Newly discovered millipede named after Taylor Swift by a Swiftie scientist

Newly discovered millipede named after Taylor Swift

International award-winning singer Taylor Swift gets a newly discovered millipede named after her by US researchers. The twisted-claw millipede is named Nanaria swiftae, one of the 17 rare species discovered in the Appalachian Mountains, Tennessee. Dr. Derek Hennen, the lead author of the Virginia Tech researchers tweeted about naming the insect after the multi-Grammy American singer-songwriter as a form of thanks for Swift’s influence and songs that helped him in his graduate school.

This new millipede species is Nannaria swiftae: I named it after @taylorswift13! I'm a big fan of her music, so I wanted to show my appreciation by naming this new species from Tennessee after her. A high honor! pic.twitter.com/fXml3xX5Vs

— Derek Hennen, Ph.D. (@derekhennen) April 15, 2022

Nannaria swiftae has been discovered only in Tennessee, the US state where Taylor Swift lived, and began her music career. Taylor Swift belongs to the genus Nannaria, a group of small-bodied millipedes. The millipede is described to have a shiny caramel-brown to black body with white, red, or orange spots, a length of 18 to 38mm, identifiable white legs, and small, twisted, and flattened claws on their anterior legs. The species are usually found in forested habitats near streams and buried under the soil. Millipedes are generally known to be valuable natural decomposers. The Virginia Tech researchers detailed the Nannaria swiftae millipede along with the other 17 newly discovered species in Tennessee in their research paper published in the open-access journal ZooKeys. No comment has been heard from the singer as of the writing. KSO/Expat Media

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