00:00I helped rediscover a species which was thought to be going extinct.
00:07Bruno Bell knows a lot about snails.
00:10So I can give you an example, they're called dot snails.
00:14So there are two there?
00:15Two there, yeah, they're adults.
00:17For twin brother Otto, it's weevils.
00:20They were almost like transformers, their legs tucked in and their snout tucked in.
00:25These are all collected on the south coast route.
00:27I'm having two species named after me, of this tiny little leaf litter inhabiting weevil.
00:38The 21-year-old Tasmanians have turned a childhood passion for nature into what could become a promising career.
00:45Oh, is that a weevil?
00:47Oh, it is!
00:48What is it?
00:49No, it looks like topias.
00:50Oh, damn!
00:52Two of Tasmania's only experts on their preferred invertebrates, Otto and Bruno frequently take field trips together.
01:00I do a lot of photography and I generally do the collecting.
01:05Collections that end up in the mini-museums that are their bedrooms.
01:09This one was found in Marawa.
01:13It's a new species.
01:14Marawa?
01:15Marawa.
01:16Oh, so you really travel?
01:17Yeah, yeah, we go all over.
01:18He's not kidding.
01:20From the bush and beaches of Tasmania to the natural history museums of mainland Australia and even Europe,
01:27Otto and Bruno are well-versed in species of the world.
01:35Simon Grove met the twins as teenagers when their mum asked if they could volunteer at the Tasmanian Museum's invertebrates collection.
01:43They can spot the tiniest weevil or a snail the size of a pinhead.
01:47Not only spot it, but then look at it without even so much as a hand lens and be able to say,
01:52oh, look at the micro-sculpture on the protoconch of that snail.
01:57And they're not only recognised by local experts.
02:00This is one of four letters Bruno's received from David Attenborough.
02:06Weevil species are set to be named after the young researchers.
02:10Bruno Beliai and Otto Beliai, the tipped titles.
02:14I would have thought early after about 10 years or something I'd get something like that, but yeah, it's an honour really.
02:23The pair hope to identify the hundreds of weevil and snail species that remain undescribed in Tasmania.
02:30We have some really unique species here in Tasmania, which if they're gone, they're gone.
02:36These young men taking big steps to help some of our smallest species.
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