Serbian scientists name new species of beetle after Novak Djokovic
Serbian scientists have named a new species of beetle after Novak Djokovic, the world number one tennis player.
‘Sleek Beeline’ was named after the tennis player in honour of the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, who won three Grand Slam titles and became tennis world number one in 2008. He is the current world number 1 (2016).
The beetle, which is known from photographs and its scientific name, was first named ‘Beslava’ in 1997 by a team of researchers headed by Professor Zoran Zivojinovic of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The scientist named the beetle after the late Serbian President Boris Tadić, who was murdered by a right-wing nationalist in Belgrade in 1981.
The beetle’s scientific name stands for Dienekes’ law, which was first published by Dutch scientist Jacobus Dienekes in 1768, stating that in species with both male and female reproductive structures, half of the species is sterile.
The beetle is believed to have existed during the Pliocene Epoch (5.2 to 3.6 million years ago), when the Balkan Region was joined by the Tethyan Region. Dienekes’ law has also been proven by another beetle species from the same family, named Beslava, which was discovered in 1826 in Ukraine.
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Serbian scientists named a beetle after Novak Djokovic
Serbian researchers have named a new species to honour Novak Djokovic after the world number one tennis player.
‘Beeline’ is the name scientists gave to a new, fossil beetle species with both male and female reproductive organs.
Zoran Zivojinovic, a professor of zoology at the University of Belgrade, was part of a research team that named the beetle ‘Sleek Beeline’ after the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, the current world number 1.
Djokovic died on September 10, 2016, at the age of 36, after he collapsed during the quarter-finals of the 2014 Australian Open at Melbourne Park, while playing against Novak Djokovic. He was in a coma,
