By Tiffanie TurnbullBBC Information, Sydney21 March 2024Image supply, James TweedImage caption, The newly found bug on a leafWhat’s pink, black, and bushy throughout? A brand new species of bug found in Australia, dubbed by some as a “punk beetle” for its shaggy white locks.A Queensland researcher noticed the fluffy specimen by probability whereas tenting and initially mistook it for chook poo.”It’s extremely distinctive. There should not many bugs on the market which have that trait,” James Tweed instructed the BBC.The nationwide science company CSIRO has since confirmed it is a completely new type of longhorn beetle.When Mr Tweed first noticed a tiny white object on a leaf within the Gold Coast hinterland in December 2021, he did not assume a lot of it.However after the entomologist did a double take, he realised it was in truth an insect in contrast to any he’d seen earlier than.”It is about one centimetre lengthy… and coated in lengthy, fluffy white hairs,” he mentioned.”Loads of the hairs stand mainly straight upright, and so it provides it a little bit of a mohawk sort look.”Excited, he photographed and picked up the beetle to be studied.After posting to a Fb group of insect fans turned up no solutions, Mr Tweed – who’s a PhD candidate on the College of Queensland – took the bug to the CSIRO’s Australian Nationwide Insect Assortment (ANIC).”I labored with a few colleagues from the nationwide insect assortment, who actually wrote the ebook on these teams of beetles… they examined tens of hundreds of specimens in museums throughout Australia and the world, they usually’ve by no means discovered it earlier than.”Scientists have beforehand found different insect species with spiky hairs – like bushy caterpillars and a jet black ant with an fiery orange mane, which was additionally from Queensland – however this bug was totally different.”I am not conscious of any [other insects] which have a hairdo like this one does.”The truth is, it is so in contrast to another species that it was declared a completely new genus of longhorn beetles by the ANIC, formally referred to as Excastra albopilosa – Excastra which means “from the camp” in Latin and albopilosa “white and bushy”.The scientists aren’t positive precisely why the bug is furry, however they assume it has developed to imitate an insect that is been killed by a fungus, as a means of deterring predators.”Till somebody finds extra there’s a number of unanswered questions right here.”However Mr Tweed says having the ability to file even this single beetle is a big win for science.”It is exhausting for us to preserve species if we do not even know that they exist.””It is nice to have this beetle getting a lot consideration and being a little bit of an envoy for bugs and conservation.”