New species of dark ant remembers Voldemort

April 15 () –

A study from the University of Western Australia (UWA) has unearthed a new species of subterranean ant that shares some traits with a well-known Harry Potter villain.

The investigation, published in Zookeys, describes the new species Leptanilla voldemort as a pale ant with a slender build, thin legs and long, sharp jaws.

Lead researcher Dr Mark Wong, from UWA's School of Biological Sciences, said its name (L. voldemort for short) pays homage to the dark wizard Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. “Harry Potter's fearsome antagonist and the ant have a ghostly, slender appearance, and live in the shadows,” Dr. Wong said.

The ant was discovered in an ecological study that documented animals living underground in the arid Pilbara region of northern Western Australia.

“Only two specimens of the new ant species were found, and both were collected in a net that was introduced in a 25 meter drilled well and were recovered by scraping the inner surface of the hole,” he said.

There are more than 14,000 species of ants worldwide, but only about 60 of them belong to the genus Leptanilla. “Unlike most ants, Leptanilla species live in small colonies, usually consisting of a queen and only a hundred workers, and nest and feed exclusively underground,” Dr Wong said.

“Adapted to life in the dark, Leptanilla workers are blind, lack pigmentation and measure between one and two millimeters (not much larger than a grain of sand), allowing them to move effortlessly through the soil” , he added it's a statement.

Australia has one of the highest levels of ant diversity in the world (estimates range from 1,300 to more than 5,000 species), but L. voldemort is only the second Leptanilla species discovered on the continent.

“From what we know from the few observations of other Leptanilla species and from the sharp, highly specialized jaws of L. voldemort, this new species is almost certainly a predator, a fearsome hunter in the dark“said Dr. Wong.

“While the exact prey of L. voldemort is still unclear, other Leptanilla species are known to use their sharp jaws and powerful bites to immobilize ground-dwelling centipedes much larger than themselves, before transporting their larvae to feed on the carcass.”