The researchers from the University of Western Australia have therefore nam the insect Leptanilla voldemort . It is a pale ant with a slender build, spindly legs and long sharp mandibles.
According to lead researcher Mark Wong, the name is an homage to the dark wizard Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. “The terrifying enemy in Harry Potter and the new ant are both a ghostly, slender apparition that lives in the shadows,” Wong said.
The ant was discover by chance during an ecological survey that was mapping animals that live underground in the arid Pilbara region of northern Western Australia.
Lord Voldemort
“Only two individuals of the new ant species were found and both were caught in a net that we lower into a 25-metre-deep drill hole 2024 fresh whatsapp number list after scraping the soil in the hole,” the scientist explains
There are more than 14,000 ant species in the world, but only 60 belong to the genus Leptanilla. “Unlike most other ant species, Leptanilla lives in small colonies, usually consisting of a queen and only a hundr or so workers.
Blind, pale and tiny
They build their nests and forage exclusively underground,” says Wong.
“Adapt Най-добри практики, ползи и съвети за проследяване на потенциални клиенти to life in darkness, Leptanilla workers are blind, devoid of pigment and only 1 to 2 millimeters in size. They are not much bigger than a grain of sand. This allows them to crawl through the soil with ease.”
And it is a very special specimen. “From what we know from the few times we have seen other Leptanilla species and the extremely deb directory sharp mandibles of L. Voldemort, we can conclude that this new species is almost certainly a prator, a fearsome hunter in the dark,” Wong says.
Hardly anywhere else are there as many ant species as in Australia. It is estimat that there are 1300 to 5000 different ants, but L. voldemort is only the second Leptanilla species discover on the continent.
