A newly discovered insect that tucks its head into its throat is becoming an unwitting star.
Ross Winton captured the insect in 2009 in traps he set in a sand dune while an entomology graduate student at Montana State University.
Just two specimens of the tan, pinhead-sized ladybugs, also known as ladybird beetles, have ever been collected, a male in Montana and a female in Idaho, scientists said, making it the rarest species in the United States.
Winton has named the new headless ladybug species after one of his MSU professors, Michael Ivie, calling it Allenius Iviei on an official basis and “Winton Ladybird Beetle” as its common name.
