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.
Details on the body of Attenboroughnculus tau. Photograph: Trustees of the Natural History Museum
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.
Dr Gavin Broad, principal curator for insects at the Natural History Museum, led the study of the newly described insect, which is so distinct from its closest relatives that it cannot logically fit into any established genus.
“When I was far too young, I learnt about taxonomy from David Attenborough’s Life on Earth series and resolved to be a taxonomist. Amazingly, I ended up a taxonomist, so I have Sir David to thank for that,” said Broad.
The head of Attenboroughnculus tau. Photograph: Trustees of the Natural History Museum
Nothing is yet known about the new species’ habits or life-cycle, apart from that its eggs are laid inside another animal.
Attenborough at the Natural History Museum in 2014. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian
“One of its fairly close relatives in Australia attacks spider egg sacs so that could be what this group of species does, but who knows?” said Broad. “I am sure it will still be found in Chile, where there are some weird and wonderful species, but trying to find particular wasps is the proverbial needle in a haystack. The vast majority of ichneumonid wasps are undescribed still, and even in Britain we’re describing new species every year.”
Broad said he hoped Attenborough would be pleased with the naming, particularly with the honour of having a entire genus, a taxonomical subfamily, named after him – although “he may not be quite as excited about it compared to the echidna”. Attenborough has said the Natural History Museum is one of his favourite buildings.
A critically endangered echidna was named Zaglossus attenboroughi in 1998, after a single individual was collected in the Indonesian province of Papua in 1961. There were no sightings of Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna again though until 2023, when the first video footage of a living individual was recorded.
Scientists hope that the discovery of a new subfamily of parasitic wasps will encourage other scientists and taxonomists to look again to see if further unique species are hiding in historic collections, requiring new scientific descriptions and names.
Jennifer Pullar, science communications manager at the Natural History Museum and co-author of the paper published in the Journal of Natural History, said: “We hope to inspire global scientists to take another look in their collections to see if there is something small that could contribute to our collective understanding and therefore the future of our natural world.”