WHY ‘GYPSY MOTHS’ WON’T LAST LONG. (THE NAME, NOT THE INFESTATION.)
The fluttering bug known as the “gypsy moth” is in the market for a new name after the world’s largest organization of insect experts announced it would stop using the moniker because it contains an ethnic slur.
The Entomological Society of America’s recent announcement is part of a broader discussion within the scientific community about equity in naming. Ornithologists are grappling with whether to change the names of birds that commemorate enslavers and supremacists. Schools and buildings named after eugenicists are searching for new innovators to claim.
The decision to rename both the “gypsy moth” and the “gypsy ant” coincides with the launch of the organization’s Better Common Names Project. Though the change is specific to the society and its publications, it’s anticipated to ripple outward.
“We know that entomology is not going to change the world from an equity standpoint, but this is one thing we can do,” Chris Stelzig, ESA’S executive director, said in an interview Sunday.
The invasive species of moth has hairs with air pockets that allow them to float on gusts of wind as larvae and become destructive as caterpillars. They are considered a pest, and numerous exterminating companies advise on how to eliminate outbreaks.
The Romani people, enslaved in Romania for more than 500 years, are sometimes pejoratively referred to as “gypsies.” They were victims of persecution and genocide during the Holocaust, and the community still faces human rights abuses and marginalization.
“Roma are dehumanized in so many ways: being associated with insects, being associated with animals,” said Margareta Matache, director of the Roma Program at Harvard University’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. “And that is really how structural anti-roma racism is justified.”
The word “gypsy” comes from England, Matache said, at a time when the English mistakenly thought Roma were Egyptians. The push to stop referring to Roma as “gypsies” started more than a century ago, though some Roma have reclaimed the word. In a 2020 study that Matache helped conduct, 35 per cent of Romani Americans surveyed said they consider “gypsy” a racial slur.
She called the decision to rename the insects a “historic step” and said she hopes to see similar language shifts.
Stelzig said the conversation about renaming the moth had come up before, but the ESA received its first formal request to change the name around October.
The society’s Better Common Names Project will take community input and consider making appropriate changes. The society is searching for new names for the two insects. Anyone can apply to join a working group to research new options through its website.