David Bowie spider
The David Bowie spider is a big huntsman spider from Malaysia. It is covered in short hair with long, bright orange hairs sticking out. It was named after the singer David Bowie, because its face from the front reminded scientists of his painted face.
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Fun facts
It was named in 2008 in honour of David Bowie, who sang songs about spiders.
The grown-ups like to sit on tree bark, while the young ones live among fallen leaves and on bushes.
Females are bigger than males, up to about 2.5 centimetres long.
Its body has a bright red line on the back half, surrounded by red hairs.
Most asked questions about David Bowie spider
?Why is it called the David Bowie spider?
Scientists named it after the singer David Bowie, who had songs about spiders and wore face paint that the spider's face reminded them of.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Heteropoda davidbowie
- Named by
- Jäger, 2008
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Sparassidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Sparassidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Heteropoda davidbowie (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Seshadri.K.S. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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