Should beetles be named after Adolf Hitler?
In 1934, a German paleontologist named a giant flying insect from the Carboniferous period
Rochlingia hitleri
, after Adolf Hitler, who had just taken power in Germany, and Hermann Röchling, an anti-semitic steel manufacturer and member of the Nazi Party. Three years later, an Austrian amateur entomologist named a
brown, eyeless beetle
from Slovenian caves
Anophthalmus hitleri
because he admired Hitler. In recent years, neo-Nazis have reportedly paid thousands for specimens,
pushing the beetle toward extinction
.
Some researchers have
argued for years
that
A. hitleri
and other species names, including the many that
honor racists and colonizers
, are offensive and
should be changed
. A few societies have
taken steps
toward doing so
. But not the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), and its stance has ignited fierce debate.
In January, the commission, which arbitrates on the correct use of scientific names of animals, announced in the
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
(
ZJLS
) that it
will not consider changing animal names
many researchers consider offensive. “If these names are not stable, you can create a massive confusion,” explains ICZN Commissioner Luis Ceríaco, a biologist at the University of Porto. But on 23 August, a
series of editorials
in the same journal pushed back, saying the dec...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
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