The tusked stink bug was discovered in a search for new species. Parks Australia.

Alice Klein, Weird stink bug with forked horns and tusks discovered in Australia, New Scientist, 16 June 2023

A multicoloured stink bug found in Western Australia has forked horns for camouflage, mysterious patches of matted hair and the males have peculiar tusks that may be used to win over females.

An unusual species of stink bug with large forked horns and orange tusks has been found in Tjaltjraak Boodja Park near Esperance in Western Australia.

Gerry Cassis at the University of New South Wales and Nik Tatarnic at the Western Australian Museum spotted the stink bug, which is believed to be new to science and has yet to be named, with the help of Indigenous Tjaltjraak park rangers.

As part of a two-week “Bush Blitz” – an Australian government scheme to identify new species – the team placed nets under plants in the area and beat them with a stick to dislodge and collect insects.

“It was getting towards the end of the trip and I wasn’t having much luck, but then I found one of these and there was great excitement,” says Cassis. “So then we bunkered down and found lots more.”

The pea-sized creature has brown and orange patterning that allows it to camouflage with the plant species that it lives on, a shrub called Hakea commutata.

Males and females both have two large forked horns. These appear to provide extra camouflage by resembling the pointy tips of the host plant’s leaves, says Cassis. “[The stink bugs] blend in with their plants really well – they’re very hard to spot,” he says.