A Newly Discovered Cockroach in Singapore Is Named After a Pokémon

A seventh-generation Pokémon has been found in real life.

Well, a new species of cockroach has been discovered in Singapore and the scientists responsible for putting this new entry into Southeast Asia’s entomological fauna are such big fans of the game franchise that they decided to name the insect after one of the Ultra Beasts in Pokémon. The official name of the roach is Nocticola pheromosa.

The Straits Times reported that Foo Maosheng, a scientific officer at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, and Cristian Lucanas co-authored the study, which took years to complete. The species was first collected between 2016 and 2017, but no formal record of the cockroach existed in Singapore at the time. Then came Mr. Lucanas, an entomologist from the University of the Philippines, Los Baños Museum of Natural History, who did the dissection work to study the specimen.

Mr. Foo said he and Mr. Lucanas decided to grant the newly minted Southeast Asian species of roach a name from the beloved franchise. “Both my collaborator and I are Pokemon fans, so we thought, why not name it after a Pokemon inspired by a cockroach,” he said.

Pokémon and real-world fauna have always had a close association, as it’s often that one inspires the other. It’s no secret that animals serve as the basis for the creatures in the popular media franchise, but with Pheromosa roach and the Australian beetles named after the Legendary Bird Trio, Pokémon has made it into the official records of non-fiction animals.