An adult male of Aphonopelma johnnycashi, a new tarantula species named for Johnny Cash.
A new study that reorganizes the tarantula group, reclassifying the majority of 55 known species and adding 14 new ones, including the creepy-crawly named for Cash.
The study researchers evaluated close to 3,000 tarantulas from across the American Southwest. Scientists integrated tarantula DNA into the study alongside anatomy, geography and behavior gleaned from spiders that were gathered by the researchers, contributed by “citizen-scientists” and borrowed from museum collections, to deliver the most comprehensive overview of tarantulas ever assembled, according to the new study, published online Feb. 4 in the journal ZooKeys.