By Jon Wiederhorn
Surely, any musician would feel honored to have a new species of organic life named after them. But if you’re an original, experimental band that has weathered the storms of britpop, alt-rock and even electronica, you might hope the creature to take on your mighty moniker would be larger than… an ant.
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For Radiohead, that’s just not the case. A new type of ant discovered in the Venezuelan Amazon has been named Sericomyrmex radioheadi, reports Phys.org. The scientists who made the breathtaking find, Ana Ješovnik and Ted R. Schultz from the Smithsonian Institution’s Ant Lab, also discovered two other species of ant during their journey but did not name them Sericomyrmex blur or Sericomyrmex oasis.
As it turns out, the scientists are serious fans of Radiohead, which they credit for more than their ability to raid picnic tables and lift objects many times their own weight.
“We wanted to honor their music,” said Ješovnik. “But more importantly, we wanted to acknowledge the conservation efforts of the band members, especially in raising climate-change awareness.”
Sericomyrex Oasis are fungus farmers and relatives of leaf-cutter ants. Radiohead have yet to react to being named after these new brand of leaf-cutters. Earlier this month Pink Floyd had a new species of shrimp named after them. They, too, were too overwhelmed with pride to respond.
