I’m endlessly amazed by the amount of weird stuff floating around out there in the murky galaxy of cyber space. Some things you take with a grain of salt. This story caught my eye because I thought it couldn’t possibly be true, and hence, I took it with a bucket of salt. But after a bit of detective work, bless my socks, it turns out it bloody well is. So without further adieu, we give you the David Bowie spider!

A rare species of spider was recently discovered in the wild tropics of Malaysia. One German scientist was handed the almighty honour of naming the species. The spider’s moniker? The Heteropoda davidbowie. The scientist (mad, surely?), Peter Jäger, apparently saw fit to anoint the large, yellow, hairy legged creepy crawly after the glam 70s rock icon for his contributions to the arachnid world, referring to Bowie’s 1972 concept album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

Believe it or not, there is also in existence a Neil Young spider, the Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi. Yes, that’s right. Before you know it a wave of spider festivals will be out there, plaguing your backyard with massive headline acts, inviting all sorts of shady critters to stomp around in the mud before they trash the lawn and pass out in your pool. Ah, imagination is a wonderful and scary thing.

The naming of a species after celebrities is said to be in aid of giving the endangered creature a higher profile to increase its protection from human impact. A bit like jump starting the careers of wannabe celebs I guess.

by Carley Hall