This is perhaps one of those occasions where the name of an animal is more exciting than the animal itself. These moths, found in Mexico, are small and of a dull grey-brown colour. They do have some small resemblance to their namesake, however – the ‘hair’ on its wings. According to the paper describing the species “The species epithet, Chewbacca, is named after the very large and hairy Wookiee character in the Star Wars movie series”. Does this moth remind you at all of Chewie?

Learn about another unusually named hairy moth – the Donald Trump moth

Urubaxia chewie

Chewie is beloved enough to have not just one, but four species of insect named after him! Another of these is this species of true bug from Brazil. According to the authors, they named it this because of its big size and robustness compared to other Urubaxia species.

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Skywalker gibbon (Hoolock tianxing)

One of the few non-insects on this list, the Skywalker gibbon is rare in being a newly described primate. It is also rare in that it is, unfortunately, critically endangered. Only first described as a distinct species in 2017, there are as few as 150 individuals left in the wild. Its species name is tianxing, which translates to ‘heavenly movement’ in Chinese and reflects its graceful swinging through the trees. For its English common name, the scientists who named it were Star Wars fans and felt ‘sky walker’ accurately described the movement.