Researchers discover 14-legged giant 'Darth Vader' cockroach 'Bathynomus Raksasa'

Researchers from Singapore have discovered a new species of cockroach at the bottom of the Indian Ocean which looks like a gruesome creature usually seen in sci-fi movies. Due to its appearance, the 14-legged creature is being dubbed as ‘Darth Vader’, the legendary Star Wars character.

The head and compound eyes of the sea cockroach resembles the helmet of the Sith Lord but it has now been given the formal name 'Bathynomus Raksasa'. The researchers found the new species in 2018 during a deep-sea survey off of the coast of Banten, Western Java, Indonesia. The sea expedition was a joint collaboration of the National University of Singapore and the Research Center for Oceanography, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

Bathynomus Raksasa is a giant isopod, a type of crustacean that resembles the cockroaches of the land but are more closely related to marine species like crabs and shrimp. It lives on the ocean bed and scavenges on the remains of dead marine animals. It can survive for a long time without food just like cockroaches.

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12 unrecorded species

The researchers collected thousands of specimens through trawling, dredging, and various types of seafloor coring devices. They collected 12,000 deep-sea creatures comprising 800 species during the large-scale expedition and found 12 species that were not recorded in the scientific literature. The creatures included crabs, jellyfish, fish, molluscs, prawns, sponges, starfish, urchins, and worms.

Due to the lower level of predation and colder conditions, Bathynomus Raksasa can reach up to around 20 inches, unlike other isopods which generally reach a maximum length of around 12 inches. It is also the second-largest isopod species known to science, next only to 'Bathynomus Giganteus'. Cahyo Rahmadi of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences told BBC that the discovery of new species is a great achievement for a taxonomist, especially spectacular species in terms of size and even the ecosystem where the species is found.

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