By Tiffanie TurnbullBBC Information, Sydney1 hour agoImage 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 likelihood whereas tenting and initially mistook it for hen poo.”It’s totally distinctive. There aren’t 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 household 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 suppose a lot of it.However after the entomologist did a double take, he realised it was the truth is an insect not like any he’d seen earlier than.”It is about one centimetre lengthy… and lined in lengthy, fluffy white hairs,” he mentioned.”A number of the hairs stand principally straight upright, and so it provides it a little bit of a mohawk kind look.”Excited, he photographed and picked up the beetle to be studied.After posting to a Fb group of insect fanatics 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 1000’s 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 not like another species that it was declared a completely new genus or household group 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 certain precisely why the bug is furry, however they suppose it has developed to imitate an insect that is been killed by a fungus, as a approach of deterring predators.”Till somebody finds extra there’s a number of unanswered questions right here.”However Mr Tweed says with the ability to document even this single beetle is a big win for science.”It is laborious 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.”