President-elect Donald Trump has, finally, his very own moth.
Evolutionary biologist and lepidopterist Vazrick Nazari announced the discovery of Neopalpa donaldtrumpi in a paper published in the open-access ZooKeys journal. Motherboard flagged the paper in an article Tuesday afternoon.
The name, Nazari noted in the paper, was inspired by the centimeter-wide moth’s head, which is “[s]caled with light-yellow frons,” and has “scales on the vertex converging towards middle, often with darker tips.”
“The new species is named in honor of Donald J. Trump, to be installed as the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017,” the paper notes later.
“The reason for this choice of name is to bring wider public attention to the need to continue protecting fragile habitats in the US that still contain many undescribed species. The specific epithet is selected because of the resemblance of the scales on the frons (head) of the moth to Mr. Trump’s hairstyle.”
According to Science Magazine, President Barack Obama has had nine animals named after him, more than any other President, including noted conservationist Theodore Roosevelt.
