New Rainbow Fly Species With ‘Legs For Days’ Named After RuPaul

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An Australian scientist has named an eye-catching new fly species just after RuPaul ― and the “Drag Race” host looks to approve.

Opaluma rupaul (the “opaluma” part coming from the Latin words for “opal” and “thorn”) is an iridescent species of soldier fly, essential bugs that are generally underappreciated by the common general public.

“Soldier flies are beneficial in the ecosystem,” Bryan Lessard, an entomologist with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Study Organisation, claimed in a assertion. “The larvae recycle vitamins and minerals from useless crops and animals, while older people are pollinators of some Australian vegetation.”

Which is why, in Lessard’s head, the new species deserved a title that matched its flashy seems.



Fly, fly, fly, fly, uh oh, uh oh.

“Naming a species is the 1st step to knowledge and guarding them mainly because otherwise they are invisible to science,” he told The Guardian.

Lessard figured RuPaul would value the title after realizing the insect is “quite fierce.”

“It has a costume of shiny metallic rainbow colours, and it has legs for days,” he mentioned.

That prediction appears to be to have been accurate, as RuPaul tweeted about the incredible fly on Wednesday.

‘Rainbow colors & legs for days’: Australian fly species named after RuPaul @BrytheFlyGuy https://t.co/PeP026BLTh pic.twitter.com/nMfRwrDRRl

— RuPaul (@RuPaul) September 15, 2021

Opaluma rupaul is just one of 13 new soldier fly species named by Lessard ― aka “Bry the Fly Dude.” Nine inhabit areas devastated by the raging wildfires of 2019 and 2020, he reported.

Lessard wants Opaluma rupaul to serve as a optimistic sign for youthful LGBTQ men and women interested in science.

“As a homosexual scientist, it took me a long time to feel comfy in my own pores and skin in a quite common discipline of science ― in entomology,” Lessard informed CNN. “I imagine it’s truly critical for the next era of LGBTQ+ researchers to know that they are being represented in the office, as we give the names of legends in the local community to memorable species.”

Lessard earlier produced headlines for naming a different insect right after a movie star again in 2012 ― the Scaptia beyonceae, a horsefly named right after Beyoncé.

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