This Mexican insect is named after an IISc scientist

In far-flung Mexico, when several North American researchers who were studying insects stumbled upon a new species of chirping tree crickets, it would seem unlikely that the insect would be named after an Indian scientist living on the other side of the world. But that is exactly what happened.

Nancy Collins, a citizen orthopterist from Wisconsin, who helped discover the new insect has named the cricket Oecanthus rohiniae, after Professor Rohini Balakrishnan, the chairperson of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in recognition of her contribution to the field of research on tree crickets.

Researchers found the insect after a 2018 photo accompanied by a sound recording turned up on iNaturalist.org from the central Mexican state of Querétaro. A subsequent field expedition saw the collection of several adults and nymphs from the vicinity of the El Cimatario National Park, about 180 km northwest of Mexico City.

They note that while the “chirping song pattern, widened tegmina, and orange area on the head are characters found in the rileyi species group”, that this particular species was unknown. After reviewing all material, it was discovered that the samples did not correspond to any of the described taxa. A paper detailing the discovery was published in the 'Journal of Orthoptera Research' in February.

Speaking to DH, Professor Balakrishnan said she was flabbergasted by the news. “It is absolutely fantastic! I think that is positively the greatest honour I could ever get,” she said.

She added that she had heard of Nancy Collins as an orthopterist but had never met or corresponded with her prior to this. “She has described a number of new species and said she is committed to naming them after scientists who have made major contributions to this field. She sent me an email some months ago saying she wished to honour my extensive contributions by naming a newly discovered tree cricket species in Mexico after me, and whether I was okay with it,” Professor Balakrishnan said.

“I was delighted to be so honoured, so she went ahead and named the species after me in the publication describing the species,” she added.

According to IISc, Professor Balakrishnan’s research involves bioacoustics, animal behaviour, ecology, and systematics. Her list of publications includes a focus on tree crickets.

“I have had the honour of naming several species after scientists who have contributed to the understanding of tree crickets, and Dr Rohini Balakrishnan is certainly one of those people. She and her work are highly respected, particularly amongst researchers of the insect order of Orthoptera, which includes several types of crickets, katydids and grasshoppers... Many of these insects sing, and this has been the focus of several of her papers,” Collins told DH.