COSMOS magazine is reporting that the local bank, the Bank of Queensland, has bought a Linnean name for themselves. Yes, that's right: they paid for a spider to be named after them officially.
Now, I don't know what you think of the relation between spiders and banks (some spiders aren't venomous, after all), but this strikes me as a good way to fund research into biodiversity. What next? Naming wetlands after Hollywood movie stars? Bogs after federal politicians?
I can think of a few people whose reputations could only be enhanced by having a slug named after them. But seriously, folks, the funds required to investigate biodiversity, and in particular to identify, describe and study as yet unknown species, many of which are crucial to the very functioning of ecosystems, are just not being made available. Not by governments, not by industry. I say go for it.
Anyone know a nasty quivering venom-spitting weasel we can name gibsonii?
I assume this is something you learned from your extensive foreign travels, and not at home in Fourecks.
Who's the eponym? Mel, or John?
At the Canadian Museum of Nature we've been doing this for a while:
http://www.nature.ca/research/ndfund/ndfund_e.cfm
Plan ahead for Christmas!
There are non-venomous spiders in Australia. They're all in a quivering mass in a rainforest enclave in northern Queensland, waiting to be eaten by all the rest of the nation's spiders, of course, but they exist, even in Australia.
And who is John Gibson?