Canadian entomologist Vazrick Nazari had an ulterior motive when he studied a newly discovered species of a moth found between the border of California and Mexico.
The discovery of the micro-moth in the densely populated and otherwise zoologically well-studied southern California underscores the importance of conservation of the fragile habitats that still contain undescribed and threatened species, and highlights the paucity of interest in species-level taxonomy of smaller faunal elements in North America.
By naming this species after the 45th President of the United States, I hope to bring some public attention to, and interest in, the importance of alpha-taxonomy in better understanding the neglected micro-fauna component of the North American biodiversity.
Dr. Nazari dubbed the species Neopalpa donaldtrumpi.
A few months ago, a caterpillar was seen resembling Trump and was dubbed the Trumpapillar.
In a scientific paper published on Tuesday in the open access journal ZooKeys, Dr. Nazari wrote that he hoped the honour would highlight “the need to continue protecting fragile habitats in the US that still contain many undescribed species.”
So I named a species after @realDonaldTrump. Maybe now he’ll make conservation of fragile US ecosystems a priority?https://t.co/jetz83AHaC
— Vazrick Nazari (@vazrick) January 17, 2017
Jokes aside, congratulations to @vazrick for discovering Neopalpa donaldtrumpi, the @realDonaldTrump moth!https://t.co/DKrQnDyRr8 pic.twitter.com/1cgeDxrjXh
— Rohan Chakravarty (@thetoonguy) January 19, 2017
