Ziggy Stardust and the spider from... Malaysia

I suppose if you want to draw attention to a rare, endangered spider naming it after David Bowie isn't the worst thing you could do:

The Heteropoda davidbowie is distinguished by its large size and yellow hair, and is only found in parts of Malaysia.

Bowie was apparently selected for the honour because of his musical contribution to arachnid world – the 1972 concept album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Trouble is, if you're talking about Bowie and rarely-seen spiders hanging by a thread, aren't you more likely to conjure memories of the ill-fated Glass Spider tour?

Peter Jäger, the German spider expert who discovered the Heteropoda davidbowie, said that naming spiders after celebrities helped draw attention to the marginal status of many species as human activity destroys their habitats.

There's something a little crushing about that, isn't there? That the survival of entire species depends on getting just a little of the glamour and attention generated by Jordan arriving at a shoeshop?