Researchers have discovered a new fly, which they have named Cascoplecia insolitis, that was said to have lived during the time of the dinosaurs 100 million years ago in the jungles of Myanmar.  A single specimen of the monster-like fly was preserved in Burmese amber. 

Scientists are nicknaming the fly the "unicorn" fly because it has a small horn that emerges from its head and on top of the horn are three eyes.  Because of the unusual characteristics of this fly, researchers have placed it in a new family, genus and species of fly.

“If we had seen nothing but the wings of this insect, it would have looked similar to some other flies in the family Bibionomorpha,” Poinar said. “But this was near the end of the Early Cretacous when a lot of strange evolutionary adaptations were going on. Its specialized horn and eyes must have given this insect an advantage on very tiny flowers, but didn’t serve as well when larger flowers evolved. So it went extinct.”

The fly also had other very unusual characteristics, the study found, such as an odd-shaped antenna, unusually long legs that would have helped it crawl over flowers and extremely small vestigial mandibles that would have limited it to nibbling on very tiny particles of food.

“None of the specialized body characters of Cascoplecia occurs on previously reported Cretaceous bibionids,” the report concluded. “This ‘unicorn’ fly was one of the oddities of the Cretaceous world and was obviously an evolutionary dead end.”

Link

[Photo from Oregon State University photostream]

Biologist Christopher Meehan and his team discovered that the Bagheera kiplingi spider (named after the panther from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book) primarily feasts on buds that grow on acacia plants. 

In the article, it is stated that the spider occasionally snacks on ant larvae.  Wouldn't that make the spider an omnivore [wiki]? 

Link [via digg]

Jay Garbose discovered a sea serpent off the shores of Juno Beach that even the Smithsonian is having a difficult time placine.  At this time, the Smithsonian is describing is as a Nemertean Worm, but they aren't positive on that description.  Until they can really narrow down on what this thing is, they are calling it "undescribed".  [Video]

[via meshly]

Previously:
A swimming ant is discovered, Smallest Genome of Living Creature Discovered, Giant Moray Eel and Grouper Cooperate to Hunt, A New Crustacean found in the South Pacific resembles a furry lobster

Many discoveries have been made on Mars lately.  First, a giant pool of water ice was located at the south pole of the Red Planet and now seven possible cave entrances were found on the surface of the planet. 

The authors say that the possible discovery of caves on the Red Planet is significant.

The caves may be the only natural structures capable of protecting primitive life forms from micrometeoroids, UV radiation, solar flares and high energy particles that bombard the planet's surface.

A swimming ant has been discovered in North Queensland, Australia.  The polyrhachis sokolova "nest in submerged mangroves and survive by hiding in air pockets and then swimming to the surface. 

The ant was discovered by accident:

I [Dr. Simon Robson] was actually working with a film crew working on insects in the mangroves and they wanted to film one of these ants and I said, 'Well, lets put it on a rock in a puddle of water and that'll stop it going away and then you'll be able to film it,' and the ant promptly just leapt off the edge of the rock and swam across the water and disappeared.

There isn't much to the article, but what a cool find.

A new crustacean, named Kiwa hirsuta, was discovered in the South Pacific.  The Kiwa hirsuta "...resembles a lobster and is covered with what looks like silky, blond fur..."  Because it is so distinct from other species, a new family and genus were created for it.  New ocean species are discovered every year, but it's quite rare to find one that merits a new family.