Scientists have discovered a new species of ant in Australia, and have named it ‘Leptanilla voldemort’ after the notorious villain from the Harry Potter series due to its slender and pale appearance. But behind the exciting discovery is a time-consuming naming process, further complicated by the rapid rate at which species are discovered.
The Pilbara — a region of Western Australia known for some of Earth’s oldest rock formations and dry, thinly populated terrain. Here, researchers discovered the mysterious, rarely-collected creature from the Leptanilla species, and sampled them to be studied further.
Named Leptanilla voldemort, the worker ants were collected from a 25-meter deep mining exploration drill hole by scientists Dr. Mark Wong and Jane McRae, who used a “subterranean scraping method” that involves dragging a weighted net against the wall’s surface in the hole.
Their research, published in ZooKeys, a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, describes the genus of Leptanilla as “some of the most elusive and bizarre ants on Earth.”
The Leptanilla ants are very small, blind, and depigmented — traits that have adapted them to subterranean life. In certain species, queens have been observed feeding from their own larvae. Although there are around 14,000 ant species in the world, only 61 of them belong to the rare Leptanilla genus.
The new L. voldemort species displays a “distinctly gracile morphology, characterized by elongated legs, antennae, and mandibles,” distinguishing them from other species of the same genus.
This is not the first instance of naming insects after a film or TV character. In 2019, a new species of bee was named after the Night King, the villain from the series Game of Thrones.
Last year, a Pokemon inspired the name of a cockroach found in Singapore.
A complicated nomenclature system
Out of approximately 8.7 million species worldwide, scientists have only formally classified 1.2 million. This is due to many rules that must be respected, dictated by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN).
When naming a newfound animal, the combination of the genus — the first word of a scientific name — and the species must be unique. Therefore, Researchers are free to express their creativity when uncovering new creatures, such as the Voldemort-look-alike ant.
But the process of naming a species can be time-consuming. According to JSTOR Daily, a scholarship-backed magazine, habitats are being destroyed so rapidly that species can go extinct before they are even named.
Technological advances have made it possible to rapidly identify genetic differences that could indicate a new species, but the process of naming them has become more intricate. To improve the accuracy of new species identification and description, names have to go through a complicated peer review process.
In the Catalogue of Life, a comprehensive database where all species can be found, every publication that adds a new species name in the nomenclature must include descriptive information to distinguish each species within the same genus or group.
However, suppose the relationships between species are better represented using a different classification. In that case, taxonomists are to use their best scientific judgment in placing them in a different arrangement of genera and higher taxa (groups).
The ICZN states that 15,000 new species names are added to the zoological literature every year.
