When a new species is discovered, there are a lot of options for naming it. As long as you don’t name it after yourself, you can basically do what you want. A significant physical characteristic. The place you discovered it. An important mentor. Or, well, we saw from fruit fly gene names that scientists are a bunch of nerds. So today we’re looking at some incredibly nerdy species names.
I probably could have written this entire article with Star Wars references.
Sarlacc
This one’s included in a paper with a whole slew of new species of trapdoor spiders. And given that they sit in pits and wait to ambush prey, is it any wonder that eventually someone looked at these and decided it reminded them of the creature that killed Boba Fett? (Dear Disney: Please leave him dead this time). Especially when one particular species is tunneling through sand. And thus we get Apostichus sarlacc.
Smeagol/Gollum
Sometimes a species practically names itself. Like when you find an eyeless daddy longlegs that has apparently lost all pigmentation because the species has been living in caves for so long. Though given that history, I can’t help thinking that Iandumoema smeagol should probably actually be Iandumoema gollum to match the biology more closely to what happened in Tolkien’s work. Smeagol would be a better species name for the precursor species that hadn’t gone through all those changes.
The arachnid isn’t even the only creature to be named after this particular character. There’s also an entire genus of slugs called Smeagol. And a genus of sharks called Gollum. This is what happens when you have a character with such distinctive physical characteristics. And in keeping with the character’s diet, there’s also a species of fish called Galaxias gollum.
There is a definite resemblance. Picture by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory.
What I’m saying is a lot of biologists are Lord of the Rings fans. But we might have guessed that already from the work of Galadriel Mirkwood.
Darth Vader
Sometimes you look at the SEM images of and are just struck by its appearance. You can’t help noticing that its head looks like a certain very famous mask. And that it looks like it’s wearing a cape. And then you realize you’re dealing with a new genus. So what can you do? You almost have to name the genus Darthvaderum.
“Etymology. When I saw the SEM of the gnathosoma I immediately thought of Darth Vader, evil antihero of Star Wars. Gender is neuter.”
Is definitely one of the more beautiful lines I’ve seen in a scientific paper. Though we could debate for hours about whether antihero is entirely the accurate literary term for Vader.
Gryffindor
Sometimes you just look at a spider and think “Gee that animal looks like a hat”. And after a lot of time staring at it while doing all the measurements you need to classify a new species, sooner or later you’re going to start getting specific and realize it looks like the Sorting Hat. And that’s when you end up naming it Eriovixia gryffindori because sortinghati would look really weird, but the hat belonged to Godric Gryffindor.
No word on whether this spider is prone to impulsive fits of bravery and tickling sleeping dragons.
Yoda
Yoda’s a distinctive guy. Which is probably why he has multiple species named after him. There’s Yoda purpurata, an ocean worm whose head definitely resembles Yoda’s ears. Albunione yoda is a crab parasite also named for the resemblance to his ears. (Another member of the genus, Albunione groenigi, is named for Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons) Finally, people who study the Polemistus genus of wasp are apparently major Star Wars fans because the species include P. yoda, P. Chewbacca and P. vaderi.
Adventure. Ha. Excitement. Ha. A Jedi craves not these things. But species names? That’s another story.
I must say though, with all this attention given to Yoda’s ears I’ve yet to see a species named for a resemblance to his rather strange feet. Feet which make it somewhat difficult to get the action figure to stand for a picture.