Bio Briefs

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Matt Nelson

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May 06, 2009
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'Diving Beetle' named after Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert

Tags: arizona state university, bioagriculture

[Source: ScienceDaily] - "What has six legs and is way cooler than a spider?" asks a riddle on the cover of a birthday card sent to Stephen Colbert by entomologists Quentin Wheeler at Arizona State University and Kelly Miller at the University of New Mexico.

The answer – Agaporomorphus colberti – is a diving beetle from Venezuela named by Wheeler and Miller to honor Colbert, the satirical host and executive producer of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."

Knowing Colbert's fondness for recognition (there's his popular segment on the show: "Who's Not Honoring Me Now") and for presents, the scientists sent the political satirist a framed print of the beetle as a birthday gift to mark his 45th birthday on May 13.

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