Controversial Species Names: Should They Be Changed?

KOMPAS.com – Some scientists are pushing for the names of animal species given to people with controversial backgrounds, such as Hitler’s beetle and Mussolini’s butterfly, to be changed.

The species names of the Hitler beetle and Mussolini butterfly are taken from two controversial figures, namely Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

So far, all types of living and extinct animals, plants and microbes have had a two-word scientific name used to refer to that species. For example Homo sapiens for modern humans.

The first word (Homo) is the genus name given to all closely related species. Meanwhile, the second word (sapiens) is given to one species.

The species name is controversial

Quoted from Live Science, Saturday (16/9/2023) scientists who discover a new species or genus are usually given the responsibility to name their discovery.

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Recently, a spate of species have emerged named after celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as political figures such as the president of the United States.

However, in the past, this process has led to some species being given the names of controversial people, such as Hitler and Mussolini.

There are at least two species named after Hitler, namely Rochlingia hitleri, an extinct flying insect from the Carboniferous period (359 million to 299 million years ago) discovered by German paleontologists in 1934.

Then Anophthalmus hitleri, a blind cave beetle from Slovenia which was named by German researchers in 1937.

Meanwhile, Mussolini’s name was given to a species of butterfly, Hypopta mussolinii, which originates from Libya, one of the countries occupied by Italy during Mussolini’s time.

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Apart from being insensitive and outdated, these names can cause problems for the animals themselves.

For example, A. hitleri actually nearly became extinct because neo-Nazi collectors paid thousands of dollars to obtain their specimens

Many scientists now believe it is time to acknowledge past mistakes and put the controversy behind them by renaming the species.

However, the governing body in charge of naming animal species strongly opposes the idea.

Change of species name

In January, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), the organization that approves and records the names of all animal species, published a paper in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

There, ICZN argued that changing the name of a species would cause confusion among researchers because the affected species would have two separate names in the scientific literature.

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This goes against the organization’s main goal for naming animals, namely stability.

ICZN researchers also note that there are hundreds of thousands of animal species named after people or places and that renaming some species would open up the possibility of many other species becoming problematic.

However, in a series of new editorials published Aug. 23 in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, dozens of researchers challenged ICZN’s initial decision.

The researchers argue that science should not be excluded from broader societal changes in order to make researchers’ lives easier.

Anjali Goswami, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London and president of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, said that even if the ICZN wanted to prevent the renaming of species, the most egregious names would still have to be changed.

So, will the scientific naming of animals with this controversial name be changed? Let’s just wait.

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2023-09-18 05:30:00
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