Old Neil Young just keeps getting the press coverage. From Reuters.
An East Carolina University biologist, Jason Bond, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider and opted to call the arachnid after his favorite musician, Canadian Neil Young, naming it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi.
Bond discovered the new spider species in Jefferson County, Alabama, in 2007. He said spiders in the trapdoor genus, who tend to live in burrows and build trap doors to seal off their living quarters, are distinguished from one species to the next on the basis of differences in genitalia.
Don’t know if I would feel comfortable with the genitalia evaluation in all of this, if I were Mr. Young but, I guess you take what you get on that sort of thing. I someone is gracious enough to name a trapdoor spider after you, you should be polite and take it as a compliment.
Anyway, this trapdoor spider business is sure to cause some rumbling over at Friday Night Cage Match/Fondue Party/Evolving Conversation/Dancing About Architecture Vol.8. This thing isn’t over folks and feel free to weigh in or change your answers(s) now that this new information has come to light.
By the way, this isn’t the first time a species has been named for a musician.
A species of beetle that looks as if it is wearing a tuxedo — the whirligig beetle, or Orectochilus orbisonorum — was named earlier this year after the late rock ‘n’ roll legend Roy Orbison and his widow Barbara.
How in the world I missed this news is beyond me as I am in frequent correspondence with many of the foremost Roy Orbison fans. What up with that people?
Related posts
Tags: Friday Night Cage Match/Fondue Party/Evolving Conversat, neil young, Roy Orbison, trapdoor spider, whirligig beetle
J wrote,
I lived in Jefferson County for 8 years and never saw a Neil Young spider… I think it’s an illegal alien.
J’s last blog post..Art for Art’s Sake
Link | May 11th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com wrote,
It’s an honor to have something named after you but a spider or a bug?! Man, this transmits dubious signals to the artist, half respect half…what? Couldn’t you just name your kid after me? Or your car or your guitar? You just had to name that damn bug?!! :-)
Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com’s last blog post..Reflections of an obtuse minded guitar player on Romanian folkloric music
Link | May 12th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Jayne d'Arcy wrote,
How about a new star or a planet instead? This is just, bleh, creepiness. Makes my skin crawl. Oh, and it figures I had to read this right before I head off to beds. My nightmares be on thy head, little bro! :0
Link | May 12th, 2008 at 2:43 am
Pat Darnell and Friends wrote,
More Bug….
Pat Darnell and Friends’s last blog post..Hi mom
Link | May 12th, 2008 at 8:20 am
William Barret Travis wrote,
“Like the blueswee spider man, reggae, as played by Bob Marley and the Wailers, is both a wellspring of homespun adages and a canny cultural tool with great facility for adaptation and innovation…”
“For a multitude of Jamaicans, Bob Marley is Anancy incarnate, a sagacious shantytown hero whose concerts evince the fearsome ballet of a black widow spider and boast a musical artifice shrewd enough to sidestep Brer Death himself…”
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/bobmarley/albums/album/301860/
review/6067604/babylon_by_bus
Listen well my compadres, it’s Charlotte, and a pig named Wilbur… what brung us here, and what keeps us connected. And, well, we had a few Roy’s for dinner. Stay close; write soon, and stay off the drugs !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc
Signed, your friend,
Wm. Barret Travis, Alabama Lodge No.3 - Free and Accepted Masons, later joined the Alabama militia as adjutant of the Twenty-sixth Regiment, Eighth Brigade, Fourth Division; American lawyer and soldier. At the age of 26, commander the Republic of Texas forces to died at the Battle of the Alamo ..huh?
This information:
___ was old info and for the love of God, Pat catch up with the rest of us
___ made me lurch
___ I didn’t read it
___ Can’t complain
William Barret Travis’s last blog post..Hi mom
Link | May 12th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Pribek wrote,
“I lived in Jefferson County for 8 years and never saw a Neil Young spider” are you sure? You have to check the genitalia you know.
Ovidiu/Jayne-I can easily foresee some cross marketing benefits to having a bug as a namesake. Future cans of Raid might well have “Kills pesky Neil Young Spiders and Roy Orbison Beetles” emblazoned on the front, thereby increasing marketability factors.
PD&F-nice one…”I once went down to Neil Young’s ranch and he rowed me out into the middle of a lake - putting my life in his hands once again. He waved at someone invisible and music started to play, in the countryside. I realized Neil had his house wired as the left speaker, and his barn wired as the right speaker. And Elliot Mazer, his engineer, said ‘How is it?’ And Neil shouted back ‘More barn!’
- Graham Nash
Link | May 12th, 2008 at 12:11 pm