An international group of scientists headed by Dr Laura Miglio from the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi in Brazil has described a new tarantula species from western Amazonia and named it after John Lennon.

The new species, Bumba lennoni, belongs to the tarantula family Theraphosidae.

According to a paper published in the journal ZooKeys, it is a mainly nocturnal animal, about 3-4 cm long.

As other tarantulas it has defensive urticating hairs on the abdomen that produce irritation upon contact with the skin or sensible tissues.

Dr Miglio and her colleagues from Brazil and Uruguay have described and illustrated this species from specimens captured manually or in traps during the night in Caxiuanã in the Northern Brazilian state of Pará.

The scientists chose the specific name lennoni “in honor of John Winston Lennon (1940–1980), the legendary creator of The Beatles, who contributed to make this world a gentler place.”

The generic name Bumba – which is proposed in the same ZooKeys paper as replacement of the old one Maraca, already taken and used for Neotropical cockroaches – also has a story behind the choice of name.

“The name is taken from Brazilian theatrical folk tradition of the popular festival called Boi-bumbá (hit my bull), which takes place annually in North and Northeastern Brazil,” the scientists said.

The discovery of Bumba lennoni brings the total number of recognized species in the genus to 4. The other three are Bumba cabocla, B. horrida and B. pulcherrimaklaasi.

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Perez-Miles F et al. 2014. Bumba, a replacement name for Maraca Pérez-Miles, 2005 and Bumba lennoni, a new tarantula species from western Amazonia (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae). ZooKeys 448: 1-8; doi: 10.3897/zookeys.448.7920