The Litarachna lopezae mite may be new but part of its name should sound familiar.
Found near Puerto Rico, the recently discovered species of water mite was christened after pop singer Jennifer Lopez, the Associated Press reported.
"The reason behind the unusual choice of name for the new species is ... simple: J.Lo's songs and videos kept the team in a continuous good mood when writing the manuscript and watching World Cup Soccer 2014," biologist Vladimir Pesic of the University of Montenegro told the AP in an email on Wednesday.
The University of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Coral Reef Institute teamed up for a series of trips from 2010 to 2012 to collect Litarachna lopezae specimens.
J.Lo's hits kept the research group in a good mood while writing about their findings, which have been published in Zookeys, a peer-reviewed online journal. Even when they disagreed on which World Cup team should win, the researchers had something in common.
"As European, I supported Germany, but the whole team was united with J.Lo songs," Pesic wrote.
Found at a depth of around 230 feet, the water mites came from a coral reef in Mona Passage, the body of water between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The mite named for Lopez isn't the first new find to be dubbed in honor of celebrities.
"Mick Jagger, for example, has a type of trilobite named after him, while one spider was named after Bono and a marine parasite found only in the Caribbean sea was named after Bob Marley," the AP reported.
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