a species of insects that feed on leaves. They use their sucking mouthparts to make a hole in the leaf and suck its juices.
There are about 20,000 species of leafhoppers. But the one we are looking for belongs to a super rare group called phlogis.”
“How rare?” said Verum.
“Well, the last time a leafhopper from this group was sighted was in 1969. The sighting was recorded in an African country called Central African Republic (CAR),” said Felix.
“Wow, that is definitely rare,” said Scorch with an awestruck expression.
“A part of me is glad this creepy crawly is rare,” said Orak sheepishly.
Suddenly, something hopped from a leaf onto Orak’s nose. Orak shrieked and jumped up, “Get it off me! Get it off me!”
“Oh my MysticLord!” said Felix as he took the insect onto his finger, “Look at that coat with a metallic sheen! And look at those pockmarks! It’s a Phlogis kibalensis!”
“Is that the insect you were looking for?” said Scorch.
“Yes! Dr. Alvin Helden of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) discovered and identified it. He had brought his students to Kibale National Park for a field trip,” explained Felix, “The insect was 6.5 millimeters in length. However, due to its rareness, nothing much is known about this leafhopper.”
“I hope they find out more on studying it further,” said Verum.