In the curious field of taxonomy, a realm populated by a cultish lot to begin with what with them decorating their shadow world with obscure latin names for everything in creation willy-nilly, there is a curious trend. Meet Heteropoda davidbowie, a Malay spider recently discovered and named by Peter Jäger and another in a long line of marginal invertebrates, insects and oddballs named after rock idols.
From Mark Knopfler to Miles Davis, to this beautiful Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi [above] named for Neil Young, the scientists in the fields, meadows, caves and creek beds have found that these creative namesakes draw more attention to their new discoveries and to their own personal, albeit limited, scientific celebrity.
Other notables are four members of a genus of long-extinct trilobites, Mackenziurus johnnyi, Mackenziurus joeyi, Mackenziurus deedeei and Mackenziurus ceejayi named for none other than the Ramones. Frank Zappa has a species of jellyfish named for him, but takes the cake with an entire genus of fish named for him. It seems that celebrity namesakes have pervaded not only our undereducated population but the hallowed halls of science too. We’ve certainly come a long way since Linnaeus, that megalomaniac sonofabitch.
Special thanks to the budding taxonomists at Coralmorphologic in Miami for this tip.