Lady Gaga’s Unique Fashion Sense Inspires Grad Student to Name a Bug After Her
Image Credit: Los Angeles Times
We all know Lady Gaga for being the X Factor when it comes to her fashion sense during public appearances. Could it be that a bug copped her style without even trying?
Brendan Morris, a PhD candidate in entomology at University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign was studying treehoppers that had been found nearly three decades ago near the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. After studying the female species of the bug, he found these ladies had some unique characteristics that distinguished them from the other bugs. It was for this reason that he chose to give the genus the name Kaikaia Gaga.
Morris and the co-author of the study, Illinois Natural History Survey entomologist Christopher Dietrich explained that the creatures had an additional m-cu crossvein in the forewing, as well as a frontoclypeal shape and overall appearance similar to Platycentrus Sta along with a “narrow, straight shape of the second valvulae.”
To put it in plainer English, here’s a quote Morris gave to the Illinois News Bureau. “If there’s going to be a Lady Gaga bug, it’s going to be a treehopper because they’ve got these crazy horns. They have this wacky fashion sense about them. They’re unlike anything you’ve seen before.”
He goes onto say, “Treehoppers are wacky and I think that makes them especially suited to be ‘spokesbugs’ for the wide range of habitats they use.”
To understand how ‘wacky’ treehoppers truly are, they can be referred to as morphological wonders. They have bizarre protuberances, gnarled antlers, fruiting fungi and brightly colored flags. They suck on plant juices and sing to each other by vibrating plant stems. They are also an important food source for other forest dwellers.
What really set the KaiKaia Gaga apart was head and body shape, leg and body hairs and genitalia.
Morris was unable to extract any DNA from the bug but he plans to visit Nicaragua to further study the creatures and find out more about what makes them unique.
Shifting back to music news, the real Lady Gaga is still going strong. She has just announced a six date summer tour kicking off July 6 in Paris which will include US dates in Boston, Chicago and East Rutherford, NJ. Everyone who buys a ticket will be getting a complementary copy of her new album Chromatica which is set to drop on April 10. It will be available on CD, cassette and various colors in vinyl.
Lady Gaga is an artist that is said to be just as notorious for her outrageous style as her pop hits. Perhaps her most infamous moment was when she showed up for the MTV Music Awards in a dress made out of raw beef. I wonder what her namesake, the KaiKaia Gaga would have to say about that.
