Chewbacca Beetle: New Species Named After Star Wars Wookie Character

It is called the Chewbacca Beetle. The Trigonopterus chewbacca was one of four species found on New Britain, Papua New Guinea, scientists said. The beetles name was inspired by scales on the weevil’s legs and a head reminding them of the wookie’s fur.

Belonging to the same genus, the weevil beetles are also its first representatives found dwelling on the island, although New Britain is at the heart of its diversity.

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 have their paper, where they describe the new species, published in the open access journal ZooKeys.