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Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld share beetles honor
Two former Cornell University entomologists named three species in the genus Agathidium after the U.S. leaders, Cornell announced on Wednesday.
Quentin Wheeler and Kelly Miller christened 65 new species of slime-mold beetles, named for the fungi-like molds on which they feed, which they discovered after collecting thousands of specimens for a study of their evolution and classification.
Wheeler, who after 24 years as a professor of entomology and plant biology at Cornell is now the keeper and head of entomology at the Natural History Museum in London, said the U.S. leaders were being honored for having "the courage of their convictions."
The bushi beetle is found in southern Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia; the rumsfeldi is from Oaxaca and Hidalgo in Mexico, and the cheneyi is known from Chiapas, Mexico, Wheeler said.
While naming 65 new species of slime-mold beetles, entomologists Quentin Wheeler and Kelly Miller named three after U.S. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Of the genus Agathidium, they are bushi, cheneyi and rumsfeldi.

Wheeler, keeper and head of entomology at the Natural History Museum in London, intended the names to be an honor: "We admire these leaders as fellow citizens who have the courage of their convictions and are willing to do the very difficult and unpopular work of living up to principles of freedom and democracy rather than accepting the expedient or popular."

Miller is a post-doctoral fellow at Brigham Young University.

A. bushi Miller and Wheeler inhabits southern Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia. A. cheneyi Miller and Wheeler lives in Chiapas, Mexico. A. rumsfeldi Miller and Wheeler is from Oaxaca and Hidalgo in Mexico.

Other inspirations for names include their illustrator Frances Fawcett, their wives, geographic areas, Latin and Greek words, the Aztecs, Pocahontas, and Darth Vader.