Israeli arachnid named for Lou Reed

American rocker Lou Reed is the latest musician to make his way to Israel… kind of.

A new genus of velvet spider found living underground in Israel’s south has been named after, who else, Reed.

Reed played with The Velvet Underground in the 1960s and 70s and the bands’ psychedelic and art rock is still worshipped by music fans for its groundbreaking music.

A velvet spider. (photo credit: CC-BY, Jon Richfield, Flickr)

A team of researchers from the US and Europe named the spider Loureedia annulipes after finding the species in sand dunes near Halukim and Nitzana in the Negev desert.

Velvet spiders are known for looking dark and shiny, and are native to Europe, Asia and Africa.

According to Sci-News.com, the team of researchers were attempting to classify spiders using DNA sequencing and found the Negev’s velvet spiders to be a new genus, which they named after Reed.

Reed now joins Frank Zappa and Neil Young in having an arachnid named for him.