Over his long and illustrious career as a bodybuilder, actor, and politician, the great Arnold Schwarzenegger has been honored in a variety of ways. Adding to that ever-growing list is the recent naming of a newly discovered insect after him.
Brian Brown, an entomologist with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, recently discovered a new species of fly in the Brazilian Amazon that sported some seriously jacked legs. So when it was time to come up with a name for the buff bug, the call was a no-brainer.
The fly was officially named Megapropodiphora arnoldi. In case you were wondering what that first word means, it’s Latin for large foreleg. As for the second word, you get the drift.
“As soon as I saw those bulging legs, I knew I had to name this one after Arnold,” Brown said in a statement. “Not only is he a major cultural icon and an important person in the political realm, his autobiography gave me some hope that I could improve my body as a skinny teenager.” For these reasons, Brown acknowledged, the seven-time Mr. Olympia champion deserves to have the new fly named in his honor.
Aside from it’s bulging legs, the insect also showcases other unique attributes. “It is known only from one female specimen that we almost overlooked because it is so incredibly small,” said Brown. It’s also the world’s smallest known fly, measuring just .395 mm. Still, for such a tiny creature, its forelegs look like they got a good pump after legs day at the gym.
While the fly hasn’t been observed in the wild yet, Brown believes it’s most likely a parasitic insect that probably uses ants or termites as hosts. Brown believes the flies grab onto the hosts and “hold on for dear life” until they reach a nest or colony where they can better, ahem, terminate their victims.
Of course, this insect isn’t the only living thing to be named after Arnold. Just recently, some folks at the SPCA in New York gave this reptile the bodybuilding icon‘s name after taking possession of it.
