Source: Latina Magazine
A group of scientists in Puerto Rico wanted to pay tribute to the woman who inspired them through a two-year long research process: Jennifer Lopez. Naturally, they chose to pay homage to their idol by naming a water mite after the boricua. Yep, a bug.
“The reason behind the unusual choice of name for the new species is…. simple: J.Lo’s songs and videos kept the team in a continuous good mood when writing the manuscript and watching the World Cup Soccer 2014,” said biologist Vladimir Pesic, who works at the University of Montenegro.
The team of scientists authored their study on the water mite during the 2014 World Cup. Although they all supported different teams, they found common ground in their love of Jenny of From The Block.
“As [a] European, I supported Germany, but the whole team was united with J.Lo songs,” Pesic wrote in an email to Fox News Latino.
The gesture, he said, is a token of gratitude for hits like “I Luh Ya Papi”, “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” and Pesic’s personal favorite, “All I Have.”
The mite — in case you’re curious — is officially named Litarachna lopezae. The scientists collected the mite from a coral reef in the Mona Passage, a treacherous body of water and separates Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic. On Tuesday, they published their study on Litarachna lopezae in the peer-reviewed online journal ZooKeys.
Jennifer Lopez isn’t the first celebrity to lend her name to an organism. Mick Jagger has a type of trilobite named after him, and there’s a spider named after Bono. The more you know.