Lady Gaga Inspires Newly Discovered Insect Species, ‘Kaikaia Gaga’
The insect a new genus of the treehopper bugs found almost three decades ago near the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.
Lady Gaga’s flamboyant visual style has inspired the name of a newly discovered insect species. Kaikaia gaga is a new genus of the treehopper bugs found almost three decades ago near the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, according to reports in Rolling Stone.
Brendan Morris, a PhD candidate in entomology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, borrowed roughly 1,000 treehoppers from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History for research purposes — but after studying a female bug under a stereoscope, he discovered some unique features that distinguished her from the others.
In a report via the journal Zootaxa, Morris and his co-author, Illinois Natural History Survey entomologist Christopher Dietrich, described the creature’s “additional m-cu crossvein in the forewing, as well as a frontoclypeal shape and overall appearance similar to Platycentrus Stål,” along with a “narrow, straight shape of the second valvulae.”
“If there is going to be a Lady Gaga bug, it’s going to be a treehopper because they’ve got these crazy horns,” he told the Illinois News Bureau. “They have this wacky fashion sense about them. They’re unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.”
Morris wasn’t able to extract DNA from the insect, but he plans to visit Nicaragua in hopes of finding other living Kaikaia gaga in the tropical forest where the original was collected.
“Treehoppers are wacky, and I think that makes them especially suited to be ‘spokesbugs’ for the wide range of habitats they use,” he said.
The real Lady Gaga recently announced a six-date summer tour that launches on 24 July in Paris and includes U.S. dates in Boston, Chicago and East Rutherford, New Jersey. Every North American ticket includes a CD copy of the singer’s upcoming album Chromatica, set for release on 10 April.
Lady Gaga plays the following shows on ‘The Chromatica Ball Tour’:
July 24 – Stade de France, Paris, France
July 30 – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
August 5 – Fenway Park, Boston, MA
August 9 – Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON
August 14 – Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL
August 19 – MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ
Listen to the Best of Lady Gaga on Apple Music and Spotify.
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