The ant came in a small vial of ethanol, sealed in a plastic bag, and packed in a small cardboard box. It was addressed to Yale’s Douglas B. Booher.
German entomologist Phillip Hoenle had discovered the ant, which he noted had some peculiar features, in a rain forest in Ecuador. Now he wanted Booher, a research associate in the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change and the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, to confirm whether this trap ant was truly a new species. If so, Hoenle and Booher would have the honor of naming it.
Booher had imagined this moment for years. He had even discussed it with an old friend from Athens, Georgia, the artist and former R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe. After receiving the specimen he reached out to Stipe.
Dan a nueva especie de hormiga nombre de género neutro
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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
Researchers have discovered a rare new miniature trap-jaw ant in the tropical forest of Ecuador in South America. The new insect has been named
Strumigenys ayersthey after activist and artist Jeremy Ayers who died in 2016. The ant is truly unique among its genus, which has over 850 species, and to celebrate its uniqueness its discoverers decided to honor Ayers and celebrate both biological and human diversity by making it possibly the only species in the world with a scientific name with the suffix they .
The newly described species was first identified in 2018 by Philipp Hoenle from the Technical University of Darmstadt in the Reserva Río Canandé, which is owned and taken care of by the NGO Jocotoco. Described in the journal ZooKeys, it is distinguishable for its smooth and shiny cuticle surface and distinctively long trap-jaw mandibles, which makes it stand out even in its overcrowded genus. The fact they haven t been able to find any more specimens suggest it s rare.
Ant named ‘they’ to recognise gender diversity Jane Dalton © Provided by The Independent
A newly discovered species of ant from Ecuador has been given a scientific name ending “they” in recognition of gender diversity.
The miniature trap-jaw ant, termed
Strumigenys ayersthey, is thought to be the only creature in the world to have the non-binary suffix.
There are hundreds of other ants named in honour of people, but they end with -ae when named after females and -i after males.
American singer-songwriter Michael Stipe, of rock band REM, and Douglas Booher of Yale University in America, who chose the name, said it was in honour of their mutual friend, activist and artist Jeremy Ayers, who died in 2016.
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