The Longest Scientific Name
Meet the southeast Asian soldier fly, perhaps an unremarkable creature in the general scheme of things except for one crucial feature. Its scientific name is Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides which makes it the creature with the longest valid scientific name. Its genus comes from ancient Greek meaning “near soldier wasp-fly” and the species translates to “wasp-fly like”. Its club-shaped abdomen, long antennae, and darkened wings make it look like a wasp, even though it has no stinger. Hence its name.
However, in 1926 Benedykt Dybowski named an amphipod Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus loricatobaicalensis which is longer but it was suppressed under the rules of the International Code of Zoological Notation. There is a predatory bacterium found near and named after the village in Anglesey where I first went to school, Myxococcus llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensis, which is longer but while it is an organism it is not an animal.
The southeast Asian soldier fly can rest easy for a while.
