Two entomologists decided to name their recently discovered new species of Australian beetles Binburrum articuno Binburrum moltres, and Binburrum zapdos, bringing the circle of Pokémon back to what originally inspired the hit video game series.
In the world of scientific research, those who put in the hard work to provide new findings may also name them, and in the case of Eastern New Mexico University entomology professor Dr. Darren Pollock, and the Australian National University Ph.D. student Yun Hsiao, which meant immortalizing their latest beetle discoveries with the names of three of Pokémon’s most famous and powerful birds.
“I was introduced to a Taiwanese entomology student named Yun Hsiao about five or six years ago,” Pollock told Eastern New Mexico University press. in an interview last week“When he first contacted me it was very clear that he knew his (bug) stuff and was very excited about some of the same things that I was.”
During his Ph.D. studies, Pollock discovered a new genus of beetle that he came to call “BinburrumRecently, Hsiao discovered several same-sex beetles while collecting specimens for his own work. The new beetles were so obvious that the two decided to collaborate in documenting and naming them for a paper published in The Canadian Entomologist.
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“The choice of a name for a new species is not trivial; it must be different from any other species described, ”said Pollock. “One of the ways to make this happen is to build a name that no one would have come up with before.”
He continued:
Yun says he was an aspiring Pokémon trainer when he was young, so because of the rarity of the instances of the three new species, he suggested naming them after the three legendary bird Pokémon. Of course I thought this was a great idea, and so are the new strains to be revealed to the world in 2020 Binburrum articuno Binburrum moltres and Binburrum zapdos – all with Hsiao and Pollock as the authors. We already have plans to describe more new species of this genus that have emerged since we finished the paper, with perhaps more Pokémon names.
The great irony here is that the Pokémon series was itself partially inspired by collecting insects. Co-founder of Game Freak and Pokémon director Satoshi Tajiri was so famous in growing up insects that his classmates nicknamed him “Mr. Bug. Inspired by his childhood love of collecting insects and his later passion for video games, Tajiri finally came up with the idea for a Game Boy game in which players could collect creatures and compete against each other. Six years later, Pokémon Red and Green were released.
Now life imitates art and the creatures’ names are used to better catalog wildlife in the real world.