{"id":285310,"date":"2025-11-11T13:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/285310\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:14:09","slug":"new-lucifer-bee-with-devil-like-horns-discovered-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/285310\/","title":{"rendered":"New ‘Lucifer’ bee with devil-like horns discovered in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists in Australia<\/a> have identified a new species of native bee with tiny, devil-like horns that have earned it a playfully hellish name \u2013 \u201clucifer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The species, Megachile lucifer, was discovered by scholars surveying a critically endangered wildflower in Western Australia\u2019s Goldfields in 2019, according to a study<\/a> published Monday in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research.<\/p>\n

The highly distinctive, upward-pointing horns on the female bee\u2019s face inspired its name, said Kit Prendergast, lead author of the study and an adjunct research fellow at Curtin University.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen writing up the new species description[,] I was watching the Netflix show Lucifer,\u201d Prendergast said in a statement <\/a>Tuesday. \u201cThe name just fit perfectly.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TheThe species was discovered by scholars surveying a critically endangered wildflower.Kit S. Prendergast; Joshua W. Campbell<\/p>\n

A DNA test later showed that the species didn\u2019t match any known bees in existing databases, making it the first new member of this group to be described in more than 20 years, researchers said.<\/p>\n

The horns, each measured at about 0.9 millimeters long, could be used to access flowers, compete for resources, and defend nests, researchers suggested, though their exact functions remain unclear. The species\u2019 male bees lack the horns.<\/p>\n

The discovery highlighted the need to study native bees, Prendergast said, adding that the new species could be at risk from habitat disturbance and other threatening processes like climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout knowing which native bees exist and what plants they depend on, we risk losing both before we even realize they\u2019re there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Australia has around 2,000 native bee species, more than 300 of which are yet to be scientifically named and described, according to CSIRO<\/a>, an Australian national science agency.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s native bees are \u201cunderstudied and data poor,\u201d leading to a lack of knowledge on the conservation status of \u201calmost all species,\u201d Tobias Smith, a bee researcher at the University of Queensland, told NBC News in an email Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Australian authorities need \u201cstronger policies\u201d to protect native bees from habitat loss, inappropriate fire regimes, and increased risks from megafires, said Smith, who is not involved in the study.<\/p>\n

Smith said he encouraged Australians to \u201cget outside and look for some native bees and appreciate them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists in Australia have identified a new species of native bee with tiny, devil-like horns that have earned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-285310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}