Singer David Bowie has had a large, yellow, hairy spider from Malaysia named after him.
A German spider specialist told the Observer newspaper he named the new species after Bowie — whose album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was a huge hit in 1972 — because he wanted to raise awareness about the discovery.
I betcha in like 15 years when your kids are just getting into music and someone asks ‘em if they have a favorite spider it’ll be this one. Good move on the spider-man’s part. I just have one question: Is it poisonous? I can’t find the answer anywhere. Anybody care to chime in?
Maybe it was just an excuse to post this:
Either way, photos from FYF Fest will be up in a few days :)
i want to smash my soul on your brain
you do realize its not Peter Jäger, he spelled his name wrong…
ae = a + umlaut.
It is not harmful for humans. As all representatives of this spider family the poison is strong enough for paralysing insects…Ciao, Spiderman Peter Jaeger
FW is coming up in the world, holla!
Hi there,
the spider species seems not to be poisonous for humans. I have been bitten by several other Heteropoda species and none left any serious effect (except for naming spiders after VIPs).
Cheers, Peter Jaeger
Thank you for answering my question. And, I’m glad. When I found out that black widows were one of the most common spiders in LA, I went through this obsessive “phase” where I was seriously terrified to walk around LA without a watergun full of spider poison. Which means, I didn’t go anywhere…
Your work is really fascinating. During that spider phase I had this idea that if I could pick up a spider by its leg I wouldn’t be afraid of anything anymore. If that’s true, you must be fearless.