{"id":3479,"date":"2012-01-13T16:58:59","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T05:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/?p=3479"},"modified":"2012-03-21T10:12:54","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T23:12:54","slug":"the-all-time-diva-of-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/culture\/the-all-time-diva-of-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"The all-time diva of flies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Meet Scaptia beyonceae, a "bootylicious" horse fly that drinks nectar from grevillea, tea trees and eucalyptus. Image: CSIRO.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Taxonomy immortalises Beyonce.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Horse flies<\/a> are sophisticated pollinators recognised for their medical and veterinary importance. And although their appearance isn’t as exciting as that of the colourful beetles, one of the new species described by Bryan Lessard<\/a> in a paper published in the Australian Journal of Entomology <\/em>has stirred quite a hullabaloo because of its newly acquired name, Scaptia beyoncea<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“It was the unique dense golden hairs on the fly’s abdomen that led me to name this fly in honour of the performer Beyonce as well as giving me the chance to demonstrate the fun side of taxonomy \u2014 the naming of the species,”\u009d said Lessard in a public announcement.<\/p>\n

The “all-time diva of flies”\u009d was captured in 1981 \u2014 the same year Beyonce was born \u2014 in Atherton Tablelands, west of Cairns. But this is not the first time that an specie is named after a pop culture idol. Some of the now immortalised celebrities include:<\/p>\n

Keith Richards
\nPerirehaedulus richardsi<\/a>, a prehistoric trilobite.<\/p>\n

Barack Obama
\nCaloplaca obamae<\/a>, an orange-golden lichen.<\/p>\n

Kate Winslet
\nAgra katewinsletae<\/a>, a carabid bettle.<\/p>\n

Harrison Ford
\nPheidole harrisonfordi, an ant, and Calponia harrisonfordi<\/a>, a spider.<\/p>\n

Bill Gates
\nEristalis gatesi<\/a>, a Costa Rican flower fly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image: CSIRO<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taxonomy immortalises Beyonce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,79,63,3,116,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-arts-science","category-backyard-bugs","category-culture","category-insects","category-nature"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3479"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4384,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3479\/revisions\/4384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}