Neil Young gets his own spider

Iconic singer and songwriter Neil Young has had an unusual honour bestowed upon him - his own spider.

An East Carolina University biologist, Jason Bond, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider and opted to call it after his favourite musician, naming it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi.

"There are rather strict rules about how you name new species," Mr Bond said in a statement.

"As long as these rules are followed you can give a new species just about any name you please. With regards to Neil Young, I really enjoy his music and have had a great appreciation of him as an activist for peace and justice."

Young is not the first musician to have a creature named after him. A species of beetle that looks as if it is wearing a tuxedo - the whirligig beetle, or Orectochilus orbisonorum - was named earlier this year after the late rock 'n' roll legend Roy Orbison and his widow Barbara.

Mr Bond discovered the new spider species in Alabama, in 2007. He said trapdoor spiders are distinguished from one species to the next on the basis of differences in genitalia.

He confirmed through the spider's DNA that the Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi is an identifiable, separate species of spider within the trapdoor genus.

The 62-year-old Canadian is a veteran rock musician who rose to fame in the 1960s with the band Buffalo Springfield and later became a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, whose 1970 release Deja Vu has become a classic rock album.

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