"Slime-mould bugs named after US statesmen
US President George W Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld can now also be called bushi, cheneyi and rumsfeldi,
or simply slime-mould beetles.
Two former Cornell University entomologists named three species in the genus
Agathidium after the US leaders, Cornell has announced.
Quentin Wheeler and Kelly Miller christened 65 new species of slime-mould
beetles, named for the fungi-like moulds on which they feed, which they
discovered after collecting thousands of specimens for a study of their
evolution and classification.
Professor Wheeler, who after 24 years as a professor of entomology and plant
biology at Cornell is now the keeper and head of entomology at the Natural
History Museum in London, said the US leaders were being honored for having
"the courage of their convictions".
The bushi beetle is found in southern Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia; the
rumsfeldi is from Oaxaca and Hidalgo in Mexico, and the cheneyi is known
from Chiapas, Mexico, Professor Wheeler said."
― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Monday, 18 April 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)
I'm inclined to agree, but there's a nagging skepticism that wonders...if you devoted your life to the research of slime-mould beetles, wouldn't there be a chance that you would come to see them as truly honourable and noble creatures?
― Huk-L, Monday, 18 April 2005 17:09 (twenty years ago)