Scientists just named a newly discovered water beetle after Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio is an Academy Award winning actor, environmental activist, and most recently, a beetle namesake. 

A water beetle species discovered in Malaysia was named Grouvellinus leonardodicaprioi in honor of DiCaprio’s environmental work. The tiny black beetle — Leotle, if you will — was  found on the side of a waterfall in Malaysian Borneo. The 3mm Leotle found by scientists was in rough shape — it was missing an antennae and front leg. 

The expedition, organized by Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines and Dutch organization Taxon Expeditions, is part of a program that trains every day people to capture, study, and identify new species. In a video by Taxon Expeditions, the group calls the new beetle’s discoverers “ecotourists trained by experts in rainforest biology.” Read more…

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