Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old environment activist, has inspired thousands of people across the world, now, that effort has been offset, as two species have been named after her, and that list could probably increase.
From the forests of Nairobi, Kenia, and inspired by its labour, this tiny beetle has been named Nelloptodes gretae, and belongs to the Ptiliidae family, a highly diverse group of minute beetles, with over 400 species within, but is was stored unnamed in the Natural History Museum of Londo’s collection after it was collected in mid 60's , until late 2019, when is was formelly described and named by researches at NHM.
- The tiny Nelloptodes gretae, measures 0.79 millimetres long, and it has no eyes or wings.
Greta's own passion has inspired other scientists, who named a microsnail as Craspedotropis gretathunbergae, honouring her. This tiny snail inhabit Borneo tropical rainforests, and is very sensitive to the droughts and temperature extremes that are likely to be more frequent as climate change continues, comment dutchs researchers at Taxon Expeditions, who made the discovery
- Craspedotropis gretathunbergae has a pale, spire high conical shell, and as orther microsnails, measures about two millimeters. Photograph by Pierre Escoubas. See video of a living individual here
- reference (Open Access):
Menno Schilthuizen et al. 2020. Craspedotropis gretathunbergae, a new species of Cyclophoridae (Gastropoda: Caenogastropoda), discovered and described on a field course to Kuala Belalong rainforest, Brunei. Biodiversity Data Journal
-Michael, 2019. Studies of Ptiliidae (Coleoptera) in the spirit collection of the Natural History Museum, London, 6: New species and records collected by W.C. Block in Kenya and Uganda, 1964–1965. Entomologist's Monthly Magazine