Newly Discovered Parasite Named After Bob Marley

Marine biologists have discovered a tiny crustacean that feeds on the blood of fish living on the coral reefs of the Caribbean.  

It is, by any definition, a parasite.

Paul Sikkel, the researcher at Arkansas State University and the person entrusted with naming the new species, has decided to call the little bugger gnathia marleyi after his reggae hero, Bob Marley.

Uh, thanks dude.  I think.

This goes nicely (?) with the discovery of a new breed of very rare horse fly in northern Australia.  It's now known as scaptia (plinkthina) beyonceae.  Yep, it's the Beyonce Fly.  

There's also the Elvis wasp (preseucoila imallshookupis--no joke), Sting's frog (hyla stingi), Jerry Garcia's roach (cryptocercus garciai--again, no joke; at least one entymologist has a sense of humour), several species of ancient trillobyte named after the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney (aegrotocatellus jaggeri, perirehaedulus richards and struszia mccartneyi) and the Freddy Mercury isopod (cirolana mercuryi) which is found only in the reefs off Zanzibar, Freddie's birthplace.

Thus endeth the biology lesson.

Here's a topic for a list:  species named after musicians.  There's gotta be more than a few, right?

Comments

[Dylan]

Neil Young also has a spider named after himself, I think.