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Scientists pay tribute to tennis players with new insect species named after them

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will go down in history as two of the greatest tennis players of our time, but their names have also been immortalized in science, as two new insect species were just named in honor of the athletes.

A team of insect scientists from the Integrative Insect Ecology Research Unit in Thailand's Chulalongkorn University described two new wasp species named Troporhogas rogerfedereri and Troporhogas rafaelnadali in a tribute to the two tennis legends.

"T. rogerfedereri and T. rafaelnadali are parasitoid wasps, whose larvae devour their hosts from the inside," says Buntika Areekul Butcher, who led the study to describe the new insects.

"As their names proclaim, they honor the tennis greats Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal, who although competitors on the court have been on the same doubles team too. Also, two of the authors are huge fans of both Roger and Rafa."

Both of the new wasps are 6 mm long, with black, white and orange color patterns. They were found in two major Thai national parks, Khao Yai and Khao Sok, both of which are popular attractions for natural history tourists.

The scientists published their discoveries in a in the open-access zoology journal ZooKeys.