COURT ORDER

Praying Mantis Species Named After Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Scientists paid homage to the Supreme Court justice with a species discovered when its females were treated equally.

The Notorious R.B.G. is now the one handing out nicknames.

Scientists at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History announced Wednesday they named a new species of praying mantis, Llomantis ginsburgae, after the 83-year-old Supreme Court Justice.

“We named it for her in honor of her commitment to women’s rights and gender equality,” said Sydney Brannoch, a Ph.D. student at Case Western Reserve University who led research into the Llomantis genus, along with Gavin Svenson, in a video posted to YouTube by the Cleveland museum.

The museum says the research is the first formal study to use female genital structures to delimit a new species of praying mantis.

“As a feminist biologist, I often questioned why female specimens weren’t used to diagnose most species,” Brannoch says in the announcement. “This research establishes the validity of using female specimens in the classification of praying mantises. It is my hope that our work not only sets a precedent in taxonomy but also underscores the need for scientists to investigate and equally consider both sexes in other scientific investigations.”

Brannoch also said the team named the species after Ginsburg in appreciation of her jabot, the ornamental ruffle she regularly wears with her robes. The decorative neck accessory apparently resembles the neck plate of the insect.

Ginsberg is just one of a long line of famous people to have animals named after them. A new tarantula was named after Johnny Cash in February, and a species of swamp pigs was named in honor of Mick Jagger in September 2015.

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Peter Slattery

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