Australian fly species named after drag queen star RuPaul

You may have heard of the Beyoncé fly. Now, move over and welcome a colorful species of insect named for drag queen titan RuPaul.

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Both were named by Bryan Lessard, with RuPaul’s species -- Opaluma rupaul -- becoming the 50th named by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, NPR reported.

A decade after the Australian entomologist named the Beyoncé fly (Scaptia beyonceae), “Bry the Fly Guy” made RuPaul the first drag queen to be honored as a soldier fly, according to The Guardian.

The RuPaul insect is adorned with bold rainbow colors “with legs for days,” RuPaul tweeted.

“I wanted to do something quite spectacular,” Lessard told the Australian Broadcasting Company.

The Opaluma RuPaul hails from Lamington National Park in Queensland, which suffered extensive fire damage during 2019-2020, ABC reported.

The name is derived from the Latin words for opal and thorn because they look like “little gems buzzing around the forest floor” and have a distinctive thorn tucked under their abdomen, Lessard told The Guardian.

“I was watching a lot of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ while examining the species and I know it would challenge RuPaul on the runway serving fierce looks,” Lessard told the newspaper. “It has a costume of shiny metallic rainbow colors, and it has legs for days. I think once (RuPaul) sees the fly she’ll realize it’s quite fierce and hopefully appreciate the name.”

The CSIRO also named three newly discovered, rare beetles after Pokémon characters, CNN reported. They are named Binburrum articuno, Binburrum moltres and Binburrum zapdos after three rare Pokémon: Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos, according to the news network.

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