New 'Johnny Cash' Tarantula Uproots Spider Family Tree (14 new species found in U.S.)

National Geographic ^ | Feb 4, 2016 | Michael Greshko

[dayglored]

A challenging, years-long survey has uncovered 14 new species of U.S. tarantula, including one named after Johnny Cash.

Some, like Aphonopelma madera, live on forested "sky islands," mountains surrounded on all sides by Arizona's deserts. Others, like the tiny Aphonopelma atomicum, nestle themselves in silk-lined burrows near Nevada's nuclear test sites.

And Aphonopelma johnnycashi, named for the legendary country musician, makes its home near Folsom Prison, California.

True to form, adult males are mostly black, a getup of which Cash--the Man in Black--would have no doubt been proud. (Also see "New Tarantula (Not Beetle) Named After John Lennon.")

To uncover the new species, a three-person team led by the Florida Museum of Natural History's Chris Hamilton spent more than a decade on the hunt, logging thousands of miles of travel across the United States, hundreds of hours of laboratory analysis, and fieldwork on remote mountains and in scorching deserts.

"For such a popular organism in our culture, whether it's Hollywood movies or B movies, there's not really much work that's been done on tarantulas," says Hamilton. "Past arachnologists would get really frustrated and give up."

"It's a massive, massive amount of work, but that's what it takes," he says. "There's no easy way around it."

[Salamander]

It’s not as cool as it sounds.

Think of the movie The Money Pit, without the glorious ending.

It’s just...primitive.

;D

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

But think of all the history that that house has seen! Built in the 1700s!