A beetle was named after the Charles Darwin on his birthday.
Charles Darwin explored Argentina back in 1832 where he picked up numerous samples of large animal fossils and live insects and organisms, a Pensoft Publishers news release reported.
Now, 180 years later, a beetle that was included in these samples has been rediscovered by science and named Darwinilus sedarisi after Darwin on his Feb. 12 birthday.
Dr. Stylianos Chatzimanolis, an entomologist at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, rediscovered and described the forgotten beetle.
The Natural History of Museum, London had considered the speices lost for years until its rediscovery in 2008.
"I received on loan several insects from the Museum in London, and to my surprise I realized that one of them was collected by Darwin" Doctor Chatzimanolis said. 'Finding a new species is always exciting, finding one collected by Darwin is truly amazing."
Only two specimens of this species are known, and both were collected before 1935, despite rigorous efforts by the researchers to discover new specimens. The beetle's original habitat has been converted into agricultural fields.
"One certainly hopes that a newly described species is not already extinct," Doctor Chatzimanolis said in the news release.
The beetle has "saw-toothed antennae" and a metallic green head shaped like a hexagon, LiveScience reported.
The Darwinilus beetles are a member of the rove family, which encompasses about 57,000 known species.
The sedarisi part of the beetle's name comes from the "author and humorist" David Sedaris "as an appreciation for his fascination with the natural world," Liv Science reported.
"I spent many hours listening to Mr. Sedaris' audiobooks while preparing the specimens and the figures for this and other manuscripts," Chatzimanolis wrote, LiveScience reported.
Sedaris has written titles such as "Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary" ("Little, Brown and Company, 2010"), LiveScience reported.
