{"id":371707,"date":"2025-11-11T14:29:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T14:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/371707\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T14:29:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T14:29:22","slug":"scientists-discover-new-lucifer-bee-with-devil-like-horns-lurking-in-critically-endangered-wildflower-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/371707\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists discover new “lucifer” bee with devil-like horns lurking in critically endangered wildflower in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

As if deadly snakes<\/a>, spiders<\/a>\u00a0and sharks<\/a>\u00a0were not enough, Australia now has a new creepy critter: a “lucifer” bee with devil-like horns.<\/p>\n

The species, dubbed Megachile (Hackeriapis) lucifer, was found in the state of Western Australia, Curtin University announced on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kit Prendergast at the university’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences discovered the bee while surveying a critically endangered wildflower in 2019 and was immediately drawn to the insect’s unique appearance.<\/p>\n

“The female had these incredible little horns on her face,” she said.<\/p>\n

A fan of the Netflix TV show “Lucifer,” she said the name was the perfect fit for the bee’s distinctively devilish appearance.<\/p>\n

\"bee-meg-horn-lateral-f-1.png<\/p>\n

The bee species, dubbed Megachile (Hackeriapis) lucifer, was found in the state of Western Australia, Curtin University said.<\/p>\n

Curtin University School of Molecular and Life Sciences<\/p>\n

Prendergast said DNA barcoding confirmed the new species didn’t match any known bees in DNA databases. She also said the specimens she retrieved did not match any in museum collections.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

She added that she hopes the discovery will raise awareness about the number of undiscovered species that could still be out there, especially in areas threatened climate change and mining.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“Without knowing which native bees exist and what plants they depend on, we risk losing both before we even realize they’re there.”<\/p>\n

Almost all flowering plants depend on wild pollinators, particularly bees, but habitat loss and climate change are driving many vital species to the brink of extinction.<\/p>\n

Curtin University noted the publication of the research coincides with\u00a0Australian Pollinator Week<\/a>, which highlights the crucial role bees in maintaining healthy ecosystems.<\/p>\n

The new research was published<\/a> in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As if deadly snakes, spiders\u00a0and sharks\u00a0were not enough, Australia now has a new creepy critter: a “lucifer” bee…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":371708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4740,44046,50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-371707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-bees","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115531544409970635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}