A team of researchers, led by Chris Hamilton, former doctoral student in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University, discovered a previously unknown species of tarantula near Folsom State Prison in California.
The team named the new species after singer-songwriter Johnny Cash.
People who collected Aphonopelma johnnycashi before thought they were a part of another species, Hamilton said.
According to Hamilton, the males are predominantly all black, which is different than some of the males of other species.
It is also what makes them unique.
Cash’s name is the perfect name for the spider, Hamilton said.
“I don’t know if there is any other name you could give it,” Hamilton said. “Its males are black, dressed in all black like Johnny. It was almost an immediate that the name just popped in my head.”
Johnnycashi wasn’t the only species they found, according to Hamilton.
Hamilton said they found others, but this was the only species named after a famous person.
Hamilton was a doctoral student at the time of the research and worked with Jason Bond, senior author and chair for the department of biology and Brent Hendrixson, Mississippi Millsaps College.
Hamilton and Hendrixon both said they enjoyed doing the research and finding jonnycashi.
“It’s a dream come true, it’s partly a relief, it’s a project that we’ve been working on for so long,” Hendrixson said. “The project itself was something that was born when I was an undergraduate, and to see something of this magnitude finally reach its conclusion was incredibly gratifying, and I’m happy that its done and ready to start something new.”
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