Scientists Name New Species of Spiders After Members of Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Scorpions, and Angra

Add Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, Def Leppard’s Rick Allen, Klaus Meine from Scorpions, and late Angra frontman Andre Matos to the list of metal musicians who have icky things named in their honor.

PRI reports that Christina Rheims, a biologist at the Instituto Butantan in Brazil and a metalhead, has named four newly-discovered species of spiders after this quartet of musicians. Specifically:

• Extraordinarius bruceickinsoni, named for Dickinson.
• Extraordinarius klausmeinei, named for Meine.
• Extraordinarius rickalleni, named for Allen.
• Extraordinarius andrematosi, named for Matos.

They join such other metal luminaries who have had bugs named after them as Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse, Floor Jansen from Nightwish, Henry Rollins, and Between the Buried and Me.

The names of these four new species’ names came about because of Rheims’ desire to honor Matos, who died last year from a heart attack at age 47. Wanting all four of the new species to follow the same general theme, she decided to name the other three accordingly:

“I’ve always wanted to honor Rick Allen… You have a drummer that loses an arm, and he continues his career and he learns how to play with only one arm. So he’s one of the Extraordinarius as well.”

Sadly, the Extraordinarius rickalleni does not seem to be a species that lacks a traditional sixth leg.

Less sadly, Meine reached out to Rheims after hearing the news, who asked her to send him an official certificate commemorating the honor. “I like to joke that now he has my autograph,” Rheims says.

There are photos of all four new species below, although I have no idea which one is which. They all just look like spiders to me. You can read more about these new species here.

[via Kerrang!]