South American tarantula gets John Lennon's moniker

Washington: Scientists have named a newly described tarantula species from Western Brazilian Amazonia as 'Bumba lennoni' 'in honor of John Lennon, a founder member of the legendary band the Beatles.

The name of the new species came across when the authors of the study had found out that they were all great fans of the Beatles music.

The genus, Bumba, was proposed taking into consideration the name of a Brazilian theatrical folk tradition of the popular festival called Boi-bumba (hit my bull), which has been taking place annually in North and Northeastern Brazil.

The new species has been a part of the tarantula family Theraphosidae, which comprises of the largest spider species in the world.

The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.