Allow us to introduce you to Binburrum Articuno, Binburrum Moltres and Binburrum Zapdos – three new Australian beetles named after Pokémon.
The entire world might believe that Australia is crawling with snakes and spiders, but now we can add Pokémon to the mix as well. Yes, it’s time to dust off your Pokédex after three newly-discovered Aussie beetles have been given some pretty famous monikers.
Meet the newly-named Binburrum Articuno, Binburrum Moltres and Binburrum Zapdos. If you’re not a fan of bugs, maybe don’t scroll down…
The admittedly strange news stems from Dr. Darren Pollock, Professor of entomology at Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU), and Yun Hsiao, a PhD student at the Australian National University. According to VG24/7 the pair made the announcement in a research paper published in The Canadian Entomologist in December 2020, but the development has only now gone mainstream.
“The choice of a name for a new species is not trivial; it must be different from any other described species,” Pollock explained in a statement over on ENMU’s website. “One of the ways to ensure this is to make a name that nobody would ever have come up with before.”
You can bloody say that again.
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According to the professor, the genesis of the Pokémon theme came from Yun, who like many of us, was an aspiring Pokémon trainer as a child.
For those of you who have pushed such factoids to the back of your brain, Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos are some of the most legendary Pokémon in the series’ first-generation. Essentially they’re giant birds capable of devastating ice, fire and electric attacks respectively. We personally can’t say we see the resemblance, but we’re not here to judge.
We’re quietly hoping that an Eevee is uncovered next, but we’ll let these beetles have their 15 minutes. That said, we do not recommend you try to catch em’ all.
Just stick to Sword/Shield and let them do their thing.
