A new genus of treehopper insect found near the Pacific coast of Nicaragua has been named after Lady Gaga.
Kaikaia gaga got that name by Brendan Morris, a Ph.D. candidate in entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is special for its lack of “cucullate setae of the mesothoracic femora” and possesses a “narrow, straight shape of the second valvulae.”
The scientists are yet to take a picture of the insect. But if those words went over your head, a quick image search of platycentrus (a treehopper it closely resembles) should do the trick.
Morris discovered the female species from a 30-year specimen borrowed from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. “If there is going to be a Lady Gaga bug, it’s going to be a treehopper; because they’ve got these crazy horns, they have this wacky fashion sense about them,” he told the University of Illinois News Bureau. “They’re unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.”
Morris was unable to extract DNA from the specimen. However, he plans on traveling to Nicaragua to find a living Kaikaia gaga specimen and determine the details of the species once and for all.
The news of K. gaga insect arrives just on the heels Lady Gaga announcing her long-awaited new album; Chromatica, which is due out on Interscope next month.
Lady Gaga is not the only one to have an insect named after her. Beyonce has one too; and no, it’s not a Queen Bee 🐝