Apr. 4, 2013 — The genus Megachile is a cosmopolitan group of solitary bees, often called leafcutter bees. This is one of the largest genera of bees, with well over 1,500 species in over 50 subgenera. A new species, Megachile chomskyi, has been found only in Texas, US. What is specific and interesting about this bee is the fact that it is among those insects which exhibit a narrow, specialized preference for pollen sources. Presumably, the irreplaceable host of M. chomskyiare the beautiful flowers of the widespread Onagraceae, or the so-called Evening-Primrose Family.
The study has been recently published in the peer review, open access journal ZooKeys, with distribution data available via Canadensys.
The new species is named after Professor Noam Chomsky, Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his long career and many academic achievements and contributions as a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, political critic, activist and global champion of human rights. Previously, Prof. Chomsky had inspired the name of another animal, the chimpanzee Nim Chimpsky, who was a part of an extended study of animal language acquisition at Columbia University. The pun referred to Chomsky's influential role in the development of modern linguistics, including in the ongoing debate about what aspects of language are unique to humans.
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