We are very proud of our colleague Mario Giovanni Romo Rojas over at CNBN for recording the first ever sighting of Meriania sanguinea in Tungurahua province, Ecuador.

Recently, our partner Mario published a publication on the discovery, which was picked up by the prominent local newspaper La Hora. The paper reaches an audience of over a million local people in Tungurahua weekly. The publication, which was also under the name of CNBN, shows that we are not even close to having studied enough of the highly biodiverse native forest. 

About Meriania sanguinea and the publication

Meriania sanguinea is a little-known species in Ecuador. Its habitat is limited to montane forests of the eastern mountain range of the Andes.

The publication found three individual species of Meriania sanguinea between one and five meters high were located in a forest fragmented by anthropic pressure. The tallest one had reproductive structures that facilitated the identification of the species. 

With this discovery, the research concludes that the geographic distribution range of M. sanguinea is extended to the province of Tungurahua. This constitutes the first record of the species in the central zone of Ecuador.

Read the scientific publication here.