A newly recognized hermaphrodite snail species, Aegista diversifamilia, was named in honor of the worldwide movement for marriage equality regardless of sexual orientation.

Although the species was first spotted in 1874, researchers apparently confused it with another similar snail species called Aegista subchinensis. In 2003, snails of the same species actually "changed" gender depending on their location.

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The snails found on one side of Taiwan's Central Mountain Range possess different physical attributes. The newly recognized species have larger and flatter shells as opposed to their cousins found on the Lanyang River.

Further study showed snails on one side of the range were closely related to another different species as opposed to the ones located on the other side of the mountain. Eastern snails are not related to western snails found on the same mountain range.

As these findings were being prepared by researchers at the National Taiwan Normal University Taiwan's same sex civil rights movement began getting larger media mileage.

The name Aegista diversifamilia was given to this hermaphrodite snail species to show respect for and recognition of the global marriage rights movement for couples of different sexual orientations.

Yen-Chang Lee from the Academia Sinica in Taipei said this snail reminded them of the Pulmonata land snails that have hermaphrodite qualities and the same sexual organs for both male and female.

This hermaphrodite snail study was published in the open access journal, ZooKeys.

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