A cave insect species new to science has been found and described, which has been named Remyella spanovicae in honor of Ivana Španović, the best Serbian athlete of all time and one of the best long jumpers ever. The species was found in the Cave at the source of the Đerekarska River, which is located in the village of Đerekar in the vicinity of Tutin, on the Pešter Plateau, near the border with Montenegro.

The scientific paper with the aforementioned discovery and description of the new species was published today in the renowned international biological scientific journal "European Journal of Taxonomy".

The above work is a joint effort of a team of zoologists from the Institute of Zoology, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Biology, led by Prof. Dr. Srećko Ćurčić, and the team of authors also included Dr. Maja Vrbica, Dr. Korana Kocić, Vukašin Gojšina, M.Sc., Sofija Vranić, M.Sc. and Dr. Nikola Vesović. The new species was described for science by Prof. Dr. Ćurčić, Dr. Vrbica and Dr. Vesović. Type specimens of this species were collected by Srećko Ćurčić, Vukašin Gojšina and Nikola Vesović in June and July 2023, and great help in the field was provided by Petar Ćurčić.

“Španović’s Remiela” is a rare and endemic species of insect, i.e. a beetle belonging to the Leiodidae family. This unique beetle belongs to the troglobites – true terrestrial underground inhabitants. It inhabits the Cave at the source of the Đerekarska River and is found nowhere else in the world. It is a small (between 4 and 5 mm long), completely blind and depigmented species of insect with a shiny body surface. It is characterized by an elongated body and extremely long legs and antennae, which in males exceed the length of the body itself. The individuals were collected in the rear part of the upper level of the cave, in complete darkness. This species prefers the damp limestone walls of the cave. It feeds by filtering organic matter that accumulates in the film of water on the surfaces inside the cave, as indicated by the structure of its mouthparts.

It is the sixth known species of the genus. Remyella. All species of this sensational genus inhabit exclusively the Pešter Plateau and are narrowly localized to the border area of ​​Serbia and Montenegro. It is believed that the species is of Pliocene age and that it originated 2-5 million years ago. Its closest relatives inhabit southwestern Serbia and northeastern Montenegro (the area around Sjenica, Tutin, Novi Pazar and Bijelo Polje) and are associated exclusively with speleological objects (caves and pits). Otherwise, two more species of the genus Remyella were also described by biospeleologists from the Institute of Zoology, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Biology, Prof. Dr. Srećko Ćurčić and Prof. Dr. Božidar Ćurčić in 2008. They are R. divorce ("Raška's Remijela") from the Cave at the spring of Raška in the vicinity of Novi Pazar and R. javorensis ("javor remijela") from the Baždarska cave on Mount Javor in the vicinity of Sjenica, which also inhabits the nearby Ušac cave system.

The authors noticed that the new species of beetle for science and Ivana Španović share several common features, which is why they decided to name it in honor of the trophy Serbian athlete. In addition to having Serbian origins, Ivana and her “beetle” are distinguished by their strength, endurance and perseverance. In addition, the new species of insect moves with ease on the ceiling and vertical walls of the cave thanks to its strong limbs, while Ivana jumps over 7 m without any difficulty, so it can be said that both defy gravity, each in their own way. The authors of the new species are fully aware of how rare and demanding it is to be a successful athlete on a global level, especially in individual sports, such as athletics, and this fact also further influenced the choice of the scientific name of the species and is an additional reason why the honor of naming the new species for science went to Ivana Španović.

Incidentally, the new insect species is not the first animal species to be named in honor of a Serbian sports great. Two species have been named after the best tennis player of all time, Novak Djokovic – first, a water snail Travunija Djokovic ("Đoković's travuniana") from Montenegro, from a spring near Podgorica, described in 2021, and then an insect from the family of ground beetles Duvalius Djokovic ("Đoković's duvalius") from Simina jama on Mount Povlen near Ljubovija in western Serbia, described in 2022. Interestingly, the species D. Djokovic were described by the authors of the description of Ivana's "beetle", entomologists from the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Biology, Srećko Ćurčić and Nikola Vesović.