What was supposed to be a research trip to Papua New Guinea became a discovery of new weevil species for Alexander Riedel when he found himself grounded on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Together with Raden Pramesa Narakusumo, Riedel studied the local weevil specimens, and they discovered 24 species.
The duo found it difficult to name the newly discovered species, but they settled calling one Trigonopterus corona, to show how much impact the pandemic had over the project.
Some species had "standard" names, while others were named after Indonesian film characters and Star Wars characters, like the T. gundala and the T. yoda, respectively.
Trigonopterus corona is not the first species to be named after the coronavirus. A caddisfly and some wasp species were named after it, too.
More about this over at PENSOFT.
(Image Credit: Alexander Riedel)
(Image Credit: Raden Pramesa Narakusumo)