The jury is out on whether this fly is as buzzingly annoying as the “merc with a mouth” can be.
CSIRO
The process of naming things in science can be a fun one. From a plant named after Lady Gaga to a mushroom named after Spongebob Squarepants, there’s no shortage of pop culture references in the world of flora and fauna.
So it should come as no surprise that over the past year, scientists at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia have named a selection of various species after our favorite Avengers and a certain fourth wall-breaking “merc with a mouth.”
Yes, first 2020 brought us murder hornets. Now we have Deadpool’s fly.
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CSIRO entomologist Bryan Lessard explained the reasoning behind the name in a press release, saying, “Deadpool fly is an assassin with markings on its back that resembles Deadpool’s mask.” And seriously, it does. Check the image above and you can see the famed assassin staring right back at you. It’s uncanny!
“We chose the name Humorolethalis sergius,” said Lessard. “It sounds like lethal humour and is derived from the Latin words humorosus, meaning wet or moist, and lethalis meaning dead.”
Given what we know about Deadpool, it seems pretty apt.
Other Avengers-themed flies include Thor’s Daptolestes bronteflavus (blond thunder), Loki’s Daptolestes illusiolautus
(elegant deception), Black Widow’s Daptolestes feminategus (woman wearing leather) and even one in honor of iconic Marvel creator Stan Lee, Daptolestes leei, which shares his iconic sunglasses and white mustache.
Outside of the Marvel universe, CSIRO also named 151 new insects, eight new plants, two new fish, one new mite and three new subspecies of bird — all in the past year.
According to Lessard, it’s important to identify and name as many species as possible in order to better understand their place in our world.
“We are interested in identifying new insect species that might be useful pollinators, nutrient recyclers or the next food source to support the agricultural sector.”
Just putting it out there to any CSIRO scientists looking to name their next insect: Ant-Man seems too easy, but you could definitely work with something Paul Rudd-adjacent.