Neil Young Inadvertently Kickstarts “Licensing Your Name To Arachnids” Trend

noah | May 12, 2008 9:00 am
Trapdoor_Spider.jpg

Neil Young’s licensing agreements may extend to items like rolling papers and belt buckles, but the latest item to bear his name isn’t for sale through his official Web site yet: It’s a new species of trapdoor spider, the Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi. East Carolina University biologist Jason Bond, who discovered and named the new species, is clearly a guitar aficionado, although it wasn’t just Young’s axework that inspired the nomenclature.

“There are rather strict rules about how you name new species,” Bond said. “As long as these rules are followed you can give a new species just about any name you please. With regards to Neil Young, I really enjoy his music and have had a great appreciation of him as an activist for peace and justice.”

The ECU statement also says that spiders in the trapdoor genre are based on “differences in genitalia,” about which you can insert your own guitar solo joke here.

ECU biologist names “Young” spider [ecu.edu]

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