Australia: Scientists name five flies after Marvel's superheroes and villains

This year, scientists from The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia gave scientific names to 165 new species. According to reports, they chose five flies to name after the world’s favourite superheroes and villains that fall under the Marvel Universe. The very famous superhero Deadpool was also given a fly in his name in this process of naming. 

The 'whimsical' names

Dr.Bryan Lessard, who is an entomologist at CSIRO said that ‘Humorolethalis sergius’ is the name chosen for Deadpool because it sounds like lethal humour and it has been derived from a Latin word ‘humorosus’ which means wet or moist and lethalis means dead. The deadpool fly belongs to Robber fly, who is himself termed as  "assassin of the insect world". Reports suggest that various other flies were also given names of superheroes and villains to pay tribute. To pay tribute to Thor, the god of thunder, there is the ‘thor fly’. Its scientific name is ‘Daptolestes bronteflavus’, which is derived from Latin again. The name translates to ‘blond thunder’. The fly has characteristics like gold flecks and light brown colour on its body and antennae. Dr. Bryan also shared a tweet about the Thor fly.

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According to reports, to honour the god of chief, there is the Loki fly. The scientific name given to this fly is "Daptolestes illusiolautus”, which means elegant deception. There is also a fly to pay tribute to Black woman which is played by Scarlett Johansson. The scientific name for this fly is "Daptolestes feminategus”, meaning woman wearing leather. Lastly, there is a Stan Lee fly in order to pay honour to the Marvel comics visionary. The fly is named "Daptolestes leei”. The fly has markings on its face which are in a way similar to Lee’s sunglasses and white mustache. 

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Reportedly, the scientists have also named 151 new insects, eight new plants, two new fish, one new mite, three new subspecies of bird, and 25 marine invertebrates. These species were discovered several years ago but remained unnamed. These names are not that mischievous but some of them do pay tribute to other things. Two species are named after the research ship that discovered them, “Investigator”.

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(Image Credits: Unsplash/Representative image)