Halloween may be over, but the frights haven't stopped. Australian officials have identified a new devil-horned Lucifer bee.
First discovered in 2019, the bee has literal horns growing out of its head. That's why researchers dubbed it Megachile lucifer as its scientific name. A study published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research this month revealed more details about the insect. Lead author Kit Prendergast reveals the Lucifer bee has horns growing out of its head for the females..
"The female had these incredible little horns on her face. When writing up the new species description, I was watching the Netflix show Lucifer at the time, and the name just fit perfectly," Prendergast said in a statement on Nov. 11. "I am also a huge fan of the Netflix character Lucifer, so it was a no-brainer."
Lucifier Bee Discovered
The horns are quite small and only measure at around a millimeter. They're featured just in the females of the species. Researchers don't know why they developed this feature. However, it could be for defense or even harvesting pollen. It's a brand new bee species that didn't match any previous species in the DNA database.
"It's the first new member of this bee group to be described in more than 20 years, which really shows how much life we still have to discover," Prendergast said in the statement.
The researchers know very little about the insect at the moment. As a result, the study labels the Lucifer bee as being "of conservation concern" due to concerns about population. Researchers will have to do more studies on the insect to see what they need and what protections if any the species needs.
"Many mining companies still don't survey for native bees, so we may be missing undescribed species, including those that play crucial roles in supporting threatened plants and ecosystems," she said. "Without knowing which native bees exist and what plants they depend on, we risk losing both before we even realise they're there."
