Lou Reed has joined the late Frank Zappa and Neil Young as rock stars who have had newly discovered spiders named after them.
Sci-News.com reports that a new genus of velvet spider has been recently named ‘Loureedia’, “in recognition of the fact that this velvet spider lives underground”.
This was obviously in reference to Reed’s time as a founding member of 60’s and 70’s US rock group The Velvet Underground.
Loureedia was chosen by an international group of biologists and representatives of institutions from the USA, Hungary, Denmark, Iran and several other countries.
The velvet spider is described as having a ‘dark and shiny’ appearance, is rarely encountered and can be found in parts of Africa, Asia, Europe and Brazil.
Reed kicks off a European tour in Luxembourg next month – so he might be lucky enough to find a couple of the creatures on his travels.
