Oglas

Slovenia’s caves are the home of many unique species. One of them, a blind cave beetle, may seem unremarkable at first glance. But what makes the eyeless, amber-colored beetle special is not its appearance, but its name: It’s named after Adolf Hitler.

Anophthalmus hitleri (known as “Hitlerjev brezokec”-- or “Hitler’s eyeless [beetle]” in Slovenian) owes its name to an Austrian named Oscar Scheibel. He was a beetle collector who bought a specimen of a previously unknown species in 1933 and chose to name the species after the Fuehrer he apparently admired so much. Hilter responded to Scheibel and personally thanked him for the honor. (Some experts have suggested that Scheibel may have been mocking Hitler by naming a blind animal after him, but there is no proof of this intriguing possibility.) The beetle has been stuck with Hitler’s name ever since.

Several proposals were made after World War II for the beetle to be renamed, but the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has stood firm. It turns out that, in order to retain consistency in scientific sources, Latin designations of species cannot be changed once a name has been registered. The only exception are species names that violated established rules when they were registered, which didn’t happen in this case.

Anophthalmus hitleri’s infamous name has made it highly sought-after among collectors. Because of the high demand and the elusive nature of Hitler’s beetles, specimens have been known to reach high prices – more than a thousand euros -- on the international market, and many of them eventually end up with neo-Nazis or collectors of Nazi memorabilia. Experts warn that the high demand from collectors encourages poaching that could damage the species’ natural habitat and even drive it to extinction. In fact, some caves may need to be closed off entirely to prevent poaching. Even museum specimens aren’t safe from collectors; most of the anophthalmus hitleri specimens that once belonged to the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich have been stolen.

Just as the Lipizzan horse and the Karst shepherd dog, this tiny cave-dwelling beetle, endemic to Slovenia, is known beyond the country’s borders, but in this case for all the wrong reasons. Like Hitler’s other beetle – the Volkswagen car – its name has far outlived the man whom it was meant to honor so many decades ago.