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| image copyright Chris A. Hamilton |
Recently I came across a news items that I thought was interesting. A new tarantula was discovered near Folsom Prison in California. The all black critter has been named after the gothic dressing and prison loving rebel Johnny Cash.
Then I got to thinking how many other spiders have been named for celebrities and a google search yielded a web full. Yes, - Aphonopelma johnnycashi has lots of company among spiders named for celebrities. Lets look at some other examples shall we?
Calponia harrisonfordi is a species of spider discovered in 1993 by the arachnologist Norman I. Platnick, and named after the film actor Harrison Ford. Here is a picture - does not look nearly as big, black or impressive as Johnny's spider.
Then of course there is a spider for the late great David Bowie. Hailing from Malaysia, this bright orange spider with long orange hairs actually bears a resemblance to its namesake. Too bad they could not find a spider from Mars. Here is a picture of the two of them together.
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Heteropoda davidbowie with David Bowie.
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The Angelina Jolie spider is of the trapdoor variety. She leaps from her den and injects her prey with venom. The spider that is, not Angelina. It lives in California with many other celebrity spiders.
I could go on - Stephen Colbert, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, and Orson Wells also have spiders named for them. But you know what? I am getting a little tired of this subject. Perhaps next time I will discuss the lucky celebrity for whom a louse was named.
I had no clue celebrities had spiders named after them. The Angelina spider is terrifying, isn't it? I will have to google the Frank Zappa spider. That should be interesting. :)
ReplyDeleteCelebrities get spoiled in untold ways! The Frank Zappa spider is pretty cool - black and prickly.
DeleteA web full. ;) Who would think there were so many celebrity spiders? That's pretty cool. Yeah, the David Bowie spider does look similar to that pic of him. Why, that Angelina Jolie spider looks just like her! Hehe. Now I want to see the other celebrity spiders you mentioned. I've been watching a lot of Stephen Colbert on YouTube lately, so I'm interested to see the spider named after him.
ReplyDeleteStephen has a nice trapdoor spider named for him. He said this about getting a spider named for him "all I had to do was shamelessly beg on national television". And he did after he found out that Neil Young had a spider namesake.
DeleteI had no idea, I guess I just assumed they all had boring Latin names or something. The David Bowie spider is absolutely gorgeous. Saw the Sex Pistols and the Ramones all have trilobites named after them. Very interesting subject.
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