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Joshua Tree Spider Named After Bono

Taxonomist calls new species A. bonoi after U2 frontman

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Singer Bono speaks onstage at "From The Sky Down" Press Conference during 2011 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9th, 2011 in Toronto, Canada.
George Pimentel/WireImage
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January 19, 2013 9:45 AM ET

A newly-identified species of spider living in California's Joshua Tree National Park has been named after Bono, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. 

Biologist Jason Bond of Auburn University in Alabama recently discovered 33 new species of trapdoor spider, with three of them found in the Mojave Desert landscape that gave its name to U2's 1987 album. Bond named two of those spiders after Native American tribes and called the third A. bonoi after the U2 frontman, who also wrote the score for the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

Rock & Roll Animals: 22 Weird Creatures Named After Superstars

Bond has named previous spider discoveries for Angelina Jolie, Barack Obama and Stephen Colbert. In 2007, he named a spider after Neil Young. "I really enjoy his music and have had a great appreciation of him as an activist for peace and justice," he said of Young.

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