The U.S. Forest Service is giving kids (and adults) the chance to submit name suggestions for a recently discovered species of ant, as an exercise to teach students how new species get their scientific names.

Researchers Douglas Booher from the Forest Service and Matthew Prebus of Arizona State University discovered the new species earlier this year, but are allowing the Forest Service to turn the naming of a new species into an educational opportunity.

Prebus told AL.com he was happy to get the public involved in coming up with a name for the new ant.

“We wanted to make the naming of species a less arcane and obscure practice and get it up to people that actually live in the area that will have some investment in naming their local species,” Prebus said.

And that does include Alabama. Prebus said the specimen that first led to the discovery of the new species was collected in Georgia, but the new ant has been found in Alabama, in the Gadsden area.

Booher posted on social media that the Forest Service had developed a “grade school learning module” to teach how new species are named.

According to social media posts by the Forest Service’s Southern Research Station, the top five suggestions will go for a public vote, but the service did not specify when that would happen.

The Forest Service posts link to a worksheet that teachers can use to show students how new species are named and gives students space to draw the new species and suggest up to five names. The teachers are asked to email the suggestions to Booher.

The new species of ant closely resembles a known species — the acorn ant — but has a different body shape with its spine, according to the Forest Service.

Prebus said the ant is not rare, but was often mistaken for the acorn ant before their research showed it to be a unique species. Prebus said their findings will be published in peer-reviewed journal once a name is chosen.

The new ant is orange in color, and lives in the Eastern U.S. The new ant is found in hickory trees, under the bark or in the branches. The acorn ant prefers acorns.

In scientific names, species are given two names: the first for the genus, a grouping of similar species, and the second for the individual species.

The new ant is in the genus Temnothorax, meaning divided body. There are 466 ants in this genus, the Service said. The new species will be named Temnothorax plus the new second name that is chosen from among the suggestions.

Species are often named after a distinguishing characteristic, their location or habitat, or named for the person who discovered them.

The Forest Service says name suggestions can be made in English or Latin, and will be translated into Latin.

Some existing suggestions for the new ant include:

• Temnothorax aurantius, the orange ant.
• Temnothorax lignolatebras, the tree-hiding ant.
• Temnothorax caryacola, the ant that lives in hickory trees.

Additional suggestions can be sent by email to [email protected].