Taylor Swift has won just about every kind of major honor, but this one is taking her fame somewhere no music award ever has: the insect world. The award-winning singer and songwriter is now the namesake of a newly identified group of Australian plant-feeding insects. A new genus and four species have been named after Swift and her music.
Scientists name a new Australian insect genus Swiftiephylus after Taylor Swift
As per Variety, researchers at the University of California, Riverside named the new genus Swiftiephylus, combining “Swiftie,” the name for Swift’s fans, with “Phylus,” commonly used for this group of insects. Their findings, covering 12 new species, were published in Insect Systematics and Evolution.
Four species were given names linked to Swift and her albums: Swiftiephylus taylorae, Swiftiephylus amator, Swiftiephylus intrepidus and Swiftiephylus poetorum. These are the Latin versions of “Taylor,” “lover,” “fearless” and “poets”, respectively.
Sarah Schroeder, an entomology doctoral student at UC Riverside, is a lifelong Swiftie. She chose the names to honor Taylor Swift and highlight insect conservation. She also wanted to draw attention to the many undiscovered insect species. Schroeder said, “It felt authentic to me as a lifelong Swiftie to honor Taylor in this way, as well as bring attention to the diversity of insects that has yet to be discovered.”
The insects closely associate with Australian she-oaks, and their pale yellow coloring with red accents may help them blend in with the plants’ flowers. Schroeder also saw a connection to Swift’s signature look. “Taylor Swift’s iconic look is her blonde hair and red lips. These insects are pale yellow with accents of red throughout.” She added, “In the paper, I refer to them as blonde.”
The insects do not pose a known pest threat to humans or animals. They belong to the Miridae family, which includes more than 11,000 described species worldwide.
Interestingly, researchers collected the specimens between 1995 and 2004, but they took decades to formally describe them.
