We've all heard about renaming sports teams, college mascots and the like because their names were offensive to certain ethnic, religious or social group, but here's a new one. The Entomological Society of America, an organization that oversees bug names, has dropped the name "Gypsy" moth, considering it an ethnic slur to the Romani people.
This move is one of the first two for the organization's Better Common Names Project, which seeks to replace names that contain derogative terms, inappropriate geographic references and for those that disregard what native communities called the species. The other insect it renamed was called the "gypsy ant."
The gypsy moth is a caterpillar that eats large quantities of trees and plants, similar to locust, but not as extreme. Are we carrying the renaming of things too far? You tell me. The new names for the moth and the ant are unknown at this time.
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