SMALL SIZE, BIG IMPACT

Newly Discovered Beetle Named After Teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg

To pay tribute to her “outstanding contribution” to raising climate awareness.

A newly discovered tiny beetle has been named after the teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, the London’s Natural History Museum reportedly announced Friday. According to the Associated Press, the Nelloptodes gretae—an insect less than 1 millimeter long with no eyes or wings—was named after the 16-year-old Swede largely credited for pushing climate activism into the mainstream. Michael Darby, a scientific associate at the museum who found the insect, said he chose to name the insect after Thunberg to pay tribute to her “outstanding contribution” to raising climate awareness. The bug, part of the Ptiliidae family of beetles, reportedly belongs to a 1960s collection from soil and leaf litter samples from Nairobi, Kenya—which was donated to the museum in the late ’70s.