By Dean Murray via SWNS
A newly discovered ant with a “ghostly” appearance has been named after Harry Potter villain Voldemort.
Scientists who unearthed the insect in the sun-scorched Pilbara region of north-western Australia have called it Leptanilla voldemor.
The new species, â¯L. voldemort for short, is a pale ant with a slender build, spindly legs, and long, sharp mandibles.
Researchers say the name pays homage to the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, the fearsome antagonist of the Potter series, drawing parallels with the ant’s ghostly and slender appearance, and the dark underground environment, from which it has emerged.
Scientists Dr. Mark Wong of the University of Western Australia and Jane McRae of Bennelongia Environmental Consultants describe the enigmatic new species in a paper published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.
Leptanilla voldemort was discovered during an ecological survey to document animals living belowground in the arid Pilbara region. Only two specimens of the “bizarre” new ant species were found. Both were collected in a net that was lowered down a 25-meter drill hole and skilfully retrieved while scraping against the hole’s inner surface –â¯an innovative technique for collecting underground organisms known as ‘subterranean scraping’.
Compared to other Leptanilla ant species, L. voldemort has an extremely slender body as well as long, spindly antennae and legs. Together with its collection from a 25-meter-deep drill hole, this unusual morphology has left experts speculating as to whether it truly dwells in soil like other Leptanilla species, or exploits a different subterranean refuge, such as the air-filled voids and cracks that form within layers of rock deeper underground.
Researchers say the long, sharp jaws of L. voldemort, however, leave little to the imagination regarding its role as a predator.
Dr. Wong, lead author of the study, says: “Leptanilla voldemort is almost surely a predator, a fearsome hunter in the dark. This is backed up by what we know from the few observations of specialized hunting behaviors in other Leptanilla ant species, where the tiny workers use their sharp jaws and powerful stings to immobilize soil-dwelling centipedes much larger than them, before carrying their larvae over to feed on the carcass.”
The exact prey of L. voldemort, however, is not known, though a variety of other subterranean invertebrates, including centipedes, beetles and flies, were collected from the same locality.
While Australia boasts some of the highest levels of ant diversity in the world – with estimates ranging from 1,300 to over 5,000 species – L. voldemort is only the second Leptanilla species discovered from the continent. The first, Leptanilla swani, was described nearly a century ago – from a small colony found under a rock in 1931⯖ and has almost never been seen since.
