He’s received truckloads of gongs over his lengthy career – now Bono can add spider-naming rights to his lengthy honour roll.
Riverside Press-Enterprise reports that scientists at Alabama’s Auburn University have named a newly-identified species of spider from California’s Joshua Tree National Park after the U2 frontman.
A biologist at the university – Jason Bond – recently discovered 33 new species of trapdoor spider, three of which were found in Joshua Tree National Park, the namesake of U2’s classic 1987 album.
As a result, Bond named two of the spiders after Native American tribes, and the remaining one ‘A. bonoi’ after the U2 frontman.
According to Riverside Press-Enterprise, female trapdoor spiders live 20 years or longer, while the males live about five years.
In terms of their characteristics, the spiders build burrows into the ground and create a ‘trap door’ made of silk, sand, sticks, leaves and other debris. They use this at night to trap insects, and once they are stuck, the spiders take the insects back to their burrows and eat them. It’s not exactly Bono-like behaviour, but I’m sure the Vertigo singer will nonetheless be pretty stoked with his new honour within the insect world.
Bono has a musical link to spiders as well – he co-wrote the musical score with U2 bandmate The Edge for the problem-plagued musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
