{"id":2000125605,"date":"2026-09-10T14:05:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/?p=2000125605"},"modified":"2026-09-10T14:05:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:05:39","slug":"new-plant-eating-insects-named-after-taylor-swift-and-her-albums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/new-plant-eating-insects-named-after-taylor-swift-and-her-albums\/","title":{"rendered":"New plant-eating insects named after Taylor Swift and her albums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The new genus, called Swiftiephylus, was announced in a study published on September 9 in the journal Insect Systematics and Evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study describes 12 newly identified species of Australian plant bugs, including four species whose scientific names pay tribute to Swift and her music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four species are Swiftiephylus taylorae, named after Taylor Swift, as well as Swiftiephylus amator, Swiftiephylus intrepidus and Swiftiephylus poetorum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latter three names are inspired by Swift’s albums and music, referring to \u201cLover,\u201d \u201cFearless\u201d and \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department,\u201d respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The insects belong to the Miridae family, the largest family of true bugs. The family contains about 11,000 described species worldwide and includes both plant-feeding and predatory insects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Schroeder, a doctoral student in entomology at the University of California, Riverside and a co-author of the study, said she wanted to honor Swift while drawing attention to the large number of insect species that scientists have yet to discover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schroeder is a lifelong Swift fan and said the insects’ appearance also helped inspire the tribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The insects are pale yellow with red markings and can camouflage themselves among Australian she-oaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their coloration reminded Schroeder of Swift’s recognizable blonde hair and red lipstick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the connection to the singer, researchers said the naming highlights the importance of taxonomy, the scientific process of identifying and describing species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schroeder emphasized that documenting species is important for conservation because scientists cannot protect species they do not know exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The insects were collected in Australia between 1995 and 2004 by researchers from the American Museum of Natural History and Australian collaborators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collections produced more than 50,000 specimens, showing how much biological material can remain unidentified for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists estimate that nearly 30 million insect species may still be undocumented, highlighting the enormous scale of insect diversity that remains to be studied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Swiftiephylus discovery is not the first time scientists have named a species after a celebrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, researchers at UC Riverside named a newly identified nematode species Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi after actor Jeff Daniels, whose character in the 1990 film Arachnophobia was associated with the tribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Swift, the unusual honor adds her name to scientific records while also helping researchers draw public attention to insect diversity and the importance of conservation science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Newly identified Australian plant bugs have been named after Taylor Swift and her albums.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists have named a newly identified group of plant-eating insects after pop star Taylor Swift and some of her albums, giving the singer an unusual place in the world of taxonomy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":2000125606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"byline":[201],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000125605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","byline-rania-umutoni"],"bylines":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":2000122457,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-12.00.00-PM.jpeg","title":"WhatsApp Image 2026-08-14 at 12.00.00 PM","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"},"user_id":139}],"contributors":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":2000122457,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-12.00.00-PM.jpeg","title":"WhatsApp Image 2026-08-14 at 12.00.00 PM","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"},"user_id":139}],"featured_image":{"id":2000125606,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/Taylor-Swift-Swiftiephylus-taylorae-bug-090926-c9b3a6772a4845dd85804cfdd7ed840b.webp","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/webp","width":750,"height":500,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/Taylor-Swift-Swiftiephylus-taylorae-bug-090926-c9b3a6772a4845dd85804cfdd7ed840b.webp","width":750,"height":500},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/Taylor-Swift-Swiftiephylus-taylorae-bug-090926-c9b3a6772a4845dd85804cfdd7ed840b.webp","width":750,"height":500},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/Taylor-Swift-Swiftiephylus-taylorae-bug-090926-c9b3a6772a4845dd85804cfdd7ed840b.webp","width":750,"height":500},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/Taylor-Swift-Swiftiephylus-taylorae-bug-090926-c9b3a6772a4845dd85804cfdd7ed840b.webp","width":750,"height":500},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/Taylor-Swift-Swiftiephylus-taylorae-bug-090926-c9b3a6772a4845dd85804cfdd7ed840b.webp","width":750,"height":500}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000125605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000125605"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000125605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000125635,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000125605\/revisions\/2000125635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000125606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000125605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000125605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000125605"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000125605"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000125605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}