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| - While the species Neopalpa donaldtrumpi is genuine, the photographs shared online claiming to depict the blond-tufted insect were fake.
Photographs allegedly showing a species of moth named "Neopalpa donaldtrumpi" were published on a webpage in late September 2024. The purported moths had tufts of blond hair and displayed pink, black, orange and metallic green colors on their wings.
The article, sent to Snopes by our readers, said the species was named after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. It read as follows:
What is Neopalpa Donaldtrumpi?
Neopalpa Donaldtrumpi is a winged insect with human-like light blond hair on its head.
Why is it Named Neopalpa Donaldtrumpi?
Discovered in 2017, Neopalpa Donaldtrumpi was named after Donald Trump due to its distinct light blond hairlike scales. The moth can be found in California and Baja California, and its naming highlights the importance of biodiversity conservation.
While the species Neopalpa donaldtrumpi is genuine, the pictures published on the website, depicting the blond-tufted insect, are not.
Neopalpa Donaldtrumpi Are Real Moths?
The moth genus Neopalpa was described in 1998 by Czech entomologist Dalibor Povolný and included the species Neopalpa neonata. In 2017, scientist Vazrick Nazari reviewed the previous description, along with specimens of it held at the Bohart Museum of Entomology in California. Nazari determined that the genus included a species that should be separated from the rest in order to be considered its own species — scientific name Neopalpa donaldtrumpi — when describing it in a 2017 issue of the peer-reviewed journal ZooKeys.
The yellow-headed moth, N. donaldtrumpi, is found in parts of Southern California and northern Mexico. Yellowish-white scales on the top of the head were said by the study author to resemble Trump's hair, while "the distinctive orange-yellow coloration on the forewing dorsum" also gave the moth its name, which Nazari hoped would bring it attention in order to protect the fragile habitats of it and other species.
N. donaldtrumpi belongs to a group known as twirler moths, which are named for their ability to spin in circles on leaves, according to the species cataloging website, iNaturalist.
Are the Photos Real?
While the species is genuine, the photos of the moths, said to show N. donaldtrumpi, are simply other insects with white tufts of hair added to their heads.
For example, the picture shown below actually depicts a Weidemeyer's Admiral butterfly, as indicated by the shape of the creature's white-banded wings.
(https://neopalpadonaldtrumpi.ch/ and Government of Canada)
Another photograph shared in the blog post shows a green-banded urania moth.
Pictures of N. donaldtrumpi can be seen in the ZooKeys article.
Neopalpa donaldtrumpi moths. (Vazrick Nazari)
We previously fact-checked news reports out of China holding that there is a bird, the golden pheasant, with a hairdo strikingly similar to Trump's.
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