The fly specimen that awaited a growing barcode community to be dusted off the shelves and given a name. The online barcode library facilitates the description of new Diptera genus with circumpolar Holarctic distribution

Abstract

While it can take an average of 21 years between the discovery and description of a new species1, the challenges of relating known taxa and the scarcity of high-quality specimens make the description of a new genus even more difficult and time-consuming. Our paper recently published in the Biodiversity Data Journal introduced a new fungus gnat genus – <i>Coelosynapha</i> – demonstrating that despite a taxon being shelved for a long time after discovery, strong collaborative networks spanning many countries combined with the power of DNA barcoding are greatly changing the pace at which we catalogue life.