According to a Yahoo News report, online photo-sharing site Flickr recently earned a distinction of sorts when it turned out to be the site where entomologist Shaun Winterton stumbled across a new insect species!

In what was actually a rare discovery taking place online, Winterton came across the picture of an interesting-looking insect while he was idly browsing Flickr; and decided to capture a specimen of the creature for a study.

The picture of the unfamiliar insect, a green lacewing, had been posted by Hock Ping Guek - who is known as `Kurt' on Flickr -, without any clue at all that he had accidentally discovered a new insect species.

As per Winterton, the most noteworthy feature which separated the photographed insect from a normal lacewing was the striking blue and black pattern on its wings.

Failing to recognize the insect, Winterton soon got in touch with Guek and found that the picture had been clicked in Malaysia. He then joined hands with Guek to find another specimen of the insect, and together the pair discovered a sibling of the green lacewing in a Malaysian rainforest.

The insect was then sent off to the Natural History Museum, London, where it was confirmed by entomologist Stephen Brooks that it was a new, uncatalogued species --- which Winterton and Guek have named "Semachrysa jade", after Winterton's daughter.