Beyonce Gets A Science Award: A Horse Fly Named After Her

A previously unnamed species of horse fly has been named in honor of American pop singer Beyoncé Knowles. Beyoncé just had a baby but this horse fly business is probably the best gift of all. Well, maybe not, the baby might be more important to her, since she and husband Jay-Z had bulletproof glass and bodyguards put in place at the Upper East Side Lenox Hill hospital where the delivery occurred and I bet the fly doesn't have any bodyguards at all.  

A previously unnamed species of horse fly has been named in honor of American pop singer Beyoncé Knowles. Beyoncé just had a baby but this horse fly business is probably the best gift of all. 

Well, maybe not, the baby might be more important to her, since she and husband Jay-Z had bulletproof glass and bodyguards put in place at the Upper East Side Lenox Hill hospital where the delivery occurred and I bet the fly doesn't have any bodyguards at all.  

Apparently they are worried about some East Coast-West Coast violence thing among the premature babies, or that Alicia Keys would show up and hit Beyoncé in the kneecap with a crowbar.

They even booted other worried moms and dads out of the neonatal intensive-care unit. Why was the child in the intensive care unit? Problems? No, like every famewhoring celebrity mom, she wants to be on a magazine cover in a month showing how she 'got back into shape' so quickly after pregnancy so she had a planned C-section in month 8.  For medical reasons.  Like how women in Hollywood get nose jobs and claim it was to cure some breathing issue.

Beyoncé was a member of Destiny's Child and they recorded the 2001 hit single, "Bootylicious", so CSIRO's Bryan Lessard says describing the fly as Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae makes sense because of its glamorous golden lower abdomen. It is the "all time diva of flies", he said. Well, maybe. Kelly Rowland always had the better body.

Kelly Rowland
Is Kelly sad no one named a horse fly after her? Link: Fresh Like Dougie

"Although often considered a pest, many species of horse fly are extremely important pollinators of many plants," he said, which is a metaphor for pop musicians if I ever heard one. Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae was collected from north-east Queensland's Atherton Tablelands in 1981, the year that Beyoncé was born - along with 100 million other women.  Why did it take so long to name this one? Hey, there are 4400 of these things and it takes time.

Two other previously unknown specimens were discovered the same year but I am betting they don't get named after Kelly or Michelle Williams, lest the Beyoncé horse fly storm off in some kind of Diana Ross-like huff.

Scaptia beyonceae
Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae was published in the Australian Journal of Entomology

Categories

Hank Campbell

I founded Science 2.0® in 2006 and since then it has become the world's largest independent science communications site, with over 300,000,000 direct readers and reach approaching one billion. Revolutionizing the way scientists Communicate, Participate, Collaborate and Publish is the goal of Science 2.0 ® and it is a work in progress, so if you agree, sign up and help. I've also written for USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Wired, Investors Business Daily, Chicago Tribune, Detroit News, LA Times,The Hill, CNN, American Thinker, Federalist, San Diego Union-Tribune, New Scientist, Genetic… Read more