Scientists Name Beetle After Colbert

Scientists who bestowed names of Bush administration officials on a trio of bugs have named a new Venezuelan beetle after Stephen Colbert, the Washington Times reports. "Last year, Stephen shamelessly asked the science community to name something cooler than a spider to honor him," said one of the scientists. "His top choices were a giant ant or a laser lion."

“While those would be cool species to discover, our research involves beetles, and they are way cooler than a spider any day,” he continued. Agaporomorphus colberti "belongs to a species group...based on the common presence of a pair of rows of fine setae on the dorsal surface of the male's reproductive organs,” says a proclamation announcing the name. The researchers sent a framed image of the beetle to Colbert for his 45th birthday. (More Stephen Colbert stories.)