Institutional development · Research, innovation and assessment · Japan
Kyoto University and Mine City researchers name world's largest campodeid from Akiyoshidai caves
A research group from Kyoto University and Mine City's tourism policy division has described Pacificampa dodecas, a cave insect relative reaching 13mm, in the journal Zoological Science.
Why it matters: Kyoto University's animal systematics laboratory and Mine City's tourism policy division share authorship of a species description that the university says calls for revising campodeid classification.
Kyoto University said a group formed by its animal systematics laboratory, under Associate Professor Takafumi Nakano, and the Mine City Tourism Policy Division described a new campodeid dipluran from caves at Akiyoshidai, Yamaguchi Prefecture, naming it Pacificampa dodecas.
According to the university, the species reaches up to 13mm in body length excluding antennae and cerci, exceeding Pacificampa daidarabotchi from northern Kyushu and making it the largest known member of the family Campodeidae.
The university said the animal had been known since at least 1953 but had never been formally named, and that the specimens were collected from several caves by a Mine City environmental conservation specialist.
The paper, whose authors include an undergraduate student, was published online in Zoological Science on 9 October 2026, and the university said its genetic analysis indicates the family's classification needs review.
Editor’s view
Scott James, Research and Innovation Editor
For taxonomists working on Campodeidae, the university reports that its genetic results suggest the subfamily Campodeinae may split into several groups, which would mean the family's classification has to be revisited.
