New research conducted by the University of Western Australia has discovered a new species of subterranean ant that shares some characteristics with the famous Harry Potter villain. A published study ZookeysHe describes the new species, Leptanilla voldemort, as a pale ant with a slender build, thin legs, and a long, sharp jaw.

Principal investigator Dr D., a Forrest Fellow in the UWA School of Biological Sciences. Mark Wong said that this name (L. voldemort for short) is a tribute to the dark wizard Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series.

“The terrifying enemy in ‘Harry Potter and the Ant’ has a ghostly and subtle appearance and lives in the shadows,” Dr Wong said.

Exploration and habitat

The ant was discovered during an environmental survey documenting animals living underground in the arid Pilbara region of Western Australia’s north.

“Only two specimens of the new ant species were found, and both were collected in a net lowered into a 25-meter (82 feet) borehole and removed by scraping it into the inner surface of the hole,” he said.

There are more than 14,000 species of ants in the world, but only 60 of them belong to the genus Leptanilla.

“Unlike most ants, Leptanilla species live in small colonies, usually consisting of a queen and around a hundred workers, and only nest and forage underground,” Dr Wong said. “Adapted to life in the dark, Leptanilla workers are blind, lack pigmentation, and measure one to two millimeters in size (not much larger than a grain of sand), allowing them to move effortlessly through the soil.”

Australia has one of the highest diversity of ants in the world, with estimates ranging from 1,300 to 5,000 species, but L. voldemort is only the second Leptanilla species discovered on the continent.

“From what we know from several observations of other Leptanilla species and the highly specialized sharp mandibles of L. voldemort, this new species is almost certainly a predator, a fearsome hunter in the dark,” Dr Wong said. “While the exact prey of L. voldemort remains unclear, other Leptanilla species are known to use their sharp jaws and powerful stingers to immobilize much larger ground-dwelling centipedes before transferring their larvae to feed on the carcass.”