New Trapdoor Spider Named After US President Barack Obama

A recent picture of Barack Obama (i.e. the one showing him play with a kid wearing a Spiderman costume, to be more precise) led to the US President's getting a spider named in his honor.

Thus, after identifying as many as 33 new species of trapdoor spiders in the American Southwest, researchers have decided to name one of them Aptostichus barackobamai.

These arachnids live in the underground, meaning that they build burrows for themselves and then use silk to weave themselves a door, Daily Mail explains.

Other such famous species of trapdoor spiders are the Aptostichus stephencolberti and the Aptostichus angelinajolieae, which got their names from Stephen Colbert and Angelina Jolie, respectively.

Commenting on these findings, trapdoor spider specialist Jason Bond stated that, “While it is absolutely remarkable that a large number of species from such a heavily populated area have gone unnoticed, it clearly speaks volumes to how little we know of the biodiversity around us and that many more species on the planet await discovery.”