A new genus of rove beetle has been discovered by researchers from the University of Copenhagen, and they decided to name it after Monkey D. Luffy, a character from the anime One Piece.
The findings were published in the journal ZooKeys, with two distinct species classified under the new genus: Luffy schillhammeri, found in the forests of Yunnan Province, China, and Luffy nika, found in Louang Namtha in northern Laos. The genus Luffy gen. nov. belongs to the sub-family Staphylininae.
The scientists weren’t just merely having fun when naming the new genus. The beetles have substantially longer and more slender mandibles, antennae and maxillary palps than closely related groups. So it wasn’t much of a stretch from there to arrive at Luffy, who acquired the physical properties of rubber as a young boy, allowing him to contort and expand his body.
Beyond the name
The species Luffy schillhammeri was named after Dr. Harald Schillhammer of the Natural History Museum Vienna to honour his contributions to the research of rove beetles. Luffy nika once again references the anime character – nika originates from the name of the fruit that gave Luffy his powers.
Beetles (Coleoptera) are an extremely biodiverse group, with about 400,000 described species. Estimates suggest there are between 1 and 2.1 million total species. That’s to say, even though scientists have extensively studied beetles for years, there is still much we don’t know, and this particular discovery is significant for the wider study of these insects.
The researchers, PhD student Fang-Shuo Hu and Alexey Solodovnikov from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, examined many specimens and meticulously compared subtle morphological features of all known genera of the Ocypus-group, as well as others, such as Acupronotes, Apostenolinus, and Staphylinus. This process allowed the team to re-evaluate the relationships among these groups.
The research team looked particularly closely at the Eucibdelus genus and clearly identified its shared traits, including dorsal ridge teeth on the left mandible and a completely hardened labrum (mouthpart).
Interestingly, the newly described genus Luffy has the dorsal ridge teeth, but its labrum is not completely hardened and carries several distinct traits. This prompted the researchers to infer that the genus Luffy is highly likely to be the sister group of the entire Eucibdelus lineage.
"This genus exhibits a unique combination of characters intermediate between the Eucibdelus lineage and other members of the Ocypus-group,” the researchers note in their study, highlighting how important this discovery is to a wider understanding of the subfamily Staphylininae.
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By filling this gap in the taxonomic puzzle and making it accessible through the reference to an iconic anime character, the researchers are hoping to prove that scientific research can be both serious and highly engaging, while also raising awareness about the importance of biological taxonomy.
Read the full findings here.
Top image: Fang-Shuo Hu
