Bumba lennoni
Bumba lennoni is a species of tarantula found in 2015 in Caxiuanã National Forest. It is about one inch long, small for a tarantula but is closely related to the largest spider in the world.
| Bumba lennoni | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Mygalomorphae |
| Family: | Theraphosidae |
| Genus: | Bumba |
| Species: | B. lennoni |
| Binomial name | |
| Bumba lennoni Pérez-Miles, Bonaldo & Miglio, 2014[1] | |
Origins
This spider lives in northern Brazil, and is named after John Lennon "the legendary creator of The Beatles, who contributed to make this world a gentler place".[2]
Like all tarantulas, the lennon tarantula's ancestors diverged from a common ancestor with the normal, web-spinning spider perhaps 350 million years ago.
Biology
Though very small (about 1 inch), this tarantula shares its genus with relatively large b. horrida, with a five-inch legspan, and has many traits that imply it is closely related to Theraphosa blondi the Goliath birdeater spider, largest known extant spider species[3]
References
- "Taxon details Bumba lennoni Pérez-Miles, Bonaldo & Miglio, 2014", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2016-02-06
- Pérez-Miles, F.; Bonaldo, A.B. & Miglio, L.T. (2014), "Bumba, a replacement name for Maraca Pérez-Miles, 2005 and Bumba lennoni, a new tarantula species from western Amazonia (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae)", ZooKeys, 448: 1–8, doi:10.3897/zookeys.448.7920, PMC 4233390, PMID 25408606, "The specific name is patronymic in honor of John Winston Lennon (1940–1980), the legendary creator of The Beatles, who contributed to make this world a gentler place."
- New Tarantula (Not Beetle) Named After John Lennon
Though not particularly large—its body is about 1.3 inches (34 millimeters) wide—the newfound arachnid belongs to the same family as the dinner-plate-size Theraphosa blondi, the world's largest spider.