Date Posted: Dec 12, 2011 
 
 Photo Gallery 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A new monkey, a self-cloning skink, five carnivorous plants, and a unique leaf warbler are among the 208 species newly described by science in the Greater Mekong region in 2010 and highlighted in a new WWF report. 
 
 A total of 145 plants, 28 reptiles, 25 fish, 7 amphibians, 2 mammals, and 1 bird were all discovered within the Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia that spans Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the south-western Chinese province of Yunnan. 
 
 At the same time, the Mekong’s wild places and wildlife are under extreme pressure from rapid, unsustainable development and climate change. 
 
 Protecting their future 
 
 WWF warns the Greater Mekong’s valuable natural assets and species will continue to disappear without accelerated efforts to green the region’s economies. The extinction of the Javan rhino in Vietnam, recently confirmed by WWF, is a tragic indicator of the decline of biodiversity in the region. 
 
 “This report is an affirmation of what we know—that the Greater Mekong offers unparalleled diversity in nature—and what must be done,” said Rebecca Ng of WWF’s Greater Mekong Program. “The rich natural treasures of the region could be lost if regional governments don’t recognize that protecting biodiversity is an investment to ensure long-term sustainability, especially in the face of global environmental change.” 
 
 The six leaders from the Greater Mekong Sub-region are meeting in Myanmar from December 19-20. WWF is calling upon them to put the benefits of biodiversity, and the costs of losing it, at the center of decision-making and regional cooperation. ||||| Conservationists have discovered a big batch of new — and interesting-sounding — creatures in Southeast Asia, including a psychedelic gecko and a monkey with something resembling Elvis’ hairstyle. 
 
 The Huffington Post reports that the WWF made the finds, 208 creatures in total, in a biodiverse region straddling the Mekong River threatened by habitat loss, deforestation, climate change and overdevelopment. China, Burma (also known as Myanmar), Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam all share — uneasily at times — the Mekong. 
 
 (MORE: Saving the World’s Endangered Species) 
 
 One of the picks of the new discoveries: a nose-less monkey swinging from the trees of a remote province of northeast Burma. “While this species, sporting an Elvis-like hairstyle, is new to science, the local people of Myanmar know it well,” the Switzerland-based group said in its report released Monday. 
 
 The remote Mekong region, part of the Golden Triangle infamous for drug trafficking, plays host to some of earth’s most endangered species, such as tigers, Asian elephants, Mekong dolphins and Mekong giant catfish, according to the WWF. The organization announced in October that the Javan rhinoceros became extinct in Vietnam and the 40 to 60 that remain can only be found now in Indonesia. 
 
 “This is a region of extraordinary richness in terms of biodiversity but also one that is extremely fragile,” said Sarah Bladen, communications director for WWF Greater Mekong. “It’s losing biodiversity at a tragic rate.” 
 
 PHOTOS: 10 Species Near Extinction ||||| (CNN) Branding can get you everywhere, even if you're just a bug. Boy, does the "Ampulex dementor" wasp know it. Over a year ago, officially, no one was aware that it even existed. 
 
 But on Wednesday, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling retweeted its photo, and the buzz helped propel the insect with a creepy sting to worldwide fame. Possibly for eons before, it had lived in obscurity in an enormous Southeast Asian jungle, until it was discovered last year. 
 
 But why would Rowling care? It's all in the name. 
 
 The Ampulex dementor is also called "Soul-Sucking Dementor." And the wasp was named for the sooty, skeletal, flying "dementor" character that appears in Rowling's novels and sucks the humanity out of its victims. 
 
 One almost got Harry at Hogwarts once, but a schoolmate sprang to Potter's aid. 
 
 Newly discovered wasp named after the soul-sucking dementors in Harry Potter. Thanks for the inspiration @jk_rowling ! pic.twitter.com/p8nguCGD6t 
 
 A whatchamacallit 
 
 Over a year ago, when a group of German scientists discovered the wasp in Thailand's Mekong region, Ampulex dementor didn't yet have a name. And the researchers decided to give the public a say in its taxonomy -- the scientific term for classifying a newly discovered species. 
 
 They took specimens back to Berlin, where they added them to some 30 million other exhibits at the natural history museum, the Museum für Naturkunde. 
 
 The Soul-Sucking Dementor looks like other wasps, flies like other wasps. But it has a particular appetite for cockroaches and a somewhat unique sting. 
 
 "A. dementor hunts cockroaches, injecting a venom into the mass of neurons on its prey's belly that turns the roach into a passive zombie," the World Wildlife Fund wrote in a statement. "Cockroach wasp venom blocks receptors of the neurotransmitter octopamine, which is involved in the initiation of spontaneous movement." 
 
 The roach loses control of its movements, as though it were stoned drunk, and the wasp schlepps it off to a quiet place where it feasts upon it. 
 
 The spine-chilling hunting method piqued the imagination of museum goers, who found it befitting of the Harry Potter ghoul's name. 
 
 A PR hit 
 
 The naming contest in May 2014 was a piece of publicity intended to generate more public interest in the discovery. 
 
 "I am convinced that events like this increase people's curiosity about local and global fauna and nature," said researcher Michael Ohl, who worked on the contest. He hoped it would garner more attention for conservation efforts. 
 
 It worked. 
 
 Though the bug was one of 139 new species discovered in the Mekong last year, including one new mammal, the "dementor" moniker got quick media coverage -- though some of the other animals discovered were perhaps, well, way cooler. 
 
 After all, other wasps also sting their prey into paralysis -- albeit with a less dramatic effect. 
 
 Long-fanged bat 
 
 That mammal, for example, was a bat with shark-like choppers. That got it the name "Long-Fanged Bat," in science Latin "Hypsugo dolichodon." 
 
 Beautiful photo of a new bat species from Laos & Vietnam: http://t.co/CDJntgWa9Y via @mongabay pic.twitter.com/K19Youj6vq — SDU-VT Lab (@SDUVTLab) May 27, 2015 
 
 There was even another insect that could have easily upstaged the new wasp -- an almost two-foot long stick bug, the second largest insect on record. Its name, "Phryganistria heusii yentuensis," doesn't exactly glide off the tip of the tongue. 
 
 Also, who hasn't heard of a "stick bug" already? 
 
 "Color-Changing Thorny Frog" is a catchy name, and it has a cool survival gimmick, too. At night, "Gracixalus lumarius" is pink and yellow, but during the day its back turns a dull brown to camouflage it. 
 
 The Color-Changing Thorny Frog is bright at night, camouflaged during the day 
 
 The bent-toed gecko probably got some kind of a door prize. Not for the name but for becoming exactly the 10,000th reptile species known to science, according to the WWF. 
 
 But with the Harry Potter name, the "Soul-Sucking Dementor" made top-ten lists and headed up the WWF's roster of the 139 new discoveries. When the WWF tweeted it out at J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling), she retweeted it the same day. 
 
 It's hard for any other creature alive to beat that branding.
– It's a region that produces a new species every other day: Carnivorous plants that can eat mice, birds, and lizards. An all-female species of lizard that reproduces by self-cloning. Brightly colored geckos bathed in orange, yellow, blue, and green markings. A noseless monkey that looks like it's wearing an Elvis wig. These are just a few of the 208 new species discovered in the Greater Mekong region last year, reports the World Wildlife Fund. Stretching from Yunnan province in southern China to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, and Thailand, the Greater Mekong region is full of biodiversity, but is under increasing pressure from development, the WWF warns. The recent extinction of Vietnam's rhinoceros population has spurred concern for rare wildlife in the area. "This is a region of extraordinary richness in terms of biodiversity, but also one that is extremely fragile,” a WWF official tells Time. “It’s losing biodiversity at a tragic rate."