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New species of giant sea bug named for Darth Vader

Top of a pale brown animal. It has 2 antennae, many legs and a smooth shell that covers the animal. The top of the shell looks llike a helmet. It has 2 black holes for the eyes.
The head of the newly discovered giant sea bug species Bathynomus vaderi. It resembles Darth Vader’s helmet and mask, hence its name. Image by Nguyen Thanh Son/ Pensoft Publishers.

A team of scientists has discovered a new species of giant sea bug – in a sea far, far away, off the coast of Vietnam – and named it for Darth Vader of the Star Wars franchise. Yep, the head of this creature does closely resemble the Sith Lord’s iconic helmet. The researchers – from Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam – announced their discovery on January 14, 2025.

The newly discovered species is a type of giant isopod. Its average size is about 12.8 inches (32.5 cm) long! Its scientific name is Bathynomus vaderi.

The researchers described the bug in a new study, published in the peer-reviewed open-access journal ZooKeys on January 14.

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Discovery of the new species of giant sea bug

Giant isopods can reach more than 11.8 inches (30 cm) in length and weigh more than 2.2 pounds (1 kg). Impressive! So, you might wonder how such a large creature has not been discovered until now.

The curious thing is that Vietnamese fishermen have been fishing and consuming giant isopods for a long time. In fact, until 2017, they were sold as a bycatch product, at low prices. However, in recent years, the media has drawn public attention to this unusual creature. Some people even claim this crustacean is tastier than lobster.

In March 2022, staff at the University of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, purchased four giant isopod individuals and sent two of them to Peter Ng of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in Singapore for identification.

Peter Ng runs a crustacean laboratory in Singapore and has worked on deep-sea fauna from many parts of Asia. He recruited Conni M. Sidabalok of Indonesia’s National Agency for Research and Innovation. Then, Nguyen Thanh Son of Vietnam National University, a resident crustacean researcher there, joined the team.

Man with a blue T-shirt and green trousers holding a giant crustacean. The animal, viewed from its top-side, is beige-brown and has an oval shape.
Giant isopods can reach more than 11.8 inches (30 cm) in length and weigh more than 2.2 pounds (1 kg). This is Dr. Nguyen Thanh Son holding a giant specimen of another species of giant isopod found in Vietnam (B. jamesi), from a seafood market in Hanoi, Vietnam. Image via Peter Ng/ ZooKeys.

The Dark Side of the ocean

In early 2023, the researchers realized they had specimens of a previously undescribed species of the Bathynomus genus. They have finally named the new creature Bathynomus vaderi, in honor of Darth Vader.

There are about 10,000 species of isopods in the world. The genus Bathynomus comprises about 20 species. They can typically be found in the cold, deep waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

In the case of the newly discovered species Bathynomus vaderi, it has only been found near the Spratly Islands in Vietnam. But further research is likely to confirm its presence in other parts of the South China Sea.

According to the researchers:

The discovery of a species as strange as Bathynomus vaderi in Vietnam highlights just how poorly we understand the deep-sea environment. That a species as large as this could have stayed hidden for so long reminds us just how much work we still need to do to find out what lives in Southeast Asian waters.

Beige-brown animal seen from its side. It has a smooth shell divided in many pieces. Its tail piece is a bit longer. It has 2 antennae on the head that come out from below the shell.
Specimen of Bathynomus vaderi. Image via Nguyen Thanh Son. Pensoft Publishers sent this image exclusively for EarthSky.

Bottom line: Are you a fan of Star Wars? If Darth Vader is your favorite character, you will love this news! A recently discovered species of giant sea bug was named after this iconic character. Find out why here.

Source: A new species of supergiant Bathynomus A. Milne-Edwards, 1879 (Crustacea, Isopoda, Cirolanidae) from Vietnam, with notes on the taxonomy of Bathynomus jamesi Kou, Chen & Li, 2017

Via Pensoft Publishers

Read more: The adorable leaf sheep sea slug: Lifeform of the week

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Posted 
January 18, 2025
 in 
Earth

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