Demonic Horns And A Devilish Name: New 'lucifer' Bee Discovered In Australia

Scientists successful Australia person identified a caller type of autochthonal bee pinch tiny, devil-like horns that person earned it a playfully hellish sanction – “lucifer.”

The species, Megachile lucifer, was discovered by scholars surveying a critically endangered wildflower successful Western Australia’s Goldfields successful 2019, according to a study published Monday successful nan Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

The highly distinctive, upward-pointing horns connected nan female bee’s look inspired its name, said Kit Prendergast, lead writer of nan study and an adjunct investigation chap astatine Curtin University.

“When penning up nan caller type description[,] I was watching nan Netflix show Lucifer,” Prendergast said successful a connection Tuesday. “The sanction conscionable fresh perfectly.”

The type was discovered by scholars surveying a critically endangered wildflower.Kit S. Prendergast; Joshua W. Campbell

A DNA trial later showed that nan type didn’t lucifer immoderate known bees successful existing databases, making it nan first caller personnel of this group to beryllium described successful much than 20 years, researchers said.

The horns, each measured astatine astir 0.9 millimeters long, could beryllium utilized to entree flowers, compete for resources, and take sides nests, researchers suggested, though their nonstop functions stay unclear. The species’ antheral bees deficiency nan horns.

The find highlighted nan request to study autochthonal bees, Prendergast said, adding that nan caller type could beryllium astatine consequence from residence disturbance and different threatening processes for illustration ambiance change.

“Without knowing which autochthonal bees beryllium and what plants they dangle on, we consequence losing some earlier we moreover recognize they’re there,” she said.

Australia has astir 2,000 autochthonal bee species, much than 300 of which are yet to beryllium scientifically named and described, according to CSIRO, an Australian nationalist subject agency.

The country’s autochthonal bees are “understudied and information poor,” starring to a deficiency of knowledge connected nan conservation position of “almost each species,” Tobias Smith, a bee interrogator astatine nan University of Queensland, told NBC News successful an email Tuesday.

Australian authorities request “stronger policies” to protect autochthonal bees from residence loss, inappropriate occurrence regimes, and accrued risks from megafires, said Smith, who is not progressive successful nan study.

Smith said he encouraged Australians to “get extracurricular and look for immoderate autochthonal bees and admit them.”