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And Finally
Scientists name spider after Lou Reed
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 28 May 2012
Biologists have named a just-discovered genus of spider after Lou Reed, so christening the species because it’s a ‘velvet’ spider and lives ‘underground’. I presumably don’t need to mention that this refers to Reed being an original member of 1960s psych pioneers The Velvet Underground, but I will anyway.
Sightings of the “dark and shiny” Loureedia spider, pictured here contemplating an unlistenable collaborative LP with Metallica, are said to be very rare, though various forms of it reside in Africa, Asia, Europe and Brazil.
Other rock icons with their own namesake arachnids include Neil Young and Frank Zappa, the latter chosen for the resemblance between his signature facial hair and the moustache-like markings noted on the Pachygnatha zappa. Though not a rock icon in any shape or form, Angelina Jolie also gives her name to the Aptostichus angelinajolieae, a trapdoor crawler from the coastal dunes of Northern California. Who knows why, perhaps it has a very spindly right leg.
And that concludes today’s spider-themed science seminar.
