6 Musicians Whose Names Are Immortalized As Animals
With the screaming fans, soft drink endorsements and your pick of M&M; colors, being a world-famous musician has its share of perks. And one of those perks, if you're particularly lucky, is lending your name to an animal for the foreseeable future of zoology:
Beyoncé's Fly With The Golden Tuchis
(Erick/Wikimedia Commons; Caro Carlow/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)
"It was the unique dense golden hairs on the fly's abdomen that led me to name this fly in honor of the performer Beyoncé as well as giving me the chance to demonstrate the fun side of taxonomy – the naming of species," are all words the entomologist who named Scaptia beyonceae told The Telegraph in 2012.
The Shakira Wasp Makes Mummies(Credit: Eduardo Shimbori; oouinouin/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)
Aleiodes shakirae is a parasitic wasp, who injects eggs inside caterpillars. As the caterpillars dry out, they twist into mummies (their death throes were reminiscent of the pop singer's dance skills, apparently).
Frank Zappa Got His Jellyfish
(jlacpo/Flickr/CC BY 2.0; Ferdinando Boero/Wikimedia Commons)
"There is nothing I'd like better than having a jellyfish named after me," musician Frank Zappa reportedly said once, so an intrepid jellyfish discoverer and jazz-rock-fusion fan made Phialella zappai a real thing.
Madonna: Like A Water Bear
(Bob Goldstein and Vicky Madden/Wikimedia/CC BY 3.0;Karen Blue/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)
Zoologists dubbed a species of nigh-indestructible microscopic animal (called tardigrades or water bears) after Madonna in 2006 - Echiniscus madonnae (the species pictured is a distant tardigrade cousin Hypsibius dujardini).
Ozzy Osbourne's Frog Sounds Like A Bat
Ozzy Osbourne, the self-labeled Prince of Darkness whose renovation plans were recently thwarted by a flock of bats, is the namesake of a frog, Dendropsophus ozzyi. The tiny amphibian has a high-pitched chirp like the squeak of a bat - Croak At The Moon, anyone?
David Bowie's Spider From Earth, Not Mars
A funky spider with bright copper hairs - "a very distinctive arachnid," says endangered species charity ARKive - the David Bowie spider, Heteropoda davidbowie, lives in the trees of Southeast Asia.