Recently Discovered Beetle Named After Star Wars' Chewbacca

The force is strong with this newly discovered species!

A new species of flightless beetle, discovered in New Britain, Papua New Guinea has been named after the fictional "Star Wars" character Chewbacca, Eurekalert reports.

Chewbacca is a tall, furry and intelligent Wookie from the Sci-Fi series. He plays the role of a loyal friend and associate of Han Solo.

In a paper published in Journal Zookeys, Scientists Dr Matthew H. Van Dam, SNSB-Zoological State Collection, Germany, Raymond Laufa, The University of Papua New Guinea and Dr Alexander Riedel, Natural History Museum Karlsruhe, described four black new weevil beetles found during their expedition in 2014.

However, Trigonopterus chewbacca stood out with its dense scales, just like the hairy Chewbacca. Further describing the T. chewbacca, the study said that the beetle's black and rhomboid-shape body measures between 2.78 and 3.13 mm with its rusty legs and antenna.

Other species discovered are T. obsidianus, T. puncticollis sp. n. and T. silaliensis.

"Failing to understand how it was possible that the hyperdiverse beetle genus Trigonopterus has never been spotted in New Britain, two of the researchers travelled to the island to double-check the foliage and leaf litter. Interestingly, the genus thrives best in Melanesia, the Oceania subregion, where Papua New Guinea is located, yet there had been only a single Trigonopterus species known from Bismarck Archipelago prior to the present study," the study published in Zookeys notes.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time a species has been named after the lovable character. In 2013, a team of researchers discovered a Chewbacca bat in Gorongosa National Park in Central Mozambique. In addition, a moth has also been named after Chewbacca.

"Found in dry forests in western Mexico, the gray Wockia chewbacca is significantly smaller than its hirsute namesake. It does, however, appear to be quite fuzzy - if not quite a "walking carpet," notes Live science.