Slime-Mold Beetles Named After Bush, Cheney, & Rumsfield (moved from ATSNN), page 1

The job of providing names for 65 different, recently discovered variations of the Agathidium (slime-mold beetle), presented entomologists, Kelly B. Miller and Quentin Wheeler, with a great opportunity. In honor of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfield, 3 of the new beetles have been named A. bushi Miller and Wheeler, A. cheneyi Miller and Wheeler and A. rumsfeldi Miller and Wheeler. After all, what could be better than having a slime-mold beetle named after you, right?

www.boston.com
Naming the beetles after Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld was intended to pay homage to them, said Wheeler, who taught at Cornell University for 24 years and now is with the Natural History Museum in London.

"We admire these leaders as fellow citizens who have the courage of their convictions and are willing to do the very difficult and unpopular work of living up to principles of freedom and democracy rather than accepting the expedient or popular," he said.

For anyone looking to hunt down one of the new slime-mold beetles, Wheeler said that Agathidium bushi has so far been found in southern Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia. Rumsfeldi and cheneyi are from south of the border in Mexico.

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I think this was a sincere, noble gesture on the entomologists part, and I can't imagine a more apporpriate creature to bear their names.

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www.news.cornell.edu
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www.probertencyclopaedia.com
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