Dropping like flies...but what species of fly, named after who?

First Lemmy, then Bowie and then Glen Frey. January was a tough month for rock iconography.

And, as we are left reeling in the void with nothing more than cheap imitators and sugar coated pretenders to take their place, our minds turn to legacy. Their musical legacy is, of course, safe. But could science help give them another facet to their artistic immortality?  We think so, and the key, surely, must be scientific nomenclature. There is a long and, at least partially, distinguished history of this. Cultural icons often find themselves embedded in obscure journals following an eager scientist’s insistence that their career defining discovery be named after them.

There is Funkotriplogynium iagobadius – the mite named in honour of James Brown (iago being the Latin for James, and badius being the Latin for brown). Anomphalus jaggerius named for Mick Jagger…it just happens to be a fossilised mollusc. And you can all stop smirking right now – there is nothing funny about that. Nothing at all. In this new, whimsical era of binomial nomenclature, Frank Zappa turns out to be one of the most cited of all the rock gods. There is Pachygnatha zappa – the orb-weaver spider named due a black marking under its abdomen curiously reminiscent of Frank’s moustache. And, if future generations needed any reminder of his significance, then they should be mindful of the fact he also has a mudskipper, an extinct gerbil and a bacteria named in his honour. Although there is also a warning here for future scientific branders… the bacteria Propionibacterium acnes type Zappa can cause a nasty eye disease – not, perhaps, something entirely in line with Zappa’s desired legacy.

Speaking of which – perhaps the most curious case of misplaced honour from a scientific name comes in the form of a rare beetle. In 1933, Oscar Scheibel – a German entomologist – found a small, brown, eyeless beetle. It was, and still is, very rare indeed – having only ever been found in five caves in Slovenia. So far so good, next on Scheibel’s agenda was a name, and he chose one based on his hero – Adolf Hitler. And so it came to pass that Anophthalmus hitleri enters the scientific lexicon (…as if life for a rare, eyeless beetle wasn’t hard enough eh?). But, the tale doesn’t end there – in recent years these apparently inert little bugs are fetching up to £1000 each because of their growing popularity as a neo-Nazi collector’s item; so much so in fact that the insect is now considered under threat of extinction. There is an unmistakable whiff of irony in the near extinction of a species being linked to Hitler, and whilst this may not be the worst of the neo-nazi fraternity’s crimes – it must rank as the most unforeseeable.

But back to our recently departed rockers – and it isn’t all about biological nomenclature. David Bowie has fabulously had a constellation named after him – a set of stars in the shape of his iconic lightning bolt. Philippe Mollet from the MIRA Observatory in California chose seven stars – Sigma Librae, Spica, Alpha Virginis, Zeta Centauri, SAA 204 132, and the Beta Sigma Octantis Trianguli Australis – in the vicinity of Mars. The constellation is an eerily accurate copy of the iconic Bowie lightning streak he wore across his face, and was recorded at the exact time of his death – what could be more fitting?

As for Lemmy – well, you can potentially influence this one. Head over to change.org and you’ll find a petition has been launched to name one of the four recently discovered heavy metal elements ‘Lemmium’ in his honour. Die-hard fans are crying foul as they claim the band wasn’t heavy metal per-se, but really, isn’t this the perfect honour?

And that just leaves Glen Frey, our departed Eagle. As far as we can see, there is nothing officially named after him – and so ornithologists of the world, we say unite. Unite and discover a hitherto unknown species of eagle, preferably one with a habitat located in California… and ideally with a particular fondness for nest building in the rafters of a hotel.