New beetle species discovered in Amsterdam is named after The Beatles

The plan has finally Come Together: the world’s first actual beetle has been named after The Beatles.

Dutch researchers have announced that a new species discovered in Amsterdam’s Vondelpark during a “citizen science expedition” has been officially named after the legendary British band.

Taxon Expeditions, a group of scientists which takes members of the public on scientific trips, has appealed on social media for someone to “please alert Mr Paul McCartney” that Ptomaphagus thebeatles has now entered the public record.

The group has been somewhat late in receiving this honour, according to the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where one of the discovery team, biologist Joris Koene works.

“Insects are often named after famous musicians,” said the university in a press release. “A treehopper has been named after Lady Gaga, a fly after Beyoncé and four types of damselfly have been named after all Queen band members.

“Strangely, a beetle has never been named after the Beatles. This has now been rectified in a new publication in the scientific journal, Contributions to Zoology.”

Although the name might seem rather obvious, researchers came up with the idea because the new beetle was discovered at a part of Amsterdam’s Vondelpark near the Hilton Hotel. This was the location where John Lennon and Yoko Ono famously did a bed-in for peace protest 51 years ago – an event which brought the world’s press to Amsterdam and which was marked by a special exhibition of photographs last year.

This isn’t the first discovery made by Taxon Exhibitions either, which has also found a new type of parasitic wasp, the Aphaereta vondelparkensis and was founded by researchers from the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre.

However the newly-named bottom-dwelling beetle, which is just 2mm long, is unlikely to find quite the same limelight as his namesake and is believed to be keen to Give Peace a Chance.