Imagine your life was like an actual Buzzfeed quiz, in that you could answer a series of questions and wind up with a deranged fate (“You’re Moe Szyslak from the Simpsons!”) that you then had to live out the rest of your days in accordance with. In some ways, that’s what it’s like being a celebrity with a newly discovered insect named after you – only in reverse order. Does said insect have a) a pink wig, b) a thicc ass and c) give you whiplash? Well, it looks like Joe Bloggs from a university science lab in Hull is going to name that little critter after Nicki Minaj!
I digress. But this is the latest development in the life of Lady Gaga: Oscar-nominated actor; pop music extraordinaire; one-time outlandish dresser who then took some time off of dressing outlandishly before, alas, donning dazzling pink bodysuits again, giving the gays everything they asked for. That technicolour return to pop glory has led one intrepid university PhD student, who’s been unpacking the behaviour of 1000 treehoppers, to name a stand-out female bug with some pretty distinctive features after Gaga. Its official name is Kaikaia gaga, or K. Gaga for short.
Might such a stunning development have happened during the more conservative Joanne era? I don’t think so! This is a bug for the Chromatica era instead. “If there is going to be a Lady Gaga bug, it’s going to be a treehopper because they’ve got these crazy horns,” Brendan Morris, the University of Illinois PhD candidate said of his decision. “They have this wacky fashion sense about them. They’re unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.”
The actual bug is native to Nicaragua, where Brendan is yet to venture, so he’s currently planning on saving up to fund a research trip to the Central American nation to observe its behaviour in the wild. A bit like when I saved up my paycheques from working part-time in a shoe shop to make the trip from Scotland to Twickenham Stadium to see the Born This Way Ball in 2012. Intrepid explorers, the lot of us!
As fun as all this bug news may be, this isn’t the first time an insect has been named after Gagz. Back in 2012, a parasitoid wasp was named Aleiodes gaga after the star too, making her the most homaged pop star in the world of hexapod invertebrates! We stan representation!