Mystery Snakeworm New to Science Discovered in Alaska in 'X-Files Case'

Wildlife experts have been left scratching their heads after a totally new species of insect was discovered in Alaska.

The species, called Sciara serpens, is a tiny gnat with a bizarre lifecycle. During its larval stage, the gnat exists as a slimy translucent worm. But that's not the strangest thing about it—when these worms get together they wriggle into a snake-like procession, made up of hundreds of individuals crawling over each other in a directional frenzy.

"I first learned of them during the summer of 2007 when Maggie Billington, a docent at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, where I'm the insect curator, brought me specimens and photos and described the bizarre phenomenon," Alaska insect expert Derek Sikes told Newsweek. "It's a rare day when someone brings me an insect in Alaska that leaves me totally dumbfounded! I knew they were fly larvae of some kind but I had never heard of this 'snakeworm' behavior. I was baffled—a total X-Files case!"

Snakeworm behavior has been previously observed in a few species in North America and Europe, with sightings dating back to the 1700s. "[But] we found large genetic differences between our new species and the closest apparent relative in Europe, which also exhibits this snakeworm behavior," Sikes said. "We also found differences in the male genitalia that supported the hypothesis that we had found an undescribed species."

The problem is, snakeworms are notoriously difficult to study. "Snakeworm gnat adults are rarely encountered and the phenomenon in which thousands of their larvae travel in a long snake-like column is also rare, very short-lived, and unpredictable," Sikes said. "Even experts on these flies had never seen the phenomenon in person. It was thrilling to be confronted with a rarely seen entomological mystery of such a dramatic nature."

After over a decade of research, Sikes and his team were able to confirm that this species was indeed totally new to science. Their results were published in the journal Integrative Systematics: Stuttgart Contributions to Natural History.

"This discovery of this new species, which we named Sciara serpens, allowed us to review all the literature on this behavior and produce a valuable summary to guide future work," Sikes said.

But exactly why they exhibit this unusual behavior is still a mystery. "There are many ideas, which we review in our article," Sikes said. "My co-authors and I agree with some others who have published on the phenomenon who think the snakeworm behavior is primarily a way of avoiding desiccation.

"The larvae are moist and normally live in dark, cool, damp leaf litter in the forest. When they encounter a dry open area like a trail or road, they group together to minimize their exposed surface area. This allows them to get across a dry trail without dehydrating. They also happen to look like a snake, sometimes over three feet long, which might deter hungry birds from investigating them."

Throughout their investigation, Sikes and his team were supported by an army of citizen scientists, helping to gather data and sightings of this rare phenomenon from across the country.

"In our article we emphasized how important citizen scientists were to our efforts (and had them help us choose the name of the new species)," Sikes said. "Everyone has a high quality camera in their pocket which greatly improves the data quality and quantity for studying such a rare phenomenon. We hope the discovery of this new species will prompt more research from citizens to help solve the mysteries of snakeworm gnats."

More importantly, if you should come across one of these mysterious snakeworms, Sikes implores you to do the following:

1. Photograph it and upload your observations to iNaturalist.
2. Collect some larvae into strong alcohol and keep them in a freezer with a label indicating where & when they were collected.
3. Try to raise some to adult: keep a bunch of larvae alive in a plastic container with some rotting leaves from the site. Adult males (or DNA) are needed to confirm the species.

"You might find a species new to science!" he said.

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