Strumigenys ayersthey. (Douglas B Booher, Philipp O Hoenle/ZooKeys)
A newly-discovered species of ant has been given a scientific name ending with “they” as a tribute by biologists to the non-binary community.
In an effort to celebrate gender diversity, biologists have named an ant species in Ecuador with the suffix “they” rather than the traditional gendered Latin suffixes.
When it comes to species-naming traditions, a lot of new critters are named after people, such as pop culture icons or field experts. The practice only recognises two genders, however, with the suffix “-ae” denoting women and “-i” denoting men.
But the Strumigenys ayersthey, a miniature trap-jaw ant with shining cuticles and cartoonish eyes, ditches both altogether, using “-they” instead. Making it one of the first creatures in the world to have a gender-neutral suffix.
Life 5 May 2021
This ant has been named Strumigenys ayersthey
A newly discovered species of ant from Ecuador has been named with the suffix “-they”, rather than a traditional gendered Latin suffix, to celebrate gender diversity.
The ant was discovered by Philipp Hoenle at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, in 2018. He sent a photograph to taxonomic expert Douglas Booher at Yale University, who recognised it as a new species in the genus
Strumigenys.
In contrast to traditional species-naming practices, which only recognise one of two distinct genders with the suffixes “-ae” for women and “-i” for men, Booher suggested using the gender non-binary identifier “they” instead, naming the ant