Scientists name a new species after the singer
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| (Photo : JEAN-BAPTISTE LACROIX/AFP via Getty Images | VT Entomology / Screenshot taken from the Official VT Entomology Twitter Account) |
Taylor Swift, U.S. singer-songwriter known for hits such as "Shake It Off" and "You Belong With Me," has earned a new accolade -- she now has a new species of millipede named in her honor.
The
twisted-claw millipede Nannaria swiftae joins 16 other new
species described from the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. These
little-known invertebrates have a valuable role as decomposers: breaking down
leaf litter, they release their nutrients into the ecosystem. They live on the
forest floor, where they feed on decaying leaves and other plant matter, and in
fact, they are somewhat tricky to catch, because they tend to remain buried in
the soil, sometimes staying completely beneath the surface.
Scientists
Derek Hennen, Jackson Means, and Paul Marek, at Virginia Tech, U.S., describe
the new species in a research paper published in the open access journal ZooKeys.
The research was funded by a National Science Foundation Advancing Revisionary
Taxonomy and Systematics grant (DEB# 1655635).
Because of their presence in museum collections, scientists long suspected that the twisted-claw millipedes included many new species, but these specimens went undescribed for decades. To fix this, the researchers began a multi-year project to collect new specimens throughout the eastern U.S. They traveled to 17 US states, checking under leaf litter, rocks, and logs to find species so that they could sequence their DNA and scientifically describe them.
Looking
at over 1800 specimens collected on their field study or taken from university
and museum collections, the authors described 17 new species, including Nannaria
marianae, which was named after Hennen's wife. They discovered that the
millipedes prefer to live in forested habitats near streams and are often found
buried under the soil, exhibiting more cryptic behaviors than relatives.
The
newly-described millipedes range between 18 and 38 mm long, have shiny
caramel-brown to black bodies with white, red, or orange spots, and have white
legs. The males have small, twisted and flattened claws on their anterior legs,
which is the basis for their common name.
The
lead author of the study, Derek Hennen, is a fan of Taylor Swift.
"Her music helped me get through the highs and lows of graduate school, so naming a new millipede species after her is my way of saying thanks," he says.
