Mistaken for bird poop, newly discovered Australian beetle has a 'Mohawk' hairdo

During a camping trip in Australia's Lamington National Park, Queensland researcher James Tweed stumbled upon what he thought was bird poop. To his surprise, it turned out to be a unique beetle with a very unique appearance. Tweed told the BBC, "It's very unique. There are not many insects out there that have that trait."

Meet the Punk beetle

Measuring less than a centimeter in length, this newly discovered longhorn beetle has tufts of spiky white hair, earning it the nickname "punk beetle." "A lot of the hairs stand basically straight upright, and so it gives it a bit of a mohawk type look," the entomologist told the BBC

From bird poop to beetle with a mohawk - A case of mistaken identity

Initially, when Tweed first saw this beetle on a leaf in December 2021 he mistook it for bird dropping but its distinct features captured Tweed's attention. "But something in my brain told me to turn around," Tweed recalled. He then took the insect to the CSIRO's Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC).

"I worked with a couple of colleagues from the national insect collection, who literally wrote the book on these groups of beetles... they examined tens of thousands of specimens in museums all over Australia and the world, and they've never found it before," he said.

A unique specimen

The beetle's appearance sets it apart from other insects, the researcher said that he never saw a hairdo like this one. "This is something pretty special, something pretty different," he remarked. Due to its unique appearance, the beetle got a whole new genus/group of its own.

Why so spikey albopilosa?

Experts speculate that the beetle's spiky hairs may be for camouflaging, helping it evade predators during the day by resembling bird poop or a fungal infection. The beetle has been officially named Excastra albopilosa, which means "from the camp" and "white and hairy" in Latin respectively.