A Turkish scientist studying insects for the last 30 years decided to name a newly-discovered species after his father in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakır province.
During a study in Silvan district, Professor Erol Yıldırım from the Plant Protection Department of Erzurum Atatürk University's Faculty of Agriculture, discovered a new species from the Tiphiidae family of Hymenoptera order, naming the bug as "Tiphia Bahattini" upon the request of his father Bahattin.
Yıldırım said that the name "Tiphia Bahattini" was also published in an academic journal and is now a part of international literature, adding that his father was very happy after this incident.
Explaining that insects can be described as deeds of the region that they belong to, Yıldırım said that there are over 20 insects named by himself. "I name the bugs after the area where they were found in, such as 'Microdynerus Erzincanensis' (Erzincan province), 'Leptochilus Palandokenicus' (Mount Palandöken), 'Onychopterocheilus Sarikamisensis' (Sarıkamış district), 'Athous artvinensis' (Artvin province)," he said.
Yıldırım added that foreign scientists named four types of insects after himself with names "eroli" and "yildirimi."
Yıldırım also runs Entomological Museum of Erzurum Turkey, which was founded in 1966 and houses 50,000 different types of insects.
