Video and Role-playing Games
Aerodactylus Vidovic & Martill, 2014 (Jurassic pterosaur) Named after the Pokémon Aerodactyl.
Chilicola charizard Monckton, 2016 (bee) Named after the Pokémon Charizard.
Cortana Salvador & Simone, 2013 (Paleocene land gastropod) Named after the character Cortana from the HALO video-game series, alluding to markings on the shell surface. [Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 53: 16.]
Galagadon Gates et al. 2019 (Cretaceous shark) Named after the 1980s video game Galaga because the shark's stepped triangular teeth resembled spaceships in that game.
Halystina umberlee Salvador, Cavallari & Simone, 2014 (gastropod) Named after a deep sea goddess from the Faerûnian pantheon in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. [Zootaxa 3878: 536.]
Rapturella ryani Salvador & Cunha, 2016 (gastropod) Named for Rapture, the deep-sea city from the science-fiction video game BioShock, and Andrew Ryan, its founder. [J. Molluscan Studies 6-9.]
Rotundicardia mariobrosorum Pé & del Río, 2017 (Paleocene bivalve) "The specific epithet honors Mario and Luigi, the Mario Bros. brothers, main characters from the popular videogame Mario Bros., in which they collect mushrooms, and it is a reference to the 'funginate' nodes of the radial ribs in this species." [J. Paleo. 69]
Stentorceps weedlei Nielsen & Buffington (wasp) Named for the Weedle, a hymenopteran larva from the Pokémon video game series. "Weedle shares the distinguishing character of S. weedlei, a spine in the middle of its head."
Hypocaccus kidpaddlei Gomy 2007 (histerid beetle) Named for Kid Paddle, a Franco-Belgian comic, because the beetle looks like a "blork", a moster from the Kid Paddle videogame universe. [Nouvelle Revue d'Entomologie (N.S.), 24(2): 125]
Hylaeus tetris Dathe, 2000 (bee) Named for four marks on its scutellum, with reference to the computer game.
Pokemon - formerly a cancer-causing gene in humans and mice, an acronym for "POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic." It is now being called Zbtb7 after Pokémon USA threatened a lawsuit over trademark.
Scissurella alto Geiger, 2003 (sea snail) Named for the Alto, the first personal computer, in honor of its developers at Xerox PARC and in recognition of the importance of personal computers in systematic biology.
Eristalis gatesi Thompson, 1997 (flower fly) Named after Bill Gates "in recognition of his great contributions" to dipterology, presumably referring to money, not to bugs of another sort.
Eristalis alleni Thompson, 1997 (flower fly) for Microsoft founder Paul Allen
www.curioustaxonomy.net/