Giant Vietnamese sea bug spotlighted by Singaporean media
VOV.VN - The Straits Times of Singapore has published an article on a giant sea bug which was recently found by fishermen who were deep-sea trawling some 92.6 km off the central coastal city of Quy Nhon.
It shared that the creature was found when researchers bought crustaceans from fishermen and eateries in Vietnam for research purposes.
According to the publication, isopods are tiny creatures typically measuring under 2.5 cm in length, although scientists have just discovered a gigantic one that is more than 10 times the average size.
The Straits Times quoted a study published on January 14 in ZooKeys, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, as saying that the largest among the newly identified specimens of Bathynomus vaderi (B. vaderi) stretches to some 32.5 cm in length and weighs over one kg.
“Researchers named the supergiant sea bug B. vaderi because of the striking resemblance its head bears to the helmet worn by Star Wars antagonist Darth Vader,” it stressed.
The Singaporean newswire revealed that B. vaderi is an isopod, a type of crustacean known for its segmented bodies and seven pairs of legs, which typically live in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments.
Scientists said, B. vaderi has a unique feature compared to other known supergiant isopods, which is that the final segment of its hind legs tapers and curves slightly backward.
Currently, there are only 11 recognised supergiant and nine giant species of Bathynomus. B. vaderi is only the second recorded supergiant isopod to be found in the South China Sea, known locally as East Sea.
Researchers warned that due to their slow reproductive rate, with only a few hundred eggs produced at a time, B. vaderi could be vulnerable to overexploitation.
