Namesake

Jacinda Arden is quite the celebrity, but her stardom is a little more terrestrial than her political peers.
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The prime minister is "aware of this and very honored," said her office, in response to a new bug named after her. 
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And by the way: 

"A beetle and a lichen, along with an ant in Saudi Arabia, have also been named after her," said her spokesman. 

The Hemiandrus jacinda is a reported new species of wētā, a cricket native to New Zealand. It was named (and described) for the prime minister by Steven Trewick, a professor of evolutionary ecology at Massey University.

"Taxonomy lies at the heart of species conservation and many large New Zealand orthopterans [order of insects] remain to be described," said Assoc. Professor Morgan-Richards, Trewick's colleague, in 2016.

In the last six months, I thought about naming one of Jupiter's unexplored moons after myself. (Seriously, who's gonna care but me?)

Apparently, naming opportunities are plentiful in the insect world. If only the sight of a large creepy crawlee didn't send me hugging my knees in a corner.​

A comment on "Reflects Her Traits': Giant Insect Named After New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern" (S. Chaegodeva).

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand (© REUTERS | Edgar Su)

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