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The towering and shaggy Wookiee part Chewbacca from the " Star Wars " moving-picture show has a newfangled namesake — a tiny weevil recently get a line in New Guinea .
Though the worm is importantly little and much less hairy than everyone ’s favorite " walking carpet , " dim scales on the weevil ’s leg and head reminded the scientists of Chewbacca ’s pelt , prompting their name choice .
Newly described Chewbacca beetle is fuzzy-legged and adorable.
Trigonopterus chewbaccais one of four new weevil species identify on the island of New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago in New Guinea . Discovered alongside it were the middling less whimsically named weevilsT. obsidianus , T. puncticollisandT. silaliensis.[7 Animals with ' Star Wars'-Inspired Names ]
T. chewbaccais a flightless weevil , a type of beetletypically found in foliage bedding in forest . The male ’s trunk is black with hair - similar structures on its antennae and wooden leg , and measures 0.13 inches ( 3.34 millimeters ) in length .
scientist spent 10 days combing through leaf litter in persistent downpours to find the miniscule beetles , eventually collecting 18 specimens that represent the four raw species .
Previously , only one known coinage in theTrigonopterusweevil grouping had been found in this region , although anterior studies describedTrigonopterusweevils in New Caledonia , Samoa and Fiji . WhileT. chewbaccawas the first species in this chemical group that was named for a " Star Wars " role , it ’s not the only one with acelebrity - inspired moniker . Trigonopterus attenboroughi — described ina field publish in ZooKeysin 2014 — was make for famed British naturalist Sir David Attenborough .
This is n’t the first time that scientists who were also " Star Wars " sports fan incorporate their fondness for the Millennium Falcon co - archetype into a species name . A fuzzy Mexican moth was delineate asWockia chewbaccain the journalProceedings of the Entomological Society of Washingtonin 2009 , and a wasp described asPolemistus chewbaccaappeared in the journalZoological Recordin 1983 .
Other " Star Wars " character have also inspired scientists to tap those characters ' name calling for new metal money discoveries , giving us an acorn wormnamed after Yoda(Yoda purpurata ) , a trilobite named for Han Solo ( Han solo ) and a slime mould beetle describe for Darth Vader ( Agathidium vaderi ) .
Even a fairly modest ( but still well - known ) character named Greedo , the ill - fatten out bounteousness hunter killed by Han Solo in " A New Hope , " is commemorated with a species name — Peckoltia greedoi , a flat - headed catfish that bears a striking resemblance to the peculiar - looking alien .
subject field lead author Matthew Van Dam , a postdoctoral researcher with the Zoological State Museum in Bavaria Germany , told Live Science in an e-mail that studying weevil — one of the planet ’s most diverse mathematical group of insect — can help scientists better understand the environments that weevil occupy , and can inform future preservation efforts in jeopardise area .
This could be specially critical in parts of the world where the extent of brute multifariousness is still unknown . Scientists reported in the new study that there could be many more fauna species on the island of New Britain that have n’t yet been discovered , but that meter would be of the essence to track them down and identify them , aspalm oil plantationexpansion has already take pregnant portions of demesne that were once encompass by timber habitats .
The finding were published online April 21 in the journalZooKeys .
