Specimen from 1983 lay forgotten at Natural History Museum until recently, when spotted by a volunteer and identified as new genus
He has lizards, bats, frogs, weevils, flatworms, snails and spiders named after him. But now Sir David Attenborough can celebrate his 100th birthday with an entirely new genus named in his honour.
Scientists from the Natural History Museum in London have paid tribute to the world-renowned broadcaster for his 100th birthday on 8 May by describing a new genus of parasitic wasp and a new species found within the museum’s collections.
Attenboroughnculus tau is an enigmatic ichneumon wasp with a body just 3.5mm long. The species name, tau, refers to a striking T-shaped marking on the insect’s abdomen.
The specimen was collected in 1983 in the Valdivia province of Chile but lay forgotten in an unsorted drawer in the Natural History Museum until recently, when its unusual characteristics were spotted by Augustijn De Ketelaere, a volunteer, during a detailed examination of the ichneumonid collections.
