Mirjana Roksandic, an anthropologist at the University of Winnipeg in Canada, said, "This is an innocent insect. Why don't we change the name and put an end to the illegal buying and selling of this insect?"
Anophthalmus hitleri was found in Slovenia in 1933 by Austrian engineer and amateur entomologist Oskar Scheibel. The controversy over the insect has also revived other similar cases in the scientific literature.
Benito Mussolini, the leader of the National Fascist Party in Italy, was named after the butterfly Hypopta mussolinii, found in Libya, and the British slaver and plantation owner George Hibbert was named after the plant Hibbertia.
However, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), which approves and registers the names of all animal species, does not welcome requests to change names.
In a paper published in January, the commission argued that it was not appropriate to change these names because it could cause confusion among researchers and destabilize the literature.
However, in a paper published in August in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, some scientists argued that this was not a valid reason.
"Prioritizing stability over social justice is unacceptable," said entomologist Marcos Raposo of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Neo-Nazis started collecting the Hitler beetle and the scientific world got involved!
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