If you look closely, you can kind of see the resemblance between Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask and the species of East African wasp newly named for him.
Rask hails from Finland and skates on ice. Thaumatodryinus tuukkaraski is from the plains of Kenya, and prefers to buzz through the air. But both are now irrevocably linked, thanks to new scientific nomenclature that will soon be cemented in the journal Acta Entomologica.
"This species is named after the acrobatic goaltender for the Finnish National ice hockey team and the Boston Bruins, whose glove hand is as tenacious as the raptorial fore tarsus of this dryinid species," the scientists wrote in the paper, set to be published in April.
The new name is actually less inspired by likeness and more a product of intense hockey fandom. The new stinging species was discovered by a group of scientists that included entomologist Robert S. Copeland, a native of Newtown, Mass., and lifelong Bruins fan.
Even though Copeland -- now a researcher at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi -- moved to Kenya 25 years ago, he still follows his favorite hockey team. It didn't hurt that the funding that aided the research that located the new species arrived from Rask's native Finland.
The newly discovered wasp is an ectoparasitoid, which means it lays eggs on the outside of host bug species. Once hatched, the larvae slay the host and chow down.
By all accounts, Rask is less insidious in technique and demeanor -- but no less effective. Though Rask is having a bit of an off-year this season, he still boasts a more-than-respectable 0.926 average save percentage over his eight years in the National Hockey League.
"That's funny," Rask told the Boston Globe after hearing the news of his newfound scientific fame. "That's pretty neat."