Was reading about guarana, which led me down the wiki hole to "bullet ants", and then to gamergate ants.

A gamergate (/ˈɡæmərˌɡeɪt/ GAMM-ər-gayt) is a mated worker ant that can reproduce sexually, i.e., lay fertilized eggs that will develop as females.

I don't have anything useful to contribute, just thought it was kinda funny

  • Pluto [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    How was it, err, named?

    Who named it?

    Was it literally named this as a joke?

    I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!

    • PapaStevesy@midwest.social
      ·
      7 months ago

      From the etymology section of the article:

      Gamergate" derives from the Greek words γάμος (gámos) and ἐργάτης (ergátēs) and means "married worker". It was coined in 1983 by geneticist William Louis Brown and was first used in scientific literature by entomologists Christian Peeters and Robin Crewe in a 1984 paper published in Naturwissenschaften.