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.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the
terms
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.
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You appreciate professional journalism
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
You clearly find our careful reporting valuable, during an ongoing war when facts are often distorted and news coverage of Israel often lacks context.
Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically since October 7.
So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you'll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
