‘These kids can find anything’: California teens identify two new scorpion species

The students traveled to salt lakes to collect specimens of unknown arachnids living in the harsh environment

A pair of California scorpion species that may have crawled under the radar for tens of thousands of years have finally been exposed - thanks to the efforts of two Bay Area teenagers. And for one at-risk species, the students' work could prove life-saving.

Prakrit Jain of Los Altos and Harper Forbes of Sunnyvale, 17 and 18 at the time, identified two new species - Paruroctonus soda and Paruroctonus conclusus - after a tip from social media and excursions into the harsh terrain the arachnids inhabit, aided by a black light and Jain's mother's car.