The male tarantula of the Cash species prefers to wear the same color as the famous blues singer.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – After years of research, now Johnny Cash shares his name with a tarantula species discovered by an arachnologist that is a lover of both Cash and the hairy black spiders.
A study published recently in the Journal Zookeys on-line magazine reveals 14 new tarantula species to the world, including one that was named after the renowned blues singer, Johnny Cash.
In order to better understand the wide array of tarantula species, the researchers incorporated variables as DNA, anatomy, behavioral patterns and geography. They studied approximately 3,000 tarantula specimens in over 10 years. The study published in the Journal Zookeys represents the conclusions of more than 10 years of research.
The lead researcher of the study, Chris Hamilton from the Natural History Museum in Florida, and three other arachnologists were determined to find out exactly how many species of tarantulas can be found in the United States. At the moment in which they begun working on the project, they were not aware of the fact that many of the tarantula specimens were misidentified over the years.
Chris Hamilton, who graduated the Biological Sciences Department at the Auburn University says that tarantulas, even though they are highly popular in pop culture due to their fuzzy, big body, were not the object of many scientific studies. He declared that from an ecological or behavioral point of view that data was scarce.
The problem is the fact that the popular spider has a great number of size variations, but very little when it comes to anatomical features. In the present moment, there are approximately 2,300 tarantula specimens stored in the Natural History Museum at the Auburn University.
The tarantula with which Johnny Cash now shares his name was found in California near Folsom Prison. Hamilton decided to name the arachnid after the famous blues singer because he recorded an album in Folsom jail, and also, he was known to wear all black clothes, exactly like the male in the Cash tarantula species which is black from head to toe.
Hamilton’s study was very well received by the scientific community. A biologist from the Vermont University, Ingi Agnarsson, actually called it groundbreaking in the domain. He said that such a comprehensive study on the taxonomy of spiders and of a spider’s lineage was never done before.
In order to gather the data used in the study, arachnoids lover Hamilton and the three other scientists spent almost ten years on the field, traveling all over the United Stated and hunting the hairy eight-legged creature in scorching deserts and on remote cold mountains.
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