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Australian fly named after RuPaul
Australia’s national science agency paid tribute to RuPaul by naming a fly after the drag queen, according to a press release dated September 15, while other newly discovered insect names reference Pokemon and Digimon Adventure.
LOS ANGELES - Australian entomologists have named a new fly species after drag queen legend RuPaul.
In a press release published on Wednesday, Australia’s national science agency announced that a soldier fly known for its extravagant colored shell will officially be known by its new scientific name Opaluma rupaul.
The stunning bug is part of the new Australian genus Opaluma (from the Latin words for opal and thorn), "to reflect the iridescent colours of flies in this group and the distinctive thorn on the underside of their abdomens," the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said.
Australian researchers have also named newly discovered insects in reference to the characters from the classic cartoon shows Pokemon and Digimon.
Three hard-to-find beetles have been named Binburrum articuno, Binburrum zapdos and Binburrum moltres, after three iconic rare Pokemon characters: Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres.
A new cycad-boring weevil, Demyrsus digmon, was named after a fictional character in the Japanese anime series Digimon Adventure. Digmon possesses the powering of drilling and manipulating the earth, while the weevil can bore into the hard trunks of cycads.
Dr. Bryan Lessard, a postdoctoral research fellow with the National Research Collections, said that eye-catching names could "attract the attention of citizen scientists and policymakers to include these species in bushfire recovery efforts."
CSIRO said that it and its partners have named 150 new species in the past year.
Storyful contributed to this story.