A team of Australian researchers has formally described a previously unknown bee species in Western Australia’s Bremer Ranges, naming it Megachile lucifer.

The announcement follows the 2019 discovery by native-bee scientist Kit Prendergast, who was surveying pollinators around the critically endangered wildflower Marianthus aquilonaris when she collected the insect with its distinctive pair of horns on the female’s head.

Under the microscope, the tiny horns were measured at approximately 0.9 millimetres in length — nearly half the width of the insect’s head — and project upward and outward in a striking formation.

According to the research team, only the females of the species bear these prominent horns, while males remain hornless.

DNA testing confirmed that the species does not match any known bee in existing databases.

The discovery has special significance because it was among the first collections of this species ever made, not simply an un-described specimen sitting in a museum drawer.

Prendergast notes that the region suffers from limited taxonomic attention and scarce funding for native-bee research, which means many species may vanish before they are even documented.

She estimates around five hundred Australian native-bee species remain scientifically undescribed.

While the precise function of the horns remains uncertain, hypotheses include use in accessing flowers, defending nest sites or competing for resources.

Indeed, the new bee was found in a habitat vulnerable to threats: the Bremer Ranges — which currently lacks formal conservation protection and faces pressures from gold-mining activity and climate change.

The rarer wildflower on which the bee was found is itself listed as critically endangered, raising the possibility that the bee too may have a very restricted range and depend heavily on native vegetation.

Because follow-up surveys in 2022 and 2024 failed to locate further specimens of the species, the authors call for targeted surveys, habitat protection and immediate inclusion of the region in conservation frameworks.

The research team hopes that naming the species with the Latin term “lucifer” (meaning “light bringer”) will help shine a spotlight on the urgent need to better survey, protect and preserve native-bee biodiversity in Australia.

With around two thousand native-bee species in Australia and many more likely awaiting discovery, the appearance of the ‘horned’ Lucifer bee underscores both the richness of the continent’s entomological heritage and the fragility of its ecosystems in the face of rapid environmental change.