David Bowie's alter-ego Ziggy Stardust once fronted a band called the Spiders From Mars. Now his moniker is adorning the scientific name of an arachnid right here on Planet Earth.

No glass spider, this; the eight-legged insect-catcher now known as heteropoda davidbowie is very much made of flesh, blood and yellow hair. The recently-discovered spider lives in isolated parts of Malaysia, and is endangered.

According to the Observer, the arachnid was named by German spider expert Peter Jager, who honoured Bowie because of the 1972 album 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'.

Mr Jager, who has discovered some 200 new types of spider-kind in the last 10 years, believes naming spiders after celebrities helps publicise their plight. Traditionally environmental groups have overlooked the plight of spiders, preferring cuddlier causes such as the giant panda or seal cubs.
But, Mr Jager, argued, spiders deserved equal effort: "Along with the species, we are also quickly losing genetic resources that have evolved over more than 300 million years."

Bowie is not the first rock star to get a spider named after him – in 2008, Canadian rock veteran Neil Young was paid tribute in eight-legged form with his own creepy-crawly, myrmekiaphila neilyoungi. Now that's a double bill you don't want to find coming to a bathtub near you...