James Tweed, an entomologist, nearly missed a discovery of a new species of Australian beetle after mistaking it for bird droppings, the BBC reported Thursday.
When Tweed found the bug in Dec. 2021 while camping, it appeared to him as a fluffy white object on a leaf. Fortunately, however, Tweed took a closer look, according to the BBC. (RELATED: Man Tries To Kill A Single Cockroach And Instead Blows Up His Apartment: REPORT)
“It’s very unique. There are not many insects out there that have that trait,” Tweed told the outlet. “It’s about one centimeter long … and covered in long, fluffy white hairs.”
“A lot of the hairs stand basically straight upright, and so it gives it a bit of a mohawk type look,” he added.
Tweed excitedly took photos of the beetle and collected it for further study, the BBC reported. Tweed then turned in the bug to the national science agency CSIRO’s Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC) after a group of his fellow insect enthusiasts could not identify what he captured. The agency, after examining “tens of thousands of specimens in museums all over Australia and the world,” found no known bug with the “hairdo” on Tweed’s find, he told the outlet.
“Meet Australia’s most recently named and described longhorn beetle: Excastra albopilosa!” Tweed tweeted Wednesday along with photos of his living discovery.
Meet Australia’s most recently named and described longhorn beetle: Excastra albopilosa! I was lucky enough to discover this remarkable species while camping @binnaburra in 2021. Have a read of the UQ News article for more detail and a link to the paper. #entomology #newspecies https://t.co/dnQma7Qxwe pic.twitter.com/e4d54BKRAg
— James Tweed (@JamesTweedNZ) March 21, 2024
“We chose the name Excastra for the genus, which is Latin for ‘from the camp’, and for the species name, we decided on albopilosa which translates to ‘white and hairy,” Tweed told UQ News.
James Tweed is currently a PhD student at School of the Environment at The University of Queensland in Australia.