Scientists Name a Fly After Beyoncé—Can She Make Them Change It?

A newly discovered Australian horse fly has a very interesting ... rear. But does Beyoncé care?

Beyoncé has had an insect named after her. Could she contest that decision and make the scientists rename it?
—Robert P. via Facebook

You speak of a newly discovered horse fly with—and I swear I am not making this up—a golden butt.

The fly has golden hairs on its hindquarters. And because of that glowing rear, yes, scientists have named the fresh fly after Beyoncé.

Are you ready for this? It's called:

Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae.

That's scientist-speak for a bootylicious insect.

The fly was discovered in Australia, sitting in a long-standing insect collection since it was first captured in 1981, a date that is held dear by Beyoncé fans as the year she was born.

Bryan Lessard, the researcher in charge of the discovery, has reportedly said that the development would put Beyoncé "in the nature history books forever" and that the fly now bearing her name is "pretty bootylicious."

Team B, if you will, did not return my request for comment, but even if they were, um, stung, that's just too bad, attorneys say.

"Any fly with a golden butt fairly begs to be called Beyoncé," cracks Todd Bonder, an attorney with the entertainment law firm Rosenfeld Meyer and Susman.

"But I would dissuade her from chasing this issue. She's got no [legal] claim. It's like someone wanting to name a street after her. If you're just paying homage it's not actionable."

Now, if this fly doubled as some sort of designer decor and there was a patent and people were lining up to buy them and, I don't know, stick them on their lapels or lampshades, that would be a different story. Somebody would be capitalizing on Beyoncé's golden-butted name without cutting her in on it. And that would be bad.

But this is science. No one wants to clone the fly and stick it on a lapel. And besides, Beyoncé doesn't have a reputation as a lawsuit-happy, um, gadfly.

"There are plenty of bloodsuckers in entertainment industry," Bonder quips to this B!tch. "But I don't think Beyoncé is one of them."