{"id":2673,"date":"2012-12-17T23:55:19","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T04:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/?p=2673"},"modified":"2012-12-17T23:55:20","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T04:55:20","slug":"you-must-bee-joking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/17\/you-must-bee-joking\/","title":{"rendered":"You Must Bee Joking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sheldon<\/a><\/p>\n

Sheldon<\/em>: Which bees are the best kissers?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Leonard<\/em>: What? I don’t know…<\/p>\n

Sheldon<\/em>: Euglossa<\/em>1<\/a><\/sup>. Bazinga.<\/p>\n

Not only is that a pretty bad joke (even by sitcom standards), but it’s also the scientific name of a newly described orchid bee. Let me introduce you to\u00a0Euglossa bazinga\u00a0<\/em>Nem\u00e9sio & Ferrari:<\/p>\n

\"Euglossa<\/a>

Euglossa bazinga Nem\u00e9sio & Ferrari 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

Found in the Brazilian Cerrado and other dry, open savannahs, this species was differentiated from the similar\u00a0Euglossa ignita<\/em>. According to the authors,\u00a0Euglossa bazinga<\/em> is the smallest species in the subgenus\u00a0Euglossa\u00a0<\/em>(Glossura<\/em>), but it\u00a0possesses the longest tongue relative to it’s body size. Many taxonomists would perhaps see this as a good\u00a0character to derive a name from (gigaglossa springs to mind, or perhaps microsomamegaglossa2<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0for the verbose), so how did\u00a0Nem\u00e9sio & Ferrari settle on\u00a0Euglossa bazinga<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Etymology<\/strong>: The specific epithet honors the clever, funny, captivating \u201cnerd\u201d character Sheldon Cooper, brilliantly portrayed by the North American actor James Joseph \u201cJim\u201d Parsons on the CBS TV show \u201cThe Big Bang Theory\u201d. Sheldon Cooper\u2019s favorite comic word \u201cbazinga\u201d, used by him when tricking somebody, was here chosen to represent the character. Euglossa bazinga<\/em> sp. n. has tricked us for some time due to its similarity to E. ignita<\/em>, which eventually led us to use \u201cbazinga\u201d. Sheldon Cooper has also an asteroid named after him (246247 Sheldoncooper<\/a>).<\/p>\n

– \u00a0Nem\u00e9sio & Ferrari, 2012<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I think this may be a first for a Celebronym, with the species named after a catchphrase rather than the actual character or celebrity! What’s next, a beetle with enlarged fore tarsi named “ayyyyy” after The Fonz? As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t mind these Celebronyms personally, especially when they serve to draw attention to a very special habitat such as the Brazilian Cerrado.<\/p>\n

No matter what your stance on Celebronyms, the joke may be on the authors of this new species; Sheldon Cooper is allergic to bees<\/a>! Bazinga.
\n<\/br>
\n_______________
\nNEM\u00c9SIO A. & FERRARI R.R. (2012). Euglossa<\/em> (Glossura<\/em>) bazinga<\/em> sp. n. (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Apinae, Apini, Euglossina), a new orchid bee from western Brazil, and designation of a lectotype for Euglossa<\/em> (Glossura<\/em>) ignita<\/em> Smith, 1874, Zootaxa, 3590<\/span> \u00a063-72. Other: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E9C0A568-8BBC-4E1D-8F05-C7FA1966B0D3<\/a><\/span>
\n_______________<\/p>\n

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    \n
  1. Euglossa\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0– Greek – “eu” = good, well; “glossa” = tongue;\u00a0Euglossa<\/em>\u00a0= “well-tongued”, in reference to their very long mouthparts. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. “little body, big tongue” ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sheldon: Which bees are the best kissers?\u00a0 Leonard: What? I don’t know… Sheldon: Euglossa1. Bazinga. Not only is that a pretty bad joke (even by sitcom standards), but it’s also the scientific name of a newly described orchid bee. Let me introduce you to\u00a0Euglossa bazinga\u00a0Nem\u00e9sio & Ferrari: Found in the Brazilian Cerrado and other dry, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,23,10],"tags":[36,467,35,211,466],"class_list":["post-2673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cool-science","category-insects","category-taxonomy","tag-apidae","tag-celebronym","tag-hymenoptera","tag-nomenclature","tag-orchid-bee","category-130-id","category-23-id","category-10-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2673"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2690,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions\/2690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}