A rare species of horse fly has remained nameless for decades – there are over 4,000 species of horse flies worldwide to be categorized and named, after all. That is, until researcher Bryan Lessard, who works at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia, decided to name the insect after the American pop star, Beyonce Knowles, who, with her past group, Destiny’s Child, in 2001, released the hit single “Bootylicious.”

The horse fly was found in the Queensland providence – a northeastern area in Australia – with two other horse fly species in 1981, the year Ms. Knowles was born. ”It was the unique dense golden hairs on the fly’s abdomen that led me to name this fly in honor of the performer Beyoncé, as well as giving me the chance to demonstrate the fun side of taxonomy – the naming of species,” Lessard states in CSIRO’s media release.

As stated by the researcher, the horse fly is an “all time diva of flies,” having a “bootylicious,” golden rear end. The species, named Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae, is one of the five species of horse flies belonging to the new species subgroup (Plinthina), which has been doubled in the number of species due to the discovery of the fly with the golden butt. More than one hundred species of horse fly are categorized in the genus Scaptia.

“Most Australian Scaptia species have been described,” Lessard states. “However, these five ‘new’ species of a sub-group (Plinthina) have been housed in Australian collections since the group was last studied in the 1960’s.” More detailed information regarding Beyonce’s fly is provided in Lessard’s paper, which was published in the August online edition of the Australian Journal of Entomology.

Horse flies are more than their frightful appearances and ferocious stings. They actually play an important role in the ecosystem. “Horse flies act like hummingbirds during the day, drinking nectar from their favorite varieties of grevillea, tea trees, and eucalyptus,” explains Lessard. According to the research organization’s news blog, the CSIRO has yet to hear any reaction from Beyonce, who has recently given birth to her first child, Blue Ivy Carter.

Beyonce is not the only celebrity to have a species’ binomial nomenclature designated after a celebrity’s apellation. Others include Arnold Schwarzenegger and the carabid beetle, Agra schwarzeneggeri, Roy Orbinson and the beetle, Orectochilus, Sting and the frog, Hyla stingus, Frank Zappa and the spider, Pachygnatha zappa, and Mick Jagger and the trilobite, Aegrotocatellus jaggeri.

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El Chupacabra, the infamous vampire creature first discovered in the mid-1990’s, is not real, according to one expert.  Well-published writer and skeptic Benjamin Radford, author of several books on monsters and paranormal phenomena and managing editor of the journal The Skeptical Inquirer and LiveScience columnist, has released what he says to be definitive proof that El Chupacabra is not real, but rather a forgotten memory from the 1995 sci-fi film Species.

The bipedal alien-like creature was first spotted in Puerto Rico in 1995 when two goats were found drained of all their blood. Since then, El Chupacabra, Spanish for goat sucker, has turned up in many different iterations from Mexico to Florida to Texas, whenever livestock turn up dead.

Radford reported noticing a strong resemblance to the alien/human hybrid in Species to the alleged vampire creature.   When he spoke to El Chupacabra’s first reported victim Madelyne Tolentino, he asked her if the thing that she saw could have been inspired by the film. She admitted that she had seen the movie in the weeks prior to making her description.  “You can make a direct connection between the film hitting theaters, her seeing the creature in the film, seeing it in the street, making the report and entering the public conscious,” Radford said.

After speaking with Tolentino, Radford went on to the other reported sightings, none of which were described nearly the same as the original. One farmer in Texas even managed to shoot a predator he believed to be El Chupacabra but DNA tests revealed it was a coyote with a severe case of mange.   “By the mid-2000s, anything weird was being called El Chupacabra,” he said. “Mangy coyotes. Dead raccoons. Even a dried fish in New Mexico, which looks nothing like El Chupacabra.”

Other skeptics have also pointed out that if El Chupacabra were real, they would need a lot of food.  If they were vampires, you would expect to find more blood-drained carcasses than the sporadic findings throughout the years.

Not all are convinced of Radford’s theory though.  A resemblance to a movie character is hardly “definitive proof” as Radford advertised. Radford defends his theory against that argument.  “The question then becomes which is more likely, the astronomical chance that this creature looks exactly like the one from ‘Species,’ or that the film is just where she got the depiction?”  Radford questioned.

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