Employees of Leptanilla voldemort sp. nov. from Western Australia in ethanol. Credit score: ZooKeys (2024). DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1197.114072
A learn about by means of The College of Western Australia has unearthed a brand new species of subterranean ant that stocks some characteristics with a well known Harry Potter villain.
The analysis, printed in Zookeys, describes the brand new species Leptanilla voldemort as a faded ant with a narrow construct, spindly legs, and lengthy, sharp mandibles.
Lead researcher Dr. Mark Wong, a Forrest Fellow from UWA’s Faculty of Organic Sciences, stated its title (L. voldemort for brief) paid homage to the darkish wizard Lord Voldemort within the Harry Potter collection.
“The fearsome antagonists in Harry Potter and the Ant each have a ghostly and narrow look and reside within the shadows,” Dr. Wong stated.
The ant was once came upon in an ecological survey that documented animals residing beneath flooring within the arid Pilbara area within the north of Western Australia.
“Best two specimens of the brand new ant species had been discovered, and each had been amassed in a web decreased down a 25-meter drill hollow and retrieved by means of scraping in opposition to the outlet’s interior floor,” he stated.
Credit score: College of Western Australia
There are greater than 14,000 species of ants international, however most effective about 60 of those belong to the genus Leptanilla.
“In contrast to maximum ants, species of Leptanilla reside in small colonies, in most cases comprising a queen and just a hundred or so staff, and nest and forage completely underground,” Dr. Wong stated.
“Adapting to existence in darkness, Leptanilla staff are blind, devoid of pigmentation, and measure between only one to 2 millimeters—no longer a lot better than a grain of sand—letting them transfer easily throughout the soil.”
Australia has one of the most easiest ranges of ant variety on this planet—estimates vary from 1,300 to greater than 5,000 species—however L. voldemort is most effective the second one Leptanilla species came upon at the continent.
“From what we all know from the few observations of alternative Leptanilla species and the extremely specialised, sharp mandibles of L. Voldemort, this new species is sort of no doubt a predator, a fearsome hunter in the dead of night,” Dr. Wong stated.
“Whilst the precise prey of L. voldemort stays unclear, different Leptanilla species are recognized to make use of their sharp jaws and robust stings to immobilize soil-dwelling centipedes a lot better than themselves, ahead of wearing their larvae over to feed at the carcass.”
Additional information:
Mark Okay. L. Wong et al, Leptanilla voldemort sp. nov., a gracile new species of the hypogaeic ant genus Leptanilla (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from the Pilbara, with a key to Australian Leptanilla, ZooKeys (2024). DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1197.114072
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College of Western Australia
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New species of ant discovered pottering underneath the Pilbara named after Voldemort (2024, April 12)
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